It's like looking for a very expensive needle in a very smelly haystack: Hard drive with £5m in Bitcoins is thrown into landfill site by accident

  • James Howells, from South Wales, 'generated' the Bitcoins in 2009 on his laptop
  • At the time the 7,500 coins he made were almost completely worthless
  • He later took the hard-drive out of the laptop and kept it in a drawer
  • But he threw it out in 2012 and only remembered the Bitcoins last week
  • Each one is now worth £613 - or £4,597,000 in total

By Jaya Narain

PUBLISHED: 14:58 EST, 27 November 2013 | UPDATED: 20:59 EST, 28 November 2013


When James Howells spilt lemonade on his laptop, he decided it was not worth keeping.

But he is now ruing his decision – after he realised it had £5million worth of virtual currency stored on  the hard drive. 

The stash that could make him a millionaire is now buried under four feet of rubbish and mud in a landfill site.

James Howells, an IT worker from South Wales, pictured, had used his laptop to 'mine' 7,500 units of the digital Bitcoin currency in 2009.

James Howells, an IT worker from South Wales, pictured, had used his laptop to 'mine' 7,500 units of digital Bitcoin currency in 2009. At the time the coins - which are units of data stored in 'wallets' on a computer - were practically worthless. But as more and more people heard about the new currency, its value has soared

The 28-year-old IT worker had accumulated 7,500 units of  ‘bitcoin’ soon after it was launched in 2009.

 

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Back then his stash of ‘coins’ – which are units of data stored on his computer – was worth around £20 but their value has soared after the currency took off among online traders.

The price of a single bitcoin reached  £664 yesterday, meaning Mr Howells’ haul is worth an incredible £5million.

Windfall: Bitcoins could be generated for next to nothing when they were first introduced in 2009, but are now worth more than £600 each

Windfall: Bitcoins could be generated for next to nothing when they were first introduced in 2009, but are now worth more than £600 each

Buried treasure: Mr Howells' valuable hard drive is estimated to be under four feet of rubbish kept on a landfill site (file picture)

Buried treasure: Mr Howells' valuable hard drive is estimated to be under four feet of rubbish kept on a landfill site (file picture)

Last week, it dawned on  him how valuable his collection had become and he went looking for the hard drive.

But when he got to the landfill site in Newport, South Wales, workers broke the bad news that it could be anywhere beneath an area of rubbish the size of a football pitch.

BITCOINS: THE VIRTUAL CURRENCY

Bitcoin

Launched in 2009, Bitcoins can be exchanged for goods online and used as virtual tokens rather than physical coins or notes.

As with any currency, their value is determined by how much people are willing to exchange them for. In 2011, one bitcoin was worth £1.50 while today it is worth £664.

Customers can buy bitcoins  from online exchanges.

They are growing more popular among the public and investors but have yet to be accepted by websites of major retailers such as Amazon.

Bitcoins are stored in a ‘wallet’ on the hard drive of a computer and can be accessed  using a ‘private key’.

Because they can be bought anonymously, critics say they are used for all sorts of criminal acts such as money laundering.

He told the Guardian: ‘You know when you put something in the bin, and in your head, say to yourself “That’s a bad idea”? I really did have that.’  

Bitcoins – which were introduced by a mysterious programmer known as Satoshi Nakamoto –  exist only as units of digital data and are not backed by a central bank.

They can be bought, sold and even ‘mined’, which means they are created by enthusiasts who use powerful computers to solve complex mathematical problems.

Mr Howells generated his stash in early 2009, when the currency was known only in tech circles, by running a programme on his laptop for a week.

But he stopped when his girlfriend complained the laptop was getting too noisy.

In 2010, the Dell XPS N1710 broke after he spilt lemonade on it, so he dismantled the computer  for parts, kept the drive in a desk drawer and later binned it.

His hoard can only be accessed using a ‘private key’, or digital code. The problem is, the only copy is on his buried hard drive.

Mr Howells said he does not mind if hopefuls try digging for the device.

‘If they were to offer me a share, fair enough. There’s a pot of gold there for someone It’s my mistake throwing the hard drive out, at the end of the day.’

But even if somebody does find it, they won’t be able to get their hands on the cash without his help because the code is encrypted.

A Newport Council spokesman said any treasure hunters turning up at the tip would be turned away.

She added: ‘Obviously, if it was easily retrieved, we’d return it.’

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This time next year I'll be a millionaire.............

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The guy is lying. Last year the 7500 bitcoins would have been worth somewhere between £300,000 and £1.5million. No way a geek would not have known the value. No way an IT worker would have thrown away his bitcoin 'wallet' or the hard drive without backing it up multiple times.

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5million is a week? Not a bad week. I work at the refuse site if I find it I'm keeping it :) it's all recoverable

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You won't be able to access the bitcoins without his input.

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What kind of IT worker throws a drive out without completely wiping it with a low level format and then smashing it with a hammer? In IT, security is first before everything. When I throw a drive out I wipe it, smash the spindles to break the platters, with a hammer, and damage the electronics. If that sounds over the top, believe me, it isnt. Also regarding bitcoin. It isnt actually worth much since there are no comodities with intrinsic value that you can buy with bitcoin. Also you cannot simply swap ££££ for bitcoin, you basically auction them off and wait months until some mug says they'll buy them, but cash buyers are very rare indeed. The US Senate and FBI do not see it as a threat to the dollar as bitcoin is simply a variation of the economic phenomenon known as Tulip Mania

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I don't know of any geek that would throw out a hard drive in the first place with out at least checking it out first i don't even throw mine out even tho they are out dated never know when or if i may need one

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A lot of media hype behind bitcoin, seems someone wants to create a demand for this ponzi scheme. Estimated 500,000 user world wide hardly the reason for making the news ..

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It isnt a ponzi scheme but I agree it is a laughably dozy person that would actually sink hard currency into this tulip mania bubble

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the very reason bit coins are a bad idea , at least a bank won't lose your money , they may steal it but highly unlikely . Once its gone its gone

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It wasn't 'thrown away by accident', it was thrown away deliberately. Now, when he knows how valuable it might have been he is desperate to retrieve it. Some hope !

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Unfortunately we are now living in the silly IT era where one silly non-sense from IT people can cost someone dearly.

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Why would you throw away a perfectly good hard drive? Even if it was of a small capacity, seems pretty ridiculous.

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pathetic, give it up as a bad job.

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why would the money be stored on your hard drive not on the bitcoin server user account makes no sense

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Really, you wouldn't want complete control over your money without having to worry about some hacker ripping you off?

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