In 2013, IT engineer James Howells was cleaning out his house.
He had two identical hard drives: one he put in a safe place, the
other he threw away.
One hard drive was blank and the other contained files from an
old computer, including the private keys needed to access a wallet
containing 7,500 Bitcoin.
Unfortunately for Mr Howells, he had mixed up the two
drives.
Today, Mr Howells' discarded Bitcoin are worth about $170
million. For the last five years, his efforts to persuade Newport
City Council in Wales to permit excavation of the local dump have
failed.
This, despite offering the city 25 per cent of whatever is
recovered.
Perhaps one day, Mr Howells will find his hard drive. In the
meantime, all those involved with digital assets can learn a
valuable lesson from his mistake, which highlights the unique
nature of such assets.
