A German programmer has 2 chances to correctly guess the password to his hard drive or he'll lose $220 million
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While bitcoin's price has recorded historic growth — increasing by 92% in a month and about 340% in a year — one investor is locked out of accessing his riches because he forgot his password.
Stefan Thomas, a German-born programmer in San Francisco, told The New York Times this week that he forgot the password to his IronKey, a secure hard drive with the keys to his wallet with 7,002 bitcoins, or about $220 million worth. IronKey gives users 10 guesses to get their password right before encrypting the hard drive's contents; Thomas has two more tries left.
"I would just lay in bed and think about it," Thomas told The Times' Nathaniel Popper. "Then I would go to the computer with some new strategy, and it wouldn't work, and I would be desperate again."
As some bitcoin investors get rich, others have had trouble accessing their investments because they've forgotten their passwords, The Times reported. About 20% of existing bitcoins "appear to be in lost or otherwise stranded wallets," the report said.
Some high-profile investors remain wary of bitcoin's surge. UBS analysts said this week that cryptocurrency volatility did not make it a "suitable alternative" to safe-haven assets. And the billionaire "Bond King" Jeffrey Gundlach said bitcoin hit "bubble territory" once the price passed $23,000.
Even after sliding as much as 20% over Sunday and Monday, the price of bitcoin recovered on Tuesday, rising to about $36,000.
In a tweet on Monday, the "Shark Tank" star Mark Cuban compared the "cryptos trade" to the dot-com bubble of the 1990s.
"Watching the cryptos trade, it's EXACTLY like the internet stock bubble," Cuban said. "EXACTLY. I think btc, eth , a few others will be analogous to those that were built during the dot-com era, survived the bubble bursting and thrived, like AMZN, EBay, and Priceline. Many won't."
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Allana Akhtar was a senior health reporter for Insider, where she covers the emerging wellness industry and general health topics. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Allana wrote extensively about nurses, mask mandates, the vaccine rollout, and disparities in access to health. Her articles include features on nurses needing to re-use PPE in the early days of the pandemic, ones who struggled to get paid time off after getting COVID-19, and those who left bedside care after grueling pandemic working conditions. Allana also spoke to flight attendants and retail workers who faced violence as they enforced mask mandates, and community health workers who said they struggled to receive equitable vaccine access during the initial rollout. Allana now reports on emerging trends within the wellness industry, including the Westernization of indigenous medicine and dangerous wellness trends spread through social media. She also writes about plastic surgery, racial disparities in healthcare, and breaking health news. Allana has won numerous awards for her work, including the Best News Story by the Michigan Press Association in 2015, Best Reporter Covering Nurses in 2019, and the Morris and Lola Wasserstein Award for her contribution to the the University of Michigan's student paper as an Honors student. Before Insider, Allana wrote for USA TODAY, US News & World Report, Money Magazine, Health Magazine, Jalopnik, and more. You can email her at aakhtar@businessinsider.com, call/text her at (646) 376-6058, or follow her on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Secure tips line: Signal # 248 760 0208'We're grossly unprepared': Nurses share their frustration as the coronavirus spreads with little direction from the government or hospitals on how to mitigate it'Sexy nurse' costumes demean one of the most in-demand professions in American life — and they're a bestseller on Amazon right nowFlight attendants describe 'unprecedented' violence as travel returns and passenger aggression soarsG/O Media fired a queer employee of color who wore crop tops, shorts, and heels to work, violating a brand-new dress code that others say they routinely violated without being punishedContractors at controversial startup Rev say they worked long hours for little pay, feared they could lose their job at any time, and had to transcribe interviews with sexual-abuse survivors without warning
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