Published: January 18th, 2021
In early 2013, one Bitcoin was worth $13.50, enough to earn you a tidy sum if you had 7,500 of them. That did not deter James Howell, then aged 27, from throwing away his hard drive that contained the coins. However, now that the same number of coins would be worth almost $300 million, the lad is pressuring a local authority to allow his search a dumpsite to recover the hardware.
In Newport, South Wales, a man is frantically pressuring the local authority to permit him to look through a landfill to recover a hard drive he mistakenly threw away in 2013. The man, James Howells, 35, said the hard drive, which had the key to 7,500 Bitcoin, mistakenly went out with the trash when he was clearing out of his home about eight years ago.
At today's price, the coins in the hard drive would fetch more than $260 million. While the man is pressing the city council to let him search the garbage dump that he believes has the lost hardware, the authorities have turned down his requests citing funding and environmental concerns.
The IT engineer claimed that he had two similar laptop hard drives, and he mistakenly put the one with the cryptographic keys required to access his Bitcoin wallet into the trash.
After almost a decade, Howells is confident he would recover the coins. He said that though the hard drive's outer cover may be rusted and damaged, the platter inside might still be intact, he said. Howells believes that data recovery experts could rebuild the hard drive or read the data directly from its platter retrieves it.
Howells said the only way to gain access to the cryptocurrency wealth is through the hard drive he discarded about a decade ago. He now needs permission to search the landfill he suspects contains the hard drive. The said landfill is closed to the public, and unauthorized access is a criminal offense.
Howells has promised to donate 25% of the Bitcoin or about $70 million to the city's Covid Relief Fund if he can dig out the hard drive. He has also pledged to fund the excavation with the support of a hedge fund he did not name.
However, the Newport City Council has so far rejected all his requests to dig through the dumpsite. And, it does not seem like the city officials are about to change their minds soon.
Howells said that as far as he is aware, the council has already turned down the request. Newport City Council did not even hear his plan of action or give him a chance to present his mitigation measures to the concerns about the environment, the IT engineer added.
The council's spokesman told the media that the council had been contacted several times regarding the possibility of retrieving computer hardware suspected of containing Bitcoin. The first of these phone calls came only months after Howells realized he had misplaced the hard drive.
The spokesman added that the council has repeatedly informed Howells that excavation is an option under its licensing permit. Besides, the action would have a significant environmental impact on the area surrounding the dumpsite, the official added.
He said that the cost of digging the landfill, storing, and treating the garbage would spiral into millions of pounds. Besides, there is no guarantee that a search team will unearth the hard drive or find it in proper working order.
It is easy to understand what inspires Howells to salvage the computer hardware. Bitcoin prices have been on a steady rally and recently shot up to an all-time high of $41,973.
Meanwhile, the New York Times announced on Tuesday, January 12, that a San Francisco programmer has lost access to 7,002 Bitcoin worth about $250 million currently because he forgot the password to a hard drive containing the security key to his cryptocurrency wallet.
Stefan Thomas, a German-born U.S. national living in California, was gifted the coins in 2011 for making an animated video about the world's first cryptocurrency. He lost the password to his IronKey, the encrypted hard drive containing the security key to his wallet, the same year.
The programmer has tried eight variations of the password so far with no success. The programmer's frustrations are now evident as he has only two more attempts before IronKey seizes the drive and encrypts the contents therein forever.
Unfortunately, the Bitcoin platform cannot help. The network does not store passwords; instead, it gives Bitcoin holders a set of keys to their wallets that only the users can access. Stefan said he has tried several strategies to remember the password, including lying in bed and trying to recall it. None of the programmer's tricks have worked.
Stefan said he is losing hope fast, adding that he has stored the encrypted drive safely, hoping that cryptographers will soon come up with a solution to his dilemma.
The decentralized nature of the Bitcoin network is biting Stefan in a place it should not. Because a single entity does not control the platform; instead, a node or network of computers, each transaction can only happen if sanctioned by a private key.
The key is akin to a digital signature that carries the mathematical proof confirming that the wallet's owner has authorized the transaction. Until Stefan can crack the code and Howells succeed in convincing the Newport City Council to let him undertake his venture, the two remain too close yet too far from joining the ranks of crypto millionaires.
A British man is making frantic attempts to get a local authority in South Wales to let him dig up a garbage dump to retrieve a hard drive that contains the key to his crypto wallet with 7,500 Bitcoin. While the Briton struggles, another German-born programmer has misplaced the password to an encrypted hard drive and is going through a similar dilemma.