We have heard of inspiring Bitcoin millionaires such as CZ, The Winklevoss twins and many more. They amassed their fortune through various business deals and through the world of crypto. While these Bitcoin millionaires are enjoying the wealth brought about by Bitcoin, let us say a prayer for the Bitcoin millionaires who never were.
From misplacing private keys to literally throwing away their hard drives, today, we'll be discussing four people who lost access to millions worth of Bitcoin.
Make sure you grab your tissues because these stories might hurt you a bit.
Let's get into it.


4 People Who Lost Access To Millions Worth of Bitcoin

1. James Howell:
James is an IT worker from wales who started his mining journey way back in 2009 with his personal computer. He stopped mining in 2013 when he had already amassed 7,500 Bitcoin through mining. When he stopped mining Bitcoin, he sold off his computer parts on the popular online store eBay. However, he held on to the hard drive which contained his Bitcoin wallet, with the hope of a rise in the value of Bitcoin someday.
During a cleaning session of his house in 2013, he accidentally tossed the hard drive in the trash, and it was taken to a landfill in Newport, South Wales. It was deeply buried alongside heaps of trash at the landfill.
He made an offer to the Newport town council to search the area, but unfortunately, it was declined.
Note that 7,500 Bitcoin is currently worth over $129 million.

2. Matthew Mellon:
Known to be a descendant of prestigious individuals in the finance sector- the founder of Mellon Bank, Thomas Mellon and Anthony Joseph Drexel, a banker whose investment firm was equivalent to Drexel Burnham Lambert. Matthew Mellon was a wealthy crypto investor famous for his investments in crypto coins- XRF and Ripple.
Unfortunately, he passed away in 2018, just at the age of 54. Regrettably, he kept his private keys in cold wallets that were shared in different banks across the country. He never shared with anyone the name of the exact banks where the wallets were kept or what the private keys were.

3. Stefan Thomas:
Stefan Thomas is a software developer from San Francisco. For five years, Stefan Thomas served as the chief technology officer at Ripple. He is a crypto expert who started earning in cryptocurrency even before we all knew what it was.
For a certain work he did, he was renumerated with 7002 Bitcoins. He stored it all in a crypto wallet, and the worst thing happened, he lost his password. With a total of only 10 tries to open the wallet, Thomas tried various password combinations eight times, leaving it in the hands of people on social media to try and guess the password with the remaining two tries. He soon accepted his fate with his lost Bitcoin fortune and moved on.

4. Mark Frauenfelder:
As one of WIRED's founding editors, Mark was also a research director at the Institute for the Future'sFuture's Blockchain Futures Lab in January 2016.
While trying to get the hang of his new job, he decided to dabble in cryptocurrency by purchasing 7.4 Bitcoin, which was worth about $3,000 at the time.
Frauenfelder stored his Bitcoin in a web-based crypto wallet, and a couple of months later, his Bitcoin had risen so much in value.
He became worried about how secure the web wallet was, so after some research, he purchased a cold wallet from Trezor.
While setting up his cold wallet, he inputted a 24-word password to generate his private key and a five-digit PIN.
As he transferred all his Bitcoin to the wallet, he wrote the password and PIN down on a piece of paper and kept both the wallet and paper in the desk drawer. But unfortunately, during the week, someone from a cleaning service threw the paper into the trash.
He was pretty unbothered because he knew he could make use of the PIN to get access to his Trezor cold wallet and his Bitcoin in it.
But when he tried to start up the wallet, he inputted the wrong PIN code.
He soon learned that every time a wrong PIN is entered, Trezor has a time delay. Every time the incorrect code is entered the time delay doubles.
Over a few days, he tried various codes but to no avail.
A couple of months passed, and he went on the r/TREZOR Reddit thread and came across some people who could exploit the new Trezor firmware update. Through a lot of machinations, loading of an exploit, some soldering, and a fee of 0.85 BTC, he was able to recover the PIN and passwords, and he was able able to get his 7.4 Bitcoins back.


Conclusion
Only some people can be as lucky as Mark Frauenfelder by getting their lost Bitcoin back. A lot of people have struck gold by amassing millions of fortune in Bitcoin and gone ahead to enjoy the wealth, while some have lost it along the way.
While some have lost their assets due to hacks and scams, some have lost them due to carelessness. You must keep your wallets, passphrases and PIN codes safe.
Always remember; even though blockchain technology is safe and secure, it is your responsibility to keep your wallet and personal information safe.

This article is written by Somebody From Breet. Breet is an OTC crypto trading platform in Africa where users can sell their crypto, convert it to cash and withdraw it to their local bank account within seconds.