Man Loses Lawsuit to Recover Lost Bitcoin from UK Landfill

James Howells, a Welsh IT engineer from Newport who lost his Bitcoin hard drive in a landfill in 2013, lost his legal battle today to access the site to recover the cryptocurrency. 

The hard drive, which held 8,000 Bitcoin mined in 2009, is now worth over $770 million. The judge dismissed the case, citing “no realistic prospect” of succeeding at a full trial. 

A Series of Unfortunate Events

In 2013, Howells’ partner accidentally disposed of a laptop hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin in a landfill in Newport, Wales. 

Recognizing the potential value of the lost Bitcoin, Howells attempted to recover the hard drive by proposing an excavation of the landfill. In doing so, Howells offered to fund the excavation process and share 25% of the recovered Bitcoin with the city council. 

However, the Newport City Council denied his request, citing the excavation’s significant costs and potential environmental impact. Howells would keep trying for over a decade while the council repeatedly rejected his requests. 

Today, Judge Keyser, the Circuit Commercial Judge for Wales, has dismissed James Howells’ lawsuit seeking permission to excavate the Newport landfill to search for the hard drive.

In his ruling, Judge Keyser stated that Howells had “no reasonable grounds” for bringing the claim and that there was “no realistic prospect” of success if the case proceeded to a full trial.

A Reminder: The Bitcoin Pizza Day Story

Howells’ misfortune is reminiscent of the Bitcoin Pizza Day story. In May 2012, a programmer named Laszlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas from his local pizza vendor, Papa John’s. Instead of using cash or credit cards, Hanyecz decided to pay using Bitcoin.

Hanyecz ended up paying 10,000 BTC for both pizzas, which were valued at $41 at the time. He also had no idea that his pizza order would go down in history as the first recorded real-world BTC transaction.

 “I’ll pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas.. like maybe 2 large ones so I have some left over for the next day,” Laszlo Hanyecz posted on the Bitcoin Talk forum.

The first-ever transaction made using Bitcoin would be worth over $708 million today. When Bitcoin surpassed the $100,000 mark in early December, those two pizzas would’ve been worth over one billion dollars. 

On the one hand, Howells and Hanyecz’s stories will be remembered as shocking misfortunes in the history of digital assets. On the other hand, they represent how much Bitcoin has grown since its inception in 2009.