James Howells from Newport has a new cryptocurrency plan after losing a court battle to recover his lost Bitcoin
Newport: So, there’s this guy named James Howells who just can’t catch a break. He tried to dig up a hard drive buried in a landfill that holds about £600 million worth of Bitcoin. Unfortunately, he lost his court case against the local council, but he’s not giving up just yet.
James, a dad of three, got into Bitcoin back in 2009. He was one of the early miners and managed to create 8,000 coins, which he stored on a hard drive. But in 2013, his partner accidentally tossed it out, and that’s when his troubles began.
Since then, he’s watched the value of those coins skyrocket while he’s been trying to get permission to dig them up. Last year, he even took the council to court, asking to either excavate the landfill or get £495 million in damages. But the judge wasn’t having it and said his case had no chance of winning.
Now, James feels like the dig is off the table, but he’s got a new idea. The judge mentioned that while the council owns the hard drive, James is still the owner of the Bitcoin. That little nugget of info could help him create a new cryptocurrency based on his lost Bitcoin.
He explained it like this: think of it as having gold bars in a vault. He wants to create a new currency, maybe call it James Coin, that would be backed by the Bitcoin he can’t access. It’s a bit complicated, but he believes it could work.
James is optimistic he can get this new cryptocurrency up and running within a year. Even if it doesn’t bring back all his lost wealth, it’s better than just staring at the Bitcoin he can’t touch. He’s even thought about calling it Ceiniog Coin, which is Welsh for penny, to give it a local twist.
He had a plan to dig up the hard drive at no cost to the council and even offered them a cut if they found it. But the council’s lawyer argued that this could be seen as a bribe, and the judge agreed that digging it up just wasn’t practical.
James is pretty bummed about the court’s decision but feels a bit better knowing they didn’t dispute his ownership of the Bitcoin. He’s still in talks with the council about the next steps. After a decade of searching, he’s not ready to throw in the towel just yet.
