The main character in this story is James Howells – a man who is perhaps the unluckiest in the world. The reason is quite simple: he is the person who caused a global stir by accidentally throwing away a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoins (BTC) in the trash.
Of course, at that time, Bitcoin was not considered a valuable asset as it is today. As a software engineer, James mined 8,000 Bitcoins in 2009, mainly to satisfy his passion for technology and computers.
However, this hobby had to come to an end due to a very humorous reason. His then-girlfriend, Halfina Eddy-Evans, constantly complained about the loud noise from the cooling fan of the PC, which kept her awake at night. From then on, James’s Bitcoin mining work ended, but he still managed to accumulate a decent amount.
More importantly, an incident occurred when he accidentally spilled lemonade on his computer, causing permanent damage. Nevertheless, he kept the hard drive worth 8,000 Bitcoins in a drawer. But in 2013, Halfina Eddy-Evans, when asked to tidy up her boyfriend’s room, immediately threw that hard drive into the trash bag.
The incident resurfaced when Halfina Eddy-Evans admitted that she was the one who threw away that massive fortune. With Bitcoin currently priced at nearly $100,000, 8,000 BTC would be worth around $800 million. According to Halfina Eddy-Evans, her only wish is for her boyfriend to find that money, not to help her become rich, but so that James can stop talking about it.
For his part, James has sued the Newport City Council, seeking damages of about $647 million for refusing to excavate the landfill that is burying his hard drive.