Wales
2 updates
28 November 2013

Man's £4m Bitcoin loss

An IT worker from Newport claims to have accidentally thrown away £4 million in Bitcoins. James Howells told the Guardian he had amassed the fortune in 2009 when the coins were practically worthless, but the online currency has since risen in value.

Live updates

We've all heard of the phrase where there's muck there's brass...

One man's certainly hoping that's true after mistakenly throwing away a computer hard drive with information on it that's worth more than £4 million.

James Howells from Newport had 7,500 Bitcoins - an online virtual currency - and it's now worth a fortune.

He's digging on a rubbish tip near Newport and hoping to find his old computer.

Rupert Evelyn has been to meet him.

IT worker James Howells threw away the hard disk containing the key to the currency this summer Credit: Athena Picture Agency

James posted a picture of the landfill site on his Twitter account Credit: @howelzy

It's thought the hard drive could be buried beneath several feet of landfill Credit: Athena Picture Agency

Wales

Man's £4m Bitcoin loss

Live updates

Newport man 'devastated' by £4m Bitcoins loss

Newport man 'threw away disk with £4m of Bitcoins'

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