Developer who accidentally lost 8000 bitcoins has been looking for them for 11 years

An unusual legal battle is unfolding in Wales between an IT engineer and the Newport City Council. James Howells has filed a lawsuit against the local authorities in an attempt to obtain permission to excavate a city landfill where he believes a hard drive with an access key to 8,000 bitcoins is located.

The story began in 2013 when Howells mistakenly threw away a hard drive containing a private key to a cryptocurrency wallet. Over the past decade, the value of the lost bitcoins has grown significantly and is now estimated at approximately $ 514.37 million.

The IT specialist offered the city council 10% of the value of the bitcoins if the hard drive was successfully recovered. Howells has assembled a team of excavation experts ready to carry out the operation for £10 million without requiring any financial participation from the council.

According to Howells, the municipal authorities had lost a unique opportunity to transform the city. With a positive decision in 2013, Newport could now look like Las Vegas or Dubai. The amount of 41 million pounds offered to the city council at the current exchange rate could grow significantly in the future.

It is noteworthy that the owner mined the cryptocurrency on his own, spending only a few pennies for electricity. The hearing in the case is scheduled for December. Representatives of the city council consider the claim unfounded, citing potential environmental damage from large-scale excavations.

Earlier, the landfill administration installed round-the-clock video surveillance and security at the site.