Peter Schiff: Lost Bitcoin Password Claims are ‘Fake News’

On Sunday, January 19th noted American libertarian economist, “gold bug,” and renowned Bitcoin skeptic Peter Schiff told the world that he had lost access to his Bitcoins.

“I just lost all the #Bitcoin I have ever owned,” wrote Schiff, who is also the chief executive officer at Euro Pacific Capital and the Chairman of SchiffGold.

“My wallet got corrupted somehow and my password is no longer valid. So now not only is my Bitcoin intrinsically worthless; it has no market value either. I knew owning Bitcoin was a bad idea, I just never realized it was this bad.”

The tweet was posted on Schiff’s unverified Twitter account along with a screenshot of an error message that reads “error decrypting wallet, please check that your password is correct.”

I just lost all the #Bitcoin I have ever owned. My wallet got corrupted somehow and my password is no longer valid. So now not only is my Bitcoin intrinsically worthless; it has no market value either. I knew owning Bitcoin was a bad idea, I just never realized it was this bad! pic.twitter.com/6SJvDJOZU6

— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) January 19, 2020

“So much fake news about how I forgot my wallet password.”

Schiff insists that the loss was not any fault of his own, but that the loss was due to a problem with the wallet’s software.

“So much fake news about how I forgot my wallet password,” he wrote roughly ten hours after he first tweeted about the loss.

“Can't #Bitcoin pumpers be honest about anything? I was very clear that I didn't forget my password. My wallet no longer recognizes my correct password. Plus what's up with over 3K people liking that I lost my Bitcoin?”

Indeed, a number of Bitcoin community members seem to be skeptical that the wallet was corrupted, and seem to think that the loss was the result of Schiff’s own human errors.

Anthony Pompliano, co-founder and partner at Morgan Creek Digital, publicly reached out to Schiff, saying that “the software just executes the commands that humans give it. It can’t ‘forget’ anything. Email me and I’ll try to help you recover the lost Bitcoin.”

However, Schiff responded by saying that Erik Voorhees, chief executive officer and founder of cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift, “set up the wallet for me and even he thinks there is nothing I can do.”

“But you're welcome to try if you have any ideas,” Schiff added.

“Financial sovereignty: it's not for everyone.”

However, Erik Vorhees--who confirmed that he had, indeed, helped Schiff to set up his Bitcoin wallet--wrote that Schiff “forgot pw, and never recorded [his recovery] phrase.” A recovery phrase, or seed phrase, is a pneumonic phrase that is used to recover a Bitcoin wallet's private key in case it gets lost.

“If I gave him an ounce of gold and he dropped it on the sidewalk would he similarly condemn the precious metal as a foolish monetary system?,” Vorhees asked, adding in a separate tweet that: “financial sovereignty: it's not for everyone.”

Here's what happened: after debate in 2018, we went to dinner. Peter had never used bitcoin before (!) I helped him set up wallet on his phone (Edge or BRD?), told him to secure it if he ever held significant value on it, gave him $50. He forgot pw, and never recorded phrase. ? https://t.co/kcQkAyU9Rv

— Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) January 19, 2020

However, Schiff isn’t too heartbroken over the loss--in a follow-up Tweet, Schiff wrote that the loss was “not that great a tragedy”; Schiff wrote that his plan was to “HODL and go down with the ship anyway,” but that “the difference is that my ship sank before Bitcoin.”

Since all the Bitcoin in my corrupted wallet were gifted to me, it's not that great a tragedy for me that they're lost. "Easy come, easy go," is especially true for #Bitcoin. My plan was to HODL and go down with the ship anyway. The difference is that my ship sank before Bitcoin.

— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) January 19, 2020