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(Journalist)
– The 7,500 bitcoins James Howells had on an old hard drive was worth around $ 9 million when he realized he had thrown the drive in the trash in the summer of 2013. It was bad enough, but virtual currency is now worth around $ 273 million. , CNN Reports. “I had two identical hard drives, and I threw out the wrong one,” Howells said. “I have to laugh about it now.” He wants to dig up part of a landfill to find the hard drive, and he thinks he has a plan to make sure everyone wins. Howells would pay the government in Newport, Wales a quarter of the treasury’s value, over $ 70 million. The city could split its share of the population, which Howells said would amount to over $ 200 per person, “should I find and get the bitcoins.” A hedge fund supports his research, he said, Guardian, so it wouldn’t cost Newport anything. The hedge fund would take 50% of the price and Howells would keep 25%.
Howells, a computer engineer, said he hoped the hard drive had not deteriorated to the point that bitcoins would not be accessible. “The outer case may be rusty,” he says. “But the internal drive, where the data is stored – there should be a good chance it still works.” But a city spokeswoman seemed tired of the topic. “Newport City Council has been contacted several times since 2014 regarding the possibility of recovering a piece of computer hardware believed to contain bitcoins,” she said. The cost of the search “could run into millions of pounds – with no guarantee of finding it or still being in working order.” The license permit does not allow a dig, she said, and there would also be an environmental cost to the project. Howells was so informed, she said. “So we made it clear that we could not help him in this matter.” (Read more stories about Bitcoin.)
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