Mr Thomas stored his bitcoins in a digital wallet and wrote the password on a piece of paper he has lost. [Source: BBC]

We’ve all been there – brain fog makes us forget our password and after eight frantic attempts, we have just two left.

That’s the situation for programmer Stefan Thomas but the stakes are higher than most – the forgotten password will let him unlock a hard drive containing $240m (£175m) worth of Bitcoin.

His plight, reported in the New York Times, has gone viral.

Ex-Facebook security head Alex Stamos has offered to help – for a 10% cut.

Bitcoin has surged in value in recent months.

One bitcoin is currently worth $34,000.

But the cryptocurrency is volatile.

And experts are divided about whether it will continue to rise or crash.