1. James Howells, a British IT engineer from Newport, Wales, became one of the earliest Bitcoin miners in 2009, generating 8,000 Bitcoins when they were nearly worthless. He stored the private key to access these coins on a 2.5-inch hard drive from a Dell XPS laptop used for gaming and mining. In 2013, during an office cleanup, Howells mistakenly discarded this hard drive, believing it was a blank one, while keeping an identical empty drive. His then-partner, Hafina Eddy-Evans, took the bag containing the hard drive to the Docksway landfill in Newport, where it was buried under tons of waste. At the time, the Bitcoins were worth about £500,000, but by 2025, their value had soared to approximately £600 million (US$800 million).Howells realized his mistake later in 2013 when Bitcoin’s price surged to $1,000 per coin. He visited the landfill and learned it was buried 3–5 feet under 25,000 cubic meters of waste in a section called Cell 2, containing 15,000 tons of rubbish from August to November 2013. Newport City Council repeatedly denied his requests to excavate, citing environmental concerns, high costs, and legal restrictions under their licensing permit. Howells proposed a high-tech recovery plan using AI-powered drones, robotic systems, and human sorters to minimize environmental impact, offering to fund the operation and share 25–30% of the proceeds with the council and Newport residents (about £175 per person). Despite securing $11 million from European investors and support from data recovery experts, the council maintained the hard drive became their property once discarded.In December 2024, Howells sued the council for £495 million in compensation or access to the site, but in January 2025, a High Court judge dismissed the case, ruling it had “no realistic prospect” of success, citing legal time limits and the council’s ownership of landfill contents. The judge also noted the hard drive’s likely degradation after years of exposure to moisture and pressure, reducing recovery chances. Howells appealed but faced another rejection. Undeterred, he proposed buying the landfill, especially after the council announced plans to close it in 2025–26 for conversion into a solar farm. He argued this could allow excavation while cleaning the site for community benefit, but the council rejected this idea as well.In April 2025, Los Angeles-based production company Lebul acquired rights to Howells’ story, planning a docuseries, podcast, and social media content titled The Buried Bitcoin: The Real-Life Treasure Hunt of James Howells. The project, set for release in late 2025, will use CGI to depict his legal battles, early Bitcoin involvement, and ongoing recovery efforts. Howells expressed excitement about sharing his story globally and continues exploring innovative funding ideas, like tokenizing 1,675 Bitcoins as NFTs to finance the search.By June 2025, reports suggested Howells had ended his 12-year search, accepting the near-impossible odds of recovering the drive. However, he remains optimistic, stating he’ll keep fighting “until a higher court tells me no” and believes the story’s global attention could still yield opportunities. His saga highlights the volatile nature of cryptocurrency, where a single mistake can lead to monumental loss, and has been likened to a modern treasure hunt.