Howells said he had two identical laptop hard drives and he accidentally threw the drive with the cryptographic "private key" that he needed to access his coins in the trash.
Howells is reportedly confident that he would be able to retrieve the key and recover the bitcoin. If the platter inside the hard drove is still intact, data recovery experts could rebuild the drive and read the data from the platter. The drive, which he threw away eight years ago, is the only way to regain access to the coins.
Unfortunately, retrieving the hard drive would not be an easy task. Howells will first need to gain permission from local council to search the garbage dump since the landfill is not open to the public. After that, Howells would have to dig through eight years worth of garbage.
Howells has offered to donate 25% (around $70.8 million) of the bitcoin to a Covid Relief Fund for his city if he is able to find the drive. Unfortunately, city council has rejected his requests so far and they are showing no signs of letting up any time soon.
For more information, including information on how you might avoid these risks, see the following prior blog posts:
The Strange Case of Crypto Exchange QuadrigaCX: Death and a Missing $200 Million
LegalVault® Offers Solution to Estate Planning Challenges of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies
Source: Man makes last-ditch effort to recover $280 million in bitcoin he accidentally threw out, CNBC News, January 15, 2021.
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