I Found My Lost Ethereum Password and Cost Myself $3.6 Million.

I Found My Lost Ethereum Password and Cost Myself $3.6 Million.

It was July 22 — September 2, 2014. The Summer Mt. Gox Died, I Accidentally Became a Crypto Millionaire. A few months after the Mt. Gox debacle, the Ethereum project was having an ICO (Initial Coin Offering). The Ethereum ICO ran from July 22, 2014, to September 2, 2014 — precisely 42 days. During the first 14 days, the exchange rate was 1 Bitcoin for 2,000 ETH. I had bought Bitcoin for $620, spending half ($310) on Ethereum and half ($310) on Rootstock, another innovative contract project that promised to bring Ethereum-like functionality to Bitcoin. One became the foundation of Web3, the other… well, let’s just say my Rootstock investment truly disappeared into the ether (pun intended).

When I bought into the ICO, the user interface was mediocre. My Bitcoin transfer from Coinbase seemed to glitch; the User Interface just hung for what seemed like forever. These were the same hackers who built “The DAO.” Stephen Tual, Ethereum’s Chief Communications Officer, helped me troubleshoot my payment problem. He assured me that my payment from Coinbase had cleared, and even though I could not verify my password, my JSON file was intact, and I would be able to redeem my ETH after the waiting period was over. I sensed he was eager to get on to the next caller in the queue, after all, they had sold seven million ETH in the first 12 hours, and I was not the only one having issues.

Being the trusting soul that I am, I was satisfied with the answers and let him move on; my purchase was more about wanting to support their effort than any hope that my investment would yield a return. It was a crazy time, just a few years before the ICO explosion that would shake the SEC and Elizabeth Warren. It was the Crypto Golden Age of true believers and innovation!

A year later, my Ethereum would be available for redemption. It broke out at $2.77 and I was eager to make a killing on that, having only paid .31 per coin. That is when I realized Stephen Taul was wrong; my password did not work as he assured me. I gained some hope from a Python program that was supposed to guess passwords, but it didn’t work either. I started to think of my $310 as a donation rather than an investment. Ethereum fell 75% in three days, and my excitement waned. I was learning the meaning of the word “Volatility.”

By 2016, I was hooked on crypto, still a newbie and very inexperienced in investment or trading of any kind. When casually surfing some exchanges where I had accounts, I noticed a new button on the Kraken exchange. “Redeem your Original Ethereum Investment.” With little hope for anything, I clicked on the button and was prompted for a password. I provided what I thought was the correct password and expected to get rejected. Boom! With Ethereum now at $15 per coin, I was the proud owner of $ 15,000 in Ethereum.

Feeling like a millionaire

I had gained a reputation at work as the Bitcoin guy; whenever headlines on Bitcoin broke, I was inundated with questions. Now I had a success story to validate my Investment chops, even though it was a complete fluke. Today, I wonder if I had only missed that button until recently, I would be a millionaire, with Ethereum at $3000+. I did make some bets during the crazy ICO days and made more than I had put out, but it was not investing by any stretch; it was lucky bets. Everyone has a shoulda, coulda, woulda story, and that is one of mine.

I do remember some investment advice my father gave me: Investing in your education will have unimaginable returns. Some of that 15 grand found its way into a Bitcoin Library and a Course at MIT. But that’s a story for another day.