Man who binned 7,500 Bitcoin drive now wants to buy entire landfill to dig it up
- Reference: 1739293327
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/02/11/bitcoin_drive_landfill/
- Source link:
Howells inadvertently [1]discarded a hard drive in 2013 containing what he claimed was 7,500 Bitcoins (though some reports suggest it may have been 8,000), and has spent the past 12 years [2]trying to convince Newport City Council to grant him access to the landfill to search for the lost device.
He [3]claimed that, if given permission to dig, he'd share 10 percent of the Bitcoin's value with the Council and argued that, had they cooperated in 2013, Newport could have become "the next Dubai." Assuming, of course, the hard drive still works.
[4]
So far, no luck. Howells' latest setback came early last month when a UK court [5]dismissed his lawsuit against the Council. The judge ruled that the claim had no reasonable grounds and no realistic prospect of success at trial, effectively putting an end to the case.
[6]
[7]
In the intervening time, the Newport City Council has [8]presented its budget proposal for 2025 and 2026, which includes plans to close and cap the dumping site where Howells believes his Bitcoin-stuffed hard drive is buried, effectively putting it permanently out of reach. His 7,500 Bitcoins are worth about £586 million ($728M) as of writing.
Howells expressed surprise that the Council planned to close the landfill, which has been [9]used for commercial waste since 2015 as the facility has neared capacity, [10]telling the BBC that he "would be potentially interested in purchasing" it so his excavation could commence.
[11]
"I have discussed this option recently with investment partners and it is very much on the table," Howells told the British broadcaster. He also [12]said on X that he had filed an appeal on the court's dismissal of his case.
The Council confirmed plans to close and cap the landfill to The Register , but declined to comment further on the matter.
There's no way the drive is still intact, right?
The landfill has a total capacity of approximately 1.4 million metric metric tons (tonnes) of waste, BBC reported. However, Howells claims he has pinpointed the hard drive's location to a specific area, estimated to contain about 100,000 tonnes of waste.
According to the garbage experts at Business Waste UK, even if the drive was intact, it's nigh impossible it'll ever be found.
Considering all the factors, it's highly unlikely he'll ever be able to find his hard drive in a landfill
"Around 13.1 million tonnes of waste go to UK landfills each year," the biz told The Register in an emailed statement. "With 540 sites across the country, this averages 57,592 tonnes per landfill. Assuming a hard drive weighs 700g - that's the equivalent weight of over 82 million hard drives, in just one year. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack."
Beyond that, continual waste compaction, heat from decomposing organic matter, methane and other landfill gasses, and toxic leachate seeping through the waste all combine to create a hostile environment for electronics.
"It's easy to see why Mr. Howells is so consumed by the desire to find his missing hard drive," Business Waste UK waste management expert Mark Hall said. "However, considering all the factors, it's highly unlikely he'll ever be able to find his hard drive in a landfill."
[13]Cryptocurrency policy under Trump: Lots of promises, few concrete plans
[14]Bitcoin's thirst for water is just as troubling as its energy appetite
[15]Bitcoin creator suspect says he is not Bitcoin creator suspect
[16]DARPA asking for ideas on automating money laundering detection
"Mr Howells may be better off spending his time and energy elsewhere, the ongoing legal battle will no doubt be costly," Hall added. He could have spent some of that energy buying Bitcoin in 2013, for example: Hall noted that Bitcoin was trading for as little as $100 early that year; Now the flagship crypto coin is hovering around the $100,000 mark.
"Had Mr Howells simply bought more Bitcoin when he realized the original hard drive was lost," Hall opined, "he could still be sitting on a fortune." ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2013/11/27/bitcoin_value_breaks_1000_barrier_in_frenzied_hypegasm/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/14/attack_of_the_cryptidiots/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/16/wales_bitcoin_landfill_lawsuit/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z6vWj9FJjItPH3TcefBoowAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/13/crypto_pastor_charged/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z6vWj9FJjItPH3TcefBoowAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z6vWj9FJjItPH3TcefBoowAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://democracy.newport.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=139&MId=8699&Ver=4&LLL=0
[9] https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/landfill-site-centre-bitcoin-saga-30958772
[10] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj3eg3n11gvo
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z6vWj9FJjItPH3TcefBoowAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://x.com/howelzy/status/1884250827420049571
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/30/cryptocurrency_policy_trump/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/30/bitcoin_mining_water_consumption/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/09/satoshi_nakamoto_suspect_hbo_bitcoin/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/28/darpa_auto_money_laundering_detection/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
As for his employer, well I know who it was....originally....Capita - LOL
A quick google image search for "lost+bitcoins+hard+drive+uk" will show him many times in his corporate fleece.
Some super-sleuthing there, kudos. And if he worked/works for Capita, that explains a great deal.
The real question
Isn't whether the hard drive works, but are the bits still on the platters? Scanning SQUID microscopy or Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) while expensive, could conceivably map the magnetism on the platters with sufficient resolution to recover any bits if they are still there.
Re: The real question
I have seen some news items where the rubbish goes through a high intensity magnetic field to remove the steel based cans and lids.
Although the hard disks are not made of steel, or the casing is non-ferrous, and will not have been attracted to the electro-magnet, surely its data has been wiped ?
Re: The real question
There is a very strong neodymium magnet naught but 2cm from the platters, at all times. They spin and spin with this magnet right there. It controls the read/write head positioning, and needs to be strong enough to stop the inertia of a "thing" in just a few milliseconds.
Take one apart sometime.
Having a "magnetic field" around a hard drive won't do anything to it, unless, *maybe*, you put a degausser in parallel with the platter, 1cm removed. Maybe the platter itself can conduct enough magnetism to make it work (but not likely).
I'm honestly more interested in the trucks that collect it, the compactors in those trucks that crush everything together, and the massive weight on top of it in the collection warehouse and then in the hump. Then we have tractors driving over it in the landfill -- the idea that this disk still exists in a viable unit is asinine. You'd have better luck brute-forcing the wallet key, and finding the key based on "what blockchain wallet *still* holds 7500 bitcoins?" If you find the latter maybe you only need a password, and not the wallet - but I'm not a BTC expert.
Re: The real question
Hopefully an AC electromagnet. That would thoroughly reset the bits, assuming the bin-juice hasn't already lifted the magnetic coating from the platters...
Re: The real question
I read somewhere it's a laptop hard drive. In which case the glass platter inside might be in a billion pieces.
Re: The real question
Especially if it has been driven over by one of those "landfill bulldozers/compactors" with the huge metal spikes/cleats on the huge metal wheels.
https://secretscotland.wordpress.com/2018/01/20/my-local-landfill-bulldozer/
Even if an older laptop drive with real metal platters, if one of those (spikey wheeled things) has ran over it, it is not likely to be recoverable.
Re: The real question
Scanning SQUID microscopy or Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) while expensive, could conceivably map the magnetism on the platters with sufficient resolution to recover any bits if they are still there.
Even if it did work, and "recovered" some bitcoin, he'd still have to prove to non-techies, with an extremely high level of assurance, that what had been done was genuine, honest and trustworthy, and that he hadn't just made it up.
Now I suspect that he couldn't just "make it up". And so I'll ask the dumb question. Would he have to recover every single bit of the data for the blockchain to be valid?
Re: The real question
If he ever found anything, the only proof he would need is if the Private Key to his BitCoin Wallet allows him to access it.
The Proof would be him moving the coins to another Wallet, which (assuming you knew his BitCoin address) would be evident from the BitCoin blockchain.
Re: The real question
No need to reconstruct the blockchain. That is already public. All he needs is the private key that gives him access to the wallet, multiple keys if there are multiple wallets. It's almost certainly an all or nothing thing. If there's only one wallet, he only needs 256 bits. Possibly 384 bits if it's base 64 encoded or 512 if it's stored in hex, but either way, a couple sectors could be it. To find those sectors though, you'd probably need the file table too.
Re: The real question
256 bits? Frankly, he would have a higher chance of gaining access to his wallet if he just started ploughing through the possible 2^256 permutations.
Either is as staggeringly unlikely as the other.
Unless he pulled a President Skroob and set his private key combination to 1-2-3-4-5, of course :)
Oh Dear, Oh Dear, Oh Dear
I have discussed this option recently with investment partners and it is very much on the table
What's the ballpark figure for removing and sorting through all that waste and where will that be done? That's one hell of a tenuous "investment" for almost certain failure.
"The crypto idiocy is strong with this one."
Re: Oh Dear, Oh Dear, Oh Dear
An actuarial approach could be taken: chance of finding the drive times chance of working times expectations of bitcoin value dropping.
Vs. search cost plus recovery.
Assuming values as claimed, I would expect investors would take those costs times significant multiplier as their cut (multiplier to account for the risks and costs) out first. Assuming costs of anything over £25m he's going to see very little.
Much like pay-outs with no-win no-fee lawyers.
Re: Oh Dear, Oh Dear, Oh Dear
And if he ever buys it, remember to subtract any charges for doing any excavation with zero environmental damage and making him clean it all up afterward. Make sure that money is put in an account that can only be used for that purpose before he takes possession. At that point, let him give it a try; it's not our problem if he wants to waste more of his life on an impossible dream, but we're not letting him break things while doing so.
Re: Oh Dear, Oh Dear, Oh Dear
Forget it. He is not going to get planning permission for that.
Given that the drive belongs to the council now then the price of the land and its landfill is surely going to have to take into account the millions of dollars of bitcoin that are there, isn't it? If I were on the council's selling-land-to-idiots committee then that would be my starting point, and it would start at a lot more than 10%.
There's a simple solution to all this.
Give the guy a shovel and tell him to start digging.
If nothing else it'll give everyone a good laugh to see an idiot in an advanced stage of denial covered in filth trying to dig his way to a hard disk that even if he finds it it'll be stinky and corroded beyond any recovery. He might even learn an important lesson?
Re: There's a simple solution to all this.
To be fair, that's what he asked for in the first place - the council didn't let him dig.
Lots of well-deserved japes here, I'm not disagreeing. But if you consider the people backing him might be putting in a hundred thousand or so, with a 0.1% chance of a 50% split on a £500 million return. People bet on much longer odds every time they play the lottery.
Re: There's a simple solution to all this.
Buying a landfill and excavating it, even in the cheapest, most destructive way, is going to cost more than that. Recovering data from a corroded hard drive itself is extremely expensive, because the average data recovery specialists don't see things in the condition this drive would be. Maybe he has found some people willing to make this bet, but if that's all he's raised, he will need more.
Re: There's a simple solution to all this.
> Buying a landfill and excavating it, even in the cheapest, most destructive way, is going to cost more than that
Not my area of expertise, but I’m happy to be corrected. You have some odd hobbies… :-)
Re: There's a simple solution to all this.
Not least, they line landfills so that the crud in them doesn't leak out (such as into ground water).
Excavation may cause that lining to be cut/broken (maybe more than just piling and crushing junk on top of it). Dragging things with the excavator (they'll stick together, you'll get more than just a shovel's worth), being unsure where the boundary is, or how big the objects on top of it are, how much will come up with one scoop - you'd have to approach it with the care of an archeological dig.
Then the likelihood of a flimsy hard drive surviving excavation with an excavator.. how are they justifying this dig to anyone? I don't get it.
Re: There's a simple solution to all this.
Given the potential environmental impact they'd need him (or the company he sets up) to either escrow or bond enough money to make it good, re-cap it and maintain it in accordance with relevant regs for, say, 25 years. I mean, I'm sure he wouldn't go bankrupt the minute that he realized it wasn't there and leave all that mess dug up, uncapped and unmonitored.....but just in case he gets really unlucky again, you know.
The man appears to be a complete berk.
He has already wasted a great deal of council money for them to deal with his court actions, and this is council tax payers money, which would be much better used for providing essential services to, you know, actual council tax payers - like mending potholes for a start!
Quite apart from the question of whether or not the data would turn out to be retrievable from the drive, has he any idea how big the pile of rubbish is that would need to be dug out, and the time and painstaking sifting through that would be necessary to have any chance of finding the drive to start with. It wouldn't have been that easy to find in the original bin lorry.
"any idea how big the pile of rubbish is that would need to be dug out"
Apparently a former worker at the tip reckons it would have been dumped in a particular area of the tip that was in operation at the time, an area containing "only" 15,000 tonnes of rubbish.
Assuming he ever gets the drive back it will probably just be in time for the made up fun bucks bubble to burst and his £500m will be worth £50.
Even if the HDD was found what are the chances that it would be readable after so much time buried in landfill?
HDD's platters are not completely sealed, the casing has a small hole for pressure equalisation and whilst there is obviously some sort of filter behind the hole I'd expect groundwater or other liquids present in the landfill to have found their way past that pressure hole and into the platters by now.
That's if it wasn't completely degaussed by the big electromagnet they use to pull out steel etc for recycling.
Twist In The Tale
The ex-girlfriend still has it. She's trying to work out how to obtain his passwords.
He's a trailblazer!
He did to bitcoin what everyone else should be doing. Full marks to him for being well ahead of the pack on that one ;-)
/mines the one with a copy of 'The dummies guide to backing up your data' in the pocket
82 million hard drives per year, for the whole UK
Which is relevant how? He's not talking about digging up the whole UK, or even the whole dump.
The argument against diffing up the dump seemed strong until they got to that. Then I start to wonder, if they thought they had an argument, why are they using numbers pulled out of their ass?
What an idiot
How does this man dress by himself in the morning?
Bitty Mcbit face
I hope the council and courts continue to laugh in his face at how ridiculous it is.
I'd love to know who is employer is because they're clearly happy to let him spend a large amount of time in courts, giving press interviews and spending every waking second obsessing over this.