-
James Howell mined 8,000 Bitcoins in 2009 and by chance threw away the hard force containing his BTC wallet in 2013.
-
Howell spent over a decade seeking to enhance the hard force nonetheless faced many boundaries.
-
Howell stays dedicated to recovering his misplaced fortune and hopes for community and council make stronger.
In the early days of Bitcoin, a young pioneer named James Howell mined hundreds of coins when completely about a believed in their price. Years later, a pricey mistake build his digital fortune out of reach.
Enable us to assert the sage on the support of this misplaced like and the challenges of recovering it.
Early Bitcoin Pioneer: James Howell’s Scoot
In early 2009, James Howell used to be amongst the first five of us to flee Bitcoin draw and mined about 8,000 Bitcoins. He stopped mining at some level, and in 2013, he by chance threw away the hard force retaining his Bitcoin wallet, which ended up in a Newport landfill.
From Early Discovery to Lawful Roadblocks
In the summer season of 2013, when Bitcoin used to be around $40, James first observed the designate of his misplaced wallet skyrocketing at some level of Bitcoin’s first predominant bull flee. He approached Newport Metropolis Council and the landfill operator, and told them about the nearly $10 million in a tough force buried on the positioning, which he recalls as a “stress-free abilities”. Despite many makes an attempt to enhance it, he faced correct boundaries and used to be denied get entry to by the council.
Is Recovery Easy Imaginable?
Though the hard force’s casing is doubtless damaged attributable to environmental components, experts specialise in that the digital recordsdata interior could perhaps well aloof be retrieved the utilization of developed forensic tactics.
James Howell spent over ten years seeking to work with Newport Metropolis Council to enhance his misplaced Bitcoin hard force. Despite providing a 25% share, a proper £25M+ offer, bringing in expert restoration groups, and pursuing correct action, his efforts had been repeatedly skipped over or disregarded.
For over 12 years, I tried the whole lot to have interaction with Newport Metropolis Council:
•Public Proposals
•Percentages
•Mediation
•Lawful action
•AND a proper £25M+ offer$1 Billion and they skipped over it all.
No response. No common sense. No management.
They need me to present up, nonetheless pic.twitter.com/z9IWrurojD
— James Howells (@howelzy) August 4, 2025
James has aloof no longer given up and continues to bring together replacement methods to enhance his misplaced fortune.
New Hope Through Ceiniog Coin: A Bitcoin DeFi Vision
He has now made a brand unusual understanding to tokenize the Bitcoin wallet by increasing a brand unusual cryptocurrency known as Ceiniog coin. This token would replicate the certain quantity of Bitcoin misplaced and offers a components for the community to support fund the excavation by seeking to bring together tokens.
If profitable, token holders is maybe rewarded with Bitcoin from the wallet.
But I am carried out asking permission.
So I’m tokenizing the total wallet – 8,000 BTC – into 800B Ceiniog Coin (INI) – 1:1 satoshi price match
• Constructed on Bitcoin
• Powered by OP_RETURN
• Integrates with Stacks, Runes, Ordinals
• Launching Late-2025The vault is mine, and I insist: pic.twitter.com/mC3pPK3qcm
— James Howells (@howelzy) August 4, 2025
James envisions the Ceiniog coin as more than real a token; it’s a long way a Bitcoin-focused DeFi utility, bringing unusual exercise cases to the Bitcoin network by integrating with platforms like Stacks, Runes, and Ordinals, launching boring 2025.
His goal is to revive Bitcoin’s normal motive as a behold-to-behold digital money system reasonably than real a store of price.
Despite dealing with many roadblocks, James stays dedicated to this unusual components, hoping the community will make stronger his vision.
