Stefan Thomas lost the paper where he wrote down the password for his IronKey, which contains the private keys to a digital wallet that holds 7,002 bitcoins.

lmao I hope he gets desperate the next time bitcoin spikes & pays some cryptology firm to 'crack' it and they wipe it by accident.

  • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    In 2011, when he was living in Switzerland, he was given the 7,002 bitcoins by an early Bitcoin fanatic as a reward for making an animated video, “What is Bitcoin?,” which introduced many people to the technology.

    That year, he lost the digital keys to the wallet holding the Bitcoin. Since then, as Bitcoin’s value has soared and fallen and he could not get his hands on the money, Thomas has soured on the idea that people should be their own bank and hold their own money.

    “This whole idea of being your own bank — let me put it this way: Do you make your own shoes?” Thomas said. “The reason we have banks is that we don’t want to deal with all those things that banks do.”

    Guy seems pretty down to earth. He didn't do any trading for those bitcoins, he was given them as payment for labor.

    For reference, 7,002 BTC in 2011 was anywhere from $3500-$7000 depending on what month he was paid.

    Also "reward for making an animated video" is a weird way of saying "payment for labor". Guess wages are going to start being considered rewards now...

    • Funicio [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      I don't really get why people here are antagonizing this person, even if it wasn't payment and he traded for it. I get that most people that are into bitcoin are libertarian weirdos, but if you bought into it and made a lot of money that's not really unethical, at least it's not any more unethical than investing in the stock market which is actually propped up by systemic reaproppriation of surplus value.