Lost Passwords Lock Millionaires Out of Their Bitcoin Fortunes

 

Lost Passwords Lock Millionaires Out of Their Bitcoin Fortunes

丟失密碼讓百萬富翁無法取得他的比特幣財富

【摘要2021.1.26.自由】◎黃靖媗

Stefan Thomas, a programmer living in San Francisco, has two guesses left to figure out a password that is worth about $220 million.

居於舊金山的程式設計師斯特凡．湯瑪斯只剩下兩次猜測的機會，能找出價值約2.2億美元的密碼。

The password will let him unlock a small hard drive which contains the private keys to a digital wallet that holds 7,002 Bitcoin.

這組密碼能讓他解鎖1枚含有幾把數位錢包私密鑰匙的小硬碟，錢包內裝了7002枚比特幣。

The problem is that Mr. Thomas years ago lost the paper where he wrote down the password for his hard drive, which gives users 10 guesses before it seizes up and encrypts its contents forever. He has since tried eight of his most commonly used password formulations — to no avail.

問題是，湯瑪斯幾年前弄丟了1張他曾寫下硬碟密碼的紙，而硬碟在永久停用並加密內容之前，給使用者10次猜密碼的機會。他已經嘗試了8組他最常用的密碼組合，但都沒有成功。

Of the existing 18.5 million Bitcoin, around 20 percent appear to be in lost or otherwise stranded wallets, according to the cryptocurrency data firm Chainalysis.

加密貨幣數據公司Chainalysis指出，目前有1850萬枚比特幣，約佔20%，處於被遺失或打不開的狀態。

新聞辭典

seize up：片語，故障、不能動。例句：The air condition suddenly seized up this morning.（冷氣在今天早上突然故障了。）

encrypt：動詞，加密。例句：The SD card has been encrypted, so my computer cannot read it.（這張記憶卡已經被加密，所以我的電腦無法讀取它。）

to no avail：片語，無濟於事、完全沒用。例句：They have protested for 3 months but to no avail.（他們已經抗議了3個月，但還是完全沒用。）