In 2013, James Howells, a relatively unknown IT worker from Newport, Wales, made a mistake that would haunt him for over a decade. Amid a routine house cleaning, he inadvertently discarded an old hard drive. Not just any drive — this one contained the private keys to a Bitcoin wallet holding 8,000 BTC. At the time, the loss was financially inconvenient but not catastrophic. However, by 2025, the value of those Bitcoins had ballooned to approximately $765 million, making it one of the most significant personal losses in cryptocurrency history.
The hard drive was sent to the Docksway landfill, a sprawling site where refuse is compressed, buried, and rendered nearly unrecoverable. Howells quickly realized the error but was initially told that once waste entered the landfill, it became both legally and logistically untouchable. For most, that might have been the end of the story. But for Howells, the drive — and the life-altering fortune it represented — became an obsession.
Over the next twelve years, Howells mounted increasingly elaborate recovery efforts. He wasn’t short on ideas — or funding. At one point, he proposed a high-tech excavation strategy involving artificial intelligence, robotic dogs, drones, and sophisticated waste-sorting machines. His plan was to process large portions of the landfill systematically, minimizing environmental disruption while maximizing the chances of locating the hard drive.
Investors backed the project, and engineers volunteered to consult. Howells even conducted public awareness campaigns and engaged legal teams to navigate Newport City Council’s policies. He insisted that the risk of landfill excavation could be mitigated — with the proper controls, any harmful substances unearthed during the search could be managed safely.
But Newport authorities consistently denied permission. They cited the potential environmental hazards, legal liability, and uncertainty over the drive’s condition after years buried under tons of compacted waste. The risk, they argued, simply wasn’t worth the reward — especially since there was no guarantee the hard drive would function, even if found.
In 2023, Howells proposed a profit-sharing deal with the city if the recovery succeeded. The council declined. In 2024, he launched a legal battle, attempting to force reconsideration under property rights laws and environmental neutrality claims. But in January 2025, a UK High Court judge ruled against him, effectively ending his campaign.
The court’s decision marked the official death of Howells’s dream. After exhausting every conceivable option — financial, technological, legal — he was left with no further avenues. The hard drive, entombed beneath layers of decaying waste, was declared unrecoverable.
James Howells has since become a symbol in the world of cryptocurrency: a modern-day Sisyphus in search of buried treasure. His story is cited in lectures, discussed in online forums, and featured in documentaries exploring the darker side of digital finance. In one interview, he admitted that the ordeal took a toll on his mental health but also said it taught him resilience — and, perhaps ironically, the importance of cloud backups.
Today, the Docksway landfill remains sealed, monitored, and silent. Somewhere beneath its surface lies a fortune locked behind one forgotten piece of hardware — a testament to the brutal finality of digital loss.
