A security recovery firm is offering Ripple’s former CTO Stefan Thomas a chance to regain access to presumably lost BTC worth around $234 million.
Unciphered, a renowned cryptocurrency recovery service provider, has issued an open letter to Ripple’s former chief technology officer, Stefan Thomas. It is public knowledge that the former CTO owns an IronKey hard drive with access to 7,002 BTC (worth approximately. $234 million at the time of writing.)
Yet, Thomas faces a dilemma as he has forgotten the information required to access the hard drive. Also, out of the ten attempts required to unlock the device, the former CTO has only two left after eight unsuccessful attempts. A pair of failures at this stage will force the hard drive to wipe all information it stores, including private keys that enable access to the bitcoins.
However, Unciphered claims to have an answer to the problem, having devised a means to hack into hardware devices such as the one being used by Ripple’s former CTO. To the firm’s credit, technology-focused publication Wired published an article on October 25, confirming that Unciphered had helped them recover bitcoins presumably lost on a similar IronKey device.
According to Wired’s testimonial, Unciphered was able to hack into the IronKey with the “help of a high supercomputer” and after a “trillion tries.” Evidently, such comments suggest that Unciphered may have found a way to bypass the ten-trial limit imposed on the IronKey device. Unciphered’s website also includes testimonials from many users who claim the company has successfully helped them achieve a similar feat.
“We’ve Done It Over a Thousand Times,” Says Unciphered
While there was no indication at press time that Ripple’s former CTO has taken up Unciphered’s offer, the crypto recovery company sought to instill confidence in their process. In its open letter, Unciphered claims it has performed the recovery procedure a thousand times and can do it again.
On one occasion, Unciphered bragged that it had received a handful of locked IronKeys from the Wired team during a visit. Unciphered claimed to have unlocked the keys even before the Wired team returned from lunch.
“We would be happy to demonstrate it on as many samples in a row as it takes for you (and everyone) to feel confident before moving forward,” the Unciphered team concluded in its open letter.
It is unknown at this time how much Unciphered hopes to charge if it helps Ripple’s former CTO recover his bitcoins. However, cases of significant sums of bitcoin being lost, especially in the technology’s early years, are not novel.
Researchers say an estimated 20% of Bitcoin’s supply is permanently lost. Last year, The Crypto Basic also reported that early Bitcoin user James Howell would embark on a £10 million treasure hunt to recover 8000 BTC (approximately worth $277 million at today’s prices) that he lost in a misplaced hard drive.
More recently, Luke Dashjr, an early Bitcoin developer, lost over 200 BTC following a private key compromise, raising concerns about whether self-custody is the best approach for all crypto investors.
Disclaimer: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic’s opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.
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