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Man Who Lost £300 Million Bitcoin Hardrive Has Hired NASA Expert To Find It

Man Who Lost £300 Million Bitcoin Hardrive Has Hired NASA Expert To Find It

James Howells lost over £300 million in Bitcoin after throwing out his hard drive

The man who reportedly lost £340 million in Bitcoin after throwing away his hard drive has recruited people who worked with NASA to help him find it.

James Howells, 36 fears that his whopping fortune might be lost under piles of rubbish after he threw his treasure chest into a tip in Newport, Wales, in 2013.

Earlier this year he was refused permission to search by the council - despite offering them a quarter of any fortune found.

In a huge bid to carry out his search, he has looked into the availability of data experts, environmentalists and engineers from around the globe.

He is now looking at a company named 'Ontrack', which is hired by NASA.

Alamy

They are known for salvaging the battered hard drive from the Columbia space shuttle after it plunged to Earth in 2003 - despite being found in a dried up lake six months later.

The Minneapolis company even managed to recover 99 percent of the data.

Ontrack believe that they can salvage between 80 and 90 percent if his hard drive can be found.

James told The Sun: "I have put together a full consortium of experts in the field to refute all of the claims that the council has said it has concerns over.

"I've spoken to data recovery experts who have worked with NASA on the Columbia space shuttle disaster.

"They were able to recover from a shuttle that exploded and they don't seem to think that being at a landfill will be a problem."

"The current valuation is £342million but around a week ago it was at its peak of £420million," he said.

"That's a lot of Bitcoin just sat there in the ground and I have no doubt whatsoever that in the next year it's going to be worth, £550million, £600million, or even £700million.

"It could be the case that the hard drive is worth a billion dollars and failing to act on it will be incompetence on behalf of the council.

"It's not a problem that's going to go away."

BBC

He added: "The council say they worry about who will meet the cost if it's not recoverable but all of that would be part of a signed contract.

"I'm asking them for a three month feasibility study so we could sit down outline our plans and they could put forward their concerns and we can answer them, but they won't give me that."

After the council wouldn't give him permission earlier on in the year, he said said: "There's pot of gold for someone at the end of the rainbow - and that ends in the landfill site."

Featured Image Credit: BBC