A Welsh landfill dump where 8,000 Bitcoins are thought to be buried will be repurposed, at least partly, into a solar farm. According to BBC News, the local council will close the landfill in the 2025-26 financial year, and then it will be capped. Planning permission has been secured to develop a solar farm at the capped site. However, the man who lost the massive Bitcoin haul on a discarded portable HDD today said he was surprised by the council's plans and has proposed a buyout of the site 'as is.'
We last reported in January on the tale of this buried digital treasure trove worth over $780 million at today's exchange rate. We thought we might have read the last chapter of this sad tale, as a high court ruling appeared to dash former crypto miner James Howells' last hopes of getting his BTC HDD back (or any financial compensation).
However, we now have an epilogue where the land above the buried BTC becomes a solar farm. Rather poetically, the new solar farm will reclaim some of the energy frittered away by crypto mining. This seems to be an interactive novel, though, as an alternative ending to the saga was provided today, with Howells' proposal to purchase the landfill site, which is hoping to dig up the old HDD and recover its digital treasure.
Howells expressed his surprise at the imminent landfill closure plans. "If Newport city council would be willing, I would potentially be interested in purchasing the landfill site 'as is,'" said the lost BTC HDD's original owner, optimistically. He said he had already spoken to his investment partners about a buyout: "It is something that is very much on the table."
Previous reports indicated that Howells and his consortium were willing to spend about $13 million on a site excavation lasting up to 36 months to recover the drive. We would expect a site purchase figure to be even higher. A buyout today would also save the council the expense of capping the site, where multiple layers of aggregates, barriers, and pipework are used to cover the enormous plot of waste safely.
The BBC report says Newport Council secured planning permission for the solar farm on part of the land last August. The harvested solar energy is hoped to power the council's electric bin lorries (or refuse trucks, dustcarts, RCVs, or whatever else you might call them). Newport already has seven electric lorries in its fleet and hopes to phase out diesel vehicles over the coming years. The nearby household recycling center will remain operational.
Keeping a Bitcoin wallet on a portable HDD in a desk drawer might not be the worst idea if not for any calamitous mishap. However, trusting your crypto with other people, businesses, or organizations can be hazardous. Over the relatively short history of cryptocurrencies, coin holders have lost huge fortunes through hacks and bankruptcies of prominent exchanges, channels, and platforms like the Ronin Network, the Binance BNB Bridge, FTX, and the infamous Mt. Gox.
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Mark Tyson
News Editor
Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
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28 CommentsComment from the forums
Sippincider Go for it.
Strong gut feeling this will be a heartbreaking case where he’ll put rest of his life and savings into this and never find it. But if he’s that determined go right ahead.
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gg83 The drive is probably toast at this point. Water, oil, methane, bacteria, fungus, and pill bugs, for good measure, probably are eating the platers. What if the drive never made it to the landfill in the first place???
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Eximo How would they safely excavate and not destroy the drive?
Generally heavy equipment drives on top of the landfill, no guarantee the drive wasn't crushed in the garbage truck, by a bull dozer, etc.
The better question is who is going to monitor the site after they start tearing it apart. Landfills aren't as simple as they appear on the surface and putting it back together to be safe is going to cost millions on its own.
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Jabberwocky79 Here's a question - I've never mined Bitcoin and never will, so I genuinely don't know... is it data that can be backed up on multiple drives like anything else, or no? I can't imagine trusting millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin to the integrity of a single hard drive of any design.
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jg.millirem What a sad life this guy has, a slave to lost bits whose value was created with extreme energy waste to begin with.
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stonecarver gg83 said:
What if the drive never made it to the landfill in the first place???I've had that thought burning in the back of my mind as well. He's going by the word of his girlfriend that she followed his request to take it to the dump.
Even if she followed his request to get rid of the bag out of the house during the move she could have inadvertently did a half job and threw in in the back seat of her car.
Forgot about it for a few months, the drive could have slipped under her seat and she 100% forgot about it. There could be some lucky dude in the future cleaning out a clunker used car and Gold.
Hey it could have happen this way.:rofl:
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gg83 stonecarver said:
I've had that thought burning in the back of my mind as well. He's going by the word of his girlfriend that she followed his request to take it to the dump.Even if she followed his request to get rid of the bag out of the house during the move she could have inadvertently did a half job and threw in in the back seat of her car.
Forgot about it for a few months, the drive could have slipped under her seat and she 100% forgot about it. There could be some lucky dude in the future cleaning out a clunker used card and Gold.
Hey it could have happen this way.:rofl:
Imagine finding an hdd under the seat of a used car with 8,000 bitcoin
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JamesJones44 Big gamble that the drive is both there and not damaged beyond repair already (crushed by the truck compactor for example).
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Justin Goldberg JamesJones44 said:
Big gamble that the drive is both there and not damaged beyond repair already (crushed by the truck compactor for example).I think they are trying to take over the landfill to take his Bit coin.
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Justin Goldberg jg.millirem said:
What a sad life this guy has, a slave to lost bits whose value was created with extreme energy waste to begin with.Since your fiat and gold is worthless and was created with zero energy, go ahead and give me yours.
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