A father-son duo is on a mission to help people who have forgotten the passwords of their Bitcoin wallets. Chris and Charlie Brooks, who say they are "ethical hackers," could thus unlock a few billions. A recent analysis by blockchain data platformChainalysis showed that of the 18.6 million already mined Bitcoins, about 20 percent is considered to be "lost" in wallets that appear to have been stranded.

According to The New York Times, the unclaimed Bitcoins could be equivalent to about $140 billion.

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In an interview with HypeBeast, Chris said about 2.5 percent of that lost Bitcoin could still be recovered. This amounts to around $3.2 billion. Charlie explained that it is a super straightforward process of compiling a list of the best password guesses. He added that the process requires deep understanding and the more information they get, the better they can deduce how passwords are created and the thought process behind it.

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Charlie revealed that their current success rate is around 27 percent. The duo charges a 20 percent service fee. He added that while some decoded wallets may be worth a few millions, others may be duds.

How it started

The father-son team comes from New Hampshire. Chris is a programmer, and his 20-year-old son Charlie majored in computer science. Chris was introduced to the crypto world back in 2014 and he became interested in starting a business around digital coins in 2017. Meanwhile, he had noticed the trend of people getting into Bitcoin really early but forgetting the passwords of their wallets.

He felt that being a programmer he could solve this problem.

Subsequently, he started his own business, Crypto Asset Recovery. Charlie was always eager to join his dad’s business while his father was looking to hire someone whom he could trust blindly. And so the two-person hacking team got down to rescuing lost accounts.

Also read: Meet Ehraz Ahmed, the white hat hacker who is helping Facebook, Google and Airtel stay secure

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)