British IT engineer James Howells is known as "the most careless person in the world" because he accidentally lost 8,000 bitcoins in 2013. For nine years, despite numerous setbacks, he has never given up on his wish to recover this massive fortune, and he has now developed a grand plan worth 11 million dollars, vowing to get them back.
Howells is from Newport, South Wales. In 2013, he hid two identical laptop hard drives in a drawer. One was blank, and the other contained 8,000 bitcoins, which is still worth about 181 million dollars even after the recent cryptocurrency crash. During a major cleanup, he intended to throw away the blank hard drive but accidentally put the one containing the bitcoins in a garbage bag and tossed it into the local dump. Nine years later, he has decided to recover the bitcoins he mined in 2009.
The 36-year-old Howells hopes that the local government will allow him to stage a high-tech treasure hunt to find the buried bitcoins. However, for the past nine years, Newport City Council has repeatedly rejected Howells' requests to excavate the hard drive, claiming it would be expensive and would harm the environment, but Howells has never given up. According to his latest plan, he will invest 11 million dollars—supported by venture capital funds—to search through up to 110,000 tons of garbage. He hopes to submit this document to Newport City Council in the coming weeks to persuade them to finally allow him to attempt to recover that "priceless" hard drive.
Searching for a hard drive among thousands of tons of garbage sounds like an "impossible task", but former IT engineer Howells believes it can be achieved by combining human classifiers, machine dogs, and AI machines to find the hard drive on the conveyor belt. His plan has two versions, based on the area that the municipal council allows him to search in the landfill. He estimates that the larger-scale scheme will take three years, involving the cleanup of about 110,000 tons of garbage, at a cost of 11 million dollars. A scaled-down version of the plan will cost 6 million dollars and take 18 months. He has assembled a team of 8 experts dedicated to fields such as AI classification, landfill excavation, waste management, and data extraction.
Howells said that machines will dig up the garbage and then sort it at a temporary facility near the landfill. He stated that after excavation, the garbage will be cleaned, and as much as possible will be recycled. The rest will be landfilled again. "We do not want to harm the environment in any way," he said, "If there is any difference, it is that we want to keep everything in a better condition." His plan also includes building a solar or wind farm on top of the landfill once the project is completed. However, the likelihood of the municipal council agreeing to his proposal in the short term appears slim. A representative of Newport City Council stated, "Mr. Howells has nothing that would persuade the council to agree. His proposal poses significant ecological risks, which we cannot accept, and our licensing terms do indeed prevent us from considering this." Two venture capitalists from Switzerland and Germany, Hanspeter Jabberg and Karl Wendeborn, have stated that they are committed to providing 11 million dollars in funding for the project if Howells obtains the council's approval.
Howells stated that if he successfully recovers the hard drive, he will keep about 30% of the bitcoins, which, at current prices, is worth just over 54 million dollars. About 1/3 of the bitcoins will be donated to recovery groups, 30% to investors, and the rest will be used for local charitable causes.
Finally, thank you for watching, and follow Axu to avoid getting lost! I hope to use the experience and lessons I've accumulated over many years in the crypto world to help you avoid detours and double your assets!
Stay tuned: BCH MYX ILV BNB ETH ENA
