Bitcoin: Owner has forgotten password – but still refuses help

Forgot Password
The owner could get his 227 million euros back in Bitcoin – but he (still) refuses

Stefan Thomas owns a stick with Bitcoin worth three-digit millions. But he forgot the password. He still rejects help from a company for the time being.

Stefan Thomas is a rich man, he just has one problem: he can’t get his hands on the money. Thomas owns 7,002 Bitcoin, which at the current rate is worth more than 227 million euros (as of October 30, 2023). But he has forgotten the password for the USB stick that contains the Bitcoin.

The German software developer, who lives in the USA, has already failed with his submission eight times. If there are ten failed attempts, the wallet and therefore also the valuable ones would be lost Bitcoin lost forever. Thomas obviously doesn’t want to take this risk. That’s why he got help from experts to crack the password for him. And the company Unciphered actually claims to have found a way to make Bitcoin accessible again. However, Thomas doesn’t want to use his services – at least not yet.

Bitcoin owner is still hesitant

The hackers are confident that they will be able to crack the password after months of work. Stefan Thomas, however, refused: He had already commissioned two other teams to do this a year ago. And while these experts aren’t known to have made any progress yet, he wants to give them more time, according to Wired. Thomas promised both teams a share of the Bitcoin – regardless of which one achieves the breakthrough. At the moment he can’t negotiate with anyone else.

However, at least for one of the commissioned experts, the work seems to be on hold: Chip reverse engineer Chris Tarnovsky told “Wired” that he disagreed with Thomas about the payment terms and was therefore not currently working on the project. Meanwhile, Unciphered leaves you a bit at a loss. The password has been cracked, now you have to convince the owner, the project manager told “Wired”: “That turns out to be the most difficult part.”

Bitcoin password lost: “You question your self-worth”

According to his own statement, Stefan Thomas received the Bitcoin in 2011 as payment for a video he produced. Back then, hardly anyone knew about the cryptocurrency; the price reached one dollar for the first time that year. It is now well over $34,000 (as of October 30, 2023). A year later, Thomas could no longer find his password. In the first few weeks he was “simply desperate”, he told the US broadcaster ABC 2021: “You question your self-worth. Which person loses something so important?”

He now sees things more relaxed. He has made peace with it, he says: “Time heals all wounds.” If the experts he hired don’t make any progress, Thomas should still think carefully about whether he should take up Unciphered’s offer. But he’s obviously in no hurry: As he told the New York Times two years ago, he has become so rich with other cryptocurrencies that he has more than enough money.

Sources: “Wired” / “New York Times” / ABC