Man Plans to Buy Landfill in Quest for $800 Million in Bitcoin

James Howells, a resident of Newport, Wales, is considering purchasing an entire landfill site in a last-ditch effort to recover a hard drive he accidentally discarded in 2013, CNN reports.

The hard drive, buried deep beneath layers of garbage at the Docksway Landfill, is believed to contain the private keys to about $800 million worth of Bitcoin.

“Am considering purchasing a landfill site. Funding secured,” Howells wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday, confirming reports in the UK media earlier this week.

He did not disclose the source of the funding.

For years, Howells has been battling Newport City Council in an attempt to gain access to the Docksway Landfill, located about 12 miles northeast of Cardiff. He has explored numerous avenues, including offering the council over $70 million in 2021 for permission to excavate the site.

However, his efforts have consistently been thwarted. In January, a British High Court judge dismissed his case, preventing him from forcing the council to allow a search of the landfill. Judge Andrew Keyser’s judgment highlighted the importance of the “private key” stored on the hard drive, a crucial piece of data required to access the Bitcoin. Without it, Howells remains locked out of his digital fortune.

Howells accidentally threw away the hard drive in August 2013 during a house clear-out, mistakenly believing it was a blank drive. As the value of Bitcoin surged, he realized his mistake and the potential fortune he had unwittingly discarded. The value of the Bitcoin associated with the lost private keys has since skyrocketed from around $9 million to nearly $800 million.

Every Bitcoin transaction requires a private key, a secret piece of data within each individual Bitcoin wallet that mathematically proves the transaction originates from that wallet. Howells’ lost hard drive contains a record of this crucial key.

Newport City Council, which is planning to close the landfill site sometime in the 2025/26 financial year, has consistently denied Howells’ requests to search the landfill, citing environmental concerns, logistical challenges, and the potential costs involved.