He hit the headlines. In 2013, James Howells lost 8,000 bitcoins, then valued at $176 million (although the value of the cryptocurrency fluctuates), after accidentally dumping the hard drive where they were stored. According to Business Insider, it was then determined that the famous hard drive was in a landfill in Newport, Wales. Nine years later, the man did not seem to lose hope and came up with a crazy plan, estimated at eleven million dollars, to get his bitcoins back. According to our colleagues, he intends to use robotic dogs (Spot Dogs) from Boston Dynamics.
These yellow and black robots first hit the market in 2020 and are priced at $75,000. Since then, they have been used in many situations, such as in Singapore where they monitored parks during the Covid-19 pandemic to enforce social distancing. The Spot robot is also used for sweeping, construction projects or herd monitoring. For James Howells, they should be used not only for security as a surveillance camera, but also to scan the earth for his hard drive. Why two? Because one will search and the other will take care of the battery.
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City council unfavorable
According to Business Insider, James Howells would have developed his plan of action with specialists and experts in the sector and would have secured his funding through two venture capital firms. Now it remains to convince the city council to conduct its study, which is still far from easy. Since 2013, the city of Newport has never allowed him to conduct searches, and his chances are still slim. The city council member even let go: “Mr. Howells can’t present us with anything that would make us change our minds.”
For the municipality, the proposals made so far “pose a significant environmental risk”. However, she is not ready to take this into account. But James Howells has more ideas and already knows what he could call his Spot dogs, namely “Satoshi” and “Hal”, referring to one of the founders of bitcoin and the very first recipient of a cryptocurrency transaction. In January 2021, the Brit deplored the “meaningless stance of the city council”, but the city council, for its part, highlighted the staggering costs of research and, above all, “the permission not to search the site”. . The arrival of investors can change the situation.
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