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– The 7,500 bitcoins James Howells had on an old hard drive were worth about $ 9 million when he realized he’d thrown the drive in the trash in the summer of 2013. That was bad enough, but the virtual currency is now worth about $ 273 million, CNN reports. “I had two identical hard drives, and I threw out the wrong one,” Howells said. “I have to laugh about it now.” He wants to dig up part of a landfill to find the hard drive, and he thinks he has a plan to make sure everyone wins. Howells would pay the government of Newport, Wales, a quarter of the value of the treasure, over $ 70 million. The city could distribute its share of the population, which Howells said would be more than $ 200 per person, “if I found the bitcoins and got it back.” A hedge fund supports his quest, he said, according to the Guardian, so it wouldn’t cost Newport. The hedge fund would receive 50% of the price and Howells 25%.
Howells, a computer engineer, said he hoped the hard drive hadn’t deteriorated to the point where the bitcoins wouldn’t be accessible. “The outside of the case may be corroded,” he said. “But the internal drive, where the data is stored, should have a good chance it’s still working.” But a city spokeswoman sounded tired of the subject. “The Newport City Council has been approached a number of times since 2014 about the possibility of retrieving a piece of IT hardware that is said to contain bitcoins,” she said. The cost of the excavation “could be in the millions of pounds – with no assurance that it will be found or that it is still in good working order.” The permit permit does not allow excavation, she said, and there would also be an environmental cost to the project. Howells is so informed, she said. “So we have made it clear that we cannot help him on this matter.” (Read more bitcoin stories.)