长达十年的价值 7.6 亿美元硬盘争夺战已经结束

英国一家法院裁定 James Howells 不能挖掘一个 35 万吨的市政垃圾填埋场，他称该垃圾填埋场内有一个硬盘，其中包含他丢失已久的比特币私钥。

A decade-long legal battle over a hard drive that a man claims contains the private keys to his long-lost stash of Bitcoin has come to an end after a UK court ruled that he cannot excavate a 350,000 tonne municipal landfill to find it.

一名男子声称硬盘中包含他丢失已久的比特币私钥，围绕该硬盘长达十年的法律纠纷已经结束，英国法院裁定他无法挖掘 35 万吨的市政垃圾填埋场来找到它。

James Howells, a man living in the Welsh town of Newport, amassed the 8,000 Bitcoin — now worth about $760 million — when he started mining the cryptocurrency in early 2009.

居住在威尔士纽波特镇的詹姆斯·豪厄尔斯 (James Howells) 在 2009 年初开始开采加密货币时积累了 8,000 个比特币，目前价值约 7.6 亿美元。

But he kept the private keys needed to access his digital wallet on a hard drive, and, after a series of unfortunate events, it ended up in the Newport landfill in 2013.

但他将访问数字钱包所需的私钥保存在硬盘上，经过一系列不幸事件后，它最终于 2013 年被扔进了纽波特垃圾填埋场。

He has been fighting the town for permission to excavate the landfill and recover the hard drive ever since.

从那时起，他一直在与镇政府争取许可挖掘垃圾填埋场并回收硬盘。

But on Friday, High Court judge Keyser KC dismissed Howells’ lawsuit before it could head to trial, arguing the only relevant question was who owned the hard drive.

但周五，高等法院法官 Keyser KC 在进入审判之前驳回了 Howells 的诉讼，认为唯一相关的问题是谁拥有硬盘。

And the town owns the hard drive, the judge ruled.

法官裁定，该硬盘驱动器归该镇所有。

A billion-dollar mistake?

一个价值十亿美元的错误？

Howells began mining Bitcoin in February 2009, just weeks after it first launched.

Howells 于 2009 年 2 月开始开采比特币，即比特币首次推出几周后。

He quickly accumulated 8,000 Bitcoin, but it wouldn’t be worth much until 2013, when the cryptocurrency shot to $100 per token, then, briefly, $1,000 per token.

他很快就积累了 8,000 枚比特币，但直到 2013 年，比特币才值多少钱，当时加密货币的价格飙升至每枚 100 美元，然后短暂升至每枚 1,000 美元。

A hard drive containing the private keys to his Bitcoin wallet — akin to an account password — had been sitting in a drawer in his home office the past three years.

过去三年里，包含他的比特币钱包私钥（类似于帐户密码）的硬盘一直放在他家庭办公室的抽屉里。

That autumn, he went looking for it, only to realize he had mistakenly put it in a garbage bag his partner had brought to the dump in August.

那年秋天，他去寻找它，却发现自己错误地把它放进了他的伙伴八月份带到垃圾场的垃圾袋里。

By mid-2015, Bitcoin had dropped under $250 per token, and Howells’ stash was worth $2 million. By early 2017, however, it was again worth $1,000 per token, or about $8 million in Bitcoin he couldn’t access.

到 2015 年中期，比特币价格已跌至每枚 250 美元以下，豪厄尔斯的藏品价值 200 万美元。然而，到 2017 年初，每个代币的价值再次达到 1,000 美元，或者说他无法访问的比特币价值约为 800 万美元。

By the end of that year, the value of the stash swelled to more than $100 million.

到当年年底，这些藏品的价值已超过 1 亿美元。

By the end of 2021, it was half a billion. At Bitcoin’s peak in December, it would have been worth more than $860 million.

到 2021 年底，这一数字已达到 5 亿。比特币在 12 月份达到顶峰时，其价值将超过 8.6 亿美元。

And some are betting it will reach far higher.

一些人押注它会达到更高的水平。

All the while, Howells lost both his job maintaining emergency response systems for various Welsh communities as well as his relationship to his longtime partner.

与此同时，豪厄尔斯失去了维护威尔士各个社区应急响应系统的工作，也失去了与长期合作伙伴的关系。

In an interview with The New Yorker, he said he may have subconsciously blamed her for the lost fortune.

他在接受《纽约客》采访时表示，他可能下意识地将损失的财富归咎于她。

But he also put together a plan to retrieve the Bitcoin: in exchange for a cut of the Bitcoin, investors would help him pay for companies “that could perform targeted landfill removals,” The New Yorker reported.

但他还制定了一项收回比特币的计划：据《纽约客》报道，投资者将帮助他向“可以进行有针对性的垃圾填埋场清除”的公司付款，以换取比特币的分成。

He retained a retired manager of the landfill as an advisor. He even offered Newport a cut of the proceeds if the excavation was successful.

他聘请了一位退休的垃圾填埋场经理作为顾问。如果挖掘成功，他甚至向纽波特提出了一定的收益分成。

A prize-winning novel

获奖小说

But town officials were unmoved, arguing that excavating a 350,000 tonne landfill could become an environmental hazard for landfill employees and townspeople, among other issues.

但镇官员不为所动，认为挖掘一个 35 万吨垃圾填埋场可能会对垃圾填埋场员工和城镇居民造成环境危害等问题。

In 2024, he sued the town, asking for the hard drive, permission to look for the hard drive, or money equal to the value of the Bitcoin that could be accessed with the private keys.

2024 年，他起诉该镇，要求提供硬盘、寻找硬盘的许可，或者与可以使用私钥访问的比特币等值的金钱。

During a hearing, one of Howells’ attorneys implied the town effectively had his Bitcoin, an argument the judge rejected.

在一次听证会上，豪厄尔斯的一位律师暗示该镇实际上拥有他的比特币，但法官驳回了这一论点。

“If a copy of the novel that won the Booker Prize in 2024 were thrown into the landfill, the author's copyright would not go with it,” the judge wrote.

法官写道：“如果将 2024 年获得布克奖的小说扔进垃圾填埋场，作者的版权也不会随之消失。”

The private keys weren’t directly stored on the hard drive either.

私钥也没有直接存储在硬盘上。

“The hard drive contains not the private key but a record of the private key,” the judge wrote.

“硬盘中不包含私钥，而是包含私钥的记录，”法官写道。

“The position is no different in principle from what it would be if the record of the private key had been written on a piece of paper that had been put into the landfill.”

“原则上，这种情况与私钥记录写在一张被扔进垃圾填埋场的纸上没有什么不同。”

And the law states that anything delivered to the dump becomes its property, without reservations.

法律规定，任何运到垃圾场的东西都成为其财产，毫无保留。

“The only thing that went into the landfill was the hard drive,” the judge wrote.

“唯一进入垃圾填埋场的是硬盘，”法官写道。

Aleks Gilbert is a DeFi correspondent based in New York. He can be reached at aleks@dlnews.com.

Aleks Gilbert 是驻纽约的 DeFi 记者。您可以通过 aleks@dlnews.com 联系他。