Crypto Recovery Firm, Unciphered Offers Assistance to Unlock Former Ripple CTO's $244M Bitcoin Hard Drive
Summary:
Crypto recovery firm, Unciphered, has offered to help former Ripple CTO, Stefan Thomas, access a hard drive holding over 7,000 BTC that he has been unable to unlock due to a forgotten password. The estimated value of the BTC is approximately $244 million. Unciphered claims to have successfully hacked similar drives and is prepared to demonstrate their capabilities to Thomas. The case is among several instances of sizable cryptocurrency assets being lost due to forgotten keys or inaccessible hardware.
A plea has been launched to Stefan Thomas, previous Chief Technology Officer of Ripple by a company for a hard drive they are unable to access, which has over 7,000 Bitcoin (BTC) stored within it. On October 25, Unciphered, a firm adept in crypto recovery, in a public letter proposed to decrypt the IronKey hard drive owned by Thomas holding 7,002 BTC - carrying an approximate value of $244 million as per the latest market rates. The former Ripple executive had unfortunately forgotten the vital information required to unlock the drive, which has been designed to permanently erase its content if an incorrect password is entered ten times. As of now, Thomas, a German native programmer, has unsuccessfully attempted to unlock it eight out of the maximum ten allowed times.
Unciphered claims that their experts have formulated a technique to break through the hardware's security and access the BTC keys that have been laying dormant for years. Wired, a technology-themed magazine, reported on October 25 that Unciphered managed to tap into the data on a similar IronKey post "200 trillion tries", seemingly circumventing the limitation on ten attempts.
The company confidently stated, “This isn't merely a thought experiment, we've proved it real by doing it....multiple times, and we are up for repeating it. Our actions speak louder than words, and for assurance, we are ready to demonstrate our ability on as many samples as necessary before proceeding.” On October 25, 2023, they publicly reached out to Stefan Thomas on Twitter offering their expertise in unlocking his IronKey.
Unciphered's CEO, Eric Michaud while conversing with Cointelegraph revealed that they decrypted the IronKey data mentioned in Wired's report by extracting certain information off the drive and utilizing offline servers, this provided multiple chances to accurately guess the password. Michaud refrained from specifying what their services would cost Thomas but emphasized that Unciphered has established a viable business model through assisting individuals in the recovery of lost cryptocurrency. "Although we're prepared for Stefan refusing our support, we remain optimistic," Michaud added. “Our business is thriving and expanding and we'll be available when he decides to take up our offer.”
Cases similar to Thomas have gained notoriety, where users misplace or can't recall their keys for several reasons. In 2021, an individual on Reddit declared to have regained admission to 127 BTC after a decade, having found the private keys on an archaic computer. In 2013, James Howells, a British citizen, inadvertently discarded a hard drive containing an estimated 7,500 BTC — despite making repetitive efforts, he hasn't been able to unearth the drive from a landfill. As per 2022 estimates, roughly 20% of the entire Bitcoin supply could be locked away, unable to be accessed, constituting several billion dollars’ worth of the digital currency.
Published At
10/25/2023 9:32:34 PM
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