[A Programmer Has Only Two Password Attempts Left, $700 Million Worth of 7,002 BTC May Be Permanently Locked] BlockBeats News, July 17: Programmer Stefan Thomas currently has only two password attempts remaining to unlock an IronKey encrypted USB drive containing the private key for 7,002 bitcoins. If the password is entered incorrectly 10 times in total, the device will permanently lock and delete the data. Thomas has already used 8 attempts. These bitcoins date back to 2011, when Thomas created an educational video titled 'What is Bitcoin?' and was rewarded with 7,002 BTC. Based on the current BTC price of approximately $111,000, this asset is valued at around $777 million. Thomas had previously stored the wallet's private key on the encrypted USB drive and recorded the password on paper, but later lost the password. Although the bitcoins still exist in the blockchain address, the funds are currently inaccessible due to the inability to access the private key. The IronKey USB drive is designed with high-level encryption, and entering the wrong password 10 times triggers a permanent lock mechanism. Manufacturer Kingston has stated that apart from the original password set by the user, there is no backup password or other recovery method available. As the price of BTC continues to rise, the value of this locked asset keeps increasing. Thomas has sought help from various parties, including digital forensics company Naxo and security researcher Chris Tarnovsky, but as of now, there has been no successful recovery. [Original Link]