A family is seeking help from the public to retrieve a wallet file containing millions of dollars’ worth of Ethereum (ETH) from the Ethereum Foundation.
In a GoFundMe fundraiser, Yukiko Williams claims that they had bought 3,000 ETH during the Ethereum Initial Coin Offering (ICO) event in 2014.
Williams says the Ethereum Foundation sent them the JSON file that would give them access to the wallet containing the tokens, but they encountered technical issues with the file.
“While the wallet address populated with the character encrypted password successfully generated, the most important JSON file refused to respond as it was supposed to.”
Williams says the Ethereum Foundation was supposed to send them an email with the backup wallet JSON file, but it never did.
“While we have done everything possible to gain access to our wallet, Ethereum, on the other hand, reassured us that they had a backup wallet file which they would email to us. Unfortunately, no one from their end followed up with the resolution as the email never came through.
After one year of Private Sales, Ethereum went live. It became harder to reach them as the project became successful and attracted millions of cryptocurrency enthusiasts like you and me, who believe in blockchain technology and decentralization.”
After seven years of failed attempts to retrieve the file, Williams says the family’s next step is to make their claim through the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). Williams is raising funds to help cover the expenses, since filing a case at this level could involve hefty legal fees.
According to the GoFundMe page, the family is raising $250,000 to pay for the legal battle.
At time of writing, Ethereum is trading at $2,310, which puts the value of 3,000 ETH at over $6.93 million.
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