- The family supposedly purchased 3000 ETH during the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in 2014.
- They never got access to their token as the Ethereum Foundation refused to provide them with a backup JSON file.
Following the recent ETH rally, a family has set a GoFundMe to raise money in abid to claim their ETH. According to them, the Ethereum Foundation has failed to provide the necessary help to access their ETH stuck in their wallet for seven years.
According to the fundraiser Yukiko Williams, the family purchased 3000 ETH worth $6.7 million (based on the current rate) during the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in 2014. The JSON file which was supposed to give them access to the Ethereum wallet was sent, however, the file did not respond upon attempting to access it.
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.
They claim to have followed all the instructions including leaving their computer on for more than 90 minutes. Unfortunately, the progress bar froze, and their attempt to request a backup.wallet.JSON file was infertile despite providing their email address as directed by the Foundation.
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.
The family seeks $250,000 to file a claim against Ethereum Foundation
After Ethereum was launched, it became almost impossible to reach them as millions of enthusiasts got attracted to the project. According to Williams, they can see the value of their 3000 ETH. However, there is no way to access it despite having the CoinBase time-stamped receipt and character password.
They hired an attorney in 2017 and filed a case against the Foundation. However, they were advised to file the case in Switzerland since the Ethereum Foundation is headquartered there. They then hired a swiss Attorney Dr Haykaz Zoryan. In March 2018, the case was filed for conciliation. The family also met the Ethereum Foundation attorney at a video conference, where they were informed that they are indeed the rightful owners of the wallet. Ethereum Foundation, therefore, promised that they would retrieve the JSON file for them. However, Mr. Patrick Storchenegger, Ethereum Foundation Counsel contacted them a few weeks later and informed them that they could only retrieve the JSON file, but not the encrypted password.
When we replied that we have the password saved on a flash drive and were only seeking our backup.wallet.json file, we received an extremely discouraging and demoralizing response letter stating that they (the Ethereum Foundation) were not responsible for nor are the custodians of our wallet!
Mr Patrick Storchenegger suggested settling for the wallet value minus court costs and the wallet expenses. This is because he would provide the ETH in a subsequent wallet minus the fee he would incur. He told them that he would rather not arbitrate in the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, France.
The family is now filing their claim with the court, but without adequate finances, they are pleading with the public to donate as they seek to raise $250,000 to finance their legal battle.
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