Stefan Thomas, a German-born programmer living in San Francisco, told The New York Times this week that he had two chances left to guess his password to a hard drive that holds the keys to his wallet with $220 million worth of bitcoins.
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While bitcoin's price has recorded historic growth - increasing by 92% in a month and about 340% in a year - one investor is locked out of accessing his riches because he forgot his password

Stefan Thomas, a German-born programmer in San Francisco, told The New York Times this week that he forgot the password to his IronKey , a secure hard drive with the keys to his wallet with 7,002 bitcoins, or about $220 million worth. IronKey gives users 10 guesses to get their password right before encrypting the hard drive's contents; Thomas has two more tries left.

"I would just lay in bed and think about it," Thomas told The Times' Nathaniel Popper. "Then I would go to the computer with some new strategy, and it wouldn't work, and I would be desperate again."

As some bitcoin investors get rich, others have had trouble accessing their investments because they've forgotten their passwords, The Times reported. About 20% of existing bitcoins "appear to be in lost or otherwise stranded wallets," the report said.


Some high-profile investors remain wary of bitcoin's surge. UBS analysts said this week that cryptocurrency volatility did not make it a "suitable alternative" to safe-haven assets. And the billionaire "Bond King" Jeffrey Gundlach said bitcoin hit "bubble territory" once the price passed $23,000 .

Even after sliding as much as 20% over Sunday and Monday, the price of bitcoin recovered on Tuesday , rising to about $36,000.

In a tweet on Monday, the "Shark Tank" star Mark Cuban compared the "cryptos trade" to the dot-com bubble of the 1990s.

"Watching the cryptos trade, it's EXACTLY like the internet stock bubble," Cuban said. "EXACTLY. I think btc, eth , a few others will be analogous to those that were built during the dot-com era, survived the bubble bursting and thrived, like AMZN, EBay, and Priceline. Many won't."

mespusinglez:
See Waste Of Time Abeg Go Recover Your Password Jor

OJay360:
You think say na Facebook password

dynicks:
And he laughed while he said it.....There are certain set of people that joke alot even at very serious matters!....

I trust African men especially from the Eastern part of naija; even the devil won't even have the nerve to pull such joke/play at him!

Kriss216:
Two password chances left to lose $220M and he's still laughing


The last time I misplaced my bet9ja slip I played with N200, I almost had heart attack.

Kriss216:
Two password chances left to lose $220M and he's still laughing


The last time I misplaced my bet9ja slip I played with N200, I almost had heart attack.

Diffpussies:
Just press " Buhari "

mcjohny:

Ooh please stop!
Dont make my phone fall again lol

mcjohny:

Ooh please stop!
Dont make my phone fall again lol

The5DME:
Zimri, this question has been addressed on quora by a friend of the same man. It's actually 16mlion dollar worth of bitcoin not 200.. I suggest you search for it on quora, you'll see it.

Salliet:


Sorry, that password won't FLY

Casper21:
That's one thing with bitcoin wallet esp block chain, there's no recovery of password. That's why it's important to save your recovery keys in your Gmail incase you forget ur password.