2022-09-21
Can he get back his approx. 150 million US dollars? These are stories that only life itself can write. A man from the UK threw away his hard drive with 7,500 Bitcoins on it in 2013. James Howells, however, now wants to regain possession of his Bitcoins with an interesting plan. For this, he is asking his municipality for unrestricted access to the city's landfill. His plan states that he wants to search the landfill with two ultra-modern robotic dogs to retrieve the hard drive with the Bitcoins on it that was disposed of many years ago, should it still be on site. Due to the considerable amount of Bitcoins said to be on the hard drive, he has even found two venture capitalists to back him in this venture with about $11 million. Converted, the Bitcoins on the hard drive are said to be worth around 150 million US dollars.
The municipality, meanwhile, is denying James Howells access to the landfill and thus to his presumably very valuable hard drive. In fact, the municipality argues that Howells' plan poses a significant ecological risk and therefore no permit can be issued for the recovery of the hard drive, should it still be in the landfill at all. After all, one must consider the fact that it would have been at the landfill for almost 9 years by now. So it could be that it has long since been recycled and the 7,500 Bitcoins have thus disappeared for all eternity. This would of course be a very big loss for Howells.
But the Brit won't let it get him down and even plans to take legal action to get the hard drive, should it still be on site. Howells' stubborn measures are understandable, as there is a large Bitcoin fortune on the storage disk. With this sum, the Brit would indeed be financially secure. In order to find his hard drive in the junkyard, he now wants to buy two robot dogs "Spot" from Boston Dynamics. These are to take up the search for him. In June 2020, one of these robot dogs was offered for 74,500 US dollars. The robot dogs are to fulfill two functions in the search. Thus, once the concern of Howells would be to locate the hard drive, of course, but the robots are also to serve as security cameras at the same time to ensure the safety factor at the landfill during the search operation.
Meanwhile, the mechanical dogs are also to work in turns. This is because while one of them is searching, the other can conveniently charge its battery. The information that the Briton has already given the two dogs names could now be classified in the bizarre category. The two robots are to be named Satoshi and Hal. Whether these two devices would have at all chances of success with a potential employment on the garbage dump, is in des not clear. As mentioned, the hard drive containing the 7,500 Bitcoins would have been at the landfill for just under 9 years. This is a long time. The chances that the hard drive is no longer there or is unrepairable defective due to weather as well as crash are indeed not small.
In fact, there are many stories about people who invested in bitcoin in the early days of the cryptocurrency. Often, these were purely fun speculations, as not many investors believed in the mega-hype around Bitcoin and Co. at the beginning. For this reason, there was also some speculation with play money and no one could really guess what potential Bitcoin would have one day. Many investors from the early days saved their Bitcoins on hard drives and then put them somewhere. Over time, the price of Bitcoin has continued to rise and those people who invested in the cryptocurrency early on were able to become millionaires without having to actively do anything for it, given the right amount of investment. However, there have been many investors who have misplaced their hard drives, thrown them away, or forgotten access passwords to online accounts, leaving them without access to their potential riches. And so, around the world, there are various millionaires who have become rich through bitcoin, but cannot access this wealth. A more than annoying situation for these people, as is also evident in the case of James Howells.
That is the question of all questions, and at least for James Howells, it is life-changing. If he manages to get an access permit to the landfill and then is able to start his planned search operation, then it is quite possible that the two robot dogs will be able to locate the hard drive. But the chance of that is rather very small. Presumably, the hard drive has not been on site for a long time, and the municipality is also unlikely to change its mind and continue to argue from the perspective of the ecological issue. Even legal action would probably take a long time, but will James Howells keep trying? Absolutely, because there are about 150 million reasons to try everything to get back to the 7,500 Bitcoins from back then and become a multi-millionaire.
The potential value of Bitcoin was underestimated for a long time Stories like that of the Briton James Howells show with all clarity how much Bitcoin was underestimated for many years. Of course, cryptocurrencies are also subject to fluctuations, as currently seen by the Corona pandemic and the Russian war in Ukraine, but generally cryptocurrencies are considered very reliable. Numerous financial experts predict Bitcoin's price to rise significantly again in the remaining months of 2022, giving investors a nice end to the year. In fact, it is especially the month of December that is positively mentioned here and could hold many a Christmas present for Bitcoin holders if the predictions for the month come true even in the slightest as they have been made.
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