Man’s Odds of Winning Lottery Better Than Finding Dumped £600 Million Bitcoin Drive

James Howells faces the daunting task of finding a lost hard drive containing £600 million worth of bitcoin that was mistakenly thrown away by his former partner. Despite losing a high court case to allow him to search for the hard drive in a landfill site, Howells remains determined to recover his fortune. The hard drive contains 8,000 bitcoins that he mined back in 2009 when only a handful of people were involved in cryptocurrency mining.

Initially, these bitcoins held little value, with the first real-world transaction using the currency occurring in 2010 when someone bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins. However, over the years, the value of bitcoin has skyrocketed, with a single bitcoin exceeding $100,000 in December 2024. This surge in value now places Howells’ lost bitcoins at a staggering £600 million, making the search for his hard drive all the more urgent.

However, the odds of locating a small hard drive within a vast landfill site are astronomically low. The Docksway landfill in Newport, Wales, spans approximately 500,000 square meters, equivalent to 70 football pitches, with a depth of 20 meters filled with decades of waste. The hard drive, measuring 70 cubic centimeters, presents a one in 143 billion chance of being found at a randomly selected location within the landfill – more than 3,000 times less likely than winning the UK’s National Lottery jackpot.

To further complicate matters, the time and cost involved in searching for the hard drive within the landfill are significant factors to consider. Estimating that it would take 1 second to search every 1,000 cubic centimeters within the landfill, a single individual searching continuously would require 316 years to cover the entire site. This timescale could be reduced by enlisting a team to assist in the search.

Despite the daunting odds and logistical challenges, the potential reward of recovering £600 million in lost bitcoins motivates Howells to pursue his search for the hard drive. The remarkable rise in bitcoin value since its inception adds a sense of urgency to the quest, as the lost fortune represents a life-changing sum of money. While the task of finding the hard drive may seem like finding a needle in a haystack, the promise of a considerable financial windfall keeps hope alive for Howells and anyone daring enough to tackle the formidable challenge ahead.