Stefan Thomas went viral this week after a New York Times profile revealed to the world his troubling dilemma: the password to unlock his Bitcoin fortune is locked to a hard drive that gives users 10 attempts before deleting. Thomas has only two more attempts.
ABOUT: Coinbase Client Lost Username and Could Not Recover
In an interview with ABC7 News on Wednesday, Thomas said it was nine years since he first realized he had been blocked from his account, meaning he had had enough time to process it.
“It was kind of a few weeks where I was just desperate, I have no other words to describe him,” Thomas said, remembering how he felt when he first found out he couldn’t find his password in 2012. “You ask your own value. What kind of person loses something so important? “
But “time heals all wounds,” he added, and over the years he said he “made peace” with his loss.
“It was actually a very important stage in my life, where, kind of, I realized how I was going to define my self-worth in the future,” he said. “It wouldn’t be about how much money I have in my bank account.”
Everything is great and altruistic, but you lose 220 million dollars ?! This will surely stress even the most authentic of people.
VIDEO: Bitcoin scam: “I’ll tell your wife your secret”
Thomas told the New York Times profile that hundreds of people around the world had contacted him with advice – some serious and some nonsense.
“Someone suggested, did you try the word ‘password’?” he joked. “Some people have recommended various environments, psychics, prophets that I could talk to. Some people suggest drugs that improve nootropic memory.”
So far, he has not approached anyone.
Ian Sherr, Editor-at-Large at CNET News, explained that Thomas’ situation is not so unusual. “The way Bitcoin works and this technology works is that everything is meant to be anonymous,” Sherr said. “But a lot of this data is actually hidden behind a specific password that you need to enter in your account.”
RELATED: Experts warn that cryptocurrency has its disadvantages
Sherr said there are many people who bought Bitcoins years ago, when they are worth very little, wrote down their password somewhere, “and just thought it wouldn’t be a thing.”
“And now it’s worth millions,” he said. “And I’m sitting there wondering where that piece of paper is or what their password might have been.”
So what’s the best tip for storing and remembering passwords?
“We got CNET to recommend that you use a password manager,” Sherr said. “This is a single application that is on your computer or phone and hides behind a password and is a good one.”
(Sherr, for example, said he uses a line of poetry.)
The application then creates other passwords that are random and must be very difficult to break. “It works very well, because you don’t have to remember anything,” he said. – You only have one thing.
Thomas said he decided to share his story in the hope that it would prevent others from making the same mistake he made. He said that if you receive a digital wallet, make sure you have a plan to secure – and remember – your password.
VIDEO: Expert discusses using cryptocurrencies to buy Bay Area real estate
Copyright © 2021 KGO-TV. All rights reserved.