A British man was trapped in a garbage dump for eight years after losing $550 million worth of Bitcoin

The name of the landfill sounds dirty and messy, and no normal person would want to go near it. But there was a British guy who would hang around the landfill whenever he had nothing to do, and his eyes were burning, as if he was crazy.

He even approached the city government and expressed his willingness to donate $80 million to fight the epidemic, provided that the government allowed him to search the city's garbage dumps.

What's going on? Is he obsessed with the garbage dump? It turns out that this man named James Howells wanted to go treasure hunting. Eight years ago, he accidentally threw a fortune into the garbage dump. Now converted into RMB, it is worth about 2 billion.

1 The discarded precious hard drive

The story begins on an ordinary night in August 2013. James is a 28-year-old IT worker in Newport. He has regular features and a regular schedule. Like any other 28-year-old young man, he goes to work in the company during the day and dates with his beloved girlfriend at night.

That night, the fireplace was lit with warm firelight, the room was filled with beautiful music, and everything seemed peaceful and beautiful. But unfortunately, the Amazon butterfly gently flapped its wings, and a small accident happened.

James accidentally spilled the lemon juice on his laptop. His girlfriend came over and asked, "What's wrong?" James wiped the table and replied, "Nothing, I was just trying to clean it up."

There were two identical hard drives in the drawer. One was empty, and James remembered that the other had some completely unimportant music and games stored on it. Because the computer was damaged, he did not open the hard drive to check it. Instead, he threw it into the garbage bag along with some sundries and told his girlfriend: "Please help me throw away the garbage when you leave."

The next day, James suddenly remembered that there seemed to be something valuable in the hard drive he threw away. He had stored the digital wallet key of 7,500 bitcoins in it.

Bitcoin is a virtual currency that does not rely on a specific monetary institution for issuance. It focuses on decentralization and point-to-point transmission and payment.

All currencies on the market come from national central banks. If the government issues more currencies, it will cause inflation and currency depreciation, but the total number of bitcoins is fixed, with only 21 million in total.

These characteristics make Bitcoin very attractive. However, Bitcoin was only officially launched in January 2009, so few people know about it.

People call the act of using computer hardware to calculate the location of bitcoins and obtain bitcoins "mining". James started playing with Bitcoin by chance due to the nature of his work and was considered one of the first "miners".

Because it was early, mining was relatively easy. James mined 7,500 bitcoins using only his home computer. He saved the digital wallet key on his hard drive. At that time, bitcoin was not valuable, and 7,500 bitcoins were only worth more than a hundred dollars. James stopped mining and forgot about it. Now, he simply threw the hard drive away as garbage.

2 Crazy appreciation, the mentality gradually lost control

In 2012, James had learned about the "exchange rate" of Bitcoin, when one Bitcoin was less than $10. According to this calculation, 7,500 Bitcoins would be worth at most $70,000, so after knowing that he had thrown away the hard drive by mistake, although James felt a little painful, he was not particularly sad.

But he didn't expect that in 2013, the price of Bitcoin began to soar, jumping from double digits to quadruple digits.

Moreover, Bitcoin can actually circulate in the market. James saw on a news website that someone bought a small apartment with 1,000 Bitcoins.

James was upset because he lost millions of dollars. He started to complain like Xianglin Sao, asking his girlfriend: "Where did you throw the garbage bag that day?"

"Where else could that be?" the girlfriend replied unhappily. "It's already been taken to the landfill."

James knew this very well. He had been to the landfill and saw that it was as big as a dozen football fields, with all kinds of garbage piled up like mountains. It was impossible to find a small hard drive.

Why can't James get back his wealth without the private key in the hard drive? This is also a feature of Bitcoin. The private key of Bitcoin is equivalent to the account password. It is the only key recognized by Bitcoin. It is required to enter the Bitcoin wallet to link to the address.

This key is a complex combination of dozens of characters. It is random and has no pattern at all. It is basically impossible to remember, so it needs to be stored. However, it is not like QQ passwords or WeChat passwords that can be easily retrieved, and it is basically impossible to recover it if it is lost.

It is like James has a bag of gold, silver and jewelry, and he keeps it in a safe. This safe only recognizes one key, and it must be opened by James himself. However, James lost the key, so his wealth (Bitcoin) is still there, and no one else can take it away, but he himself cannot take it either.

James thought of many ways. He tried to use Google Maps to locate the garbage in the landfill, found experts who were good at cracking passwords on the Internet, and contacted a data recovery company that had business dealings with NASA, but all to no avail. In desperation, he had to seek help from the Newport City Government.

"Can you help me look up the Newport City landfill?"

"impossible."

Such conversations have been happening every year in Newport since 2013. No wonder James is anxious. Who could have thought that the price of Bitcoin would rise so fast? Especially in October 2017, a large number of miners and retail investors entered the market, and the exchange rate of Bitcoin skyrocketed, with one Bitcoin soaring to $100,000.

Today, the price of Bitcoin has fallen back, but one Bitcoin can still be exchanged for more than 40,000 US dollars. James' 7,500 Bitcoins, converted into RMB, are worth more than 2 billion.

3 Which is more important, virtual wealth or real life?

Although James went to the city government to negotiate again and again, the government said that it was impossible to search the garbage dump. Not to mention that the hard drive could not be found, even if it was found, it would have been damaged after being buried deep in the garbage dump for so long that the data would be difficult to recover.

James couldn't accept this result. He wanted to find investors to sponsor him and crowdfund to clean up the landfill. He even went to the Welsh Parliament for help, but was turned down and then appealed to the British Parliament...

James and his girlfriend at the time were already at the stage of discussing marriage, and both had a child, but the accidentally lost hard drive always stood between them, causing their relationship to fall into an ice cellar and eventually drift apart.

He had no interest in work, family, or anything else. During his eight-year treasure hunt, his mind was focused on the garbage dump, and he was obsessed with his huge fortune that had disappeared, and he almost went crazy.

James' story has a similar scene in the American TV series "Silicon Valley". A man stored the private key of the token in a USB flash drive, and put the USB flash drive in an inconspicuous pair of torn jeans. When his cleaner was cleaning the room, he threw away the old pants. When the man found out, he rushed into the garbage dump in a daze and dug in the pile of garbage with his bare hands, which looked ridiculous and pathetic.

In reality, James is not the only one who missed out on Bitcoin wealth. In 2010, a British man named Laszlo Hanyecz owned 10,000 Bitcoins. He wanted to try whether this thing could be spent as money. Hey, he succeeded. These 10,000 Bitcoins allowed him to successfully buy two pizzas from the local Papa John's.

This is really the most expensive pizza. If Laszlo knew the current price of Bitcoin, would he slap his thigh and regret it?

There is also Collins from Ireland, who printed his account information on A4 paper and hid the paper in a fishing rod box. As a result, he was arrested for drug use, and the precious fishing rod box was thrown into the garbage dump by the landlord.

Bitcoin keys seem safe, but they are actually difficult to preserve. Forgetting to back up your hard drive, computer failures, or theft at an exchange may all result in the loss of your Bitcoins.

Moreover, as a virtual currency, Bitcoin is prone to sudden rises and falls, not to mention property security. Its special status and performance make it unpopular in many countries. Bitcoin mining consumes energy and electricity. This year, local governments in China began to shut down mining sites and banned mining.

Which is more important, virtual wealth or real life? Like James Howells, he lost his mind and completely disrupted his normal life because of a fortune he never really had. It is really not worth it.

Let’s put ourselves in his shoes. What would you do if you had 2 billion worth of property buried in a garbage dump?