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Bitcoin

Treasure seekers hunt £4.1m Bitcoin trove at Welsh landfill

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By John Glenday, Reporter

November 28, 2013 | 2 min read

Groups of treasure hunters are being barred entry to the unlikely location of a Welsh landfill site following rumours of the burial there of a hard drive containing over £4.1m worth of Bitcoins.

The scramble was instigated by the owner of the hard drive, who posted a message on Reddit to claim that they had inadvertently chucked out a Dell laptop containing the fortune during a clear out several months ago.

Contained within it were over 7,500 Bitcoins with a market value of £4.1m, but which are now believed to be languishing at the bottom of a waste recycling plant in Pillgwenlly, Newport.

The fortune was amassed in 2009 by an automated process of solving mathematical problems in exchange for Bitcoins, prior to the recent spike in value of the currency which has seen the virtual money soar in value by over 4,000 per cent.

IT worker James Howells, who owned the laptop, told the guardian: “"I had a word with one of the guys down there, explained the situation. And he actually took me out in his truck to where the landfill site is, the current ditch they're working on.

“It's about the size of a football field, and he said something from three or four months ago would be about three or four feet down."

Newport Council has promised to hand over the hard drive should they stumble upon it.

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