It is not guaranteed that starting the dump search will find the hard drive and that it will work
Photo: NICOLAS TUCAT / Getty Images
A man who threw away a hard drive containing ones $ 300 million in Bitcoin now offers share your wealth with whoever helps you search in a landfill in Wales.
James Howells, computer expert from 35 years old and originally from Newport, has claimed that he involuntarily pulled 7, 500 units of the cryptocurrency in 2013, reported UNILAD.
Back then, the value of Bitcoin was not as high as it is now, since it has since skyrocketed to more than $ 200 million.
Howells has spent the past eight years asking Newport City Council for permission to search the dump for the missing hard drive . He has also made several offers to share a portion of the cash with the local authority, if they manage to recover the long lost hard drive.
According to Howells, he has been able to obtain the support from a hedge fund that could finance his excavation plans. However, so far he has not been able to obtain permission from the city council.
“I have an international hedge fund that is willing to contribute between 2.5 and 3.5 million pounds sterling to carry out a professional search operation at the landfill.
“Basically, it’s about getting the job done right and in accordance with all environmental standards because at end of the day, although that takes a lot of work and money, it is worth it. I have to give a large percentage to investors, which I accept. The risk / reward ratio is worth it. I accept that because all the risk is in them, in any case, there is hardly any risk with the Newport City Council.
As part of the project plan, we plan to put a large sum of money in a security deposit that the city council will be able to access if we are wrong. All that would be written in the contract to cover the local authority, so they will not lose anything at any time “, he told Wales Online.
A spokesman for the Newport City Council communicated that the council “had made it clear that they could not help him in this matter” , stating that the cost of digging up the landfill, storing and treating the waste could run into the millions of dollars, with no guarantee of finding the hard drive or that it is still working.
The council has also told Mr. Howells on several occasions that excavation is not possible under the license permit and that the excavation itself would have a major environmental impact on the surrounding area. Even if they did agree, there is the question of who would bear the cost if the hard drive was not found or damaged to such an extent that the data could not be recovered.
Still to see if these reasons will deter Howells from his Bitcoin scavenger hunt.
We recommend you
