TL;DR: An anonymous investor lost access to $1.6M in Bitcoin thanks to a 20-character password he couldn’t remember. Hackers saved the day—six months later.
It All Started When
Our tale begins with an anonymous investor, the kind of person who’d rather be off Twitter and behind multisig wallets. Not your average crypto tourist, this individual had the foresight to invest in Bitcoin early and took their security very seriously.
In 2013, this investor stored a stash of Bitcoin in a digital wallet, secured with a 20-character password generated for maximum strength. It wasn’t “Bitcoin2023!” or “WenLambo2023″—no, this was a carefully crafted monster of upper- and lowercase letters, symbols, and numbers. Pure Fort Knox.
Over the years, as Bitcoin soared in value, the investor decided it was finally time to check in on that long-lost wallet. By 2023, the Bitcoin inside was worth a jaw-dropping $1.6 million.
There was just one problem.
He couldn’t remember the password.
And Then
Cue six months of cryptographic chaos.
The investor racked his brain trying to recall the 20-character code. He tried guesswork, old notes, recovery tools, even password managers from a decade ago. Nothing worked. The wallet sat there, silently mocking him—millions in sight, yet untouchable.
In a last-ditch effort, he contacted Joe Grand, aka “@Kingpin,” a renowned hardware hacker, and his cryptographic collaborator Bruno. If anyone could crack this digital safe, it was them.
The task? Reverse-engineer the password using a combination of password entropy analysis, memory fragments from the investor, and a lot of patient guesswork. It was less “brute force” and more “brain surgery with a butter knife.”
For six months, Joe and Bruno tried variations, checked hash collisions, built custom cracking tools, and even recreated the investor’s possible mindset from a decade ago. Finally, one combination hit the jackpot.
Wallet unlocked. Funds recovered.
Does This Deserve the HODLaward?
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He was last seen whispering “uppercase J… or lowercase?” into the void.
