James Howells, a 39-year-old British man, has initiated a lawsuit against the Newport Council in Wales in an attempt to recover a hard drive containing 8,000 bitcoins that he inadvertently threw away in 2013, as reported by WalesOnline. The hard drive, which held a bitcoin stash he had mined in 2009, was initially worth around $1 million but is now estimated to be worth approximately $527 million.
Over the past decade, Howells has made numerous requests to the council, which owns the landfill where the hard drive was disposed of, to retrieve the lost device, but claims he has been largely disregarded. He is now seeking damages of 495 million pounds, equivalent to $646 million, representing the peak value of 8,000 bitcoins reached earlier this year.
The case is scheduled to be heard in December, but Howells aims to use the lawsuit as leverage to persuade the council to agree to an excavation of the site, thereby avoiding a prolonged legal battle. To facilitate the excavation, Howells has assembled a team, including the council's former head of landfill, who claims to be familiar with the specific area where the hard drive is currently located.
The proposed excavation would take between 18 and 36 months to complete, followed by an additional year of remediation work, which the council has rejected due to environmental concerns. Howells has offered to allocate 10% of the bitcoin's value to the council, which would be approximately 41 million pounds based on the current rate, but could potentially be worth hundreds of millions in the future.