Image source: The Telegraph
Frankfurt Reuters reports that German prosecutors seized $60 million of bitcoin, but ran into an issue- they did not know how to unlock it.
Bitcoin is a form of cryptocurrency that is stored on a digital wallet that is secured through encryption. A password is used as a decryption key to open the wallet and access the bitcoin. When a password is lost the user cannot open the wallet.
The fraudster had been sentenced to more than two years in jail for covertly installing software on other computers to harness their power to “mine” or produce bitcoin.
When he went behind bars, his bitcoin stash would have been worth a fraction of the current value. The price of bitcoin has surged over the past year, hitting a record high of $42,000 in January.
The police have tried repeatedly to crack the code but haven’t been able to do so. A prosecutor in the Bavarian town of Kempten, Sebastian Murer told Reuters on Friday: “We asked him but he didn’t say, perhaps he doesn’t know.”
