IT 工程师在长达十年的法律斗争中输掉了垃圾填埋场丢失的比特币财富

来自威尔士纽波特的 IT 工程师詹姆斯·豪厄尔斯 (James Howells) 因比特币财富损失而展开长达十年的法律斗争，最终以失望告终。

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.

一名威尔士 IT 工程师在长达 10 年的法律诉讼中败诉，该诉讼旨在进入垃圾填埋场并回收包含 8,000 个比特币的废弃硬盘。

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.

来自纽波特的詹姆斯·豪厄尔斯 (James Howells) 原本希望获得挖掘该遗址的许可，或者获得 4.95 亿英镑的补偿，将找到的比特币的一部分提供给市议会和当地社区。

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.

但据英国广播公司报道，卡迪夫高等法院的一名法官驳回了他对纽波特市议会的诉讼，裁定这一指控没有“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.

该硬盘于 2013 年被意外丢弃，截至撰写本文时，其目前价值约为 700-7.5 亿美元，而比特币最近已突破每单位 94,000 美元以上。

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

豪威尔斯是比特币的早期采用者，他在 2009 年开采了这种加密货币，当时它的价值可以忽略不计。

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

尽管进行了多次谈判并组建了专家小组进行恢复工作，但该委员会仍然坚持认为，由于环境法规，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.

据报道，该垃圾填埋场容纳了 140 万吨垃圾，但豪厄尔斯声称已将硬盘位置精确到了 10 万吨垃圾填埋场。

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

据英国广播公司报道，豪威尔斯对这一裁决表示沮丧，称其为“一记重拳”。

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·豪威尔斯应该竞选当地政府，承诺找到驱动器并将一半的钱捐给当地 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.

豪厄尔斯对比特币的所有权没有受到争议，他提供了采矿活动的证据，并提供了一名证人证实了他的故事。

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

然而，法院最终站在了市议会一边，理由是环境问题和当局对垃圾填埋场内容的所有权。

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，挖掘该地点将涉及令人不安的“大量”废物，并指出市议会有责任保护环境和当地社区。

“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 总结道：“原告没有为他的主张提供任何合理的理由，即理事会为他托管比特币，或者他对比特币拥有任何专有权益。”

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

“比特币一旦被扔进垃圾箱，就成为废物和理事会财产的一部分。”

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.

该裁决为这一引起世界各地关注的传奇故事画上了一个新的篇章，引发了有关所有权、环保主义和数字资产性质的讨论。