He searched for twelve years.
Dug through landfills, pleaded with authorities, convinced investors.
And now he’s almost there.
James Howells from Wales, once an IT specialist, accidentally threw away an old hard drive back in 2013. But not just any drive – the drive.
It held the private key to a Bitcoin wallet with 8,000 BTC – today worth hundreds of millions.
What sounds like a modern fairy tale has been James’s painful reality for over a decade.
And a stark warning at the same time.
Because the Bitcoin wasn’t the only thing lost – so was access.
No central authority.
No password reset.
No "Crypto Victim Hotline".
Just one key.
A single string of characters.
And without it: no coins. Period.
And that’s where it gets interesting – not just for garbage hunters.
What happens when our digital identity, our assets, and our access depend on a single point of failure – a passphrase, a file, a device?
We become vulnerable.
Not just to hackers. But maybe even to … our own vacuum cleaner.
It’s time for a smarter system.
A system where not everything depends on one private key.
Where you decide who or what can help restore access – if you ever forget.
A system that doesn’t rely on centralized crypto exchanges but takes decentralization seriously.
Infinity-Economics delivers exactly that.
With the ieWallet, you're not “just” a wallet holder.
You're the identity and key manager – with recovery options, if you want them.
And no recovery path, if you don’t.
It’s all based on the Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) principle – meaning:
You stay in control. Of everything.
Here’s how it could work:
You optionally store a second key with a trusted person, your own company – or even on a separate device you control.
You could even define a time-based backup rule, like:
“If no transaction occurs within 12 months, send a warning to a predefined address.”
No obligation.
No risk of automatic recovery by others.
Just your decision.
Unlike James.
He probably wishes he had known about Infinity-Economics back then.
Maybe he wouldn’t have stored 8,000 BTC on a dusty laptop drive –
but in a system that actually thinks ahead.
And sure, James may now have permission to dig through Newport’s landfills.
But will he ever find his treasure? Who knows.
One thing is certain: his story shows how crucial real control over digital assets truly is.
Not control by banks.
Not by exchanges.
Not by governments.
By you. And only you.
Infinity-Economics – because digital ownership requires real responsibility.
And real solutions.