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.
