I hope you are all well and having a great day, welcome to CryptoGod-1's blog on all things crypto. Today I will be doing a post about a recent piece of news I came across which I thought was very interesting and also somewhat of a life lesson for all of us. The person in question, a man named Stefan Thomas, is sitting on a wealth of 7002 Bitcoin, only the snag is he cannot access it,
How did he get 7002 Bitcoin?
Back in 2011 a German born man by the name of Stefan Thomas was living in Switzerland and was paid a handsome fee of 7,002 Bitcoin to make a video explaining how the cryptocurrency worked. Back then of course Bitcoin only cost around $5 a coin, meaning he was paid an impressive $35,000 or so for making the video. Like any good HODLER, Stefan decided to store his Bitcoin in a digital wallet instead of selling them then and there. Stefan was smart, as that 7,002 Bitcoin is currently worth in and around $156.8 million, although I wouldn't like to be the one calculating him the tax on that lol. In fact if Stefan had sold at the hight of Bitcoin back in November 2021, he would have pocketed a cool near $480 million! All for making a video on Bitcoin!
However, while Stefan was smart enough to store away his Bitcoin, he was also unfortunate. He stored the private keys to access the wallet on a small hard drive which he had password protected. The password for this hard drive however was not stored in such an encrypted manner, instead he wrote it down on a piece of paper. We all know how this story goes....Stefan has since lost said piece of paper. The Bitcoin is safely stored and secured as nobody has access to his private keys, but the downside is that Stefan also has no access to them.
Failed Attempts
He has made eight attempts so far at gaining access to his private keys, but only has ten overall meaning that there are only two chances left for Stefan to figure out the password before his fortune is lost forever.
Stefan spoke to the New York Times about his plight, telling them:
"I would just lay in bed and think about it. Then I would go to the computer with some new strategy, and it wouldn't work, and I would be desperate again."
His biggest issue is that he chose to make use of an IronKey to store the Bitcoin. For those of you who are unaware, this device has a high level of security meaning it has a system that prevents any intruder from accessing the content. The reason why Stefan is in such a dilemma is because of his choice to make use of such a sophisticated piece of equipment to store his private key, meaning when he lost the password for the IronKey its security measure worked against him.
Stefan is aware of his regular passwords which he uses on most devices, and is certain it is likely to be one of or close to one of them. However, once he hits the magic failed tenth attempt the IronKey will automatically delete its contents. Unless he can find a way to hack the device then it seems like the 7,002 Bitcoin will be forever lost.
A solution would be to hire some of the best in class and have them scour multiple different IronKey's to locate a flow or method around its security. However, according to the IronKey creators that is an impossible task as the system cannot be hacked. By today's technological standards it would be very costly to find a way of hacking the IronKey, but who knows what could be possible in the future. They are also unwilling to release any of its content on how to product works, which could in turn assist Stefan in finding a way to hack it, due to the fact they are weary of what implications that could have on their own business.
Stefan does have one option left before giving up entirely on the stored Bitcoin, even if he has come to peace with what's happened. There is one very risky and one chance only method left. It would require a specialised laboratory and be quite costly, but there is a way to get around the limit of 10 tries.
- a scanning electron microscope would take apart the physical microchip in the IronKey
- it would delve into the silicon chip and remove it layer by layer, layers which are atoms in thickness
- then it would get to the memory cells, which allows it to bypass the limit counter
- a supercomputer could then try an unlimited amount of password to gain access to the device
Its highly risky and dangerous, as if it fails the device is destroyed and there is no coming back from it. There is the need for a specialised laboratory and lots of organisation and logistics, but Stefan has considered it. Even without the guarantee, if he gets down to his final attempt it may be an option worth considering. In an interview with with As It Happens in 2021 Stefan stated:
"Back then, it definitely wasn't worth it. I think now it probably is worth it. But it still requires a lot of organizing and logistics, and even then it's not guaranteed. Now that this has been in the news, I'm getting lots and lots of people reaching out, some of whom are the types of people who have access to that kind of equipment and the kind of expertise needed. And so I'm talking to them to see, you know, if we should attempt a recovery and, like, what it would cost, etcetera."
Another Story of Note
One of the most famous stories of Bitcoin being lost if that of Welshman James Howell. Back in 2013 he accidentally threw out a hard drive which contained roughly 7,500 Bitcoin he had purchased in 2010. The hard drive had not been used in about 3 years and Howell had transferred all his important information onto newer devices, making it somewhat obsolete. Therefore he threw it out, without even considering that the password for his virtual wallet was on that hard drive.
It was only a couple of months later that he realised his mistake, and immediately Howell made his way to the local landfill. He had hoped to somehow recover the hard drive, assuming it may have been sorted and put into a 'technology' area. That was not the case, and the hard drive was compressed and buried along with the rest of the rubbish.
He is now tasked with digging through a literal landfill in Wales to uncover his lost treasure. The 7,500 Bitcoin lost amongst the waste is roughly worth about $168 million today, and at the ATH it was about $513 million. Yikes, such an amount to have lost. He has not given up hope however and continues to search in the belief that he will one day locate that lost hard drive.
Some tough stories to take there. While we all have that one friend who demands we purchase a LEDGER even to store our $10 dollars worth of Bitcoin, there are plenty more who have a device which may turn out to cost them their Bitcoin fortune down the line. Whether its a hard drive or an IronKey, with every layer of security there is always a risk of loss. Lets hope that none of us become the next Stefan Thomas or James Howell.
Have a great day.
CryptoGod-1.
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