Check those dumpster hard drives. A man is trying to recover a hard drive containing $750 million of bitcoin from a landfill.

106

u/MidniteOG 10h ago

This has been going on for some time. He won’t ever get it

11

u/-----_____---___-_ 3h ago

It’s in the news every time the price goes up. I always felt bad for the guy, however it was clear the first time that it was a total loss; he’s like the Raygun of crypto.

4

u/Skooby1Kanobi 2h ago

The dude is a moron and I can't care about his shit. Who the fuck throws out a hard drive? Seriously. I have every one that has ever been in my possession. All but one are funtional. The dead one isn't a big deal because I started backups by that time. I just opened it up to try to unjam it but it's still jammed. I will be braking the platter myself before recycling or tossing it.

25

u/Low_Employ8454 9h ago

I love how he is POSITIVE that it is at the landfill. I’ve intercepted at least 100 laptops in the last 10 years. Obviously none were his.. but I’m just saying. I’m just one person that walks around my one city, periodically looking in the trash.

No one should assume they know where their discarded items have ended up.

4

u/uski 4h ago

People are very often reckless when they discard computer equipment. I was once looking into my stash of old hard drives to check one was empty, before reusing it.

As I browse the drive I think, wait a minute, this is not my stuff... I open the Desktop folder and see: copies of tax returns, complete with SSN, and other sensitive stuff. I stopped looking immediately and wiped the drive but I wonder what else was there.

I forgot this was a hard drive I recovered from a laptop that was thrown away. Evidently the IT dept didn't clean anything. It was part of several laptops that were decomissioned by a company and thrown as bulk. Perfectly functional by the way and I still use one of these to this day, it was 5 years ago...

A few lessons: 1) Never trust anyone else with your sensitive data, encrypt it at rest 2) As you point out, you never know who may be the next person looking into your hardware when you discard it 3) Companies routinely throw away perfectly functional and serviceable equipment

In another fun and similar situation: I bought an automotive tool from China (AliExpress) a few years back, that comes with a microSD card. I wanted to do some analysis/reverse engineering on that tool firmware upgrade process and used a data recovery tool on the microSD card, the same type of tool you use to "undelete" deleted files. There was a 128x160 asian porn movie in there!!! Evidently the microSD card has been recycled and was probably on someone's phone in the 1990/2000s...

So there IS an active economy of reusing storage devices. It's completely possible his Bitcoin keys were wiped 10x and the harddrive is now in a factory somewhere running a laser cutter or some other random thing

49

u/EcharUnVistazo 11h ago

Howells says that in 2013, he accidentally discarded a laptop hard drive containing 8,000 bitcoins in a garbage bag, which ended up at the landfill site. He says he mistook the hard drive for another identical drive he owned, which was blank.

32

u/phatyogurt 11h ago

The council won’t let him search the landfill because they already beat him to it…

3

u/Beagle001 10h ago

Why not just let him search then? If he can’t find it, that doesn’t point towards someone else found it. Just means to keep looking.

8

u/phatyogurt 9h ago

It’d be a huge operation. In the article the guy talks about how he’d use robot dogs and AI technology to sort through a conveyer belt of landfill junk to find the laptop. The landfill is government property, and if someone gets hurt, it’s on them. Easier to just say no in the first place lol

3

u/ChunkyLaFunga 4h ago edited 2h ago

The benefits to the local government entirely hinge on the money being found and usable, which isn't terribly likely. Otherwise it's just him running a massive garbage operation on their turf. Maybe he can crowdfund or whatever the millions needed to cover the work up front but it's fundamentally some random guy taking over their stuff because of a theory. I guess it's a bit like conspiracy theories, you have to indulge basically none of the them because once you start...

I do feel for the guy, it must be a unique kind of intense torture. I hope he's putting a lot into therapy but I don't suppose the maybe of it will ever go away.

Edit: Also the hard drive has transferred ownership and he has no legal right to it even if it were sitting in plain view on top of the pile. If he'd sold the drive on eBay and tried to sue to get it back, it would be no different. His claims are being thrown out so succinctly because he has no case, no entitlement to what he wants, and is trying to bribe and media-blackmail his way into an agreement instead.

10

u/DharmaBaller 9h ago

I lived with someone who lost access to their account for a few months.

Tried hypnotherapy and everything.

Finally got back in... over $200k+ or something

5

u/MooPig48 10h ago

I mean unless the wallet key is with it very unlikely you could access them

5

u/ironwheatiez 10h ago

Assuming it's been exposed to moisture... wouldn't that most likely fuck the harddrive anyway?

8

u/BathroomEyes 10h ago

Moisture and heat. Those piles can grow quite hot due to the decomposition of organic matter.

5

u/Shreddersaurusrex 8h ago

I know he’s kicking himself.

Some of my family are throw away happy. I’d rather hold on to something and make sure I absolutely don’t need it. Double checking before I toss anything too.

2

u/bustergundam4 7h ago

My guy I do the same thing.

2

u/undeadlamaar 3h ago

And eventually you get around to finally throwing some of it out, and two weeks later something happens and you go, "fuck I could've used that"

3

u/pointy-sticks 10h ago

Last update on this was that the judge denied him access to the landfill.

2

u/northforkjumper 8h ago

If I had access to recycle hard drives what would even look for and where?

1

u/Affectionate_Seat959 7h ago

There is a big magnet on top of the hard drive.

1

u/ViolettaHunter 5h ago

750 million.

How can you accidently throw that away.

2

u/Longjumping_Walrus_4 4h ago

He didn't, his now ex-wife did.

1

u/ThePsychicSoviet 1h ago

So dumb that digital money is held in a digital piggy bank. Why is it not in an account?

-4

u/YuggaYobYob 10h ago

I thought I read that he found the drive but it was some early varient of bitcoin thats only worth like $800 bucks today or something