When bitcoin was an unknown word to most, back in 2009, a systems engineer from Wales mined cryptocurrency as a hobby, simply as a way to explore new technologies.
A few years passed and James Howells, a resident of Newport, in South Wales, forgot the subject and the hard drive of the notebook in which he had mined and obtained 7,500 bitcoins ended up in the trash in the middle of an office cleaning.
Today, as for nine years, he searches the local landfill for the remains of the hardware that has a millionaire treasure inside: at the current price, it is worth more than 350 million dollars. As long as I can recover the information.
Even Howells quit his job to search 24/7.
But he has a problem, for a few months the city of Newport has not allowed him to look further because the removal of the landfill is considered an environmental crime.
The Howells story has been published in some media over the years and very attractively recreated by The New Yorker this week.
There, the engineer tells how he got started in the crypto world when he downloaded free software to lend the processing capabilities of his computer to help the Bitcoin system create a permanent record of the network’s transactions and, in return, the program him would allow you to keep some money.
A private key, a unique string of sixty-four numbers and letters, granted him exclusive access to the bitcoins he obtained. In a few hours, he configured the notebook he used for games to turn it into a “bitcoin extractor.”
For a few weeks, he mined at night, from time to time. But mining required a lot of processing power, which caused the notebook to overheat.
“It wasn’t worth it, the coins had no value at the time and there was no reason to think they ever would. It was mining for fun, ”Howells told The New Yorker.
Plus, the electricity needed to keep the computer running had cost him more than he realized he was going to earn.
The bitcoins, in the trash
Six months later, a glass of lemonade destroyed his laptop, for which he transferred some of the contents of the hard drive to an iMac, but did not include the folder called “bitcoin.” Then he removed the hard drive and put it in a drawer.
In 2013, when you cleaned your home office, you threw it away along with other old devices. When he found out, the next day, it was late.
The only good news for the Welshman is that the Newport landfill does not fill randomly: computers and other electronic waste go to special places, separate from household waste. Likewise, that surface is huge, bigger than several football fields.
The problem is that even though you know where the hard drive might be, since last year you need – and can’t get – a new permit from the city. He even offered the municipality 25 percent of the sale of bitcoin, but the authorities have not accepted.