He spent years with millions of euros in bitcoin trapped on a USB because he didn't know the password. He had 3 options to retrieve it.

This man even rejected help from a specialized company that had the solution, due to all the options presented to him.

The former #CTO of Ripple, Stefan Thomas, forgot a few years ago the password to an encrypted IronKey hard drive that contained the private keys for a cryptocurrency address where 7,002 bitcoin were stored (right now, this equals more than 600 million euros after the recent rises in cryptocurrency value; a year ago, when this story went viral, it was worth much less).

We have talked several times about this man, while the value of cryptocurrency grew and he did not know how to recover his money. A year ago, we learned of a new chapter in his story that could have a happy ending.

More than a decade since his story was first published, Unciphered, a company that specializes in helping people like Thomas, publicly claimed to finally have a solution to his explosive security dilemma.

However, as we will see, the solution proposed by this company was not the only one, and the man found himself with three options available in his hands, although when this information came to light at the end of 2023, he could only fail two more times before his USB would be locked forever without a way back.

In 2024, there is a conclusion to the story of this man who a year ago was at a crossroads.

His reputation for being a USB with very strong encryption has expanded its interest among cryptocurrency investors. In 2021, a spokesperson for Kingston Technology, the company that manufactures IronKey, confirmed to TechRadar that even they could not help Thomas recover his private keys.