James Howells, the man who famously lost a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin—now worth an estimated $780 million, is taking an unprecedented step: buying the landfill where it’s buried.
A Race Against Time
The Newport landfill in Wales, where Howells’ Bitcoin fortune has been lost for over a decade, is set to close between 2025 and 2026. The local city council plans to repurpose the area into a solar energy farm, making Howells’ search even more challenging. In response, the former IT engineer has proposed purchasing the site to prevent any irreversible changes to the land.
“If the city council is open to negotiations, I’m ready to buy the landfill,” Howells stated. He has already begun discussions with potential investors, estimating the cost of acquiring the site would exceed his previous $13 million excavation budget.
A Costly Mistake That Changed Everything
Back in 2013, Howells made a simple but devastating error. “I had two identical hard drives in my drawer. One was empty, the other held the private keys to 8,000 Bitcoin. I meant to throw out the empty one—but I got them mixed up,” he recalled.
Since then, he has spent over a decade petitioning the Newport council for permission to dig through the landfill. However, authorities have repeatedly rejected his requests, citing environmental concerns and logistical difficulties.
A High-Stakes Recovery Mission
Despite the setbacks, Howells remains undeterred. He has already secured $13 million from venture capital firms, ready to fund a large-scale excavation—if granted approval. Recognizing the massive technical challenge, he has assembled an elite team of eight specialists, including experts in:
- Artificial Intelligence
- Waste excavation
- Data recovery
Among them is a former consultant who previously worked on recovering data from the Columbia space shuttle’s black box. If successful, these experts will be handsomely rewarded for retrieving the lost cryptocurrency.
Will He Beat the Deadline?
With the clock ticking toward the landfill’s closure, Howells is running out of time. Whether he succeeds or not, his story remains one of the most extraordinary Bitcoin recovery efforts in history—a testament to the lengths people will go for a lost digital fortune.
