Man has two guesses to remember forgotten password with pressure of losing £200million of Bitcoin (2024)

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Man has two guesses to remember forgotten password with pressure of losing £200million of Bitcoin? ›

Crypto investor Stefan Thomas would have been sitting on a £200million fortune today if he hadn't forgotten his Bitcoin password in 2011. The German-born computer programmer lost a crucial piece of paper containing his password a decade ago - and he's been unable to access his savings ever since.

Thomas has said in interviews that he's already tried eight incorrect guesses, leaving only two more tries before the IronKey erases the keys stored on it and he loses access to his bitcoins forever.

Since the value of Bitcoin skyrocketed, Thomas has attempted to access the hard drive in various different ways, unsuccessfully using up eight of his 10 attempts. The programmer now has just two guesses left before his fortune is lost forever. But he's not the only person trying to get into the hard drive.

The former crypto mogul was sentenced to 25 years in prison on March 28, 2024. Crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison for a massive fraud that unraveled with the collapse of FTX, once one of the world's most popular platforms for exchanging digital currency.

Hedge Fund Investors Support Howells

James Howells, a British computer expert whose ex-partner accidentally discarded a drive containing 7,500 bitcoins (BTC), has initiated a legal action to compel Newport City Council to permit him to search a landfill where he believes the cryptocurrency is located.

Wealth. Anonymity was likely the only choice for Bitcoin's creators. If identities were known, it is likely the creator's lives would be upturned by the publicity. It is also very possible they would be targeted by criminals, so it might be best if they remained anonymous.

Profits Made or Lost Investing in Cryptocurrency

The Forbes Advisor's survey also asked investors how their crypto investments had performed in the last year: 57% made money from investing in cryptocurrency. 16% feel as if they have neither made nor lost money. 14% have lost money.

Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder of the failed crypto exchange FTX, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for defrauding customers and investors of his now-bankrupt firm.

Fernando Perez Algaba, nicknamed Lechuga (lettuce) by his friends, was an entrepreneur. He began working at the age of 14 as a pizza delivery man. “I started with a bicycle and a box and I started selling sandwiches,” said Algaba.

Nakamoto owns between 750,000 and 1,100,000 Bitcoin. In November 2021, when Bitcoin reached a value of over $68,000, his net worth would have been up to $73 billion, making him the 15th-richest person in the world at the time.

Who is the guy with 8000 bitcoin? ›

James Howells, a British man who lost his "hard disk drive" with 8,000 Bitcoin and a value of about 800 billion won at the current market price, has been reported. Hard is believed to have been buried inside the landfill.

How much is 1 Bitcoin in INR? Right now, 1 Bitcoin is worth about ₹4,581,320.65.

Of course, Finman is biased: The teen crypto phenom used $1,000 his grandmother gave him when he was 12 years old to buy his first bitcoin when the little-known virtual currency was just $12 a token. By age 18, Finman had become a millionaire. (See more: Who is Erik Finman, the Bitcoin Millionaire Teenager?)

He was convicted by a New York jury last year on charges including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, after a trial that detailed how he had taken more than $8bn (£6.3bn) from customers, and used the money to buy property, make political donations and put toward other investments.

Man who threw away 'Bitcoin fortune nudging £1.5bn' by mistake launches legal fight to search tip. A computer whizz who accidentally binned his Bitcoin fortune says he has been told its value could soar to a whopping £1.5 billion - and he's now battling in court to get it back.

Private key loss is not uncommon. According to the U.S. blockchain research firm Chainalysis, about 20% of the existing 18.5 million bitcoins, which were worth around US$140 billion then, were lost or stuck in accounts that could not be moved. Bitcoin owners provide interesting headlines when locked out.

Eventually, the painstaking detective work of government officials, and the innate transparency of the blockchain and its lack of red tape led to the arrests.