BlockBeats News, August 5th, according to The Block, earlier this week, multiple posts appeared on social media claiming that James Howells, an IT engineer from Newport, UK, has officially ended the search for his lost 8,000 BTC. James Howells stated to The Block via private message on social platform X: 'No, I haven't 'given up'. The story circulating is partly true, but not as they describe it.'
Howells explained that on July 1st, he formally offered to the Newport City Council's leadership, legal team, and a council member to acquire and excavate the Newport landfill for a value between $33 million and $40 million. To raise funds for the acquisition, Howells announced plans to launch an Ordinals-based token in October, representing 21% of the lost wallet's value. According to Howells, despite the substantial offer, Newport has not responded to or acknowledged receipt of the offer. So that's the situation, if they don't sell, there's no need to purchase the landfill through a token sale, I'm no longer seeking to purchase the landfill, no longer pursuing excavation or remediation efforts, and no longer engaging in dialogue with the City Council or its representatives.
Howells stated that he has merely 'shifted' his strategy but has not given up on retrieving the lost Bitcoin, as he remains the rightful owner of the 8,000 BTC and cited a High Court ruling from January of this year as a basis. The City Council may possess the hard drive, but they do not own the digital content within it—the 8,000 Bitcoin legally belong to me, and anyone in the world can verify the balance at any time. Howells stated that he now plans to tokenize his legal ownership of the lost 8,000 BTC, issuing a Bitcoin layer-2 smart token called Ceiniog Coin (INI), taking advantage of the upcoming network upgrade to remove the 80-byte limit of the OP_RETURN opcode in Bitcoin transactions, thereby freeing up more functional space. The token is expected to launch after October and is planned to undergo an ICO later this year.
