About 10 years ago, James Howells accidentally threw away a hard drive during a cleanup. He had forgotten that it contained his Bitcoins.
Now that the value of his Bitcoins is approximately 18 million 40 thousand US dollars, he intends to spend millions on excavating the landfill in Newport, UK, in an effort to find the missing hard drive.
Havilz has stated that if he finds the hard drive, he will donate 10 percent of his profits to turn the city into a cryptocurrency hub.
However, local authorities have already stated that excavating this landfill poses an environmental hazard.
Havilz is a computer engineer and he accidentally threw away his hard drive after mining 8,000 bitcoins during the early development stages of the coin in 2013.
The value of bitcoin fluctuates greatly. For example, in January 2021, Havilz's bitcoins were worth approximately 250 million dollars, but this year there has been a significant decline.
The landfill's administrator, Newport City Council, has continuously denied access to the site for excavation due to environmental and accessibility reasons.
Recovering the hard drive will require extensive manual excavation to remove thousands of tons of compacted debris that has accumulated on the site for decades.
