Stefan Thomas and the 7,002 BTC conundrum

San Francisco-based

programmer Stefan Thomas (formerly the chief technology officer at Ripple) was plunged into a Kafkaesque nightmare after he lost the password to his digital wallet. Thomas was left with just two password attempts before the security system would encrypt his fortune forever, rendering them unusable and unreachable, with 7,002 BTC at stake.

The hard drive, named the Iron Key, boasts an impenetrable design engineered to withstand all types of attacks. Users are granted only ten wrong password attempts before the drive permanently locks out.

“I would just lay in bed and think about it,” Thomas told

The New York Times. “Then I would go to the computer with some new strategy, and it wouldn’t work, and I would be desperate again.”

On Oct. 25, crypto recovery firm Unciphered extended an open letter, offering to unlock an IronKey hard drive owned by Thomas, which holds 7,002 BTC. Despite the offer, Thomas has not taken any action on this matter yet.

A painful memory. I hope others can learn from my mistakes. Test your backups regularly to make sure they are still working. An ounce of foresight could have prevented a decade of regret.