James Howells Gives Up Search for Lost $950 Million Bitcoin Hard Drive After a Decade
NEWPORT, WALES — James Howells, the British IT worker who became an unlikely symbol of both the risks and rewards of cryptocurrency, has finally called off the search for the hard drive containing his personal fortune: a wallet file holding 8,000 Bitcoin, now worth nearly $950 million.
The story, which at times seemed straight out of a Hollywood script, has captivated the world for a decade. As of this week, Howells officially ended his campaign to recover the drive, which was accidentally discarded in 2013 and presumably lies buried in the vast Newport City landfill—a modern treasure lost in the muck and mire of digital and physical waste.
“It’s over,” Howells said in a press release Tuesday. “Ten years is long enough. I’ve accepted it: those Bitcoin are probably gone forever.”
But for many watching Mr. Howells’s journey, the story remains a cautionary tale about technological innovation, luck, and the very real consequences of a single moment’s inattention.
The Accidental Multimillionaire
Back in 2013, Bitcoin was still a relatively obscure digital experiment. Howells, an early adopter, mined 8,000 coins on his home computer in 2009 when the network was so small that even a basic laptop could reap digital gold. At that time, one Bitcoin was worth less than $1, and the entire haul seemed little more than an interesting tech hobby.
Fate turned with a moment of spring cleaning. Howells, then 28, tossed two similar-looking hard drives into the trash: one blank, the other containing his encrypted cryptocurrency wallet. Realizing his error days later, he rushed to the dump—but it was too late. The device, now the world’s priciest piece of e-waste, had been buried under thousands of tons of household garbage.
“Most of us have thrown away something valuable by mistake,” said Newport resident Sandra Lewis. “But this… it’s next level.”
The Search
With the Bitcoin price surging in the years that followed—first to thousands, then tens of thousands of dollars—Howells’s digital fortune grew. He made countless appeals to Newport City Council to allow an excavation, offering as much as 25% of the proceeds to the city and promising to fund the operation himself.
Council officials, wary of the environmental, legal, and practical problems, repeatedly denied requests. Digging up the landfill, they insisted, would risk “ecological disaster” and potentially expose workers to hazardous waste with no guarantee of success.
Undeterred, Howells proposed increasingly elaborate search plans, joining forces with engineers, data recovery experts, and even AI-powered scanning firms. “No one’s ever looked for a hard drive in a landfill with this level of tech,” he told the BBC in 2022. “But we have plans. We’re ready.”
But the logistical hurdles grew as the years passed. The landfill expanded. The hard drive, if intact at all, could be damaged beyond repair. “That environment is brutal on electronics,” said Dr. Fiona Graves, an environmental science professor at Cardiff University. “Moisture, pressure, chemicals. The odds were never great.”
Life After Bitcoin
The attention took its toll. “It’s difficult in a way no one can imagine,” Howells admitted in interviews. He faced online mockery, scammers, and, at times, backlash from Newport locals tired of the media circus. “We just wanted our rubbish picked up, not ‘Bitcoin tourists’ at the dumpsite,” said former city councilor Andy Evans.
Despite the personal stress and obsession, Howells tried to move on. He became a minor celebrity in the cryptocurrency world, consulting on digital security and occasionally warning others not to repeat his mistakes.
In recent years, world events only served to highlight the stakes. With Bitcoin’s price at around $68,000 per coin in 2024, Howells’s accidental loss is worth close to $950 million. Some analysts believe that, if cryptocurrency trends continue, his vanished hard drive could be worth as much as $8 billion by 2030.
“I won’t lie—it hurts,” Howells told The Guardian last month. “But I’ve done everything I can. Sometimes, you just have to let go.”
Symbol of a Digital Age
The “Newport Bitcoin” tale is now part of internet folklore, a symbol of the volatility, promise, and peril of new technologies. To some, Howells is a tragic hero, inadvertently locked out of a digital fortune by a twist of fate. To others, he is a reminder that with innovation often comes risk—and that with great power, or at least with great value, comes great responsibility.
“James’s story is a parable for our time,” said Tim Manners, a historian of technology at the University of Manchester. “We live in an era when an innocuous piece of plastic can hold more value than a Picasso painting—and yet it’s as fragile as anything humanity has ever made. His loss speaks to the strange and unpredictable shape of modern wealth.”
The End of the Quest
In the end, James Howells says he’s ready to move on. The past decade has been both a personal odyssey and a window into the wild, sometimes absurd world of crypto assets.
“Bitcoin’s value is ultimately set by its scarcity and security,” Howells said in his final statement. “In this weird way, maybe those lost coins helped make everyone else’s more valuable. I hope someone learns from what I went through. Back up your keys, and don’t throw away your hard drives.”
Asked about his future, Howells is philosophical. He’s exploring new projects in computer security and blockchain education. “You can’t spend your life wishing for a do-over. Now I’m focused on helping others protect their digital assets—so this sort of thing doesn’t happen again.”
His story, however, is far from buried.
Sidebar: The Numbers Behind the Lost Bitcoin
Year hard drive lost: 2013
Bitcoin on the drive: 8,000
Value in 2013: ~$700,000
Value in 2024: ~$950 million
Projected value in 2030: up to $8 billion (if current growth trends continue)
Estimated depth in landfill: up to 15 meters (50 feet)
Excavation proposals: 7 formal bids denied by city
Offers made to Newport: up to $250 million of recovered assets
For people with their own Bitcoin wallets tucked into obscure USB sticks or old laptops, James Howells’s saga is a call to arms: don’t let history repeat itself. As crypto continues to shape the future of money, his lost fortune is a testament to both the promise and the price of technology—waiting quietly, somewhere amidst the rubbish.
