(Newser)
– The 7,500 bitcoins that James Howells had on an old hard drive were worth about $ 9 million when he realized he had thrown the drive in the trash in the summer of 2013. It was pretty bad, but virtual currency is now worth about $ 273 million. , CNN reports. “We had two identical hard drives and threw away the wrong one,” Howells said. “Now I have to laugh about it.” He wants to dig up part of a landfill to find the hard drive and 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, more than $ 70 million. The city could split its share among the population, which Howells said would reach more than $ 200 per person, “I should find and recover bitcoin.” A hedge fund supports his search, he said, according to guardian, so Newport would cost nothing. The hedge fund would take 50% of the prize, and Howells would keep 25%.
Howells, a computer engineer, said he hoped the hard drive would not be damaged to the point where bitcoins would not be accessible. “The outside case could be rusty,” he said. “But the inner disk, where the data is stored – should be very likely to continue to work.” But a city spokeswoman seemed tired of the subject. “Newport City Council has been contacted several times since 2014 about the possibility of recovering a piece of IT hardware that is said to contain bitcoin,” she said. The cost of the excavation “could reach millions of pounds – without any guarantee that it will be found or that it will still be in working order.” The licensing permit does not allow excavations, she said, and there would also be a cost Howells was so knowledgeable, she said, “So I was clear that we can’t assist him in this.” (Read more bitcoin stories.)