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German-born programmer Stefan Thomas made headlines this week after a lost password made his $ 220 million stash of bitcoin inaccessible.
As Insider previously reported, the secure hard drive, on which 7,002 bitcoins were stored, was an IronKey device. It gives owners 10 chances to guess their password before encrypting content. Thomas only had two more attempts to guess correctly before this situation arose.
The New York Times first reported on Thomas’ plight and quoted him as saying, “I would go to bed and think about it: then I would go to the computer with a new strategy, and it wouldn’t work.” not, and I would be desperate again. “
A potential loss of this magnitude “kind of makes you question your own self-esteem,” he added. On Saturday, the reserve was worth around $ 220 million, but with bitcoin prices soaring this year, it had been valued at over $ 240 million.
Read more: Bitcoin drops back below $ 35,000 on volatile trading week
After his story went viral, he gave another interview to KGO-TV, telling the station “time heals all wounds” and that he had made peace with his potential loss.
He added, “It was actually a really big milestone in my life where, like, I kind of realized how I was going to define my self-confidence in the future. It wouldn’t concern how much money I have in my bank account. “
Thomas, a programmer who now lives in San Francisco, is one of the many bitcoin owners who have been kicked out of their wallets. This left a large amount of Bitcoin with a collective value of $ 140 million impossible to recover.
In another case, a Welshman says he says he threw away a hard drive loaded with 7,500 bitcoins in 2013. He offers his council $ 70 million to dig it up from the city’s landfill.
Bitcoin recently climbed above $ 40,000, despite calls from European Central Bank boss Christine Lagarde for more regulation the day before. It slipped below $ 35,000 on Friday at the end of a volatile trading week.
Read the original article on Business Insider
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