WEBVTT

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- Have you ever accidentally
tossed something

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in the trash you didn't mean to?

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Something like a phone
bill, or even your car keys?

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How much does this thing need to be worth

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before you declare you'll turn over

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an entire landfill looking for it?

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Back in 2013, former IT
worker James Howells said

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he tossed a hard drive in the trash.

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He learned that the hard drive

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was the only device
containing the passcode

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to access his crypto wallet.

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That 8,000 Bitcoin locked
inside is now worth

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around $180 million.

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Though it's crypto,

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so the price keeps going
up and down each day.

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He's pleaded to the local
government in Newport, Wales

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to let him dig for his drive,

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but for years, they've told him, yeah, no.

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They're concerned it could cause

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an expensive ecological disaster

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if he goes and digs up
their local landfill.

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But now our dumpster diver
has cooked up a strategy

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for the ultimate form of Bitcoin mining.

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In an interview with Business Insider,

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Howells said he's submitting
an $11 billion business plan

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to the local government.

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He's even got a squad
of eight experts in AI,

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waste management and more
to show just how clean

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this landfill reclamation
operation will be.

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He's even said he'll buy two
Boston Dynamic robot dogs

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to add extra security and to
use cameras to scan the ground.

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Why robot dogs, you may ask.

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Well, probably to make the whole operation

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sound more technologically advanced.

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He doesn't have the dogs yet,

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but apparently he's already named them,

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and of course both names are related

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to the start of Bitcoin.

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He's promised the local government

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to give the city 25% of the
proceeds if he finds his drive,

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but the city council is
still wrinkling their nose

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at his scheme.

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There's no telling if the disk

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inside the hard drive isn't damaged

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and of course, landfill
reclamation can result

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in the release of greenhouse
gasses like methane,

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along with other ground pollutants,

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as if crypto mining wasn't dirty enough.

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But Howells is desperate

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and he told Insider that

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if the council tells him no one more time,

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he may just take the city to court.

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Imagine having to explain to a judge

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how you accidentally threw
out millions of dollars,

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but that it's all contained

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on a single brick-sized hard drive sitting

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among a literal mountain of trash.

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I don't envy him, is all I can say.

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To read more about this story,

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check out Gizmodo.com.