this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2025
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Even if he bought it, the environmental issues of excavation would still stand.
Even if he found it, it's an old spinning disk HDD. Survival is incredibly unlikely.
And if it did survive, he'd need to still remember the key for the encryption he put on the drive.
The story is local to me. I've seen it develop over the years, popping up in the local rags whenever BTC price has spiked and when he's been in and out of court over it.
Few people can say they've made an almost billion dollar mistake. The whole debacle has consumed the man and probably denied him a lot of life lived.
I wonder if he could find a company willing to mine the landfill for resources. If the hard drive is in there, that means they don’t recycle the metals first. He might be able to offset some of the risk by selling contents like this, and by selling the methane for electricity generation. Also teaming up with a documentary film maker/selling the rights to his story could make him a little cash. Kinda like what was done with the Atari cartridge burial dig.
Or maybe the current owners do pull the metals first and he’s just screwed because the drive has already been recycled.
Also wondering why this dude didn’t keep backups. Nevermind the bitcoin, what about family photos, tax returns, etc?
If disposed by a member of the public, HWRCs (Household Waste Recycling Centres) here ask that you presort waste and dispose correctly on site. It probably went into the landfill because whoever disposed of it bunged it in non-recyclables with other unsorted waste, instead of WEEE waste.
They will also happily take functional or repairable goods directly to refurb and resell at a 'tip shop'.
He's not the first and won't be the last to be taught a lesson in backups. A particularly hard lesson for him.