A British man has been searching for a lost hard drive with 8,000 bitcoins since 2013 and has already drawn up an $11 million business plan to recover it

A British man James Howells can safely claim to be the loser of the year and at the same time the most persistent person. And all because of the sad story related to the lost bitcoins.

What happened?

In 2013, James accidentally threw away a hard drive containing 8,000 bitcoins. It ended up in the local Howells landfill in Newport, Wales. Today, those bitcoins are worth a fortune - about $176 million. So it's no surprise that the man isn't letting up and continues to persist in his search for the hard drive.

So, James approached the case thoroughly: he brought in expert consultants, got funding from two investors and developed an $11 million business plan to recover the hard drive and bitcoins.

The budget for this plan includes two robot dogs, Spot, from Boston Dynamics, who will be involved in the search. It's worth noting right off the bat that one such robot costs about $75,000. According to the man, the robots will be used both for security as moving surveillance cameras and to scan the ground looking for the missing hard drive. The project will require two dogs so one can patrol while the other charges the battery.

Howells has even given the robots names, though they haven't been purchased yet. He named them Satoshi and Hal, after Satoshi Nakamoto (a pseudonym for the person or group of people who created bitcoin) and Hal Finney, the first recipient of a bitcoin transaction.

However, the Briton has a problem that he cannot solve: the city authorities deny him access to the landfill. According to officials, "Mr. Howells cannot present us with anything" that would convince the council to allow him access to the site. "His proposals pose significant environmental risks that we cannot accept and really cannot consider under the terms of our permit," they added.

Source: Insider