A computer engineer, James Howells, lost his £600 million bitcoin fortune when it was thrown away by his partner during an office clear-out. The 8,000 bitcoins were stored on a hard drive in the bag, which was then taken to a rubbish tip in Newport, Wales. Despite Mr. Howells’ efforts over the past decade to retrieve the hard drive and his bitcoin, he has been unsuccessful.
The rubbish tip is set to close in two years as part of a planned closure of the site. The council claims that the landfill has reached the end of its life and will be replaced with a solar farm. Mr. Howells launched a legal bid to search the dump for the hard drive, but his case was dismissed by a judge last month.
The value of the bitcoin has since increased to around £620 million, making Mr. Howells’ loss even more significant. He had been seeking permission to search the dump and recover his lost asset, but the court ruled that it would be a “needle in a haystack” and therefore unlikely to succeed.
Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14377937/rubbish-tip-father-600million-bitcoin-thrown-away-close.html