A British IT professional is now planning a landfill search using X-ray scanning machines and AI technologies in an attempt to recover his lost fortune after throwing away a hard drive that contained £275 million in bitcoin.
The 35-year old James Howells said he has already contacted environmentalists, data recovery experts, and engineers from all around the world to be able to complete the 12-month planned specialized search.
Moreover, Howells also said his search will be sponsored by a multi-billion dollar hedge fund that is willing to cover everything, from the costs associated with the hunt to all the necessary equipment needed.
In exchange for sponsorship
In exchange for providing all the logistics, the hedge fund will, however, take a chunk out of Howell’s fortune.
“Since I made the offer in January the value of Bitcoin has gone up and down – if we were to recover the hard drive today it would be worth £275 million ($381 million),” said the IT specialist.
He has offered his local municipality £55 million in exchange for permission to examine a 200-meter area of a waste dump in Newport, Wales.
Back in 2013, Howells was cleaning his workplace and accidentally threw away the hard disk that contained the bitcoin riches.
A sensitive and expensive search
The IT expert said his next search will be sensitive, as the hard disk must remain untouched or undamaged throughout the process.
The process won’t be cheap, as the scanning apparatus that will be used will cost up to £500,000. An additional £100,000 will be spent for the purchase of an extractor tool to clean up any contamination on the device.
“You can’t just use a claw grabber,” he said, adding that the search would be a proper one and not just digging with somebody going in with a bucket and spade.
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