Court quashes IT engineer's 10-year bid to find hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoins
A 10-year bid to find 8,000 Bitcoins quashed
James Howells, an IT engineer from Newport, has lost his legal bid to retrieve a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoins (BTC), worth more than $720 million at the time of writing, according to a new ruling from the Welsh Commercial Court.
The hard drive, containing Bitcoins mined in 2009, was accidentally dumped in a landfill site by Howells, which he is no longer allowed to access by Newport City Council due to environmental regulations.
This is the result of a lawsuit filed by Howells in September 2023 to request a review of the Newport City Council's decision to deny access to the landfill, or to be compensated in cash equivalent to the value of the lost Bitcoin.
Bitcoin "treasure" thrown in the trash
To recall, James Howells started "mining" Bitcoin in 2009, when the cost of owning BTC at that time was only electricity. Howells accumulated 8,000 BTC and stored them in an electronic wallet, with the private key backed up on a small hard drive.
The disaster happened in August 2013, when Howells accidentally threw the hard drive containing his private key into the trash while cleaning his house. The IT engineer's wife then took the bag to the dump. At the time, the 8,000 BTC were worth around £1 million ($1.2 million), but within three months, the price of Bitcoin had increased ninefold, making Howells realise the huge loss.
The legal battle surrounding the "trash-searching for Bitcoin" campaign
Since November 2013, Howells has repeatedly asked the Newport City Council for permission to excavate the dump to recover the hard drive, but all proposals have been rejected.
Not giving up, Howells decided to quit his job, cooperate with investors, committed to sharing 30% of the value of the Bitcoin found and spend the rest on data recovery costs, along with his supporters. Howells even recruited a former landfill manager to join his team and was confident that there was an 80% chance of recovering the data on the hard drive.
If approved by Newport City Council, the “trash-searching for Bitcoin” process is expected to take 18 to 36 months, with an additional 12 months to restore the landfill to its original state. Howells’ team also pledged to use AI technology to ensure the search does not impact surrounding residents.
Although Howells proposed several options, including modernizing the landfill, Newport City Council steadfastly refused the request due to environmental concerns. Undeterred, Howells’ team of lawyers filed a lawsuit against Newport City Council, alleging:
· Failure to cooperate in dealing with hazardous waste.
· Forgoing the opportunity to receive 10% of the Bitcoin as a valuable investment for the local community.
Now, after more than a decade of legal efforts, Howells’ quest to recover his “Bitcoin treasure” has effectively ended, with Judge Keyser of the Welsh Commercial Court declaring that the case had “no prospect of success” if it went to trial.
