James Howels accidentally discards a hard disk drive containing Bitcoin. Photo Source = Yonhap News
[아시아경제 나한아 기자] A British man who accidentally discarded a hard disk drive containing about 300 billion won worth of bitcoin has promised a large donation to local authorities to dig a landfill to recover it.
According to a major foreign press on the 16th (local time), James Howells, an IT industry worker in Newport, Wales, UK, said that his drive with bitcoin appears to be buried in a landfill. Billion won) to the Newport City Council.
He said that the drive contains 7,500 bitcoins. Currently, the price of 1 bitcoin is KRW 41 million, and he is currently worth about KRW 37.5 billion.
He, who had been mining cryptocurrencies since 2009, said that at the time, the value of bitcoin was very low and he forgot about the existence of this drive.
After that, when the price of 1 bitcoin soared to $1,200 (about 1.3 million won), Howells decided to look for this drive, but found out that in June or August 2013, he accidentally discarded it.
He planned to find a dump site, track the drive’s whereabouts, and use a coordinate reference system to dig a specific part of the landfill.
“If I get my bitcoin back, I will donate 25% of my bitcoin, or £52.5 million,” said Howells. “If the promise is fulfilled, 316,000 Newport City residents will each receive £175. You can get it,” he said.
He explained, “I give the remaining half to those who have invested in this plan, and I have the remaining 25%.”
However, the authorities said they could not dig the area he said due to environmental issues.
Newport City Council said, “Currently, this is not allowed.”
Reporter Han-ah Na [email protected]