In 2013, Welsh computer engineer James Howells accidentally threw away a laptop hard drive containing the private key for 8,000 Bitcoin in the Docksway landfill in Newport, Wales. As an early adopter who began mining Bitcoin in February 2009, Howells later assembled a team of specialists and secured funding to excavate the site, but Newport City Council refused permission, citing risks like galvanic corrosion, dangerous gases, and hazardous materials. By February 2025, the missing Bitcoin had skyrocketed in value to £597 million (US$751 million), prompting Howells to sue the council for £495 million in December 2024, though the council argued the device was now its property. In January 2025, the High Court dismissed his claim, ruling it had no prospect of success, while Howells and his team remain confident the data can still be retrieved. The drive, buried under roughly 110,000–200,000 tonnes of waste, is believed to be in a specific 15,000-tonne section called Cell 2, but the council continues to express skepticism about the feasibility of recovery.