Forgetting Password, Man Unable To Access His $240 Million Worth Of Bitcoins

Stefan Thomas is currently the owner of a $240m fortune but he has just two guesses left to get his hands on the money.

Thomas lives in Sans Francisco and he works as a computer programmer. Over ten years ago, he received 7,002 bitcoins for making a video explaining the way cryptocurrency works. Back then, each bitcoin was worth only $2 to $6 so he kept them in a digital wallet and never thought of them again, not until now.

With each bitcoin is now worth $34,000, Thomas’s 7,002 bitcoins now translate to a staggering amount of $240m. But unfortunately, after a decade, he has long forgotten the password to unlock the wallet.

Thomas has got 8 wrong guesses and now if he screwed up two more, the hard drive in which the private keys to the wallet are kept will be encrypted and Thomas will have to kiss the fortune goodbye.

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic was announced, the bitcoin price has increased by over 700%, from approximately $5,000 to over $40,000 last week.

After Thomas’s incident was made public, an internet security expert - Alex Stamos, working at Stanford Internet Observatory said if Thomas agreed to give him 10% of the fortune, he could help him get the keys within six months.

According to Chainalysis – a cryptocurrency data firm, around 20% of 18.5m bitcoins are locked up or lost in digital wallets.

Back in 2013, James Howells, an IT worker, lost 7,500 bitcoins by throwing the hard drive with the keys away. The cryptocurrency is valued at around $250m now.

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