The Quest To Find $181 Million In Bitcoin Buried In A Dump
James Howells’ life changed when he threw away a hard drive about the size of an iPhone 6.
In 2013, two identical laptop hard drives were kept in a drawer near Howells in Newport, southern Wales. one was empty; He says the others hold 8,000 bitcoins – even after the recent crypto crash, it is worth around $181 million.
He wanted to throw the empty one out, but instead the drive containing the cryptocurrency was going to the local dump in garbage bags.
Nine years later, he’s determined to get back the stuff he mined in 2009.
Howells, 36, is hoping local authorities will let him conduct a high-tech treasure hunt for buried bitcoins. His problem is that he can’t go to the dump.
James Howells is hoping that his plan will lead him to the dump. Darren Britton / Wales News
For nearly a decade, Newport’s city council has denied their requests to dig for their hard drives, saying it would be costly and environmentally damaging, but Howells is not disappointed.
He gave Insider a first look at his new $11 million proposal — backed by venture-capital funding — to find 110,000 tons of garbage. He hopes that by presenting it to council in the coming weeks, he will eventually be persuaded to try to recover the hard drive.
Finding Hard Drives in 110,000 Tons of Trash
Finding a hard drive among thousands of tons of garbage can seem like a daunting task.
But Howells, a former IT employee, says he believes this could be achieved through a combination of human sorters, robotic dogs and an artificial-intelligence-powered machine that can watch hard drives on a conveyor belt. trained for.
There are two versions of their plan, based on how many landfills the council will allow them to explore.
By their estimates, the most comprehensive option would take three years and involve 100,000 metric tons — or about 110,000 tons — of waste at a cost of $11 million. A scaled-down version will cost $6 million and take 18 months.
They’ve assembled a team of eight experts specializing in areas including AI-powered sorting, landfill excavation, waste management and data extraction — including a consultant who worked for a company that worked for the black holes of the crashed Columbia space shuttle. Data was retrieved from the box.
Experts and their companies will be contracted to carry out the excavation and will receive a bonus if the bitcoin hoard is successfully recovered.
“We’re trying to get this project to full commercial standard,” Howells said.
Howells said the machines would dig up the waste, which would then be sorted in a pop-up facility near the landfill.
Human pickers will pass through it with a machine from a company called Max-AI in Oregon. The machine will look like a scanner installed on a conveyor belt.
Max-AI’s Remy Le Grand told Insider that the company will train AI algorithms to find hard drives that look similar to Howells. A mechanical hand would then pick up any object that might be a contender.
Howells built security costs into his plan, for fear that people might try to ditch the hard drive themselves.
She has the budget for 24-hour CCTV cameras as well as two robotic “spot” dogs from Boston Dynamics that will act as mobile CCTV patrols at night and for anything that looks like her hard drive by day Sweep the area.
A “Spot” robot dog created by Boston Dynamics. Sam Barnes/Sportsfile for Collision Via Getty Images
Howells told Insider that her team’s first meeting was in May at the Celtic Manor Resort outside Newport, in what she called a dress rehearsal of her pitch for the council.
It’s a story that goes from the incredibly mundane to the expansive Richard Hammond
The meeting was filmed and attended by former “Top Gear” host Richard Hammond, who is set to release a short YouTube documentary about the Howells.
“They are clearly a group of very committed people who have faith in him and the plan,” Hammond told Howells’ team insider.
“It’s a story that goes from the incredibly mundane to the vast,” Hammond said. “If I were in their position, I don’t think I would have had the strength to answer the door.”
Howells said the waste would be cleaned up after the excavation and recycled as much as possible. The rest will be buried again.
“We do not want to harm the environment in any way. “If anything, we want to leave everything in better shape.”
Newport, Wales, landfill by air. Darren Britton / Wales News
Their plans also include building a solar or wind-power farm on top of the landfill site once the project is complete. Yet the council’s chances of agreeing with his approach soon seem slim.
A council representative told Insider, “There is nothing Mr Howells can present to us” that will get the council agreeing. “Their proposals pose significant ecological risks, which we cannot accept and are actually prevented from considering the terms of our permits.”
Will the hard drive still work if it is found?
Whether a hard drive will work depends on a component called a “platter” — a disk made of glass or metal that holds data. Howells says that as long as the platter hasn’t cracked, there’s an 80% to 90% chance the data will be recoverable.
Data-recovery professional Phil Bridges, who has advised Howells on the project, told Insider that the figures were accurate.
A hard drive is the same size as the Howells was lost. The plate is the big disc in the middle. Darren Britton / Wales News
But if the platter is damaged, Bridges says, there is little chance of the data being retrieved.
Bridges says he joined the project because he found it interesting. “It’s one of those cases that piques one’s interest,” he said. “It will just be a great success story to help him get back and really prove everyone wrong.”
Where will the funding come from?
Hanspeter Jaberg and Karl Wendeborn, two venture capitalists based in Switzerland and Germany respectively, told Insider that they had promised to provide $11 million to fund the project if Howells won council approval.
“It’s clearly a needle in the haystack, and it’s a very, very high-risk investment,” Jaberg said.
Howells said he has no contracts with potential backers, but he discussed the plan in a Zoom meeting. “Unless I got something in writing from Newport City Council,” he said, “there’s nothing to sign up for.”
What if he gets a bitcoin stash?
Howells said that if he managed to retrieve the data, he’d put about 30% of what’s in there — worth more than $54 million at current value.
He said that each of Newport’s 150,000 residents would go to local causes, including giving £50 in bitcoin, or about $61 at the current price, about a third to investors, 30% to investors, and the rest to local causes.
In January 2021 he told CNN that the amount had fallen to $240; Howells said he decided to put more money into securing “professional companies” for the excavations to help convince the council.
What if the council doesn’t agree with his plans?
If Howells fails to get the council’s support, he says his last resort will be to take the local authority to court with the claim that his actions constitute an “illegal ban” on hard drives. “I’ve been reluctant to go down that route in the past because I didn’t want to cause problems,” he said. “I wanted to work with Newport City Council.”
Howells said he was never allowed a one-on-one meeting with the council. He said he was given a 20-minute Zoom meeting in May 2021, but hoped his new business plan would help him break through.
He said he met his local Member of Parliament, Jessica Morden, on June 24. Moderna’s office confirmed that the meeting had taken place.
Once he has conveyed his new plan to the council, he can only wait. “It’s the best situation ever,” he said. “It’s the most professional operation we’ve put together, and we’ve involved all the best people.”
The “crypto proponent” says he makes a living by buying bitcoin every month and selling it when he needs cash.
Howells says he tries not to think too much about what his share of money will allow him to do if the hard drive is ever found in working condition. “Otherwise,” he said, “you just drive yourself crazy.”
