Needle in a haystack. That was the challenge James Howells faced when he realised he'd thrown away his hard drive containing the keys to millions in Bitcoins.
Image: Facebook
We've all made that mistake - throwing something in the trash that should have been kept - but no one's blunder is likely to top that of James Howells.
Howells, 39, an IT worker from Newport, Wales, made one of the most expensive mistakes in digital history when he accidentally threw out a desktop hard drive in 2013 containing the private keys to 8,000 Bitcoins, "TechTimes" reports.
At the time, Bitcoin was only taking off - but today, Howells' haul is worth around $950 million!
In South African rands, that is almost R17 billion!
And going by current projections, his lost fortune could exceed a value $8 billion by 2030 - enough to make anyone howl and weep in despair.
But not Howells, he launched a decade-long modern-day digital treasure hunt for the keys to his wealth, which ended up in the local landfill.
The publication reports that Howells has finally thrown in the towel after his detailed recovery and funding plans to excavate the landfill site were turned down by the local authority because of environmental and legal restrictions.
Finding a small hard drive in a municipal dump was never going to be easy, but James Howells thought he had a plan.
Image: Pexels
He had planned to use AI-powered drones and robotic search systems to delve into the deep layers of trash to find his Bitcoin treasure, offering millions to incentivise its recovery.
But this was thwarted by the local authority on the basis that its policy was clear: what you throw away no longer belongs to you; it belongs to the state.
"TechTimes" reported that Howells has now officially given up hope of ever retrieving what could have become his generational wealth.
And, of course, netizens had a lot to say about his cryptocurrency catastrophe.
Chuks Michael Abel was all for the search to continue: "I wouldn't end that search till death do us part."
Achille Manzo went a step further, posting on Facebook: "If I was an employee there, I would collect every hard drive I find. Fill one box at a time and sell it sealed to him. As time goes by, you never know, he might find it. At least he knows he has someone on the inside looking for him."
And, as usual, there were the jokers, with Keyton Davis posting: "Fun fact - He didn't throw it away, his wife thought he spent too much time on bitcoin and threw it away."
Ion Mardari had another theory: "He probably found it and said he gave up, so nobody bothers him."
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