Programmer has two password guesses left to save his $240 million of Bitcoin

Cryptocurrency and Cash are both a failed system. To me bitcoin is the sped up version of how money works. See it inflate stupidly... see the cost to live/survive inflate stupidly. Another control out of control.


CASH is tangible and has history as a currency.

A Dollar is worth $1 Dollar.

Bitcoin is intangible and has no history as a currency.

A Bitcoin must be valued against another currency - ie "how many "stuff" can I buy with $1 Dollar".

A Bitcoin is only valued by the regional currency.

Not to mention its wild swings in volatility.

That in and of itself disqualifies it from being a currency.
 
This will probably end with him remembering the password but still ending up losing it all because he forgets to switch back from the German layout on his kezboard.
 
I will only take Bitcoin seriously the day that I can pay my bills, buy any goods or services............................ I mean the majority.
 
Critical Mistake: Where is the Password Reset?

All password systems should have Cellphone reset ability.

Another stupid comment like always; I'd recommend to google definition of currency, it's fairly simple. "Currency is a medium of exchange for goods and services."
 
C'mon, just pry open tha dam' thing...
(kidding)
That must suck, big time :( No idea how can that be solved, but the problem itself should be study material: 20% of all BC is already lost? Woow, I didn't know that...and all that in just a decade? With no hope to rerplace or reallocate the lost units? Then that system is doomed, at least in its current form: the big brains must think of something to handle these kind of scenarios (I don't know what, but if they really want BC to go mainstream, or even just to survive, then the current setup it just too rigid)
 
Another stupid comment like always; I'd recommend to google definition of currency, it's fairly simple. "Currency is a medium of exchange for goods and services."


I often wonder how Ponzi schemes get funded.

I guess one really is born every minute.

I rest my case.
 
Has he tried hypnosis?

Somebody relay my comment to him! He should hire a hypnotist and have trusted friends and relatives around to keep the hypnotist honest.
 
I’m not buying it. Who would risk loosing $240 million dollars instead of working with a data recovery company? No one..

Same. Seems off that this isn't being done. Shoot if the person isn't very hardware savvy it could be more risky for him to handle the old drive than one of these companies anyways.
 
Another stupid comment like always; I'd recommend to google definition of currency, it's fairly simple. "Currency is a medium of exchange for goods and services."
Except the goalpost on this metric is always being moved. Someone buys a pizza with bitcoin "oh he didn't really buy the pizza it was through a third party"; I buy something from NewEgg with Bitcoin through Bitpay, it's "oh well NewEgg probably isn't holding the bitcoin so it doesn't count, and also it's not Amazon"
 
So he valued the bitcoins enough to buy this thingy that is probably not cheap - which someone says has a backup feature he did not learn . He then chose a password that he kind of knows - but only stored it once - I don't feel sorry for him - Nor did he think about family and friends should he die - that he could bequest them some money .

It's extremely easy to hide passwords in plain site .
When I travelled - for years at a time - I knew I may not remember a bank card on return - I don't use day to day - I used to hide it in real like phone numbers - no one but me - knew the system - I used to extract number - and if I took a complement - eg 1234 could be 9876

I regenerate my passwords from a set of codes & stuff only I know - sure a researcher can reverse engineer from known passwords - but a hacker will move on straight away - as much much easier targets = plus for something like this I would use my coding + a very unique password I hide in plain sight
 
No...what I'm complaining about is:

#1 To call it "currency" is disingenuous because it has NO HISTORY as Currency, and will never work as a currency because of the volatility and the intangibility.

#2 It's backed by nothing.

#3 It's insured by no one.

#4 It's a ponzi scheme designed to sucker people out of money - which even if they make gains, the IRS will ultimately tax.

Bitcoin is basically the ability for the IRS to tax the entire world under those circumstances.

#2 and #4 sound like the U.S. dollar.
 
Man, with that kind of coin I think a nice tattoo on the butt would have a good idea, just make sure you can read it in the mirror!
 
But on the subject at hand - the subject of this story is predicated on the earliest means people used to store private keys for crypto. In the present, there are far more options that are not so fail-deadly available.

Physical crypto wallets like Trezor or Ledger rely on both pins and mnemonic phrases to restore access to private keys, while mainstream exchanges like Coinbase take great pains to operate within the boundaries of existing financial law and provide rigorous security and restoration options for accounts and cold-storage vaults for private keys as well as insurance for their operations against theft and hacks. Crypto still presents unique risks but it is not as bereft of safety nets as this story might lead you to believe.
 
So, here’s the question. Should this guy be taxed? If not, what stops others from “forgetting” their wallet password.
Currently, buying and holding crypto does not incur tax, cashing it out or exchanging it for another crypto does, neither of which he can do. Either way, Uncle Sam only takes payment in taxes in his play money anyway. Good riddance.
 
A Bitcoin must be valued against another currency - ie "how many "stuff" can I buy with $1 Dollar".

That's one of my biggest problems with any crypto currency. Currency basically represents goods and services and is only really useable when everyone trading G&Ss agrees that the currency has representative worth allowing it to replace the more cumbersome G&Ss. While some companies (mostly tech) have flirted with using/accepting crypto, no country or banking system has replaced their fiat currency with it. Until one does crypto's only real worth is what traders are willing to trade it for. Currently paying with a crypto at your corner store is like paying with a stock certificate IMHO, and there's a number of very good reasons (many you listed) why you can't do that.
 
A Bitcoin must be valued against another currency - ie "how many "stuff" can I buy with $1 Dollar".

That's one of my biggest problems with any crypto currency. Currency basically represents goods and services and is only really useable when everyone trading G&Ss agrees that the currency has representative worth allowing it to replace the more cumbersome G&Ss. While some companies (mostly tech) have flirted with using/accepting crypto, no country or banking system has replaced their fiat currency with it. Until one does crypto's only real worth is what traders are willing to trade it for. Currently paying with a crypto at your corner store is like paying with a stock certificate IMHO, and there's a number of very good reasons (many you listed) why you can't do that.
This is like saying the Euro only has value because currency exchanges have listings for it against the dollar. Bitcoin is valued against the dollar because it's a unit of measurement everyone (thinks) they're familiar with.

The headline "Bitcoin is now worth 40,000 Maker DAI" would confuse the normies, even though the value of the latter is *actually* stable and regulated in a way the dollar isn't.

I favor valuing Bitcoin in Troy ounces of gold, which right now is somewhere in the region of 1 BTC : 20 Troy ounces.
 
A Bitcoin must be valued against another currency - ie "how many "stuff" can I buy with $1 Dollar".

That's one of my biggest problems with any crypto currency. Currency basically represents goods and services and is only really useable when everyone trading G&Ss agrees that the currency has representative worth allowing it to replace the more cumbersome G&Ss. While some companies (mostly tech) have flirted with using/accepting crypto, no country or banking system has replaced their fiat currency with it. Until one does crypto's only real worth is what traders are willing to trade it for. Currently paying with a crypto at your corner store is like paying with a stock certificate IMHO, and there's a number of very good reasons (many you listed) why you can't do that.


And that's why I started out saying:

"Calling cryptocurrency is disingenuous".

It's not really "currency".

Until people are paid from their government in Crypto, people pay their taxes in Crypto, people pay each other/exchange goods and services in crypto... it's NOT a Currency.

Buying Bitcoin is no different than buying Dave & Buster's Tokens.

If I hold out a DIME...you would say it's worth "10 cents".

If I hold out a Quarter... you'd say it's worth "25 cents".

If I hold out a Gold Dollar you'd say it's worth "100 cents".

If I hold out a Bitcoin... what would you say?

Ain't nobody trading in Satoshis...
 
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