While most people regret throwing away old photos or love letters, James Howells has spent a decade agonizing over accidentally tossing out a hard drive containing up to 8,000 Bitcoin – now worth a staggering $768 million.
The Newport, Wales resident has been desperately trying to recover his digital fortune from a local landfill since 2013, but time is officially running out.
Newport City Council, apparently unmoved by Howells’ potential millions, plans to permanently seal the landfill between 2025-2026. Talk about adding insult to injury. The site will be capped and partially converted into a solar farm to power electric garbage trucks. The council repeatedly rejected his offers to share 25% of recovered bitcoin.
Oh, the irony – clean energy emerging from a buried treasure trove of digital gold.
Howells hasn’t given up without a fight. He took his battle to the UK High Court, seeking permission to search the landfill or receive compensation. The massive site contains 1.4 million tonnes of accumulated waste.
But in January 2025, a judge unceremoniously dismissed the case, citing “no reasonable grounds” and zero prospect of success. Ouch.
The desperate crypto millionaire-in-waiting believes his precious hard drive lies somewhere within 100,000 tonnes of waste.
He’s even expressed interest in buying the entire landfill site outright, discussing options with potential investment partners.
His latest Hail Mary includes appealing the High Court decision and floating ideas about launching a utility token or NFT related to his recovery efforts.
The clock is mercilessly ticking. Once the landfill closes and those solar panels go up, Howells’ Bitcoin fortune will be permanently entombed beneath Newport’s garbage.
It’s a modern-day buried treasure story, minus the happy ending. The twist? This treasure isn’t in some exotic location or marked with an X on a weathered map – it’s sitting in a Welsh landfill, probably nestled between old takeout containers and worn-out sneakers.
And soon, it’ll be sealed away forever, serving as a cautionary tale about the importance of backing up your digital assets.
