Do You Know? #051: The Billion-Dollar Bitcoin Lost in a Landfill 🗑️💸

In 2013, a British IT worker named James Howells accidentally threw away a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin, now worth over $500 million. The drive ended up buried deep in a landfill in Newport, Wales.

Here’s how it happened:

- Howells mined Bitcoin in 2009 when it was nearly worthless and stored the private keys on a hard drive.

- In a routine house cleanup, he mistakenly tossed the drive, confusing it with a blank one.

- Over the years, he’s made multiple attempts to excavate the landfill, even offering millions in recovery fees, but local authorities have refused due to environmental risks.

This story stands as one of the most tragic tales in crypto history and a reminder to always safeguard your digital assets.

Moral of the story? In crypto, losing your keys can be the most expensive mistake of all.