⏪ In a fleeting moment of oversight in 2013, James Howells, a British engineer from Newport, Wales, threw away a hard drive he thought was empty, but it contained 8,000 bitcoins that he had purchased during the early days of digital currencies when they were worth virtually nothing.

The drive ended up in a massive landfill, buried under tons of garbage. Since that moment, Howells's life turned into a long race against time and bureaucracy; he filed lawsuits, consulted specialized companies, and proposed elaborate plans that included using artificial intelligence, robots, and search dogs to recover the hard drive from beneath the earth.

But all these attempts faced a strict rejection from the local authorities, who deemed the project impractical and environmentally and financially costly.

In January 2025, the final ruling was issued: no permission to dig, no hope of recovery.

After 12 years of persistence, Howells officially announced his surrender, closing the chapter on one of the most controversial and sorrowful stories in the world of digital currencies. 8,000 bitcoins, which once were worth a few hundred dollars, are now worth about 950 million dollars... a fortune lost among the trash, and a tale that will remain a timeless lesson in the value of backups, attention, and 'the opportunity that does not return.' #BinanceAlphaAlert #Notcoin