This Tuesday (12th), Stefan Thomas, residing in San Francisco (United States), told the New York Times his surprising and worrying case. The North American forgot his password and now has only two attempts left to access his physical wallet, in the form of HD, which holds about 7,002 Bitcoins, equivalent to the current value of approximately US $ 236 million or R $ 1.2 billion in direct conversion.
Thomas trusted his Bitcoin economy on a device known as IronKey, a small HD, responsible for storing the keys for a digital account that ultimately houses the amount. The device allows up to 10 password attempts before locking all present data permanently. It was in this context that the American ended up losing the small piece of paper containing the password, now forgotten, for said HD.
The problem is aggravated when considering the nature of the encryption of “private keys”, which although secure can become a major inconvenience for its users. The solution is so effective that it invalidates even the best and most hard-working crypto-security experts: Today, data analytics company Chainalysis estimates that almost 20% of all Bitcoin volumes, about $ 140 billion, are lost on hard drives like Stefan Thomas.
In a conclusive tone, Thomas laments that the experience has made the whole idea of cryptocurrencies a bitter inconvenience: “I will explain this whole idea of ’being your own bank’ as follows: ‘Do you make your own shoes?'” New York Times, “The reason we have banks is that we don’t want to deal with all the things that banks do,” explained the frustrated boy.
