German-born programmer Stefan Thomas made headlines this week after a lost password made his $ 220 million bitcoin value inaccessible.
As Insider reported earlier, the secure hard drive on which 7,002 bitcoins were stored was an IronKey device. This gives owners 10 chances to guess their password before encrypting the content. Thomas had only two attempts left to guess right before this situation occurred.
The New York Times initially reported Thomas’ distress and quoted him as saying, “I would just lie in bed and think about it: then I would go to the computer with a new strategy, and it would not work, and I would be desperate again. ‘
A potential loss of such magnitude makes you question any kind of self-worth, ‘he added. On Saturday, the stock was worth about $ 220 million, but as bitcoin prices rose this year, it was valued at more than $ 240 million.
Read more: Bitcoin slips back below $ 35,000 in volatile trading week
After his story went viral, he gave another interview to KGO-TV, saying the station ‘time heals all wounds’ and that he had made peace with his potential loss.
He added: ‘It was actually a very big milestone in my life, where I, as I realized how I was going to define my self-worth going forward. It’s not about how much money I have in my life. Bank account.”
Thomas, a programmer now living in San Francisco, is one of several bitcoin owners locked out of their wallets. As a result, a large amount of Bitcoins together worth $ 140 million could not be detected.
In another case, a Welsh man says he threw away a hard drive containing 7,500 bitcoins in 2013. He offers his council $ 70 million to dig it up from the city’s landfill.
Bitcoin recently rose above $ 40,000, despite European Central Bank boss Christine Lagarde the previous day calling for more regulation. On Friday, it dropped below $ 35,000 at the end of a week of volatile trading.
Read the original article on Business Insider