A Welshman who claimed he accidentally threw his £200million Bitcoin fortune away is plotting a multi-million bid to dig up a landfill site to retrieve the lost hard drive. James Howells from Newport claims he unintentionally dumped 7,500 units of the cryptocurrency in mid-2013.
He said that while the Bitcoin was only worth a few thousand pounds back then, its value has now ballooned to £200 million. He has since spent the past eight years battling Newport City Council to allow him to dig up the tip in the city to find his hard drive, a request which has repeatedly been denied.
Now James, an early adopter of Bitcoin, has assembled a new team in his latest bid for permission to scour the site, a mission that includes robots and an artificial intelligence scanner. According to the Mirror, venture capitalists are offering him the £10 million to finance the dig which will even see robotic dogs patrolling the site at night to ensure it is safe and prevent intruders.
Speaking to WalesOnline, James said he had "put together the best possible plan that he can as an individual" in a bid to persuade the council to let him dig up the site.
"I've got the best people involved, professionals who can complete this to the highest standard. If the council wanted to dig up a landfill, these are the best people that they would get," he said. "These guys have dug up landfill sites in Wales, such as in Merthyr - this is their bread and butter."
James said he has been backed by a number of investors from Germany and Switzerland, assembling a 25-strong team of experts across finance, AI, data recovery and the environment in order to persuade the council to let them dig up the site in a way which doesn't impact the environment. The plans, valued at up to $11 million, include a search facility which includes robotic arms, manual pickers and factory-standard machinery which will sort through the waste at the landfill site to find the lost hard drive.
"The material that was buried there back in the early 2000s, there was no recycling in place at all," James said. "A lot of the waste material, about 70 or 80% will be recyclable. My team would dig the material and bring it to a pop-up search facility where we have AI technology and conveyor belts that the material would be put on and scanned, and our system would be trained to identify objects against other types of waste."
James said he had now prepared two plans to present to Newport City Council, the first involving searching one zone of the landfill site where his team believe the USB is. He said that plan would take about 18 months and involve sifting through 50,000 tonnes of rubbish.
"Newport City Council has never engaged with that plan, so we have a plan B which involves 100,000 tonnes of waste but would also clear up a larger area of land, reclaim it and use it to install a wind farm or a solar panel once we're done. That would be 36 months."
He added that he was now "in the best position" he had ever been regarding efforts to dig on the site, and appealed to Newport City Council to allow him to do so. "I've engaged with them, sent them a number of emails this week. I've spoken to [local MP] Jessica Morden who has been extremely kind with her time. Before it's been a bit of an Oliver Twist, going to the council asking them to dig up their landfill. Now, there's not much else I can put together myself."
James said the chances of recovering his Bitcoin fortune largely depended on the condition of the hard drive if and when it is found. He also said that he stood to receive about one third of the final amount of the money if it is recovered, with the rest going to his team of workers and investors and used for the benefit of Newport's community. "It's something that I cannot estimate," he said. "If it's cracked and smashed like a mirror, I will hold my hands up [and give up]. But I have been told that if it's in reasonable condition, there's an 80 or 90% chance of recovering the data.
"At the end of the day I'm in a difficult situation. I would be happy with a third. There's no need to be greedy. I would like to give money to the people in Newport. I would like to make Newport a crypto Mecca for future generations.
"I just want to have the opportunity to state my case to Newport City Council. It's about time they came to the table and had a serious conversation about this. It makes logical sense for all of us to benefit."
As for his honest hopes of ending the decade-long saga to retrieve his lost fortune, he added: "I try not to think that far ahead."
A Newport City Council spokesperson said: "Newport City Council has been contacted multiple times since 2013 about the possibility of retrieving a piece of IT hardware said to contain bitcoins, which may or may not be in our landfill site. The first time was several months after Mr Howells first realised the hardware was missing.
"The council is licenced to carry out work on the landfill site. This licence is issued by Natural Resources Wales, who regulate our work to ensure we adhere stringently to the terms of our permit in our management of the site.
"The council has told Mr Howells multiple times that excavation is not possible under our environmental permit, and that work of that nature would have a huge negative environmental impact on the surrounding area.
"The council is the only body licenced to carry out work on the landfill site. We have statutory duties which we must carry out in managing the landfill site. Part of this is managing the ecological risk to the site and the wider area.
"Mr Howells’ proposals pose significant ecological risk which we cannot accept, and indeed are prevented from considering by the terms of our permit.
"We would also have to close the site for Mr Howells to carry out his work. We are a public sector body, and our duty is to provide services to our residents, not sanction speculative excavation work which would hinder delivery of those services.
"There is also no guarantee that the hard drive is even at the landfill site, and even if it was, the chance of it being found and in a recoverable condition after being in a landfill site for nine years, exposed to high pressures and a corrosive environment, are extremely slim.
"We have been very clear and consistent in our responses that we cannot assist Mr Howells in this matter."
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