The Journey to Recover 8000 Abandoned Bitcoins

James Howells, the famous British man who lost a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoins at a landfill in Newport over a decade ago, has filed a lawsuit against the city for not being allowed to "dig through the trash to find coins". After years of effort to request the city to excavate the landfill and retrieve the "treasure"-containing hard drive, the 36-year-old man has changed tactics, suing the Newport City Council back and demanding compensation. Bitcoin Treasure Thrown into the Trash Can Hard drive disaster occurred after a misunderstanding between Howells and his wife. The British engineer had knowledge of Bitcoin and started 'mining' digital currency from 2009. In the early stages, he hardly lost anything except the electricity for the laptop to run the algorithm. James Howells stored 8,000 BTC mined in his wallet. Each digital wallet address will have a private key. It works similar to a PIN code for a bank card. The only difference is that a PIN code can be recovered if forgotten, but a private key is unique, known only to the owner, and cannot be changed. A private key is usually a randomly arranged combination of letters and numbers. They are often complex and difficult to remember, so many people choose to store them in a storage device such as a hard drive. Howells is no exception, he also stored his personal lock of 8,000 BTC in a hard drive about 2.5 inches in size. In August 2013, while cleaning up the house, the IT engineer found two similar hard drives, one containing the private key, the other empty. In the court filing, Howells said he accidentally threw away the hard drive containing his Bitcoin treasure trove into the trash and his wife took the rubbish bag to the dump. At the time, 8,000 BTC was worth around 1 million pounds. But just 3 months later, the price of Bitcoin surged 9-fold. In November 2013, Howells and his legal team began meeting with city council representatives, requesting to excavate the landfill to find the hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoins. However, his requests have been consistently denied since then. Legal Battle Over 'Trash Mining' Request For over a decade, Howells has not given up on seeking permission to excavate a landfill to find his lost treasure. He gave up his job, reached an agreement with investors to split 30% of the profit if the hard drive is found. The rest he will allocate to supporters, helpers, and some costs to recover the data. Howells revealed that he had recruited a former landfill director to his team. The 36-year-old man believes that 80% of the hard drive data can be recovered. Meanwhile, if permitted, the excavation could take 18-36 months. They would then need an additional 12 months to restore the landfill to its original condition. However, the Newport City Council rejected Howells' request due to environmental concerns, despite the engineering team's commitment to help the city 'modernize' the landfill, using AI (artificial intelligence) to search and ensure that residents' lives are not disrupted. After being rejected many times, Mr. Howells' lawyers have filed a counter lawsuit against the city council for refusing to cooperate with world-renowned experts to handle hazardous waste from the landfill. They also accused the council of ignoring the opportunity to receive a 10% reward as a huge, essential investment for the people. The council's lawyer argues that because the hard drive has been discarded in a landfill, ownership now belongs to the city. Howells is not giving up either, he even declared that he would spend his whole life to retrieve this hard drive. "We are prepared to go to the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court. I don't want to go to court but I have to," Howells said. After multiple lawsuits, recently, Howells' team has filed another lawsuit against the Newport City Council, demanding compensation of over $600 million, equivalent to the value of 8,000 Bitcoins at current prices. The city council representative still maintains a firm stance, believing that excavation will have a negative impact on the surrounding environment. Based on the environmental permit, they cannot approve Howells' plan. Howells' lawsuit will be heard in court on December 3rd this year. At that time, the judge will decide whether the Newport City Council should allow Howells access to the landfill or should compensate for the lost Bitcoin. Please provide the text to be translated. DYOR! #Write2Win #Write&Earn $BTC {spot}(BTCUSDT)