Quote from: Jet Cash on January 13, 2025, 05:19:32 PM

With all that money involved, he ought to have done a deal with the council rather than going to court. If he had offered to split the proceeds with the council, I bet they would have taken him up on the offer. He should have done that right at the beginning. I expect the drive has been recycled into a Chinese rocket by now.

We can't say that he didn't try, because a few years ago he offered a significant amount to the city council in case the HDD was found and they managed to save the coins. They refused because they probably believe that the operation itself is dangerous for the environment, and possibly that even if the HDD is found, no data could be saved.

As far as recycling is concerned, nowadays most of the old IT equipment from Europe ends up in countries of the Far East, but it is possible that 10+ years ago this was not the case. The HDD is somewhere deep under the piles of garbage (at least what's left of it).

Quote from: https://www.businessinsider.com/man-offers-council-70-million-dig-up-bitcoin-hard-drive-2021-1?op=1

A man from the Welsh city of Newport has offered his city council a 25% cut of his 7,500 bitcoins if it allows him to excavate the landfill where he threw away a hard drive containing the fortune in 2013.