Man who lost 7500 bitcoin in a landfill asks gov't he wants to dig it up

[Lucius]

I don't think he was rich, not overly so anyway. I guess that's whatever you deem rich is, he obviously had a decent job being a computer engineer. However, I would think he has made money from the publicity, I mean he has some fairly successful presenters doing a sort of documentary on him, and I'm assuming that wasn't done for free, since stories are sold all the time. Plus, the numerous other stories which have developed along the years. Pretty much everyone in Wales knows this story.

As you could read in my post, the man charged £250 for an ordinary interview, and made the whole thing even more attractive with the claim that the lost hard drive also contains evidence of Satoshi (IP address).

Also, and don't quote me on this I believe there's been public fundraising done, as well as likely private investors which have gotten involved in the project. In one of the articles above he says the funding has been secured, therefore the people involved in the proposed project are all likely getting a share if it was ever found.

I don't know what kind of job he had before, but they say that now he doesn't do anything else except that he tries every way he can to find the hard disk. Allegedly, he has enough private funds for the entire operation, but he never manages to get permission from the local authorities. I have to admit that these people really have a steely attitude when they refuse to change their opinion all this time, even though they say that everyone has a price at which they will change their decision.

Mr Howells has given up his job to concentrate full time on trying to organize the operation (and to speculate on conspiracy theories about what the local authority might not want to dig up there).  His relationship broke up a while ago, possibly because he couldn’t stop blaming his partner for being the one to actually throw the hard drive away, and he keeps an app on his phone which reminds him in real time of how much money he doesn’t have.

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[rdbase]

Honestly, despite getting away with some of the pitfalls you'd have by having a actual human manned search inside a active site, I still don't think he'll get the permission required. The environmental experts would have a field day with the local council, and they'd likely find themselves in hot water. So, while he's doing the right thing in suggesting he would look to improve the local area by investing in it from the Bitcoin on the hard drive, there's just too many variables, as well as health, and safety.

My first thoughts when this started all those years ago, is he'll never get permission for a number of reasons, but one that really stuck out was the health, and safety violations. For example. it's an active site, and could potentially have unwanted sharp objects, which they'd never be able to give permission to someone to look through it, knowing that there's a good chance that they could get seriously hurt.

So, going the robot route is a good idea, it reduces the risk of injury, and death, plus no one actually needs to be on site. However, there's still issues with disturbance of the debris, which would create a environmental hazard, at least that's what the local council have in mind.

Plus, this is all hearsay remember. While, this man's case might be genuine, he can't prove that A) these funds exist B) They'll still be retrievable, and C) he can retrieve them without causing any disturbance or health hazards.

Plus, it really does open a can of worms if the council did open it up for him to search, since all sorts of people could claim to have lost something. Unfortunately, he's probably never going to obtain that hard drive legally.

There was an update to this story a month or so ago where the person who lost the hard drive must already be infact rich.
That he has plans to have some sort of robots that are more like drones built so they can scan the garbage field in England for the missing drive.
That to me that is going to cost him as much as the coins are probably worth from where the markets stand right of now.

I don't think he was rich, not overly so anyway. I guess that's whatever you deem rich is, he obviously had a decent job being a computer engineer. However, I would think he has made money from the publicity, I mean he has some fairly successful presenters doing a sort of documentary on him, and I'm assuming that wasn't done for free, since stories are sold all the time. Plus, the numerous other stories which have developed along the years. Pretty much everyone in Wales knows this story. Also, and don't quote me on this I believe there's been public fundraising done, as well as likely private investors which have gotten involved in the project. In one of the articles above he says the funding has been secured, therefore the people involved in the proposed project are all likely getting a share if it was ever found.

Just to correct you there too, Newport is in Wales, not England.

My utmost apologies to a Welsh calling it part of England.
As for being rich, If he can pay nearly a hundred thousand dollars per K9 robot drone-type unit that DrmrDdmr has mentioned, then I will consider this rich with the sky high level of inflation the UK and Europe are in (yes higher than in the US) and not needing to worry about the basics.
I would then assume people of Great Britain are very well off indeed and their poverty level is quite low.
But that is neither here or there pertaining to this article. So I will just leave it there.

I don't think he was rich, not overly so anyway. I guess that's whatever you deem rich is, he obviously had a decent job being a computer engineer. However, I would think he has made money from the publicity, I mean he has some fairly successful presenters doing a sort of documentary on him, and I'm assuming that wasn't done for free, since stories are sold all the time. Plus, the numerous other stories which have developed along the years. Pretty much everyone in Wales knows this story.

As you could read in my post, the man charged £250 for an ordinary interview, and made the whole thing even more attractive with the claim that the lost hard drive also contains evidence of Satoshi (IP address).

Also, and don't quote me on this I believe there's been public fundraising done, as well as likely private investors which have gotten involved in the project. In one of the articles above he says the funding has been secured, therefore the people involved in the proposed project are all likely getting a share if it was ever found.

I don't know what kind of job he had before, but they say that now he doesn't do anything else except that he tries every way he can to find the hard disk. Allegedly, he has enough private funds for the entire operation, but he never manages to get permission from the local authorities. I have to admit that these people really have a steely attitude when they refuse to change their opinion all this time, even though they say that everyone has a price at which they will change their decision.

Mr Howells has given up his job to concentrate full time on trying to organize the operation (and to speculate on conspiracy theories about what the local authority might not want to dig up there).  His relationship broke up a while ago, possibly because he couldn’t stop blaming his partner for being the one to actually throw the hard drive away, and he keeps an app on his phone which reminds him in real time of how much money he doesn’t have.

The drive contains satoshi's IP address?
Well then now, that makes this scavenger hunt much more interesting.

[Lucius]

The drive contains satoshi's IP address?
Well then now, that makes this scavenger hunt much more interesting.

Allegedly, as I have published in this post. But that information doesn't really make much sense to me, considering that Satoshi certainly didn't leave his real IP address anywhere - and if by any chance James Howells is right, then everyone who mined Bitcoin at that time would know that same information - maybe I'm missing something in that to the whole story, so if anyone understands what JH is talking about in the context of the Satoshi IP address, please explain it to us all.

[Welsh]

As you could read in my post, the man charged £250 for an ordinary interview, and made the whole thing even more attractive with the claim that the lost hard drive also contains evidence of Satoshi (IP address).

See, this is why I've remained sceptical this whole time, and this almost confirms it to me. I highly doubt that this is the case, and it seems as an attempt to drum up more information, and therefore generate himself more money. Whether or not he actually has the funds to fund an operation of this scale is also questionable in my eyes. He might claim he can, but is it all depending on the amount of media interest he can drum up.

As far as I'm aware he does say that he has enough to fund it via private investment funds, which leads me to believe that he doesn't actually have the money himself. I might be misremembering that, but I did watch one of the interviews somewhat recently, probably in response to this thread.

But that information doesn't really make much sense to me, considering that Satoshi certainly didn't leave his real IP address anywhere - and if by any chance James Howells is right, then everyone who mined Bitcoin at that time would know that same information - maybe I'm missing something in that to the whole story, so if anyone understands what JH is talking about in the context of the Satoshi IP address, please explain it to us all.

Like I said, the longer the story goes on the more I become sceptical, and it's largely because of how he words a lot of the things he says, but also makes claims like this. Once I get time later (probably more tomorrow), I'll watch the interview in which he says this, since I'm highly curious on how he even thinks he had that information.

[Lucius]

ˇ~snip~
Like I said, the longer the story goes on the more I become sceptical, and it's largely because of how he words a lot of the things he says, but also makes claims like this. Once I get time later (probably more tomorrow), I'll watch the interview in which he says this, since I'm highly curious on how he even thinks he had that information.

It seems that the Satoshi IP is just an addition that raises the whole story to a higher level, although it seems to me that it is not something that was discussed much, because the focus was always on the lost Bitcoins. Unless we're missing something in the technical sense (which is unlikely), I don't see how that supposedly lost hard disk could contain such information.

[Welsh]

It seems that the Satoshi IP is just an addition that raises the whole story to a higher level, although it seems to me that it is not something that was discussed much, because the focus was always on the lost Bitcoins. Unless we're missing something in the technical sense (which is unlikely), I don't see how that supposedly lost hard disk could contain such information.

Yeah, I know we're sceptical of his claims, but him lying or whatever about having Satoshi's IP addresses doesn't automatically mean he's lying about the Bitcoin. He could potentially just be grasping at straws, and wanting to drum up enough media interest that he would be allowed to dig, and therefore he thinks lying about the IPs could potentially make that happen.

I didn't know about him being allowed to dig in the site before the media got interested though. That's something I didn't hear about, and if that's accurate he should probably just let this whole news interest die out, and see if they allow him to dig in a few years. Something tells me though, he quite likes the media attention.

[rdbase]

^^
Or he could very well be waiting for a gofundme to transpire with this statement about satoshi's ip.
Who knows really.
But if he doesn't need to pay for some of the equipment at any rate, even if he is wealthy, then he will most certainly take it in that direction.

[Davidvictorson]

I keep coming back to this thread hoping to read that he has found the drive, recovered the bitcoin, and now lives in a mansion. But sadly, no. A question that keeps bothering me is  - What must have prompted him to throw the drive away knowing he had such huge amount of bitcoin in it. Was it anger, depression, hopelessness or what? Because from the story, it seems obvious that he was aware at the time that the drive contained bitcoins. Furthermore just like a user already said - there is the possibility that the drive isn't even in the landfill anymore. Who knows it might just be in the possession of a garbage collector who doesn't even know its worth.

[aoluain]

I keep coming back to this thread hoping to read that he has found the drive, recovered the bitcoin, and now lives in a mansion. But sadly, no. A question that keeps bothering me is  - What must have prompted him to throw the drive away knowing he had such huge amount of bitcoin in it. Was it anger, depression, hopelessness or what? Because from the story, it seems obvious that he was aware at the time that the drive contained bitcoins. Furthermore just like a user already said - there is the possibility that the drive isn't even in the landfill anymore. Who knows it might just be in the possession of a garbage collector who doesn't even know its worth.

Yes I saw this thread and wondered if some progress had been made in the recovery.

According to his initial statement below, it was a mistake.

James Howells, 35, said he mistakenly put a hard drive with 7,500 bitcoins in
the trash while clearing out his home in 2013.

Its highly unlikely that the HD was picked up from the thrash by anyone else,
Here and in Wales and elsewhere the rubbish bags and bins are dumped into a truck
along with hundreds of other bags and bons from the days collection route. I can be
corrected on this but on these Islands or this part of the world there is nobody scavenging
through the land fill dump looking for 'treasure'.

[Lucius]

I keep coming back to this thread hoping to read that he has found the drive, recovered the bitcoin, and now lives in a mansion. But sadly, no. A question that keeps bothering me is  - What must have prompted him to throw the drive away knowing he had such huge amount of bitcoin in it.

The answer to your question can be found just a few posts above, and if that statement is correct, then it was not Howells who threw the hard drive, but his partner, which was a completely new detail for me until recently. The story that was circulating was that he had two hard drives in the drawer and that he decided to throw one away, and it turned out that he threw away the wrong one.

If it is true that his partner did it anyway (if it is a woman), then maybe she was just cleaning the house and thought that it was a piece of ordinary junk that is unnecessarily sitting in a drawer.

[angelomedhur6895]

There is a small ventilation hole on the top cover with filters, so the HDD can "breath" when the air pressure changes like on higher altitudes but even if there's corrosive fluid leaking into the drive which is highly unlikely, the platters are made of aluminum or ceramics covered with magnetic "dust" which is coated with extra layer of carbon.

[Rikafip]

Interesting- did the government allow the excavation of the site where he allegedly threw his hard drive? This is something that both parties would benefit- the man getting thousands of his BTC; and the government having to earn $70 million for revenue and project missions. I just hope that the man can absolutely recover his private key and BTCs, assuming that the excavation is successful.

Nope, still nothing. Keep in mind that he threw away HDD back in 2013, meaning its been buried under 9 years of thrash so chances of him recovering even if local authorities allowed it are slim to none. That guy should just give it up and forget about it, no point to spend rest of your life looking for that HDD.

I guess the government has to weigh the pros and cons of the project since there is no guarantee that the hard drive would be located.

They already did that (and concluded that its not worth the effort due funding and environmental issues.

Assuming that it is indeed found, it is still a tricky process on how the person could sell his BTCs.

That would be least of his concerns. We are talking here about 7500 BTC, not some ridiculously high amount.

[n0ne]

Somethings are better left buried... It won't be easy to dig and find and than extract data.. and it also not practical.. but if this man make it happen. This might become another story of legend for bitcoiners.. the garbage gold digger...

All the best mate..

It is really a hard task, because entire landfills need to be dug. Further things need to be segregated and from that finding the hard drive containing the mined bitcoins is a hard thing. The landfill is of wastes dumped for decades, and the IT Engineer have planned for usage of AI specialist and technology to make the search easier. It is also said that digging the landfills could cause environmental pollution. Teams to monitor the same has been formed. In some way every measure is taken, but it is time to wait for the success. If the hard disk is found, 10% gets allocated for the development of the City as Crypto hub which is really appreciable.

[sunsilk]

There is a small ventilation hole on the top cover with filters, so the HDD can "breath" when the air pressure changes like on higher altitudes but even if there's corrosive fluid leaking into the drive which is highly unlikely, the platters are made of aluminum or ceramics covered with magnetic "dust" which is coated with extra layer of carbon.

And that's why he's still got some hope if ever he finds that HDD that he's thrown before. But, what if all of the search efforts would be gone in vain and a long time ago, someone has already found it in that landfill?

I get the mindset of that guy and ask for help from the government and anyone who wants to find that treasure. Because it's better to share the entire amount with anyone who helps him find out rather than it's lost forever.

But that's it, what if it's already lost and they're just wasting effort and energy into looking for nothing?

[luciannach1903]

He is willing to give the city of Newport in the UK a cut of the bitcoin at a sum of $70 million so to be able to do this with approval of their local government.
This story has been run all around the globe at this point and has alot of people scratching their heads as to why he would need permission to rummage around a landfill site in garbage. Alot of countries allow those who want to go around their local trash site looking for pop cans for recycling or whatever they want to bring out of it. Since it is just garbage there.

[Diego San Diego]

Everyone who is into bitcoin has heard this story before.
A guy cloned his hard drive and threw away the wrong drive in the trash and knows it was in a landfill site. Think they made a episode on the US sitcom series Big Bang Theory out of it.
But the story didn't end there as the person wants to have permission to excavate the site looking for this hard drive with over $275 million worth at today's price of bitcoin.
https://i.ibb.co/gPXnLPY/Nat.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/SNx9Qsp/JHowell.jpg
"A man from the Welsh city of Newport has offered his city council a 25% cut of his 7,500 bitcoins if it allows him to excavate the landfill where he threw away a hard drive containing the fortune in 2013."
source: https://www.businessinsider.com/man-offers-council-70-million-dig-up-bitcoin-hard-drive-2021-1

He is willing to give the city of Newport in the UK a cut of the bitcoin at a sum of $70 million so to be able to do this with approval of their local government.
This story has been run all around the globe at this point and has alot of people scratching their heads as to why he would need permission to rummage around a landfill site in garbage. Alot of countries allow those who want to go around their local trash site looking for pop cans for recycling or whatever they want to bring out of it. Since it is just garbage there.
https://www.c[Suspicious link removed]m/2021/01/15/uk-man-makes-last-ditch-effort-to-recover-lost-bitcoin-hard-drive.html

Call it the green initiate if you want but there are many who scavenge around in trash looking for those gems.
As they say: "One man's trash is another man's treasure!"

A person can not only get injured walking there but also there’s a chance to fall into a cavity. Can you imagine the size of landfills? It may be that a person will never be found.

[CryptSafe]

There's nothing to loose there as both parties have every tendencies to win as it is a win win game. Come to talk of it, we are talking of an asset in Bitcoin with an estimated value of over $200 million here. Giving the government %25 of the asset as an offer is something worth it. However, this would go along way helping the government if it scales through. This is not a small project either as it requires more workforce because the dumpsite would be excavated as it is almost a decade since the hard disk was thrown there. I believe why the delay because lots of things needs to be put into consideration before embarking on the project as it is not an easy task. Another factor we need to look into is the health of the citizens who live close to the dumpsite. Excavating such site is more or less giving room for insects and pest invasion which will be of big detriment to the people living there so therefore weighing bot options, both parties needs to come to a term before embarking upon such task.

[BlackHatCoiner]

9 years lost, probably buried in the ground? Good luck wasting your time there. The problem with the municipality is that they don't know for sure he has indeed lost such fortune, or he's just lying to earn some bucks from media.

That would be least of his concerns. We are talking here about 7500 BTC, not some ridiculously high amount.

7,500 BTC is not a ridiculously high amount? 

[Pesona1]

Losing as much as 7500 bitcoins is certainly the man's biggest regret in his life, you can imagine how much wealth he currently has if he still keeps the hard drive, indeed we can't predict luck at all but losing a hard drive containing that many bitcoins is of course a a very regrettable misfortune for the rest of life, I saw a title and a new film triller on the internet, is it possible that the film is based on the true story of the man who lost bitcoin?

[AndrewWeb]

That happened about a year ago. Him asking the city that is. I wonder if there has been any development since then. Have there been any news?

Yes, 5 days ago

"I'll sue the council unless I can dig it up"

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/ive-160m-fortune-lost-dump-27679758

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lost-bitcoin-crypto-james-howells-b2406517.html