If you ever thought you had a bad experience with a forgotten password, Stefan Thomas, a programmer in San Francisco, is now two guesses from the loss of $ 220 million in Bitcoin. According to The New York Times, Thomas is just one of many early Bitcoin investors who have forgotten the security keys of their digital wallets as the cryptocurrency breaks the $ 33,000 dollar mark.
During the infancy of Bitcoin, Thomas got an early investor about 7,000 coins to make a video explaining the currency. When the cryptocurrency reaches a new staggering high, Thomas wants access to his digital wallet, but after eight wrong guesses, he comes to the realization that he has forgotten his password. It is also important to note that the specific wallet that Thomas used to own his Bitcoin has a system that wipes the wallet after 10 wrong guesses. With just two more attempts, Thomas put away his hard drive while looking for another way to access his Bitcoins.
Thanks to the decentralized and anonymous nature of Bitcoin, there is no real way to retrieve a forgotten password. Some reports note that nearly one in five Bitcoins is permanently lost, and the total value of the lost Bitcoins is believed to be around $ 140 billion USD.
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