James Howells searches for hard drive with £4m-worth of bitcoins stored

[MKR&*42]

A Newport man has been searching a landfill site in south Wales hoping to find a computer hard drive he threw away which is now worth over £4m. James Howells's hard drive contains 7,500 bitcoins - which is a virtual form of currency for use online.

It had sat in a drawer for years and he had forgotten it contained the bitcoins, which he obtained in 2009 for almost nothing, when he threw it out. But this week, a single bitcoin's value hit $1,000 (£613) for the first time. It means Mr Howells's collection is now worth $7.5m (£4.6m).

A few years ago Mr Howells, who works in IT, had dismantled his computer after spilling a drink on it. "I stored a couple of parts away like the hard drive, and the rest of the bits and pieces which were still working I sold for spares," he told BBC Radio Wales.

"I kept the hard drive in a drawer in my office for three years without a second thought - totally forgot about bitcoin all together. I had been distracted by family life and moving house.

Woops.

[Kardan]

Why would he tell people? I mean, I know it's pretty improbable, but if there is a chance you can find £4.6m lying around, I'm sure at least some people would go looking... (Although mind you, they'd have to test the hard drives and what not...)
Anyways, good luck to him, he'll need it.

[-:Undertaker:-]

Good luck to him lol.

[FlyingJesus]

lmao if it was recent enough for it to still be there and not destroyed I wouldn't be doing a solo search I'd pay out to get help with the find, unlucky though if the Silk Road thing had all gone ahead just 2 days earlier than it did I'd have been able to get about £200 out of the £20 I put in a few days before but oh well lol

[xxMATTGxx]

Just watched the video on the BBC article, I would say he pretty much has no chance in finding it and if he does or someone does then they are quite lucky

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25138627

[AgnesIO]

Honestly cannot believe the value of BTC already.

Gutted I didn't buy a load in January when I had the chance...

[Alkaz]

What are bitcoins?

[j0rd]

Live pretty close, might go for a snoop myself

[AgnesIO]

What are bitcoins?

http://bit.ly/L1eKcn

[Callum.]

Works in IT and doesn't destroy the hard drive, what is this man doing.