- A British man mistakenly tossed away a flash drive which contained the passwords to his Bitcoin fortune
- Now, he is unable to find the flashed drive but he believes it is buried somewhere underneath a dumpsite in
- He has offered to buy the dumpsite where he believes the flash drive was trashed but there are no guarantees he could find it
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A Bitcoin miner mistakenly tossed away a crucial flash drive which contained the pass keys he would need to access his crypto fortune.
The man, James Howells had thrown away the flash drive in 2013, thinking it had no data in it.
The man said he would buy the dumpsite to retrieve the flash drive. Photo credit: Shutterstock/CNN and Getty Images/ IMAGINESTOCK/SOPA Images.Source: UGC
Before he found out that he trashed the wrong flash driver, it was already taken away and he believes it was thrown at a dumpsite in Wales.
According to the story, at the time the flash drive was thrown away in 2013, the Bitcoin in it was worth $9 million.
However, at the moment, it is worth almost $800 million due to the skyrocketing price of Bitcoin in recent years.
Howell request to dig dumpsite is declined
Howells is desirous of digging up the dumpsite but the Newport City Council in charge of the dumpsite would not allow him.
He told CNN:
“I offered to donate 25% or £52.5 million ($71.7 million) to the city of Newport in order to distribute to all local residents who live in Newport should I find and recover the bitcoins. This would work out to approx £175 ($239) per person for the entire city (316k population). Unfortunately they refused the offer and won’t even have a face to face discussion with me on the matter.”
Howels has also approached a court, asking he be allowed to dig into the landfill in search of the flash drive. The court declined his request.
Now, Howells said he would like to buy the entire landfill site to enable him to dig it up in a bid to recover the flash drive and access his Bitcoin passwords.
He said in a post he made on X:
“Am considering purchasing a landfill site. Funding secured.”
Without knowing the private key, Howells’ Bitcoin would be lost forever as the keys remain the only way to prove they are his.
See his post below:
Reactions as man plans to buy a landfill
@jamesselby said:
“Have you considered that someone from the landfill or council might have already taken the computer?”
@notlorayung said:
“Hey James, they actually talked about you on American news the other day.”
@MasarykCo said:
“I hope you find it buddy. Do what your heart tells you and you’ll never regret it.”
Bitcoin miners smile to the bank
In a related story reported by TheTalk.NG, for the first time, Bitcoin, the most expensive cryptocurrency rose to surpass $80,000.
The cryptocurrency earlier surged to $75,000 after Donald Trump won the US presidential election.
The market also caused the second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum’s value to rise 4.64 per cent to $3,220.
Source: TheTalk.NG
