Featured Image Credit: James Howells/X/Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Imagine misplacing something worth millions and then spending years trying to find it.
That's the story of one man who lost a fortune in Bitcoin and is pinning his hopes on AI to help him track it down.
James Howells from Newport has spent the last decade trying to retrieve his discarded hard drive that he claims to contain 8,000 units of cryptocurrency.
Howells accidentally threw his mobile-phone-sized hard drive away in 2013.
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He said it was worth £4 million when it was mistakenly tossed aside, but Bitcoin has shot up since 2014. Now, he estimates its value to have risen to around £227 million ($286 million), something Howells says 'isn't his fault' and the council should acknowledge this.
Explaining his strategy, the IT engineer said: 'I've narrowed down the area where I need to dig, based on the amount of time that's gone by.
'It's a disused section of the site - 100,000 tonnes of a total 1.4m tonnes. I'd then take the landfill to a unit where it'll be placed on a conveyor belt and subjected to an AI scanning system.
'And if the AI recognises anything that looks like a hard drive it'll be flagged and removed.'
The engineer says he has studied aerial photographs of the landfill site and believes the hard drive is within a 200-square-meter area and potentially buried 15 metres deep. The search would take nine to twelve months using AI technology.
Confident in his theory, Howells plans to donate a quarter of any funds (potentially £50 million) recovered to local community projects in Newport.
Feeling hopeful, he added: 'Having spoken to staff who used to work at the landfill I'm sure the hard drive didn't go through any recycling or crushing process at the time either.'
The Newport Council has environmental concerns about excavation and is being 'stubborn' about it being carried out on the landfill site.
However, Howells claimed: 'What I'm proposing will be carried out to the highest of standards, and I've got some of the best people in the excavation business involved.'
Reportedly, Howells has employed two barristers and a King's Counsel, all of whom are prepared to 'take this all the way.' Moreover, they have the right to appeal it to the Supreme Court if necessary.
'It could bankrupt Newport City Council and that's not my goal here. My goal is to dig for my property in an environmentally friendly way and get my hard drive,' Howells concluded.
