IT 工程師在長達十年的法律鬥爭中輸掉了垃圾掩埋場失去的比特幣財富

來自威爾斯紐波特的 IT 工程師詹姆斯·豪厄爾斯 (James Howells) 因比特幣財富損失而展開長達十年的法律鬥爭，最終以失望告終。

A Welsh IT engineer has lost his decade-long legal battle to access a landfill and recover a discarded hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoins.

一名威爾斯 IT 工程師在長達 10 年的法律訴訟中敗訴，該訴訟旨在進入垃圾掩埋場並回收包含 8,000 個比特幣的廢棄硬碟。

James Howells, from Newport, had hoped to obtain permission to excavate the site or receive £495 million in compensation, offering a share of the recovered Bitcoin to the council and the local community.

來自紐波特的詹姆斯·豪厄爾斯 (James Howells) 原本希望獲得挖掘該遺址的許可，或者獲得 4.95 億英鎊的補償，將找到的比特幣的一部分提供給市議會和當地社區。

But a Cardiff High Court judge has dismissed his lawsuit against Newport City Council, ruling there were no “reasonable grounds” for the claim, the BBC reports.

但據英國廣播公司報道，卡迪夫高等法院的一名法官駁回了他對紐波特市議會的訴訟，裁定這項指控沒有「合理理由」。

The hard drive, which was accidentally thrown away in 2013, is now valued at around $700-750 million at the time of writing, with Bitcoin recently hitting above $94,000 per unit.

該硬碟於 2013 年被意外丟棄，截至撰寫本文時，目前價值約為 700-7.5 億美元，而比特幣最近已突破每單位 94,000 美元以上。

Howells, an early Bitcoin adopter, had mined the cryptocurrency in 2009 when it had negligible value.

豪威爾斯是比特幣的早期採用者，他在 2009 年開採了這種加密貨幣，當時它的價值可以忽略不計。

Despite repeated negotiations and assembling a team of experts for the recovery effort, the council maintained that excavation was impossible due to environmental regulations.

儘管進行了多次談判並組建了專家小組進行恢復工作，但該委員會仍然堅持認為，由於環境法規，挖掘工作是不可能的。

The landfill reportedly holds 1.4 million tonnes of waste, but Howells claims to have pinpointed the hard drive’s location to a 100,000-tonne section.

據報道，該垃圾掩埋場容納了 140 萬噸垃圾，但豪厄爾斯聲稱已將硬碟位置精確到了 10 萬噸垃圾掩埋場。

Reacting to the ruling, Howells expressed frustration, calling it a “kick in the teeth,” according to the BBC.

根據英國廣播公司報道，豪厄爾斯對這項裁決表示沮喪，稱其為「一記重拳」。

James Howells should run for local government on a pledge to find the drive and give half the money to the local area https://t.co/kWl56XIWuK

詹姆斯·豪威爾斯應該競選當地政府，承諾找到驅動器並將一半的錢捐給當地 https://t.co/kWl56XIWuK

Howells’ ownership of the Bitcoins was not contested, having provided evidence of the mining activity and presenting a witness who corroborated his story.

豪厄爾斯對比特幣的所有權沒有受到爭議，他提供了採礦活動的證據，並提供了一名證人證實了他的故事。

However, the court ultimately sided with the council, citing environmental concerns and the authority’s ownership of the landfill contents.

然而，法院最終站在了委員會的一邊，理由是環境問題和當局對垃圾掩埋場內容的所有權。

The judge noted that excavating the site would involve disturbing “vast quantities” of waste and noted the council’s responsibility to protect the environment and local community.

法官指出，挖掘該地點將涉及令人不安的「大量」廢物，並指出市議會有責任保護環境和當地社區。

“The claimant has not established any reasonable grounds for his claim that the council holds the bitcoin on trust for him or that he has any proprietary interest in the bitcoin,” Judge Keyser KC concluded.

法官 Keyser KC 總結道：“原告沒有為他的主張提供任何合理的理由，即理事會為他託管比特幣，或者他對比特幣擁有任何專有權益。”

“The bitcoin, once discarded in the dustbin, became part of the waste and the property of the council.”

“比特幣一旦被扔進垃圾箱，就成為廢物和理事會財產的一部分。”

The ruling closes a chapter in a saga that has attracted attention from around the world, sparking discussions on ownership rights, environmentalism and the nature of digital assets.

這項裁決為這項引起世界各地關注的傳奇故事畫上了一個新的篇章，引發了有關所有權、環保主義和數位資產性質的討論。