• About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Cryptos Valuator
  • Home
  • Bitcoin
  • Blockchain
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Ethereum
  • Exchanges
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Bitcoin
  • Blockchain
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Ethereum
  • Exchanges
No Result
View All Result
Cryptos Valuator
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Man Has to Figure Out Password to Unlock $240M Worth of Bitcoin

July 2, 2021
in News
0
Man Has to Figure Out Password to Unlock $240M Worth of Bitcoin
0
SHARES
4
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

It was not bad enough for former CTO of Ripple, Stefan Thomas, to forget the password required to unlock a Bitcoin wallet worth more than $240 million. It is even worse when he realized that there is little chance of getting it back.

The German-born computer programmer has just two password attempts left before a hard drive containing 7,002 bitcoins seize up his fortune and encrypt everything forever.

Stefan, who lives in San Francisco, earned his bitcoins as a reward for making a video explaining how Bitcoin works in 2011.

At this time, each bitcoin was worth around $5 per coin. But as Bitcoin rose past $41,000 last week (currently trading at $34,000), Thomas’ fortune worth more than a quarter-billion-dollars at today’s rate.

A painful memory. I hope others can learn from my mistakes. Test your backups regularly to make sure they are still working. An ounce of foresight could have prevented a decade of regret.

That said, I’ll do what I always do which is focus on building things, e.g. @Interledger. https://t.co/pCgObeAf4Z

— Stefan Thomas (@justmoon) January 12, 2021

According to Thomas, he wrote the password of his IronKey hard drive that holds the credential to his digital wallet on a piece of paper. However, he lost that paper many years ago and since then made eight failed attempt to guess the password to no avail. If he guesses wrong two more times, he will never see the money.

“I would just lay in bed and think about it. Then I would go to the computer with some new strategy, and it wouldn’t work, and I would be desperate again,” Thomas told the New York Times.

Ex-Facebook Security Head, Alex Stamos, who is now professor at the Stanford Internet Observatory, has offered to help to recover the password, but for a 10% cut of Thomas’ fortune (roughly $24 million).

“Um, for $220m in locked-up bitcoin, you don’t make 10 password guesses but take it to professionals to buy 20 IronKeys and spend six months finding a side-channel or uncapping,” Stamos said on Twitter.

Losing passwords is the kind of nightmare that haunts cryptocurrency investors. In fact, there are an estimated 18.5 million Bitcoin, totaling nearly $140 billion, lost because the private keys went missing or the wallet owners died without passing the codes to someone else.

A British man, named James Howells mined more than 7,500 coins over one week in 2009. He accidentally threw away the hard disk that contained the bitcoin private keys. This silly mistake cost him around $255 million worth of bitcoin at today’s prices.

Previous Post

XRP Is an Exchange Token and Not a Security – UK Treasury

Next Post

Grayscale Reaches $24.7 Billion Worth of Crypto Assets

Next Post
Grayscale Reaches $24.7 Billion Worth of Crypto Assets

Grayscale Reaches $24.7 Billion Worth of Crypto Assets

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Stay Connected test

  • 123 Followers
  • 23.8k Followers
  • 99 Subscribers
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Venezuela Considers Proposal to Include Bitcoin in Central Bank Reserves

Venezuela Considers Proposal to Include Bitcoin in Central Bank Reserves

June 23, 2021
Newegg Expands Bitcoin Payment Option To 73 More Countries

Newegg Expands Bitcoin Payment Option To 73 More Countries

July 4, 2021
World of Ether Goes Live on Ethereum Mainnet, Soon Becoming Top Ranked Crypto Game

Enterprise Ethereum Alliance Opens Regional Office In South Korea

August 6, 2021
World of Ether Goes Live on Ethereum Mainnet, Soon Becoming Top Ranked Crypto Game

Black Friday Drags Crypto Market Down, Bitcoin & Ethereum Price Plunges

August 4, 2021
UPbit Audit Reveals That South Korea’s Cryptocurrency Exchange is Not Guilty

UPbit Audit Reveals That South Korea’s Cryptocurrency Exchange is Not Guilty

Goldman Sach’s Cryptocurrency Startup Circle Raises $110 Million Led By Bitmain Technologies

Goldman Sach’s Cryptocurrency Startup Circle Raises $110 Million Led By Bitmain Technologies

NASDAQ-Powered Crypto Exchange To Go Live in June 2018

NASDAQ-Powered Crypto Exchange To Go Live in June 2018

Why is ZCash Price Rising ? | Latest Crypto News

Why is ZCash Price Rising ? | Latest Crypto News

UK Treasury To Seek Input on Taxing DeFi

UK Treasury To Seek Input on Taxing DeFi

May 31, 2023
Bitfarms Hits All-Time High in Hashrate Amid Expansion into Argentina

Bitfarms Hits All-Time High in Hashrate Amid Expansion into Argentina

May 29, 2023
Circle Breaks Boundaries With New Cross-Chain USDC Protocol

Circle Breaks Boundaries With New Cross-Chain USDC Protocol

May 26, 2023
Terraform Labs Co-Founder Do Kwon Charged With Fraud After Arrest

10,000 Bitcoin shifted to Swiss Bank Triggers Do Kwon and TFL Probe by South Korean Prosecutors

May 24, 2023

Recent News

UK Treasury To Seek Input on Taxing DeFi

UK Treasury To Seek Input on Taxing DeFi

May 31, 2023
Bitfarms Hits All-Time High in Hashrate Amid Expansion into Argentina

Bitfarms Hits All-Time High in Hashrate Amid Expansion into Argentina

May 29, 2023
Circle Breaks Boundaries With New Cross-Chain USDC Protocol

Circle Breaks Boundaries With New Cross-Chain USDC Protocol

May 26, 2023
Terraform Labs Co-Founder Do Kwon Charged With Fraud After Arrest

10,000 Bitcoin shifted to Swiss Bank Triggers Do Kwon and TFL Probe by South Korean Prosecutors

May 24, 2023
Cryptos Valuator

Follow Us

Browse by Category

  • Altcoin News
  • Bitcoin
  • Bitcoin News
  • Blockchain
  • Blockchain News
  • Business
  • Coins
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Cryptonews Deals
  • DeFi News
  • Economy
  • Ethereum
  • Ethereum News
  • Events
  • Exchanges
  • General
  • ICOs
  • Industry Talk
  • Markets
  • News
  • NFT News
  • Opinion
  • Press Releases
  • Regulation
  • special site
  • Sponsored
  • World

Recent News

UK Treasury To Seek Input on Taxing DeFi

UK Treasury To Seek Input on Taxing DeFi

May 31, 2023
Bitfarms Hits All-Time High in Hashrate Amid Expansion into Argentina

Bitfarms Hits All-Time High in Hashrate Amid Expansion into Argentina

May 29, 2023
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 Cryptos Valuato

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Bitcoin
  • Blockchain
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Ethereum
  • Exchanges

© 2021 Cryptos Valuato