Woman Accidentally Throws Away $700 Million Worth of Bitcoin

James Howells (39 years old), living in Newport (England) has been buying Bitcoin since the early days of the appearance of this cryptocurrency. His private key - a type of digital key used to access funds - was stored on the hard drive of the male engineer's computer. He removed the hard drive when upgrading the computer and put it in a desk drawer. The hard drive remained in the drawer until 2013, when his wife accidentally threw it away during a cleanup. According to British media, a woman named Halfina Eddy-Evans admitted to being Howells' wife and admitted to taking the hard drive to a landfill in Wales. However, Eddy-Evans claimed that she did so at Howells' request. "The computer parts were thrown into a black bag along with other unwanted items. He personally begged me to take it away, saying there was a trash bag here that needed to be thrown away. I didn't know what was inside, but still reluctantly left it at the local dump on the way home after taking my child to school," Halfina Eddy-Evans said in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail. The mother of two teenage children also hopes that Howells will soon find the hard drive, not because she wants to share the money, but simply to avoid trouble. "People keep tagging me online with comments about how I caused him to lose a fortune. I hope he can find it more than anything. I'm sick of hearing about it. He's the father of my two sons, but I don't want a penny of this." Eddy-Evans shared. Howells has repeatedly requested the Newport City Council to grant him access to the landfill site at Docksway to search for the lost hard drive. However, the council refused due to environmental concerns, despite Howells offering the city 25% of the Bitcoin value (now reduced to 10%). In October, Howells announced that he was suing the Newport City Council for compensation for £495,314,800 (over $600 million) in damages. "In my opinion, the council is holding my assets without consent, and they are not allowing me to search for it. The last time I made a proposal a few weeks ago, they still refused," he said. After Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election, the price of Bitcoin continued to rise, now approaching $95,000. Howells speculates that next year, the Bitcoin on his hard drive could be worth £1 billion ($1.2 billion).