$240M sitting behind a password

[Bombadil]

Stefan Thomas has just two chances left to get his hands on his $240m (£175m) fortune.

Thomas is a San Francisco-based computer programmer, and a decade ago he was given 7,002 bitcoins as a reward for making a video explaining how the cryptocurrency works.

At the time he was paid, they were worth $2-$6 each. He stashed them away in his “digital wallet” and forgot about them.

Now each bitcoin is worth $34,000, and the contents of his wallet are valued at $240m. But Thomas has forgotten the password that will unlock his fortune.

German-born Thomas has already entered the wrong password eight times, and if he guesses wrong two more times his hard drive, which contains his private keys to the bitcoin, will be encrypted – and he’ll never see the money.

Dayum, I actually have a system for passwords that means I can basically remember my password varieties for any given year.. poor bastard.

However what's the most money you've accidentally lost/misplaced. For me it was $1500 and a laptop when I left it in a taxi on NYE, it was pretty much all I had at the time but such is my personality I was like 'this is a problem for tomorrow me to fret about' and managed to enjoy the evening..

..I very much regretted the morning, but enough about me, what about you?

[Shanghai industrial complex]

LOL So stupid this guy.He even didn't know to write down the code and put it in a safe place

[Bombadil]

LOL So stupid this guy.He even didn't know to write down the code and put it in a safe place

If he's like me he'd forget where the super safe place was.

[The Free Joy State]

Poor guy.

As for me, actively losing money... I lost a fiver once -- these new polymer notes are very slippery -- when getting some notes out of my purse. It must have fallen out and I didn't notice. Generally, though, I keep a very close eye on my money.

The things I have lost tend to be an umbrella left on the bus, a small item of food accidentally left in the shopping trolley, a book misplaced (but usually later found).

LOL So stupid this guy.He even didn't know to write down the code and put it in a safe place

If he's like me he'd forget where the super safe place was.

That happened to my mother once. My parents' home was having work done so she hid her engagement and eternity rings in a really safe place. To this day, she can't find them.

[Comerciante]

I feel for this guy. I really do.

It's one of those things you can't possibly have foreseen.

[Wapistan]

I lost £900 once. Rather not say.

But you gotta feel for this guy, i would not have wrote down the password.

[Bombadil]

The things I have lost tend to be an umbrella left on the bus, a small item of food accidentally left in the shopping trolley, a book misplaced (but usually later found).

Expensive earphones, umbrellas.. two things I learned never to buy again, it's really a waste of my money. Also, back when I smoked, never bought lighters but that was because I excelled at lighter thievery, not even consciously, I'd come home of a night clubbing with 5-6 lighters in various pockets.

[Socialist States of Ludistan]

Damn, I feel horrible for him.
But for me, I’m very close to my money, ain’t never gonna lose a cent.
Or øre, that’s what we call it where I’m from.

[Esternial]

I recently uncovered my own bitcoin wallet from 2010 with information I had stashed on an old external drive.

Weren't any bitcoins in it, though. My procrastination has struck again.

[USS Monitor]

That's a big oof.

I got pickpocketed on a bus in Shijiazhuang when I had a couple thousand RMB in my wallet. I had gone to the train station and tried to book a train to Guilin, but the tickets were sold out, so I was coming home with the cash still in my wallet. It was back when you had to do almost everything with cash in China, even for large amounts of money.

[Bombadil]

That's a big oof.

I got pickpocketed on a bus in Shijiazhuang when I had a couple thousand RMB in my wallet. I had gone to the train station and tried to book a train to Guilin, but the tickets were sold out, so I was coming home with the cash still in my wallet. It was back when you had to do almost everything with cash in China, even for large amounts of money.

Yeah, my event was in China as well.. lost plenty phones in cabs in China, luckily back when they were relatively cheap.

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

LOL So stupid this guy.He even didn't know to write down the code and put it in a safe place

There was a time when the security advice was don't write your passwords down.

[Torisakia]

I’ve lost at least $10,000+. Not because I misplaced it, but I spent it all on things I didn’t need. I fear for my financial future.

[Calimama]

Oh I remember this guy, dude could be moderately rich if he could just remember the damn password. Also I haven't really ever lost or misplaced money, a part of it is I never carry cash usually.

[Honeydewistania]

I've lost umbrellas, water bottles, wallets, identification cards, chargers, homework, my iPad and my phone (later retrieved), pens, pencils, backpacks, clothes, lunchboxes etc etc I am extremely forgetful. But none of them trump the time my dad lost two iPads in a taxi that were never found.

[Calimama]

I’ve lost at least $10,000+. Not because I misplaced it, but I spent it all on things I didn’t need. I fear for my financial future.

I don't know about $10,000, but I do the same thing, I usually convince myself I needed to buy it.

[SherpDaWerp]

German-born Thomas has already entered the wrong password eight times, and if he guesses wrong two more times his hard drive, which contains his private keys to the bitcoin, will be encrypted – and he’ll never see the money.

I can't imagine a 2011-2012 era encryption system remains unbreakable. NTLM password hashes (used for Windows at the time) have been cracked in sub-7-hour timeframes.

There would be someone out there willing and able to crack that hard drive for the modest fee of say... $40 million.

[Torisakia]

I’ve lost at least $10,000+. Not because I misplaced it, but I spent it all on things I didn’t need. I fear for my financial future.

I don't know about $10,000, but I do the same thing, I usually convince myself I needed to buy it.

Not counting student loans, I’m roughly $1900 in debt and I’m not even 25 yet.

[Bombadil]

German-born Thomas has already entered the wrong password eight times, and if he guesses wrong two more times his hard drive, which contains his private keys to the bitcoin, will be encrypted – and he’ll never see the money.

I can't imagine a 2011-2012 era encryption system remains unbreakable. NTLM password hashes (used for Windows at the time) have been cracked in sub-7-hour timeframes.

There would be someone out there willing and able to crack that hard drive for the modest fee of say... $40 million.

Yup..

Following the publicity of Thomas’s plight, Alex Stamos, an internet security expert at Stanford Internet Observatory, said he could crack the password within six months if Thomas gave him a 10% cut of the digital fortune.

“Um, for $220m in locked-up bitcoin, you don’t make 10 password guesses but take it to professionals to buy 20 IronKeys and spend six months finding a side-channel or uncapping,” he said on Twitter. “I’ll make it happen for 10%. Call me.”

[SherpDaWerp]

I can't imagine a 2011-2012 era encryption system remains unbreakable. NTLM password hashes (used for Windows at the time) have been cracked in sub-7-hour timeframes.

There would be someone out there willing and able to crack that hard drive for the modest fee of say... $40 million.

Yup..

Following the publicity of Thomas’s plight, Alex Stamos, an internet security expert at Stanford Internet Observatory, said he could crack the password within six months if Thomas gave him a 10% cut of the digital fortune.

“Um, for $220m in locked-up bitcoin, you don’t make 10 password guesses but take it to professionals to buy 20 IronKeys and spend six months finding a side-channel or uncapping,” he said on Twitter. “I’ll make it happen for 10%. Call me.”

Hah! Best of luck to him.

[USS Monitor]

I don't know about $10,000, but I do the same thing, I usually convince myself I needed to buy it.

Not counting student loans, I’m roughly $1900 in debt and I’m not even 25 yet.

$1900 is pretty easy to pay off if you have a job.

[Saiwania]

There was a time when the security advice was don't write your passwords down.

It still is. These days there is plenty of software such as KeePass where you can store different passwords into an encrypted database and you only need to remember one single password to access a list of all passwords you've ever recorded into it.

[Torisakia]

Not counting student loans, I’m roughly $1900 in debt and I’m not even 25 yet.

$1900 is pretty easy to pay off if you have a job.

Therein lies the problem. Still in college, so no place wants to hire me. Coupled with bad saving habits.

I’m sure I’ll figure it out. Time to buy this $20,000 car.

[Socialist States of Ludistan]

I’ve lost at least $10,000+. Not because I misplaced it, but I spent it all on things I didn’t need. I fear for my financial future.

I don't know about $10,000, but I do the same thing, I usually convince myself I needed to buy it.

I once convinced myself I needed to buy a revolutionary sword in Fallout 4.
Turns out I did.
That’s really the only kinda unnecessary thing I’ve ever bought.
And yes, I know that’s a video game.
I don’t like wasting real money.

[The Free Joy State]

Not counting student loans, I’m roughly $1900 in debt and I’m not even 25 yet.

$1900 is pretty easy to pay off if you have a job.

Unless you keep building up more debt.

The best thing to do, if debt is an issue, is cut up all your credit cards (yes -- even the little one that you swear is just for emergencies and then use for the one-day sale because it won't be here tomorrow and "that's an emergency, isn't it") and just focus on paying off the debt you have. Debit cards and cash only.

LOL So stupid this guy.He even didn't know to write down the code and put it in a safe place

There was a time when the security advice was don't write your passwords down.

I've always ignored that bit of advice (my password memory is generally good, but 20+ digit passwords that you use a few times a year are hard to remember), but never kept them on or near the computer.