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The battle for the excavation could lead to a major legal battle.
In Wales, an unusual legal battle is unfolding between an IT engineer and the Newport City Council. James Howells has filed a lawsuit against local authorities in an attempt to obtain permission to excavate the city's landfill, where, in his opinion, there is a hard drive with an access key to 8000 bitcoins.
The story began in 2013, when Howells mistakenly threw away a hard drive containing the private key to a cryptocurrency wallet. Over the past decade, the value of lost bitcoins has grown significantly and is now valued at around $514.37 million.
The engineer offered the city council 10% of the value of bitcoins in case of successful detection of the hard drive. Howells assembled a team of excavation experts willing to carry out the operation for £10 million without requiring financial input from the council.
According to Howells, the municipal authorities missed a unique opportunity to transform the city. If the issue was resolved positively in 2013, Newport could now look like Las Vegas or Dubai. The £41 million amount offered to the City Council at the current exchange rate could rise significantly in the future.
It is noteworthy that the owner mined the cryptocurrency on his own, spending only a few pennies for electricity on mining. The hearing in the case is scheduled for December. Representatives of the city council consider the lawsuit unfounded, citing potential environmental damage from large-scale excavations.
Earlier, the administration of the landfill established round-the-clock video surveillance and protection of the territory.
Source
In Wales, an unusual legal battle is unfolding between an IT engineer and the Newport City Council. James Howells has filed a lawsuit against local authorities in an attempt to obtain permission to excavate the city's landfill, where, in his opinion, there is a hard drive with an access key to 8000 bitcoins.
The story began in 2013, when Howells mistakenly threw away a hard drive containing the private key to a cryptocurrency wallet. Over the past decade, the value of lost bitcoins has grown significantly and is now valued at around $514.37 million.
The engineer offered the city council 10% of the value of bitcoins in case of successful detection of the hard drive. Howells assembled a team of excavation experts willing to carry out the operation for £10 million without requiring financial input from the council.
According to Howells, the municipal authorities missed a unique opportunity to transform the city. If the issue was resolved positively in 2013, Newport could now look like Las Vegas or Dubai. The £41 million amount offered to the City Council at the current exchange rate could rise significantly in the future.
It is noteworthy that the owner mined the cryptocurrency on his own, spending only a few pennies for electricity on mining. The hearing in the case is scheduled for December. Representatives of the city council consider the lawsuit unfounded, citing potential environmental damage from large-scale excavations.
Earlier, the administration of the landfill established round-the-clock video surveillance and protection of the territory.
Source
