We've all been there - brain fog makes us forget our password and after eight frantic attempts, we have just two left.
That's the situation for programmer Stefan Thomas but the stakes are higher than most - the forgotten password will let him unlock a hard drive containing $240m (£175m) worth of Bitcoin.
Stefan Thomas was given 7,002 bitcoins for a video explaining how cryptocurrency works
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) January 13, 2021
They are now worth $240m (£175m) - but he can't remember the password to his digital wallethttps://t.co/dtoLQ9J2Py
His plight, reported in the New York Times, has gone viral.
Ex-Facebook security head Alex Stamos has offered to help - for a 10% cut.
Bitcoin has surged in value in recent months.
One bitcoin is currently worth $34,000.
But the cryptocurrency is volatile.
And experts are divided about whether it will continue to rise or crash.
Mr Thomas, who was born in Germany but lives in San Francisco, was given 7,002 bitcoins as payment for making a video explaining how cryptocurrency works more than a decade ago.
At the time, they were worth a few dollars each.
He stored them in an IronKey digital wallet on a hard drive.
And he wrote the password on a piece of paper he has lost.
After 10 failed attempts, the password will encrypt itself, making the wallet impossible to access.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the dilemma has put him off cryptocurrencies.
He told the New York Times: "The whole idea of being your own bank - let me put it this way, do you make your own shoes?"
"The reason we have banks is that we don't want to deal with all those things that banks do."
Mr Stamos, who is now professor at the Stanford Internet Observatory, tweeted Mr Thomas: "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.
"I'll make it happen for 10%.
"Call me."
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.
I'll make it happen for 10%. Call me. https://t.co/dTumE8Cw65— Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) January 12, 2021
Mr Thomas would not be the first potential Bitcoin millionaire to be locked out of their fortune.
Currently, about $140bn worth of Bitcoin is lost or left in wallets that cannot be accessed, according to cryptocurrency-data company Chainanalysis.
And businesses helping retrieve digital currency receive multiple requests each day.
The New York Times article also references an entrepreneur who lost about 800 bitcoins when a colleague reformatted a laptop containing the private keys to his wallet.
And in 2013, a Welsh man desperately searched a landfill site after throwing away a computer hard drive containing 7,500 bitcoins.
At the time worth more than £4m, this would now be valued at more than £250m.
Latest Stories
-
2 repair vessels dispatched for undersea cable repairs – says NCA’s latest update
8 mins -
Multimedia Ghana Limited’s Clinton Yeboah shortlisted for 2 International Sports Press Association Awards
12 mins -
High-value property sale gone wrong as Supreme Court rules against police officer
27 mins -
Yara Ghana donates 1,107 bags of fertilizers to women farmers, farmers with disabilities
52 mins -
Tinubu forms team to find solutions to ailing economy
60 mins -
Jacob Zuma barred from running in South Africa election
1 hour -
Western Cape Education wins national primary school track and field championships
1 hour -
Cyber Security Authority issues Public Alert over Easter and Eid al-Fitr season scams
1 hour -
Sandro Tonali charged by FA for alleged betting rules breaches after joining Newcastle
1 hour -
Scancom PLC holds 6th AGM, declares dividend of 17.5 pesewas per share
2 hours -
Former Deputy AG accuses Godfred Dame of unethical legal behaviour
2 hours -
John Kumah goes home on May 18
2 hours -
Tema General Hospital: If a baby died, it wasn’t because of ‘dumsor’ – GHS Accra Director
3 hours -
Afenyo-Markin fetes cast and crew of ‘the gods are not to blame’
3 hours -
‘Dumsor’ to hit parts of Accra and Tema today
3 hours