$BTC Stefan Thomas – lost access to 7002 BTC

Stefan Thomas is a German programmer who lost access to a wallet containing 7002 BTC, which at its peak was worth over $300 million.

What happened:

• In 2011, he received bitcoins as payment for creating the video “What is Bitcoin?”.

• He stored the private key on an encrypted IronKey flash drive.

• He wrote down the password on a piece of paper… which he later lost.

IronKey allows only 10 password attempts – after which the contents are destroyed.

Current status:

• He has only 2 attempts left.

• He is not trying to guess because he understands that each mistake brings him closer to total loss.

• In 2021, he stated that he has come to terms with it and does not want this money to “consume his life.”

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This story is often cited as an example of how irreversible the loss of access to cryptocurrency can be without backups or a reliable storage method.