Cryptocurrency has created fortunes for many. Yet for a select few, all that remains is their name stamped on a success story they never actually cashed in on.
So Near and Yet So Far
Rain Lõhmus, founder of Estonia-based LHV Bank, is the world’s third-richest cryptocurrency holder, with an Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) stash worth more than $600 million, according to on-chain analytics firm Arkham.
Lõhmus had purchased 250,000 ETH for $75,000 during the 2014 Ethereum presale and had not moved any of the coins since.
Yet he can have none of it. The reason? He lost the private keys to the wallet.
In a 2023 interview, Lohmus said he frequently loses passwords and has offered half the wallet’s value to anyone who can help recover it. He also criticised private keys as a major weakness in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Bitcoin Goes to Waste
James Howells, a Wales-based software engineer, might also have an opinion or two on private keys.
James Howells’ hard drive, which had the private key for 8,000 Bitcoin, was accidentally thrown out by his ex-girlfriend; the Welshman has spent the past 13 years fighting local authorities for permission to recover it from a landfill.
The stash is worth more than $656 million as of this writing, and hit $984 million at Bitcoin’s all-time high price of $123,091.61.
The Lost Paper
Stefan Thomas, a German-born computer programmer, also ranks among the cryptocurrency’s most unfortunate figures — if one can call them that.
Thomas holds 7,002 BTC worth $574 million— on a hard disk, whose password he has forgotten. The programmer lost the paper on which he had written the private keys years ago.
The incident left Thomas disillusioned. He said he no longer supports the idea of people being their own banks — a point often cited in favor of cryptocurrencies.
Such incidents underscore the importance of securely managing private keys yourself, especially you choose not to entrust them to intermediaries such as exchanges.
Binance (CRYPTO: BNB) founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao shared a cryptocurrency security guide last week amid rising cases of hacks and unauthorized access.
Photo Courtesy: Svita Nova on Shutterstock.com
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