American developer Stefan Thomas created the video “What is Bitcoin?” in 2011, receiving 7002 bitcoins as payment for it, the rate of which at that time was less than one dollar per bitcoin. For more than 10 years, the cryptocurrency rate has grown significantly and now Stefan’s bitcoins can bring him an income of 240 million USD. However, the American cannot use this amount - he forgot the password to the flash drive. MIR 24 talks about this with reference to the publication of The New York Times.

Thomas accidentally deleted two backup copies of the wallet, and the developer lost the password for the third copy, written on a piece of paper. When Thomas tried to restore access to the flash drive, he failed. He used eight attempts. There are two more left. If the correct password is not entered then, the bitcoins will be deleted.

Help was offered by local hackers who could hack the flash drive for a certain reward. However, the owner of the crypto wallet is in no hurry to agree to this proposal. He agreed to cooperate with a company that specializes in forensics and cybersecurity investigations. Under the terms of the agreement, each participant will receive a portion of the bitcoins, regardless of who chooses the correct password.

Experts noted that Thomas is not alone in his problem. About 20% of the world's bitcoins, totaling about 140 billion USD, are stored on blocked media or have been lost, the source reports.