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Buying the Bitcoin landfill 👷
After losing a legal challenge in court, James Howells says he's prepared to buy the Wales landfill that he believes holds the keys to $774 million in Bitcoin.
Andrew Hayward
February 11, 2025
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📝 What you need to know
How far would you go to recover $774 million in Bitcoin? How about buying a landfill and digging it up, just for the chance of finding your accidentally discarded hard drive with the private keys?
That’s the aim of engineer James Howells, who has been trying unsuccessfully for years to convince Newport, Wales, city leadership to let him start digging in search of the hard drive, which was dumped 12 years ago. The saga even recently entered the courtroom, but Howells’ case was dismissed.
But now the council plans to shut down the nearly filled site and cover it up with a solar farm, prompting Howells and his business partners to make a play to buy the landfill—all for a chance of not only finding the drive, but getting it to work so he can recover his nearly 8,000 BTC trapped within.
“My recovery team is still in place, my business partners are still in place, and we would be ready to go tomorrow morning if Newport City Council were willing to discuss and negotiate with us,” Howells told Decrypt.
💬 Quote of the Day
"There are lots of people introducing meme coins right now. But many of the meme coins out there probably do not have a home in the SEC under our current set of regulations."
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