A British IT technician remembered that he had unintentionally thrown away a hard disc worth $8.2 million in bitcoins.
The owner of the computer drive identifies as James Howells, age 28. He acquired 7,500 bitcoins in 2009, when, by that time, the value of the online currency was still worthless.
As time goes by, the value has dramatically taken off. On Tuesday, the value of a single bitcoin hit $1,000 for the first time in history. In
To cut a long story short, Howell stored the computer hard drive in a drawer for years before throwing it out earlier this year. Upon realizing that the hard drive he threw away may make him a fortune, he became concerned.
The landfill where the computer hard drive tips theoretically are located in his home city of Newport in Wales. The BBC television reported that he is now trying to actually make a move to search for a massive landfill.
According to Howell, when he arrived at the landfill and was led to the spot by the manager. He thought the search was impossible. A football field-sized dump gives him an incredible chance. It’s also three to five feet deep, he said the manager agreed.
Heavy excavation equipment and dogs are commonly used in large-scale landfill searches. Notably, evidence-gathering cops, said he is short on finances and is worried if he will be able to pay for the search.
He believes that his unending money gets thrown out in the garbage between June and August. He also checked all of his backup files but couldn’t find anything, losing hope in ever finding anything.
According to the BBC, Howell said he forgot about his bitcoin stockpile because he was busy raising a family and preoccupied by moving.
