A UK judge has dismissed the long-running legal case brought by James Howells, who sought access to a landfill containing a hard drive containing more than $770 million worth of bitcoin. This concludes the 12-year saga of an IT engineer from Newport, Wales, which has captured the attention of the cryptocurrency community all these years.
In 2009, Howells mined 8,000 bitcoins, which had a very low value at the time but are now in circulation. $94,600paving the way for BTC’s significant comeback after its recent price decline.
However, Howells’ former partner accidentally disposed of the hard drive containing his private keys in 2013, making the funds inaccessible. He has since sought legal action to obtain permission to excavate at the Newport landfill. He even offered a share of the recovered bitcoin to the local council.
James Howells loses 12-year legal battle
Although Howells submitted repeated requests and put forward his proposal to drill, the Newport City Council rejected his appeals due to logistical and environmental concerns. The final blow came when Commercial Circuit Judge Keyser dismissed the case on the grounds of “no realistic prospect” of success. He noted that the research is like searching for a needle in a haystack and that it is simply not applicable.
“Anything that goes to the landfill becomes the property of the council,” the judge said.
Howells expressed his frustration after losing the 12-year legal battle, claiming that the authorities did not consider his case properly. However, he acknowledged that the court confirmed his ownership of Bitcoin. Now, he is left to explore alternative options such as tokenization to monetize his digital assets.
The Howells case is a cautionary tale for global cryptocurrency investors. Explains the importance of storing digital assets securely. Cryptocurrencies are different from traditional financial systems and need private keys to access them. Losing these keys may result in permanent loss of assets.
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