Man gives up 12-year fight to recover $923 million Bitcoin his girlfriend threw out

A man who has been fighting since 2013 to excavate a landfill where a hard drive with Bitcoin worth $923 million today landed after a grave error has come up with a new plan to gain access to it. James Howells has been trying to recover 8,000 Bitcoin for 12 years that were accidentally thrown away by his girlfriend. He told Decrypt that he had done everything to get into the landfill in Newport, Wales, and dig up his Bitcoin-filled hard disk. However, all his efforts have failed, but he refuses to give up. Despite not having his Bitcoin, Howells is launching a Bitcoin L2 “backed” by the lost funds. He says a court had recognised that he is the legal owner of the cryptocurrency in the landfill, and so he can float the new network called Ceiniog. Howells thinks that Ceiniog’s market capitalisation will rise to $923 million based on the Bitcoin he theoretically owns. The value means it would become the 81st-largest cryptocurrency. Howells is on paper only $77 million away from becoming a billionaire. His new plan comes after 12 years of effort to get into the landfill for a search that failed. Also Read: Bitcoin shark left BTC worth $7,800 in his wallet for 14 years. He just realised he is now a billionaire

How James Howells lost more than 8,000 BTC

Howells took the legal route, filed public proposals and even offered to buy the landfill for $3 million. But, he says it was all like talking to a wall as no one paid any heed to his requests. Howells' bad luck started when his then-girlfriend threw the hard drive with the keys to his more than 8,000 BTC during an office cleanup. He worked out where it could have ended up and zeroed in on the landfill in Newport, Wales. He then approached the local council for a permit to dig up the landfill. He reached the court, but his case was dismissed by the judge, citing legal concerns. When nothing else worked, he proposed purchasing the landfill. However, his request by ignored. Howells told decrypt, “It seems that, anyway I try, the establishment in this country is never going to allow this to happen." He added that as the value of Bitcoin went up, he assumed things would be smoothed over. "Well, we're at [$923 million] today, and they still won't talk to me," he said.