The Welsh engineer does not give up after 10 years of searching for 8,000 bitcoins worth over $900 million

James Howells – a software engineer from Newport, Wales – has made a surprising decision after more than 10 years of efforts to recover 8,000 lost bitcoins. This digital asset, at its historical peak price of $123,091, was worth nearly $985 million and is currently valued at over $913 million.


The story began in 2013 when Howells' ex-girlfriend accidentally threw away a hard drive containing his digital wallet. Since then, Howells has persistently fought for permission to excavate the local landfill in Newport – where he believes the hard drive is buried deep under thousands of tons of waste. He even sent a plea to former U.S. President Donald Trump hoping for support, but all efforts were in vain.

For many years, Howells has continued to negotiate with the Newport City Council. He once proposed sharing over $30 million from the recovered bitcoin in exchange for excavation permits. However, the authorities refused, citing environmental concerns.

On August 4, on the X platform, Howells announced that he would no longer seek permission. Instead, he unveiled a plan to 'tokenize' the lost bitcoin wallet, issuing 800 billion tokens. This is a layer 2 token on the Bitcoin platform, incorporating technologies such as Stacks, Runes, and Ordinals.

According to a statement to The Block, Howells said the goal of INI is to build a high-speed, highly scalable Web3 ecosystem optimized for payments. Notably, INI will be backed by the 8,000 lost bitcoins and leverage the security mechanisms of the Bitcoin blockchain itself.

With this new plan, James Howells is not only looking to turn a personal tragedy into an opportunity but also aims to create a practical application model for blockchain technology. Although the dream of excavating the landfill has yet to come true, this bold decision shows that he has not given up hope of 'reviving' his enormous wealth in a completely different way.
According to my brother, if you had this amount of bitcoin, would you still be looking for it? Please leave your thoughts.