James Howells, a Welsh IT engineer, has abandoned efforts to retrieve a hard drive containing 8,000 BTC, accidentally discarded in a Newport landfill in 2013. As of early August 2025, that stash is worth about $950 million. He previously proposed using AI, drones, and robotic dogs to locate the drive, offering the city council 25–30% of any recovery. His legal case was thrown out in January 2025; the High Court ruled the claim had “no realistic prospect” and that the drive became public property
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🚨 BREAKING: Welsh IT engineer James Howells has officially surrendered his decade‑long quest to find a hard drive he accidentally tossed in 2013 containing 8,000 BTC—now worth roughly $950 million. After years of pitched negotiation, high‑tech recovery plans, and legal appeals, Newport City Council repeatedly refused access to its landfill. In early 2025, the High Court flatly dismissed his lawsuit.
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🎯 The Wild Loss
In 2013, Howells cleaned out his home office and mistakenly discarded a laptop hard drive holding the private key to a stash of early‑mined Bitcoin—all while BTC still traded under $150. The drive ended up under thousands of tonnes of compacted waste at Docksway landfill in Newport, Wales.
Once valued at €500k in 2013, that digital metro‑nugget ballooned to $751 million by Feb 2025, and later soared to about $950 million as BTC surged.
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🔬 The High‑Tech Attempt
In pursuit of his lost treasure, Howells assembled experts in landfill excavation, drone footage analysis, and AI‑guided scanners.
His proposal involved targeted dig zones in Cell 2 – Area 2, robotic dogs for on‑site security, and AI-powered sorting arms.
He even offered to split 25–30% of any recovered fortune with the city council and local residents.
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⚖️ The Court Ruling
In December 2024, Howells sued Newport City Council for £495 million (approx. $750 million at the time), demanding excavation rights or restitution.
But in January 2025, Judge Keyser ruled the case had “no realistic prospect of success,” and accepted the council’s claim that the drive became public property once dumped.
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🧠 Crypto Takeaways
The saga underscores the brutal realities of crypto self‑custody: lose your private key, and your coins vanish forever—gone without recourse.
Experts estimate millions of BTC are permanently inaccessible today, silently removed from circulation.
As Reddit coyly noted:
> “By 2030, it could be valued at $8 billion.”
In parting, Howells reflected that recovery had been “a waiting game … until the bitcoin price was high enough to make the drive a juicy enough treasure.”
This saga ends with no hard drive recovered—and a warning etched in digital history 📌.
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