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[Amiga]

Stefan Thomas, a German-born programmer living in San Francisco, has two guesses left to figure out a password that is worth, as of this week, about $220 million. The password will let him unlock a small hard drive, known as an IronKey, which contains the private keys to a digital wallet that holds 7,002 Bitcoin. The problem is that Mr. Thomas years ago lost the paper where he wrote down the password for his IronKey, which gives users 10 guesses before it seizes up and encrypts its contents forever. He has since tried eight of his most commonly used password formulations — to no avail.

Of the existing 18.5 million Bitcoin, around 20 percent — currently worth around $140 billion — appear to be in lost or otherwise stranded wallets, according to the cryptocurrency data firm Chainalysis. Wallet Recovery Services, a business that helps find lost digital keys, said it had gotten 70 requests a day from people who wanted help recovering their riches, three times the number of a month ago.

Lost Passwords Lock Millionaires Out of Their Bitcoin Fortunes (Published 2021)

Bitcoin owners are getting rich because the cryptocurrency has soared. But what happens when you can’t tap that wealth because you forgot the password to your digital wallet?

www.nytimes.com

 

[I collect VHS tapes]

I find this both horrible and amusing at the same time.

 

[Virt McPolygon]

Why does this sound like the concept of some tv game show?

"You have three chances to guess your 10 year old crypto wallet password or you'll suffer the fate of living a regular life!"

 

[Chiggs]

Bitcoin is a fucking mess.

 

[FreedomOfSpeech]

Bitcoin's bad mkay?

 

[The Fartist]

He should try ”God” or ”sex”.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

After he fails his 10th guess...

 

[haxan7]

That’s why I’ve used dickcheese666 as my password for everything since 1996

 

[Dr Bass]

What if he remembered it on his tenth try but accidentally made a typo ...

 

[mango drank]

This is what programmers get for writing their passwords down on paper only, "for security."

 

[Max_Po]

Mr Stefan Thomas, enjoy one on me

 

[jufonuk]

I find this both horrible and amusing at the same time.

Yup.

 

[tusharngf]

Should have used 12345678 password. Thats so easy dude.

 

[Dr.D00p]

Personally, I hope it all crashes through the floor and miners lose everything...bunch of fucking worthless parasites, the lot of 'em.

 

[ManaByte]

 

[NecrosaroIII]

What is the point of bitcoin

 

[Tesseract]

 

[King of Foxes]

I would have cashed out for a lot less

 

[Mistershine.]

 

[Cutty Flam]

This is what programmers get for writing their passwords down on paper only, "for security."

I feel so bad for that fool, imagine being in his situation. But this shows how easy it is for everything to go wrong. One mistake can change everything. One choice can determine so much

 

[MilkyJoe]

People still have no idea it's a con

 

[German Hops]

I just watched an interview with this guy:

 

[nush]

The password has to be Administrator or letmein.

 

[MilkLizard]

I have a similar problem with a ZIP file containing nudes of an ex...

 

[Amory]

Wtf is the point of a hard drive that gives 10 chances to guess a key and then locks forever

If the thing were somehow stolen, would you not want at least a chance at recovering it regardless of how many passwords the thieves had tried

 

[M1chl]

Bitcoin is a fucking mess.

Bitcoin's bad mkay?

Or is it? Because to normal PC Bitcoin Core, you can try and try forever to enter password, it's just dumb decision to go with some proprietary box.

 

[Sevenfold]

Never forget...

English Singer Lily Allen Turned Down Bitcoin in 2009 Worth $4.7 Billion Today

English singer and songwriter Lily Allen turned down a gig in 2009 that would have paid her 200,000 bitcoin, worth more than $4.7 billion today.

www.cryptoglobe.com

 

[DeepBreath87]

Never forget...

English Singer Lily Allen Turned Down Bitcoin in 2009 Worth $4.7 Billion Today

English singer and songwriter Lily Allen turned down a gig in 2009 that would have paid her 200,000 bitcoin, worth more than $4.7 billion today.

www.cryptoglobe.com

Holy shit.

 

[The Hamburglar]

That’s why I’ve used dickcheese666 as my password for everything since 1996

That password stinks

 

[ManofOne]

 

[thefool]

The amounts of lost bitcoin is astronomical and it will only get worse.

 

[German Hops]

That password stinks

Why? I think that password is pretty solid. It's not as bad as "123456"

 

[slugbahr]

Why? I think that password is pretty solid. It's not as bad as "123456"

I think he means it legiterally

 

[TKOFromTokyo]

Came in for this

 

[DESTROYA]

This guy is an idiot even if he just wrote it down on a piece of paper wouldn’t you at least store in some safe deposit box to know exactly where it is .
Anyway

 

[AJUMP23]

That is why you have to use a system that you can always guess within 3 uses.

 

[Prison Mike]

 

[ManofOne]

What is the point of bitcoin

Nothing

 

[The Hamburglar]

Why? I think that password is pretty solid. It's not as bad as "123456"

Dick cheese = smells
Mcbain would like a word

 

[Trogdor1123]

The best password is password of course

 

[SoggyBiscuit]

That's a large oof.

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

 

[AV]

He should try ”God” or ”sex”.

I wish I could like, brain, sun, strength and fire this post all at once. Hack the planet

 

[cryptoadam]

did he try 12345?

 

[Amory]

Idk if I even believe this story.

This is a dude who bought 7000 bitcoin, probably for a significant sum of money since he felt the need to store it offline on a fancy hacker-proof hard drive, and he 'lost the paper' where he had written the password? And he stored this information nowhere else?

 

[EviLore]

Idk if I even believe this story.

This is a dude who bought 7000 bitcoin, probably for a significant sum of money since he felt the need to store it offline on a fancy hacker-proof hard drive, and he 'lost the paper' where he had written the password? And he stored this information nowhere else?

Standard procedure is to memorize a long, unguessable password, and also write the backup codes for the hardware wallet on paper (or a configurable piece of fireproof metal) for storage in a secure location.

It's easy for noobs to forget a long, unguessable password.

 

[SirKicksalot]

If I had an important password, I'd write it down on a random page of a boring book in my library. The kind of book nobody would want to borrow.

 

[CrankyJay™]

I’d write it down and put it in a safe or bank deposit box.

 

[Amory]

Standard procedure is to memorize a long, unguessable password, and also write the backup codes for the hardware wallet on paper (or a configurable piece of fireproof metal) for storage in a secure location.

It's easy for noobs to forget a long, unguessable password.

I can understand not remembering a long, complex password.

But it'd be incomprehensibly careless to not secure the password in multiple locations, when you're using hardware that will literally eat your money after 10 incorrect entries. Especially since you'd have to be pretty enthusiastic about the future of crypto to even take such steps to secure your bitcoin in the first place.

But what do I know. Like I posted earlier I don't even understand the point of this sort of tech. If someone steals your hardware wallet you're kind of fucked anyway, right? But with this '10 guesses' shit, you don't even really have a chance of getting it back.

 

[EviLore]

I can understand not remembering a long, complex password.

But it'd be incomprehensibly careless to not secure the password in multiple locations, when you're using hardware that will literally eat your money after 10 incorrect entries. Especially since you'd have to be pretty enthusiastic about the future of crypto to even take such steps to secure your bitcoin in the first place.

But what do I know. Like I posted earlier I don't even understand the point of this sort of tech. If someone steals your hardware wallet you're kind of fucked anyway, right? But with this '10 guesses' shit, you don't even really have a chance of getting it back.

If you’re holding 7000 BTC it would be a good idea to replicate your hardware wallets as well. That way it’s irrelevant if one of them falls into someone else’s hands and they prompt an auto-wipe from failed password attempts.