An engineer from the British city of Newport has announced that he plans to buy a plot of land with a garbage dump where his hard drive with 7,500 bitcoins worth more than $770 million was buried.
James Howells assured that he is already discussing the purchase with unnamed investment partners. The man believes that the purchase will allow him to calmly search for the missing bitcoins, which he has been unsuccessfully trying to return for more than ten years. The hapless investor lost his fortune in 2013 – the hard drive was accidentally thrown out by his ex-wife during cleaning.
In January, a Welsh court banned a man from digging up rubbish heaps over concerns that toxic gases from decomposing waste could cause serious harm to people and the environment. The local council later announced plans to close the site. Authorities were given permission to build a solar power plant on the site. The 39-year-old engineer was surprised to learn of the plans.
“The council argued in court that closing the site to allow excavations would have a detrimental impact on the people of Newport. It turns out the council had planned to close the site anyway. I expected it might happen in the next few years because the site is 80-90% full, but I didn’t think it would happen so soon,” said James Howells.
In December, the owner of the lost bitcoins said he had hired a team of lawyers and started using an artificial intelligence (AI) solution to search for legal precedents. He believes this will help him get the ban on excavating the landfill overturned.
