Former Ripple CTO Forgot Crypto Wallet Password Contains 7002 Bitcoins

Bitcoin, the largest crypto asset by market cap. (Photo; Doc. Pexels)

JAKARTA - Ripple's former Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Stefan Thomas, is reportedly having difficulty recovering 7002 Bitcoins stored on a drive.

In September, a cybersecurity startup in Seattle reported that it could open an IronKey S200 thumb drive crypto storage area containing Thomas' 7002 Bitcoins.

However, Ripple's former CTO, Stefan Thomas, turned down an offer from a Seattle startup called Unciphered to help him access the USB drive. The reason is, Thomas has signed another team to address this issue and wants to give them the opportunity to take back 7002 Bitcoins before hiring other companies.

They even plan to sign the Seattle firm if other firms that help Thomas recover his assets can't find the right solution. Of course, many are curious about how cybersecurity firms managed to open IronKey S200 without revealing the method.

Unciphered has only managed to find three random password phrases for the storage device without anyone knowing. The process involved 200 trillion attempts using high-performance computers.

Stefan Thomas, with his experience working at Ripple Labs, provides an important perspective on security and risks associated with digital asset storage. Until now, Thomas has worked hard to restore BTC by cooperating with a leading cybersecurity firm. It is not yet known whether the 7002 Bitcoins can be restored or not.