Ex-Ripple (XRP) CTO Holds 7,000 BTC in Hardware Wallet, Exploring Recovery Options: The Account

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In September, a startup lab of ethical hackers based in Seattle provided evidence to a senior writer at WIRED Magazine that they could unlock the IronKey S200 thumb drive containing 7002 Bitcoins.

However, former Ripple CTO Stefan Thomas astonishingly declined an offer from the Seattle startup, known as Unciphered, to assist him in accessing the USB drive.

Former Ripple CTO Approaching His 7002 Bitcoins

Thomas informed WIRED that he had already engaged another team to tackle the issue on his behalf.

The ex-Ripple Labs executive aims to give them a fair opportunity to recover the 7002 Bitcoins before considering another firm. He noted that they might collaborate with the Seattle company if they are unable to devise a viable solution.

The cybersecurity firm that successfully accessed the IronKey S200 is not disclosing its technique. Nevertheless, they did generate three randomly created passphrase terms for the memory stick without prior knowledge of them.

They claim it required 200 trillion attempts using a high-performance computer to identify three accurate passphrase terms. This could serve as a concerning indication of how quantum computing may impact cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ripple.

The Risks of DIY Banking with Bitcoin

Thomas’s qualifications to critique the “be your own bank” concept associated with Bitcoin stem not only from his experience at Ripple Labs but also from his personal journey of securing 7002 Bitcoins on a thumb drive since 2011:

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

Ripple serves as a blockchain-based digital payment platform and currency exchange service utilized by financial institutions globally. Bitcoin is the pioneer of hash-based blockchains designed for rapid payment settlements and operates on an open, peer-to-peer network.

At the time of writing, Ripple was trading at $0.55, while Bitcoin was priced at $34,000.

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