In the early days of Bitcoin it was just a strange internet experiment.
A man named James mined thousands of coins on an old laptop. They weren’t worth much. Maybe a few dollars.
Then one day he threw the hard drive away.
Years later Bitcoin exploded in value.
Those forgotten coins would eventually be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Somewhere beneath thousands of tonnes of rubbish in a landfill in Wales, that tiny hard drive may still be buried.
In Part 1 we tell the story of the mistake — how it happened, how Bitcoin quietly grew in the background, and the moment James realised what he had lost.
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This is the story of how one earlier doctor threw a billion dollars in the bin.
A forgotten hard drive, a routine rubbish collection, and a mistake that would haunt him for the rest of his life.
Cheers for tidying up love, place looks great.
No problem sir, your clothes are wash unfolded, your pizza boxes are put in the bin and your dishes I put all in the dishwasher for you.
Smashing brilliant, you're a star you are.
Are you going to take them out of the shop tonight James?
What what oh yeah no problem in a bit I'll take it out for you just need to check on this mining thing.
Yeah you said that last night and the night before and the night before.
I know I know I do it I promise.
Come on yes another block mind that's what 50 bit coin now brilliant.
James I don't even know what you're talking about just take the rubbish out tonight will you.
I'm not your bloody mum.
James Howles 35 years old computer engineer for Newport Wales.
A man who could build you a server from scratch and explain blockchain technology and excruciating detail and mine crypto currency before most people had even heard of it.
But asking to take out the bins or do his own washing to notice when his girlfriend has been cleaning up after him for the fourth year in a row.
That was someone else's job.
James was an earlier doctor of bitcoin one of only five miners on the network back in 2009.
He accumulated 8,000 bitcoin by running his Dell laptop overnight back when the crypto currency was essentially worth nothing.
He was a hobby curiosity a digital pocket change of sorts.
And then like most of his projects he got bored moved on to the next thing the laptop broke.
He salvaged the hard drive and tossed it in a box with all his other computer parts and forgot about it.
Because that's what James did.
He forgot.
He left things lying around and he assumed someone else would deal with it.
Usually that someone was his girlfriend a seener.
You alright love? And back what you watching?
Oh nothing really just watching the news.
I turn it off if you like.
Alright okay. What are we having for dinner then?
I don't know do I?
Just think you expect your food to be on the table when you get back from work do you?
Alright calm down calm down. No no it's okay.
We can order dominoes or something.
Your net currency called bitcoin has hit a new all time high today.
Wait $20,000.
Wait what was that?
Wait I don't know.
You told me to turn it off and make you some dinner.
See what I can make.
$20,000.
$20,000.
I had like $8,000.
$20,000.
$8,000.
That's like.
It's like a hundred and sixty million.
Oh my god.
Athena.
Athena.
Where is it?
Where is that box?
The old delpats.
It was in the spare room.
No, it was in the garage.
Where did I put it in my office?
Oh come on.
It's got to be here somewhere.
Black external hard drive.
Seagate.
It's got to be.
Athena.
James.
What's going on?
What are you looking for?
That box.
The box with my old computer stuff in it.
The hard drives cables.
A couple of monitors.
Do you know, do you know where it is?
No, what box?
The one that was in the spare room.
God, with the delpats in my old laptop.
Oh, I sort of remember that one.
Yeah, I threw it out.
You, you, you what?
It was gathering just for years.
You never touched it.
So you figured it was junk just like all your other stuff.
And it was in the way.
When exactly did you throw it out?
I threw it out months ago.
Maybe longer.
I don't know James.
I'm never ages like all your other things.
Really James.
It's ancient or the things in there.
When, when exactly did you throw it out?
I don't know.
In the summer.
Maybe earlier.
Why did it?
How, how did you throw it out?
Did you put it in the bin in the collection?
The council bins?
Yes, in the black bin or collection day.
Like I do every week with all your stuff
because you never take the bins out.
Oh God, which bins?
Oh God.
James.
What's going on?
What's going on?
What was in that box?
It was a hard drive with 8,000 bitcoin on it.
So?
Can't you just download it again or something?
Download it.
Download it, Athena.
That hard drive is worth 160 million pounds.
What?
160 million pounds.
And you threw it in the bin.
It's in the landfill.
It's in the bloody landfill.
Well, how was I supposed to know?
You never told me.
It would just sit in there with all your other junk.
You never even looked at it.
I, I didn't need to.
I didn't think you would just go through my stuff
and throw it away for me.
Why would you do that?
I, I've been thrown away.
Your junk and tidy enough after you.
For years, James.
Years.
And you never once said,
Oh, by the way, love.
There's a hundred million dollars in that box.
Maybe we don't throw it away.
Did you ever think about saying that to me?
James, no.
Because you're the most irresponsible man
and ever come across him a whole life.
And I've had enough.
Athena.
Athena.
Oh.
Oh my god.
And there it was.
The moment.
The hinge on which everything turned.
James Howles hadn't checked on his bitcoin for six years.
Hadn't even thought about it.
Hadn't mentioned it to his girlfriend.
He hadn't labeled the box.
Hadn't taken out the spare room himself.
He'd just assumed it would be there when he needed it.
But, Athena had been tidying.
Like she always did.
Taking out the rubbish.
Making space.
Clearing away the clutter of James' abandoned projects.
Just like his Monday before we left home.
And now, somewhere beneath the 50,000 tons of waste
in the Doxway landfill site in Newport Wales,
sat a hard drive worth more than most people would earn
in a hundred lifetimes.
James didn't know exactly when Athena had thrown it out.
But he knew it had been months.
Maybe a year.
Maybe more.
Which meant it was deep.
Very deep.
Excuse me.
Excuse me.
Yeah.
Hi.
Yeah.
Are you the manager?
That I am.
Can I help you?
Right.
Well, I need to search the landfill.
I've thrown something away by mistake.
Something very valuable.
Right.
Well, I'm afraid that's not how it really works on.
Once it's in the tip, it's gone.
No, no, no.
You don't understand.
It's worth millions.
Literally millions of pounds.
Millions?
What is it?
The Crown Jewels?
It's a hard drive.
With Bitcoin on a digital currency.
It could be worth over 100 million pounds.
100 million pounds.
What a hard drive.
And yes, I can prove it.
I can show you the blockchain, the public ledger.
The Bitcoin exists.
It's just, I need the private key to access it.
And that's on the hard drive in the rubbish dump somewhere.
Look, I understand this important to you.
But do you see this place?
We're talking about hundreds, thousand tons of waste.
Your drive, if it came in August,
would be in cell two.
That's still 15,000 tons, 50 meters deep.
It's like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Except the haystack is a size of several football pitches
and made of rotting rubbish.
But it's possible.
It could be found.
Possible?
Maybe.
Probably no.
And even if you found it's on,
it's been sitting in a landfill for five months.
The corrosion, the pressure, the moisture.
I'd be amazed if there was anything left to recover.
But I have to.
You have to let me try, please.
Well, it's not up to me, is it?
You need permission from the council.
And I can tell you right now,
they're not going to let you dig up a landfill site.
Not for the hard drive.
Not for anything.
Unless.
Yeah?
Unless.
You tell them.
There's a dead body.
And then you're in a whole world of trouble.
Ah, thanks very much for your help.
Listen, just get over it.
You've been irresponsible.
You threw something away you weren't supposed to.
Just move on with your life and be happy.
James's girlfriend, Hasina, had no problem with moving on.
She packed her things and left.
She was moving on with her life.
But James was not the kind of guy who could just move on.
He went home that day and watched the price of Bitcoin climb.
And climb.
And climb.
He couldn't sleep.
He couldn't eat.
He could only watch the numbers go up.
Knowing that somewhere under that mountain of rubbish
was a fortune that was sort of legally his technically it was
or theoretically at least.
So he did what any reasonable person would do.
He called the council.
And then he called them again.
And again.
And again.
For years.
New port council.
How can I help you?
Hello, yes.
My name is James Hals.
This podcast is called Should I Invest in Bitcoin?
It's a bit of a different format.
But that is where we're going to leave it for today.
Part two to this story is coming out on Monday.
If you would like to have that sent over to you or notified
you can just hit subscribe.
And you can check it out or you can just head over on Monday.
Do whatever you like.
But this battle continues and find out how James carries on fighting
with the council and with the courts.
This story is based on real events and public records.
Some dialogue and scenes have been dramatized for storytelling purposes.
Hope you enjoyed that.
Hit subscribe if you want to get the episode pinged to you or come back on Monday.
See you guys.
Bye.
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