Bitcoin horror stories

I’ve been reading many Bitcoin success stories on Leofinance and on other platforms. But it isn’t always champagne and caviar. Every now and then a horror story pops up. I was triggered by an article I read today.

German programmer has two attempts left to access his wallet with over 7000 Bitcoin
A German programmer currently living in L.A. is the owner of a crypto wallet with 7000 Bitcoin. These represent a value of 200 million dollar at the moment. The only problem is he cannot access his Bitcoin because he forgot the password to his harddisk. The IronKey hard disk gives you 10 tries to type in the correct password. If you fail it will destroy all the data on it. The poor guy already made 8 unsuccessful tries, so he now just has two tries left…. What a nightmare!

Man throws away computer with 7,500 Bitcoins
When I read the first story I had to think of another story I read a couple of years ago. After a bit of searching I was able to find it.
This true story is about a man called James Howells from Whales. In 2009 James started mining Bitcoin with an old laptop. Back in those days you didn’t need a lot of computing power to mine Bitcoin yet. He kept his laptop running for days and nights until his girl started complaining about the noise.
Eventually he sold the laptop, but he did remove the hard disk which contained 7,500 Bitcoin.
In the years that passed he forgot about the bitcoin and accidentally threw the disk away. At that moment the bitcoin were worth about 100 dollar a piece, but years later that increased to millions.
The hard disk presumably landed on Newport landfill. But because the disk was thrown away years before the operation to search for the disk would cost millions too and even without the guarantee to find it or recover the Bitcoin.

So, these stories teach us not to make the same mistakes. Be careful where you store your crypto. Always be sure you can remember your password or save it in a password vault. And last, but not least; don’t always listen to your wife…

Sources:
https://www.newsweek.com/man-has-two-login-attempts-left-access-220-million-bitcoin-before-its-all-lost-1560984?piano_t=1
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/bitcoin-lost-newport-landfill
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