The Case of Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak’s Stolen Bitcoins

Wozniak

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has long been a fan of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, citing their purity as attractive in a manipulative world. In fact, he’s added to his already sizable fortune with some shrewd Bitcoin trades. He too, however, has fallen victim to fraud.


‘It Was That Easy!’

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is a big fan of Bitcoin — or, at least, he used to be.

Wozniak first bought into Bitcoin when it was worth $700, before flipping it for massive profits during the digital currency’s monumental run-up.

Woz found Bitcoin and digital currencies attractive, thanks to its decentralized and apolitical properties. He explained to ET GBS:

Bitcoins to me was a currency that was not manipulated by the governments. It is mathematical, it is pure, it can’t be altered.

He learned the hard way, however, that it can be stolen.

Wozniak told a packed house at the Global Business Summit that his bitcoins were unkindly liberated from his possession as he fell victim to fraud. He explained:

The blockchain identifies who has Bitcoins — that doesn’t mean there can’t be fraud though. I had seven Bitcoins stolen from me through fraud. Somebody bought them from me online through a credit card and they canceled the credit card payment. It was that easy! And it was from a stolen credit card number so you can never get it back.

At the time of this writing, those seven Bitcoins are worth nearly $75,000 USD.

Woz Not Exactly Hurting

Nevertheless, Wozniak wasn’t burned too badly by the rookie mistake. He reportedly bought a whole bunch of bitcoins when they were only $700 and sold them for a fortune — so the multimillionaire’s losses presumably were kept to a minimum.

He also never saw himself as a Bitcoin investor.

I had them so that I could someday travel and not use credit cards, wallets or cash. I could do it all on Bitcoin. I studied which hotels and facilities accepted Bitcoin… it’s still very difficult to do so. I also tried to buy things online and trade Bitcoin online.

Don’t worry, Woz. Mainstream adoption is coming.

Are you surprised to hear that a tech pioneer like Steve Wozniak fell victim to a rookie mistake? Let us know in the comments below!


Images courtesy of Bitcoinist archives, Shutterstock, and Twitter/@finom_company.

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