A Lost Password Is Keeping This San Francisco Man From Accessing $220 Million Worth Of Bitcoin

A San Francisco programmer only has 2 attempts left to figure out the password to his digital wallet that contains $220 million worth of Bitcoin.

Stefan Thomas is locked out of his account that contains 7,002 Bitcoins, according to The New York Times.

The price of Bitcoin has skyrocketed in the last two months, reaching an all-time high price of $41,946 just last week.

Bitcoin’s value has increased by 50% in one month.

Bitcoin owners use “digital wallets” to access their Bitcoins.  The decentralized nature of Bitcoin means there is no record of passwords of a company to help owners access their account if they forget their password.

Thomas said his digital wallet allows for 10 incorrect guesses before permanently locking the wallet.

So far, Thomas has guessed incorrectly 8 times.

“I hope others can learn from my mistakes,” the German-born programmer wrote on Twitter. “Test your backups regularly to make sure they are still working. An ounce of foresight could have prevented a decade of regret.”

Thomas isn’t the only one with stranded riches. Bitcoin blog Chainalysis estimates nearly 1 in 5 Bitcoins are permanently lost, which is valued at nearly $140 billion.

According to Fox 2, “Thomas was given the 7,002 tokens in 2011 while living in Switzerland. A Bitcoin fan gave it to him for making an animated video called ‘What is Bitcoin.’ He told the Times he was initially drawn to the currency because it was not controlled by a country or company, though he now recognizes the perils of being your own bank.”

“This whole idea of being your own bank — let me put it this way: Do you make your own shows?” he said. “The reason we have banks is that we don’t want to deal with all those things banks do.”

Can you imagine how awful this guy must be feeling?!

Let us know your reaction in the comment section below…

Steeve Strange

Steeve is the CEO & Co-Founder of The Scoop.