In brief: James Howells, the man who has spent more than a decade trying to recover a hard drive containing more than $750 million worth of Bitcoin from a landfill, is not giving up on his quest for fortune. After a judge threw out his request to dig at the site last month, Howells is now considering buying the facility, which is due to be closed.
A hot potato: A widespread scandal involving used Seagate hard drives fraudulently sold as new has continued to escalate, with new evidence suggesting that the drives originated from Chinese cryptocurrency mining farms. The drives, many of which had logged 15,000 to 50,000 hours of prior use, were reportedly altered to appear unused before re-entering the retail supply chain.
A lost password proved to be a blessing in disguise
Finding the flaw: A cryptocurrency holder reached out to renowned hacker Joe Grand about two years ago for help in regaining access to an encrypted digital wallet on his computer reportedly containing about $2 million worth of Bitcoin. Grand turned down the offer. You see, Grand specializes in hardware skills and Michael stored his crypto in a software based wallet.