Imagine having a lot of money stored up in a safe somewhere. Before you even realize it, you\u2019ve somehow lost the safe\u2019s key only to find that it went out with the rest of your everyday trash. It wasn\u2019t something that you meant to do\u2026 It just kind of, well\u2026 happened. For 35-year-old James Howells, this is the reality he\u2019s currently facing after realizing that he threw out some hard drives containing quite a bit of bitcoin with the rest of some unwanted materials.<\/p>\n
While moving out of his home roughly eight years ago, Howells thought like most people do when they\u2019re shifting locations, \u201cHow can I make this easier on myself? What useless junk that I don\u2019t need anymore can I just get rid of to lessen the burden of what I\u2019ll have to take with me?\u201d It turns out two of the items he threw out were identical hard drives that went with his laptop along with the cryptographic private keys that he required to access the heavy stashes of bitcoin they were storing.<\/p>\n
Naturally, Howells was rather devastated when he realized what had happened and is now asking permission from city officials to search a local landfill site for the hard drives, claiming that they could still be recovered and that the contents held within could be reclaimed.<\/p>\n
He mentions in an interview with CNBC<\/em> that while the outside of the hard drives may be damaged at this point, the interiors are likely to be remain in solid shape. He states:<\/p>\n There is a good chance the platter inside the drive is still intact. Data recovery experts could then rebuild the drive or read the data directly from the platter.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Overall, it is estimated that there were about 7,500 bitcoin units on these hard drives, which today would be worth a whopping $280 million. Despite the provable fact that the bitcoins were once his, he still needs the greenlight from members of the city council to search the dump where the hard drives are likely to be. As it stands, searching through the landfill area on one\u2019s own is considered a criminal offense, as the spot is cut off to members of the public.<\/p>\n In return for permission, Howells says he\u2019ll donate one quarter of the hard drives\u2019 contents to a COVID-19 relief fund as a \u201cthank you\u201d for allowing him to get his funds back. Unfortunately, this has not been enough to sway the people in charge, who claim to be concerned about both environmental issues and funding. Thus, all his requests have been turned down so far.<\/p>\n Howells, of course, isn\u2019t too happy about this, claiming that the city council won\u2019t even hear his arguments regarding what the plan is for getting the hard drives back.<\/p>\n\n
Giving Back to the Community<\/h2>\n