$1 Trillion Crypto Meltdown--Huge Crash Wipes Out The Price Of Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, XRP, Cardano

[BumRushDaShow]

52. I remember reading articles some time ago

about the hassles if you lose your "private key", and they are STILL writing articles!

This man owns $321M in bitcoin — but he can't access it because he lost his password

Stefan Thomas has 2 guesses left before he's locked out of his fortune forever


CBC Radio · Posted: Jan 15, 2021 6:02 PM ET | Last Updated: January 15, 2021



Stefan Thomas is a bitcoin millionaire. Or, he would be if only he could remember his password. The San Francisco software developer and CEO was an early adopter of bitcoin. Back in 2011, he produced an animated video explaining how the digital currency works. For his efforts, a bitcoin enthusiast awarded him 7,002 bitcoins.

Later that year, he lost the password to his IronKey, the USB hard drive that contains the digital wallet that holds his bitcoins. Since then, the currency's value has skyrocketed, and Thomas' holdings are worth $220 million US ($321 million Cdn.) The IronKey gives users 10 password guesses before it encrypts its contents permanently, and Thomas' bitcoin is lost forever. He has two guesses left.

(snip)

OK, so what's the last glimmer of hope?

The famous USB stick with the 10 tries. There is a way to take a scanning electron microscope and take apart the physical chip and literally go into the the silicon chip and take away layer by layer, like a few atoms thick, and then read out the actual memory cells. And then with that technique, you should be able to bypass that limit of 10 tries, and then you can have a supercomputer try, you know, billions of passwords per second.

Now, the problem is that, first of all, that requires a specialized laboratory. It's very expensive. Only a few people in the world can do it. And even then, it's kind of high risk. It could just fail, and then the chip is destroyed and you don't get a second try. 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.

(snip)

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-friday-edition-1.5875363/this-man-owns-321m-in-bitcoin-but-he-can-t-access-it-because-he-lost-his-password-1.5875366

(I remember back in the day, our agency had a few Ironkeys to transport sensitive data but never heard about their use again)