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James Howells, an IT engineer from Newport, Wales, has lost a decade-long legal battle to recover a hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin, valued at approximately $750 million. The hard drive, accidentally discarded in a Newport landfill in 2013, holds the private key necessary to access the cryptocurrency. Newport City Council consistently denied Howells’ requests to excavate the landfill, citing environmental risks, high costs, and ownership of the landfill contents. Judge Keyser KC dismissed Howells’ latest lawsuit, ruling that the claim had no realistic prospect of success. The court upheld the council's argument that the hard drive became its property upon entering the landfill under UK waste disposal laws. Howells had proposed funding the excavation through private investment and offering a percentage of the recovered Bitcoin to the council and community, but these offers were rejected. The court also noted that Howells’ claim was barred by the statute of limitations, as he delayed legal action for over a decade. Despite the ruling, Howells remains determined to explore alternative ways to recover his lost Bitcoin.