Парень хочет купить свалку, чтобы найти выброшенные биткоины

James Howells, a British IT worker, приобретенный more than 7,500 bitcoins in 2009 when they were worth almost nothing. Now, a single Bitcoin is worth almost $100,000, which puts his stash at more than $700 million. Unfortunately, Howells accidentally threw the hard disk containing the key into the trash. He has a plan to get the money back, according to The Guardian. He wants to buy a landfill where it might be buried and dig it up.

Howells doesn’t know exactly where the hard drive is, but he has a strong guess based on when he threw it in the trash. He narrowed the search to a specific area of a landfill in South Wales that holds 15,000 metric tons of waste. The landfill is approaching maximum capacity, so Howells wants to buy it from the city. Officials have warned that the hard drive is “buried under 25,000 cubic meters of waste and earth” as it has been there for almost 12 years.

Until the city makes a final decision, it doesn’t look good for Howells and his “needle in a haystack” plan. The haphazard excavation of the landfill poses a serious environmental hazard. The excavation process would be risky and expensive. Subsequently, the landfill would need to be reclaimed, which is another expensive project. The city also plans to build a solar power plant on part of the land.

Finally, there is the hard disk itself. Can anything be recovered after it’s been under tons and tons of garbage for 12 years? It seems unlikely, although Howells and his investors apparently have some serious data scientists on staff.

This is just the latest attempt by Howells to treat the landfill as an archaeological site where he is looking for his lost fortune. He has been doing this for more than a decade. In 2017, he asked the city