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Bitcoin Dumpster Guy Has a Wild Plan To Rescue Millions In Crypto From a Landfill (gizmodo.com) 168

Posted by BeauHD from the lost-and-found dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Former IT worker James Howells -- who once stood on the very forefront of the crypto boom and could have been a multimillionaire -- is desperate to scour a UK landfill located in Newport, Wales where he might find a missing drive that contains the passcode for a crypto wallet containing 8,000 bitcoin, worth close to $176 million as of writing. Howells said he accidentally dumped the wrong hard drive back in 2013. Though the price of crypto remains in the proverbial dumpster, this data cache represents millions of dollars simply stuck on the blockchain, with nobody able to access the wallet without the required passcode. It's been a long road, and he hasn't given up on his quest to rescue his missing millions. Only problem is finding that hard drive would require digging through a literal mountain of garbage.

In an interview with Business Insider released Sunday, Howell said he has a foolproof scheme to rescue his bitcoin from an actual trash pile. He's put together an $11 million business plan which he'll use to get investors and the Newport City Council on board to help excavate the landfill. His proposal would require them to dig through 110,000 tons of trash over three years. A $6 million version of the plan would go over 18 months. A video hosted by Top Gear alum Richard Hammond said the bitcoin "proponent" has already reportedly secured funding from two Euro-based venture capitalists Hanspeter Jaberg and Karl Wendeborn, if Howells can get approval from the local government.

The garbage would be sorted at a separate pop-up facility near the landfill using human pickers and an AI system used to spot that hard drive amidst all that other refuse. He's even brought on eight experts in artificial intelligence, excavation, waste management, and data extraction, all to find a lone hard drive in a trash pile. The plan also involves making use of the Boston Dynamics robotic dogs. The former IT worker told reporters the machines could be used as security and CCTV cameras to scan the ground, looking for the hard drive. When they were released, each "Spot" robot model cost $74,500. Even with that price tag, Howells said he already has names for the two. Insider reported he would name one Satoshi, named after Satoshi Nakamoto, the person or group behind the white paper that first proposed bitcoin back in 2008. The other one would be named "Hal" -- no, not that HAL -- but Hal Finney, the first person to receive a bitcoin transaction. A spokesperson for the local government told Insider Howells could present or say "nothing" that would convince them to go along with the plan, citing ecological risk. If the council says no -- again -- Howells told reporters he'd take the government to court.
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Bitcoin Dumpster Guy Has a Wild Plan To Rescue Millions In Crypto From a Landfill More

Bitcoin Dumpster Guy Has a Wild Plan To Rescue Millions In Crypto From a Landfill

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  • The curse (Score:5, Insightful)

    by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Monday July 25, 2022 @11:48PM (#62733756)
    This guy needs to read Moby Dick. He's going to secure a loan for $1M to search for the hard drive and then find it, on the day that bitcoin goes to $1.

    • This guy needs to read Moby Dick. He's going to secure a loan for $1M to search for the hard drive and then find it, on the day that bitcoin goes to $1.

      or find that the drives disc platters were damaged at any one of the many points it experience a sever physical shock while passing through the processing waste management system

      • Re:The curse (Score:5, Insightful)

        by aaarrrgggh ( 9205 ) on Tuesday July 26, 2022 @12:40AM (#62733826)

        So many ways for the endeavor to fail... and so few ways for it to succeed. I can't imagine a 20:1 payout being nearly enough to warrant the risk.

        But, if he really wants to do it, get a waste-to-energy plant on site to deal with the "processed" waste (along with metals recovery) and do a life extension on the landfill in the process. Then maybe at least something good is guaranteed to come out of it all.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          It does seem highly unlikely that he will be able to find it.

          Even if he finds it, it's been outdoors and probably under a mountain of other rubbish for what, a decade now?

          Moisture, pressure from above and the sides. It was likely smashed around by the vehicles they use to dump the rubbish, and then driven over by their tracks.

          The best he could hope for is that the platters inside are relatively intact and can be recovered by data recovery experts. That's a very long shot.

          Even then, he needs the bit with the

          • It was likely smashed around by the vehicles they use to dump the rubbish, and then driven over by their tracks.

            No "likely" about it. They roll over the trash to mash it flat for space.

          • I just want to know how he is going to know the right drive when when he sees it?

            Did he record the serial number of the drive? Will the serial number on every found drive be legible? How much wasted effort will there be to recover data from the wrong drives?

            The devil is in the details and I think the bright floodlight of potential millions is blinding several people to the dauntingly miniscule chances of success.

            • Apparently he has another drive identical in model to the one he threw out, so they only need to investigate all of the drives of that particular model. This does not help reduce the size of the haystack, but there will be many fewer needles to sort through.

          • Re:The curse (Score:4)

            by jwhyche ( 6192 ) on Tuesday July 26, 2022 @10:18AM (#62734796) Homepage

            Is it even in the land fill? A hard drive is a significant piece of metal. All the land files that I know of automatically remove large pieces of metal with magnets and send it off for recycling. Odds are this drive was already shredded, melted down, and recycled in to someones beer can.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Sebby ( 238625 )

              A hard drive is a significant piece of metal. All the land files that I know of automatically remove large pieces of metal with magnets and send it off for recycling. Odds are this drive was already shredded, melted down, and recycled in to someones beer can.

              And even if it’s miraculously preserved intact, they usually separate metals using. . . a very powerful magnet.

        • It'd actually be a fascinating exercise to sort all that and actually meaningfully pull the recyclables out of it. If he could go to the council and offer to return a third less trash because he'd pull all the metals and other valuables out as he sorted, then that'd be much much better and i think he could get approval. It'd also be a great academic exercise in medium-scale landfill mining
      • Yup. Using the money to buy tickets in the Euromillions would be a far more sound investment. But that doesn't have the magic word "Bitcoin" in it, so investors would be put off even though the odds are probably better than this scheme.

    • This guy should read How Not to be a Stupid Dick. I'll write it right now. It will consist of only two words. The first one will be "Fuck". I will give you three guesses what the second one should be, and all three of them will probably be acceptable answers.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sloppy ( 14984 )

      He's going to secure a loan for $1M to search for the hard drive and then

      ..not find it.

    • And for all practical purposes, that is merely virtual millions, until it is found it is worth $0. And if drive is found it likely is unable to be read.

  • Will the insanity ever end? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by divide overflow ( 599608 ) on Tuesday July 26, 2022 @12:03AM (#62733770)
    This is a staggering waste of time and money, compounding the staggering waste of energy that generated the bitcoin in the first place thanks to "planet-incinerating Ponzi grifters."

    • But he has a "foolproof scheme", its right there in the summary. I mean obviously this guy is a "foolproof" kind of person and anyone would give him money to dig up trash.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Pieroxy ( 222434 )

        Not even counting that the drive will be unreadable whenever he finds it. Foolproof indeed.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by vivian ( 156520 )

      I always thought bitcoin mining was a dirty business, but this takes it to a whole new level - in a mountain of trash, dirty diapers and food waste

      At least it will use much less energy than mining them electronically.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by guruevi ( 827432 )

      He's also demonstrating how to mine trash for things that are valuable. This could bring the cost and technology down for the actual trash mining for all sorts of inorganic matter.

      If nothing, he may have a demonstrable technology in place after this, go mine the trash with robots for rare earth metals, gold, silver, lithium and other things we desperately need now that just a decade ago was simply thrown in the trash.

  • self promotion (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kiviQr ( 3443687 ) on Tuesday July 26, 2022 @12:10AM (#62733784)
    I would not count on being able to retrieve data from HDD stored in controlled environment for 10 years. He is trying to recover it from dump?

    • I would not count on being able to retrieve data from HDD stored in controlled environment for 10 years. He is trying to recover it from dump?

      A 10 year old HDD stored in a controlled environment might not spin up, but the data is still there and still easily recoverable. You might have to use forensic recovery techniques, but it'll work. As for a drive that has been in a landfill... it really depends whether anything has penetrated the case and gotten to the platters. If not, the data will be fine.

  • Sorry guy (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Kremmy ( 793693 ) on Tuesday July 26, 2022 @12:11AM (#62733786)
    That laptop got sniped by someone before it hit the landfill, and they formatted the drive without even looking at what was on it.

  • Why in the world do you still allow electrical and electronic waste to be dumped in landfills? In fact, why do you still have landfills in the first place?

    We haven't had that here in 20 years as it's government mandated that all E/EW is separated from any other kind of waste and recycled properly.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      I have bad news. Most of the "recycled electronic waste" stuff ends up... in landfills.

    • Re:Landfill.. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ledow ( 319597 ) on Tuesday July 26, 2022 @04:08AM (#62734146) Homepage

      Indeed, in the UK I spend my professional life disposing of electronic waste by the tonne in ways complying with WEEE regulations.

      One of those ways is to literally hire a guy who comes to my workplace, picks everything up, signs all the available paperwork etc.

      He's also told me that he then drives it to an airport where it's loaded onto planes and sent to a foreign country. Who also sign off the WEEE disposal documents for him.

      What happens to it from there, nobody knows, but the implication is that it basically gets landfilled abroad.

      Seriously - a 90's CRT is worthless, and we're paying money to ship them around the world, there's no way anyone's taking them apart and doing anything with them, and even if they are, there's no way they're doing that SAFELY.

      • Nobody knows? I doubt that. I thought it was common knowledge that all that e-waste just goes into a burn pit in India or some other third-world country. Once it's reduced to ash, some kids sift through through it to extract the precious metals. It's a win-win situation.

    • It's not allowed. Anything electronic sold in the EU has the "crossed out wheely bin" symbol on it, meaning that it's not allowed in general waste and needs to go to the appropriate facility - most councils will have a dedicated electronics skip at the household waste centre, and you're supposed to take your old electronics there.

      But if someone puts it in the bin anyway, unless someone happens to spot it, it will end up in landfill. The councils don't empty out the bin lorries and have someone pick through

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by godrik ( 1287354 )

      In fact, why do you still have landfills in the first place?

      Where is that "here" that doesn't have landfill? Isn't most trash pushed to landfills? You can't compost EVERYTHING at that scale.

  • Greedy people always respond to potential money as if it were something they already have rather than just a supposition, but that's illogical and they suffer for it. The smart move would be to sell what he knows about it for a few pennies on the dollar and let other people chase it.

    But what he's actually doing, what's someone that foolish going to do with $175 million? For sure he'll just buy more crypto, like a common gambling addict.
  • Despite a huge amount of pumping by the major exchanges they haven't been able to keep Bitcoin much above 20K. All it will take is one recession and a bit of government regulation and the emperor will have no clothes and the value will go back to pennies. Even Elon Musk sold off most of his holdings..
  • A question that I am forced to consider morally; I am forced to look carefully in the mirror and reflect on my own ethics and conscience when you are about to do something like this? Yes, I may find the hard drive and recover the bitcoins. Yet, I lay awake alone in the darkness, unable to get to asleep. The demons found the the dark corners of the catacombs of my dreams are staring at me while silently projecting the questions into my soul! 1. The environmental damages? Can I live with them? 2. Is thi

  • good money after bad (Score:3)

    by bloodhawk ( 813939 ) on Tuesday July 26, 2022 @01:33AM (#62733918)
    It's a pointless waste of money, Garbage dumps are toxic places for humans at the best of times let alone for a hard drive, Chances of finding the drive are tiny, the chance of finding it in a condition that lets the data be recovered I would think are miniscule.
  • Can't help but feel like their singular focus on the hard-drive is a bit of a draw-back. If they're going to go to all this trouble automating and sorting garbage, there'd be more benefit in tying it into improvement of sortation, materials recovery, etc. There're many people trying to figure out more effective ways to process waste, and linking this into that process as a potential underwrite alongside it would be smarter than just looking for one hard-drive.

  • "See, I have this megawatt electric magnet here that I could use to go through the trash. Don't want me to use it? Give me a reason"

  • I think this has a better chance if (Score:3)

    by Deal In One ( 6459326 ) on Tuesday July 26, 2022 @02:49AM (#62734006)

    He also offered to sort out all the garbage that was being dug up for recycling.It will reduce the size of the dump / extend the life of the dump since it will be less full by the time he is done with it.

    And also maybe collect and provide data on what sort of garbage is coming in, hire some people to work on garbage reduction, etc.

    Am sure the local government will be more interested in such things then have someone dig up a dump and they get nothing in return.

  • How does the council know he's not an identity thief on the prowl for someone else's personal information?

    We, especially on slashdot of all places, know the implications of the phrase "dumpster diving" even in cases far less literal than this one.

    Sorry, but once it's in the trash, no takebacks.

    If they're responsible they'll not only tell him to bugger off but they'll have him arrested on trespassing charges if he goes looking for it.

    He should have thought about this before he put it in the rubbish b

  • Given how much any waste is moved by industrial machines before it gets to the final resting place, and how much mass is in waste per unit of volume, the drive is probably a crushed pancake with chip sprinkles by now.

  • he will not get the $11 million back from the bitcoins, in case he could found them. Today exchanges are not freezing transfers and withdrawals, what makes he think that some exchange will give him $11M three years in the future?

  • I think this scheme will reach fool saturation point.

  • Sigh (Score:2)

    by ledow ( 319597 )

    This idiot again.

    9 years buried under tons of rotting landfill, subject to rain, rust, corrosion, all manner of deterioration from biological and household chemical waste seeping through that pile, being crush, twisted, driven over and moved with bulldozers.

    There's no way that drive has survived. Give it up. And next time you have some digital asset you want to keep, no matter the value, back it up.

    • I don't know much about landfills, but my understanding is that things degrade *less* in a landfill. Even things like newspaper are readable much later. I think this is a stupid idea and I hope it's not approved. The ride *to* the landfill would have been pretty brutal. First the crusher in a trash truck. Then dumped and pushed around by a bulldozer. But once safely in the landfill surrounded by whatever, as long as no moisture gets into the enclosure, I imagine that the insides would be pretty mechan
  • Sometimes your only purpose in life is to be a warning to others. Perhaps the guy should capitalize on his story and become a spokesperson for some cloud backup company. Not going to make $176M, but better than losing $11M.

  • Howells told reporters he'd take the government to court

    I admit I'm not exactly well-versed in UK law, but I'd *love* to know what the legal basis would be for this.

  • The chances of finding that drive are probably somewhere between zero and none. However, those investors' $11M would give him a nice retirement in a country without extradition treaties.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mysidia ( 191772 )

      But hey, if they DO find the drive, then he can pitch Idea Number 2 to Investors which is to pay another few Million costs for an attempted Data Recovery project, since the drive will be so far gone that extraordinary efforts would may required.

  • I guess he has learned the importance of a backup...

  • A spokesperson for the local government told Insider Howells could present or say "nothing" that would convince them to go along with the plan, citing ecological risk.

    "nothing" is pretty strong there, I mean why such an extreme? The job certainly CAN be done in a way that the environmental risks should be pretty minimal. Don't get me wrong - I think the guy is a dope for wanting to try this, He SHOULD be required to comply with stringent health and safety standards. Doing this right is likely to fantastically expensive and the town should certainly require he put some additional monies up front that will be held in escrow should there be any special clean up required. However if he is willing to do do those things I don't see why they are so dead set on keeping out of the dump.

    Would they respond to the police or a local prosecutor the same way if they wanted to look for evidence of a crime? I can also understand the desire to say 'no' to stop others from wanting to go future dump diving efforts but; the risk of that becoming disruptive seems pretty low as long as they really do make the guy food the entire bill. I really doubt there are going to be many people that want drop a few hundred Gs to go sifting thru the trash, without some damn good reasons.

  • Let the History Channel run with this one... a fabulous treasure, BURIED under piles of garbage...... CAN THIS MAN find it? ARE ALIENS INVOLVED? ...... Cut to hours of pointless digging, interspersed with interviews of crackpot experts and local residents in mumus.
  • Landfills don't just dump trash randomly, they fan out from a central area and cover the waste with a layer of dirt to keep the trash from blowing away. It could be possible to review satellite images to get a general idea of the locations. Pits could be dug and a search of trash for date indicators (like old mail or newspaper) can be used to date the areas.

  • Ah, yes, The Magic Christian, final scene

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

  • . If the council says no -- again -- Howells told reporters he'd take the government to court.
    Good luck with that.

    He threw it away. Therefore, legally he is No longer the owner of that property anymore, and it belongs to the landfill; there will be no grounds in court, and investor money would be wasted (It will probably end up wasted even if the project is allowed). The government does Not have to allow an excavation project - if the council doesn't think it's in the public interest, then they'll

  • As if the crypto didn't waste enough resources by being mined in the first place, it now has to be physically mined at yet more expense and wasted fossil fuels. To complete the circle, could this guy invest in a coalmine with the Bitcoin he recovers?!

  • Its sad - the *potential* of that money (that he'll almost certainly never get) has basically ruined this guy's life.

  • If the drive first went in tho the back of a garbage truck it would have been compressed into a very compact space and thus possibly destroying the connectors on the drive as well as destroying the circuit board attached, so those would likely have to be replaced.

    A hard drive in the trash stands a good possibility of being pulled from the garbage heap for recycling.

    If it was passed under extremely strong electromagnets, strong enough to pull out iron and steel from the garbage stream then although the

  • If this genius really knows where on the blockchain his bitcoins are, can't he just "sponsor" a 51% "attack" on the blockchain to assign the bitcoins to him? Just contract with enough of the miners to collectively agree to put in the transfer.

    Would be a lot cheaper than $11 million...

  • This stupid idea is probably just some kind of formality as part of a longer process to try and get money out of the city using the lawsuit.

    This smells suspiciously like some kind of silly ploy to fake a proposed compromise (and a ludicrous one at that) before filing a lawsuit in which the plaintiff is expecting a settlement.

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