Computer programmer has just TWO password guesses left to access £180m Bitcoin account

A DESPERATE computer programmer has just two guesses left to figure out a password which is worth £180million.

Stefan Thomas is trying to remember the code to a small hard drive, known as an IronKey, to access 7,002 Bitcoin — which were yesterday worth £25,637.95 each.

Stefan Thomas is trying to figure out the code to a small hard drive that holds 7,002 Bitcoin

The price of Bitcoin has soared with a rise of 720 per cent since March 2020Credit: AFP or licensors

But he lost the piece of paper on which he wrote his password. The device allows for ten attempts — and he’s tried eight times.

If he doesn’t get it right in the next two tries, it will be permanently encrypted and the fortune lost forever.

German-born Stefan was given the Bitcoin in 2011 as a reward for making an animation.

But the price of Bitcoin has since soared — with a rise of 720 per cent since March 2020 alone.

‘DESPERATE’

Speaking about his lockout Stefan, who now lives in San Francisco in the US, said: “I would just lay in bed and think about it.

“Then I’d go to the computer with some new strategy and it wouldn’t work and I’d be desperate again.”

Many others have struggled to cash in on cryptocurrencies as they have also forgotten their passwords.

Wallet Recovery Services, which helps find lost digital keys, said it gets 70 requests a day.

And LA entrepreneur Brad Yasar says he has hundreds of millions of dollars of Bitcoin trapped in computers as he has lost the passwords.

Stefan — who made another fortune on a rival currency called Ripple — plans to put his IronKey into a secure facility until he or others find a way of cracking it.

He added: “It’s for my own sanity.”

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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk