# How far would you go to save $250M worth of your Bitcoins?

**Published by:** [Durwin](https://paragraph.com/@durwin/)
**Published on:** 2023-12-28
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@durwin/how-far-would-you-go-to-save-250m-worth-of-your-bitcoins

## Content

What would you do if you have hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Bitcoins locked up and you forgotten the password?Imagine a treasure hunt, except the hunt is completely digital, the treasure is a quarter billion dollars and the map is a forgotten password. And if you mess it up, the treasure is gone forever. Stefan Thomas, the former CTO of Ripple, is living this nightmare. He got paid a whopping 7,002 BTC back in 2011 for a YouTube video. Cute, right? Bet you can’t even recall what you were doing back in 2011. Guys like Stefan was dabbling in cryptocurrencies and minting millions of dollars (albeit unknowingly). They did it just because it was cool and they loved cryptography.To have that much wealth in Bitcoin, a digital currency that you can’t touch, it is a strange thing indeed.Fast forward to today, and that 7002 BTC is a jaw-dropping $250 million. But here’s the kicker: it’s all locked away on a USB device. A IronKey device that gives you only 10 password attempts before it goes into digital oblivion. Stefan has two more shots left. He tried many times and failed. Lost the piece of paper he wrote the password on. And now, he is going to potentially lose a sizable fortune due to bad memory.Hackers today are able to do terrible things very quickly. Is your crypto safe and secured?Enter Unciphered, the crypto-recovery knights in shining armor. They are a cybersecurity company that specializes in crypto recovery. They claim to have a “secret IronKey password-cracking technique.” Sounds like something out of a spy movie, but they’ve proven it. Over a thousand times, in fact. So why is Stefan playing hard to get? Well, he’s already hired another cybersecurity firm and an independent researcher. Maybe he is a man of utmost loyalty or maybe he’s just not that urgent about $250M.Bitcoins were meant to be ultra-secured and easy to use, is it really?Should he take the leap with Unciphered? Well, they’ve got a track record and a technique that promises infinite attempts. Seems like a no-brainer, but hey, it’s his treasure chest. Perhaps get everyone on the same table and negotiate a new deal? Last I check, $250M goes a seriously long way and there’s plenty to go around. What would you do in his shoes? Would you trust a company that’s basically saying, “Trust us, we’ve done this before,” or would you stick to your guns and keep waiting for your old contacts to come through? Imagine the possibilities with $250 million in BTC. A private island with its own shark pool? Funding groundbreaking research in any field? Building a new hospital or university?Would you trust them to unlock your trapped Bitcoins?When the stakes are so astronomically high, people make weird decisions. Would you roll the dice on your last two attempts or hand over the keys to the people who are clearly better? Clearly Stefan is a man of principles and he values loyalty over $250M. Not sure I can say the same for everyone else. - Would you trust a stranger to unlock $250M of Bitcoins? - #StefanThomas #Bitcoin #Crypto #Unciphered #PasswordRecovery #HighStakes #DigitalTreasure #Ripple #CryptoMillions #TrustOrNot #RollTheDice #LastChance #ExpertsOrLuck

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