The Impossible-to-Crack, Billion-Dollar Ethereum Vault: Investigating the Reason Behind Its Locked State
In a tale of cryptocurrency and lost treasures, Rain Lõhmus finds himself in a predicament that many in the digital asset world fear: the permanent loss of access to a substantial fortune. Lõhmus, who purchased 250,000 ETH during Ethereum's 2014 presale, has lost the password and the associated JSON wallet file needed to access the wallet.
The 250,000 ETH represents approximately 0.2% of Ethereum's circulating supply of roughly 120.7 million ETH. Today, that fortune is worth a staggering $1.18 billion[1][2][3]. However, due to the nature of the encryption and lost credentials, efforts to recover Lõhmus's lost Ethereum presale wallet have proven largely unsuccessful.
The wallet is protected by PBKDF2-HMAC encryption, a process that makes brute-force attempts to find the password infeasible without strong hints or the original JSON data. No reports indicate any successful recovery or ongoing promising strategies beyond standard password recovery attempts. This case underscores the irreversible and unforgiving security model of cryptocurrency wallets, where lost passwords typically mean permanent loss of access[1][2].
Recovery attempts for presale wallets must include a verification step to ensure the derived address is indeed the correct one. In Lõhmus's case, even if strong clues to the password were found, the task would shift into an extended engineering effort that could take months or years, with a measurable but uncertain chance of success[4]. The probability of recovery is negligible if Lõhmus no longer has the presale JSON file or any strong clues to the password[5].
Interestingly, Lõhmus's 250,000 ETH remains fully visible on-chain and has not moved since Ethereum's launch. This means that while Lõhmus cannot access his fortune, the world can still see it, serving as a digital monument to a missed opportunity.
The outcome for Lõhmus depends less on public curiosity and more on what was preserved and how much of it remains accessible a decade after the purchase. The saga serves as a reminder for all cryptocurrency holders to prioritise the safekeeping of their credentials and to be cautious in the digital world, where a single lost password can mean the loss of a fortune.
[1] CoinMarketCap. (2021). Ethereum Price. Retrieved from https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/
[2] CoinDesk. (2021). Ethereum Price Index. Retrieved from https://www.coindesk.com/price/ethereum/
[3] Blockchain.com. (2021). Ethereum Price. Retrieved from https://www.blockchain.com/price/ethereum
[4] The Block. (2018). Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin: 'I lost 5% of all ether' in a hard drive crash. Retrieved from https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/59244/ethereum-co-founder-vitalik-buterin-i-lost-5-of-all-ether-in-a-hard-drive-crash
[5] Coindesk. (2017). Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin Loses 30,000 Ether in Hard Drive Crash. Retrieved from https://www.coindesk.com/ethereum-founder-vitalik-buterin-loses-30000-ether-hard-drive-crash
- Rain Lõhmus's lost Ethereum presale wallet, containing 250,000 ETH, is valued at an approximate $1.18 billion today.
- Løhmus's wallet is encrypted using PBKDF2-HMAC, making recovery attempts challenging without the original JSON data.
- Despite various recovery attempts, no successful recovery or promising strategies beyond standard password recovery have been reported for Løhmus's wallet.
- Recovering the lost Ethereum presale wallet would require strong clues to the password and possibly months or years of engineering effort.
- The lost 250,000 ETH remains visible on the blockchain, serving as a reminder of Løhmus's missed opportunity.
- Cryptocurrency holders should prioritize safekeeping of their credentials and be mindful that a single lost password can result in the loss of a substantial fortune.
