Bitcoin investor to lose $220 million of Bitcoin due to lost password

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Have no idea if this story is true that was posted on MarketWatch. The guy is already wealthy from Crypto investments. The story would have better if the guy was someone with let's say $500,000 net worth and his entire fortune was in BTC but the article is implying that he has so much money he doesn't know what to do it. But if I lost $220 million and still had $500 million my lifestyle isn't going to change. I would be devastated but not destroyed.

Ninth time’s a charm? For Stefan Thomas, that’s the $220 million question.
The San Francisco programmer, according to the New York Times, owns 7,002 bitcoin BTCUSD, <bg-quote field="percentchange" format="0,000.00%" channel="/zigman2/quotes/31322028/realtime" class="negative" data-last-stamp="1610497320000" style="box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">-3.44%</bg-quote> in a digital wallet he can’t access because, well, he lost the password. He’s tried to guess it eight times to no avail. Now, he’s got two more chances or his fortune will be gone.
The hard drive where his bitcoin is held, known as IronKey, allows users 10 attempts to crack the code before encrypting its contents forever. Understandably, it’s been a stressful time for Thomas, who years ago lost a piece of paper with the password written on it.
“I would just lay in bed and think about it,” he reportedly told the Times in an interview. “Then I would go to the computer with some new strategy, and it wouldn’t work, and I would be desperate again.”


https://www.marketwatch.com/story/h...r-losing-it-forever-11610468562?siteid=yhoof2
 

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fucking dumb:bigone: .... that's what he gets for being so careless , 220$ million dollars is a lot of money
 

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If I had that level of crypto in a digital wallet, I'd have a printed passcode stored in security deposit boxes of at least 2 different banks. The amount of BTC lost forever due to forgotten passcodes or destroyed devices is probably in the tens of billions.
 

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If I had that level of crypto in a digital wallet, I'd have a printed passcode stored in security deposit boxes of at least 2 different banks. The amount of BTC lost forever due to forgotten passcodes or destroyed devices is probably in the tens of billions.

Of course....why in a million years would you not do so
 

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If I had that level of crypto in a digital wallet, I'd have a printed passcode stored in security deposit boxes of at least 2 different banks. The amount of BTC lost forever due to forgotten passcodes or destroyed devices is probably in the tens of billions.

Thomas isn’t the only one a password away from bitcoin riches. According to Chainalysis, about 20% of the existing 18.5 million bitcoin units, valued at $140 billion, appear to be lost in digital wallets.
 

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Can he just buy IronKey for 100 mil, hedge his bet? Then cashout and sell the company after he has it unlocked.
 

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Thomas isn’t the only one a password away from bitcoin riches. According to Chainalysis, about 20% of the existing 18.5 million bitcoin units, valued at $140 billion, appear to be lost in digital wallets.

That estimate seems kinda high, I'd be interested to know how they arrived at that figure.

Anyone got any opinions on it? That's just a staggering # if you really think of it.
 

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Wallet Recovery Services, a firm that helps recover lost digital keys, told the Times that it received 70 requests a day from users who are trying to access their digital wallets — a number that is three times higher than it was a month ago.
 

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They should have password recovery built into the system As long as the person can verify their identity
 
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im starting to think its a publicity stunt, I have heard this stupid story on sports radio regular radio, howard stern, if its true fuck him hope he loses it. Hope he paying taxes like the rest of us on any gains.
 

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So he probably lost a couple hundred bucks he can always say he has millions in Bitcoin locked away
 

EV Whore
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That estimate seems kinda high, I'd be interested to know how they arrived at that figure.

Anyone got any opinions on it? That's just a staggering # if you really think of it.

Number does seem high but easy to see how this could happen. Back when bitcoin was $8 I wonder how many people had 10-20 coins in a wallet and just forgot about them. I know I often find money in an old book or forget about vnmo/ppal, whatever. Plus all the coins that were ever sent to the wrong wallet. Then you have people who had couple dozen bitcoin back in the day and then died...

Off topic, but still remember winning a poker tournament back in the day and getting paid out in the form of like 20 bitcoin. Sold it and probably went out to a nice dinner...sigh.
 

Rx. Senior
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I have a few lost wallets from 2013-14. I used a lot of wallets to keep from getting banned when cashing out.
 

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That estimate seems kinda high, I'd be interested to know how they arrived at that figure.

Anyone got any opinions on it? That's just a staggering # if you really think of it.

You can easily check the blockchain and count the number of coins that have not moved from wallets .
Of course just because a coin has not moved in years does not mean the coin is lost . But there are millions of coins that have never moved in over 8 years .

I don’t think that number is high .
It might be on the low side .
 

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I also just logged into all my exchange accounts that I have not used in years .
Bitrex and kucoin.

And I noticed I still have forty something dollars worth of Bitcoin combined between those 2 exchanges because it was left over Bitcoin from other trades.

no telling how many people have small amounts in their exchange accounts they forgot about .

That kind of thing adds up
 

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The lost Bitcoin thing is kinda like therx saying it has 200,000 members.

Ok yea 200k members cool.

But when over 90% of those 200k people haven’t logged in in over 10 years do they really have 200k members?
 

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Wish I’d thrown $100 in BTC when it was first mentioned on the boards back in early 2000’s when I had bonus whore money. Lol. Would have been sick
 

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