Desperate man sues city for banning his bitcoin landfill search

An IT engineer is suing his local city council as a last resort to recover millions of dollars worth of bitcoins that ended up in a landfill over a decade ago.

James Howells, an IT engineer from Wales, mistakenly lost his hard drive in 2013, which stored a private key to access 8,000 bitcoins.

The precious hard drive ended up in a recycling center, causing Howells to lose access to the cryptocurrency. Since the accident, its value has skyrocketed and is now worth approximately $514.37 million.

As reported by WalesOnline, the man filed a lawsuit against Newport City Council as a last resort to convince authorities to allow him to dig up the landfill, where his hard drive potentially ended up.

He reportedly admitted that he would share 10% of the bitcoin value with the council. Howells gathered a team of digging experts to conduct the excavation for £10 million GDP, which would not cost the council any money.

"I'm still allocating 10% of the value for the council even though they have been problematic throughout," he said.

"That would be £41m based on today's rate, but it could be hundreds of millions in the future. If they had spoken to me in 2013, this place would look like Las Vegas now. Newport would look like Dubai. That's the kind of opportunity they've missed."

Howells mined the coins himself, costing him nothing more than a few pennies' worth of electricity.

The case will be heard in December. The council has labeled the lawsuit as “weak,” citing the potential damage to the environment that the proposed excavation might cause.