Original title: (After digging through a landfill for 12 years, this man chooses to give up $920 million)
Original author: Azuma, Odaily Planet Daily
After a long search lasting 12 years, British man James Howells has decided to abandon the search for a hard drive he once discarded containing 8000 BTC (valued at approximately $920 million based on a price of $115,000).
Odaily Planet Daily Note: Regarding the specific number of lost BTC, although early UK media reports indicated 7500 coins, later media reports and Howells' description indicate 8000 coins, so this article will use that figure.
Accidentally lost 8000 BTC
James Howells was born in the 1980s in Newport, Wales, and influenced by his mother, who worked in microchip production, Howells was exposed to computer technology at an early age, becoming a frequent internet user as a teenager, assembling computers at 13, and eventually becoming a computer engineer.
As early as late 2008, Howells was exposed to knowledge about Bitcoin. On February 15, 2009, Howells began mining Bitcoin using a Dell XPS laptop—(The Daily Telegraph) recognized him as one of the earliest miners in the Bitcoin network, and (The New Yorker) noted that he was one of only five miners at the time.
However, Howells' mining work did not last long because his girlfriend constantly complained about the noise from the laptop during mining and that the equipment was too hot... In 2010, Howells accidentally spilled lemonade on the computer, damaging it, so he disassembled it and removed the parts, most of which were thrown away or sold, while the hard drive containing the information for the 8000 BTC private keys was left in a drawer.
Between June 20 and August 10, 2013, Howells mistakenly discarded the hard drive as waste. Howells later stated that it was his ex-girlfriend Hafina Eddy-Evans who transported the trash containing the hard drive to the landfill, but Eddy-Evans claimed that Howells asked her to help dispose of these waste items, denying any wrongdoing on her part, while Howells stated that he subconsciously believed she should be responsible for it.
Howells later recalled: "I wasn't paying much attention to Bitcoin at that time because I was distracted. After that, I had a few children and started renovating my house, and I completely forgot about Bitcoin until it reappeared in the news."
In November 2013, (The Guardian) reported speculating that the hard drive had been buried about 0.9-1.5 meters underground at Newport Docksway landfill, and Howells admitted in that interview that these BTC might have been permanently discarded.
The Newport City Council later indicated that the hard drive may be buried under 25,000 cubic meters (approximately 110,000 to 200,000 tons) of waste. The former landfill manager confirmed that it is located in a 15,000-ton landfill area named Cell-2 (accumulated area from August to November 2013), with a total landfill volume of 1.4 million tons.
Rising coin prices, search obstructed
As the price of BTC continued to rise, Howells began to repeatedly attempt to search for the hard drive, but was repeatedly rejected by the local council for various reasons.
In December 2017, Newport City Council rejected Howells' search application for the landfill on the grounds of cost, environmental impact, equipment corrosion risks, and potential illegal activities that could trigger a "gold rush." In January 2021, Howells proposed to donate 25% of these Bitcoins (then valued at £52.5 million) to the local 316,000 residents (approximately £175 per person), but the council once again rejected it on the grounds of violating licensing regulations.
A spokesperson for Newport City Council stated in an interview with CNN that local government departments have received multiple contacts since 2013 inquiring whether they could assist in recovering the hard drive allegedly containing Bitcoin; the council did not reject this proposal, but was not permitted to excavate the site—"The council has repeatedly told Mr. Howells that according to our licensing regulations, it is impossible to excavate the landfill, and that excavation itself would have a huge environmental impact on the surrounding area. The cost of excavating the landfill, storing, and processing waste could reach millions of pounds, and there is no guarantee that the hard drive will be found or that it will still function properly."
However, at this time, Howells insisted that the hard drive could still operate normally under the protection of the corrosion-resistant cobalt layer of the protective casing and glass platters—after all, as the value of these BTC skyrocketed, no one could easily give up such a large fortune.
In order to obtain the landfill access permission from the council, Howells drafted several detailed plans to address the council's concerns. During this time, a hedge fund expressed interest in funding Howells (both parties negotiated to split 50% of the profits), planning to locate the hard drive through municipal waste records and have a professional data recovery team handle it. At that time, Howells budgeted £5 million for the 9 to 12-month excavation work. In August 2022, with the assistance of some venture capital funds (which would take a 30% profit share), Howells upgraded the search plan to use AI robotic arms to scan waste, deploy drones and Boston Dynamics robotic dogs for security, and form an environmental team, with the budget increasing to £10-11 million.
In order to gain community support and obtain the council's search permission, Howells also proposed to use the profits to develop a community-owned mining facility at the landfill, which would use solar or wind energy.
On September 6, 2023, after a prolonged application process with no results, Howells commissioned his legal team to issue an open letter to Newport City Council, stating that he would file a lawsuit. The open letter requested the city to suspend landfill construction while claiming £446 million and applying for a judicial review of the council's decision to refuse access to the site. Two months later, his legal team wrote again to the council, requesting site access permission before resorting to court.
As of October 2024, the Bitcoin valuation on the hard drive has reached $750 million. Howells ultimately sued the council for a claim amount of £495 million, but the council argued that ownership of the hard drive has been transferred to the municipality according to waste disposal regulations.
On January 9, 2025, the judge ultimately ruled to dismiss Howells' lawsuit, stating that the case "lacked reasonable grounds" and "had no prospect of success." Howells expressed to the media that he was "extremely disappointed" but also revealed a new plan he would initiate—issuing a new cryptocurrency anchored by these unrecoverable Bitcoins.
Search without results, taking a different path
Due to the inability to obtain entry permission from the parliament, Howells ultimately chose to abandon the search work but opted for another potential path.
As early as May of this year, Howells disclosed on personal X his intention to tokenize 21% of these 8000 BTC, with the goal of launching during TOKEN 2049 Singapore on October 1, planning to raise $75 million... but in the following months, Howells did not mention this matter again on his personal social media channels, indicating that the plan has likely been aborted—after all, everyone knows that BTC is highly unlikely to be recovered, and seeking to raise $75 million is somewhat unseemly.
This morning, Howells disclosed a new plan for the tokenization of the BTC, planning to issue 80 billion Ceiniog Coins (INI). The token aims to be proposed by the end of the year, built on the Bitcoin network, supported by OP_RETURN, and integrated with Stacks, Runes, and Ordinals, with each INI pegged to the value of 1 Satoshi of the BTC...
Howells finally issued a rather impassioned statement: "To all the senior and outstanding gatekeepers who have blocked me for over a decade: You can close the doors! You can control the courts! But you cannot stop the blockchain! Cryptocurrency has won!"
However, considering the fact that the hard drive still cannot be recovered, even if Howells describes it beautifully, the INI actually has no asset backing, and the future of the plan remains questionable.
Cryptocurrency may win, but Howells' token issuance behavior is unlikely to.
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