Stefan Thomas, the millionaire who is about to lose three billion pesos for forgetting his password.

Stefan Thomas, a German programmer, owns more than 7,000 bitcoins, but currently has no access to his wallet because he forgot the password for his USB flash drive and only has two attempts left to recover the money.

The dilemma has plagued the man for years, as he's been trying to access the device's information for a decade, but to no avail. However, what worries him most is that if he re-enters the wrong data, the flash drive will be locked forever.

According to what the programmer said in an interview with the American newspaper The New York Times, he spent days in bed trying to remember the password, but when he approached the computer to test the strategy, his chances diminished.

As soon as his story became known, several specialists suggested implementing complex methods to try to recover the information , which included disassembling the chip from the USB key.

Journalist Andy Greenberg reported that a team of hackers from the Unciphered lab had found a way to access the Ironkey without using the password.

However, Thomas has explained in various media outlets that forcing the device is not a viable option for him, as any error could cause the flash drive to activate its secure erase system after detecting an anomaly.

As the man revealed, in early 2011 he participated in some YouTube videos in which he talked about how Bitcoin worked, because, at that time, it was not so popular.

As payment for his knowledge, the audiovisual content producer gave him more than 7,000 cryptocurrencies, so the programmer decided to store them in a virtual wallet and subsequently recorded the key on an Ironkey memory stick.

Over time, this data was forgotten, until January 2021, when Thomas realized how strong Bitcoin had become, leading him to try to access his wallet eight times.

Despite the failed attempts, the programmer still doesn't risk wasting his last two attempts and prefers to keep the flash drive in a secret place , hoping that one day he will remember the login details.

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