Man who lost bitcoin fortune in Welsh tip explores purchase of entire landfill – The Guardian
“If Newport city council would be willing, I would potentially be interested in purchasing the landfill site ‘as is’ and have discussed this option with investment partners and it is something that is very much on the table.” … The council has resisted Howells’ attempts to allow him to search, insisting that the hard drive had become its property when it entered the landfill site.
Newport landfill site in £620m Bitcoin saga set to close – BBC News
A council spokesman said: “The landfill has been in exploitation since the early 2000s and is coming to the end of its life, therefore the council is working on a planned closure and capping of the site over the next two years.” … The council has secured planning permission for a solar farm on part of the land. That was approved last August and is expected to power new bin lorries.
Your memecoin is your slush fund – Noahpinion
Suppose you wanted to buy a favor from Donald Trump, and he wanted to let you buy a favor from him. How could you do it? You can’t just pay him a giant bribe — that’s illegal. Maybe you could pledge him a bunch of cash for his presidential campaign. But there are campaign finance laws that will get in your way, and even if you succeed, he can only use the money for his campaign, not to buy yachts or whatever else he might like to use the money for. Instead, what you can do is to buy a bunch of TRUMP or MELANIA. When you buy one of those memecoins, you increase the demand for the memecoin. Its price then goes up. This makes Donald Trump richer, without any money actually having to change hands.
Judge ends man’s 11-year quest to dig up landfill and recover $765M in bitcoin – Ars Technica
His ex-girlfriend, Halfina Eddy-Evans, said in a recent interview with the Daily Mail that she brought the hard drive and other unwanted belongings to the dump, at Howells’ request. “I thought he should be running his errands, not me, but I did it to help out… I’d love nothing more than him to find it. I’m sick and tired of hearing about it,” she said.
Banana artwork sells for $6.2 million – Hyperallergic
Tonight’s top bidder didn’t acquire a “part of history” — he bought a banana and a roll of tape. … Following auctioneer Oliver Barker’s nervous introduction (“Not quite sure what to expect here”), a rhythmic volley ensued between several bidders on the phones, a paddle in the room, and an ambitious online bidder. Six minutes later, the hammer finally plopped down at $5.2 million ($6,240,000, with the house’s fees) thanks to a phone bidder with Jen Hua, head of Sotheby’s China. The buyer, it was announced in an email blast shortly thereafter, was Chinese collector Justin Sun, owner of BitCurrent and founder of the crypto platform Tron. It’s not surprising considering that this was the only lot in the sale eligible for payment in cryptocurrencies and that two coins inspired by Cattelan’s work — the Solana-based “Banana Tape Wall” ($BTW) and a token called $BAN started by a Sotheby’s employee — are in thousands of digital “wallets.” That information, and the fact that Sun once paid nearly as much for a chance to have lunch with Warren Buffet, should tell you all you need to know about the bro energy surrounding this auction. Sun said in the email blast that he plans to “personally eat the banana” in the coming days as “part of this unique artistic experience.”
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