Photographic Memory「Eidetic Memory」 Helps Thief Steal 107 Bitcoins, Chinese Man Sentenced to Ten Years and Nine Months for Theft

June 8 — The Supreme People’s Procuratorate exposed a novel cryptocurrency theft case yesterday. A man identified as Zhang from Shandong Province had been assisting his acquaintance Feng with cryptocurrency transactions for some time. After gaining Feng’s trust, Zhang took the initiative to suggest Feng switch to a more user-friendly digital wallet. The wallet’s asset mnemonic—its core security key—was generated by the system randomly selecting 12 terms from a set of 2048 common English words, acting as the critical password protecting the crypto assets. Seizing his opportunity while Feng was transcribing the mnemonic, Zhang relied solely on his naked eye and exceptional memory to memorize 11 full words, plus the first letter of the final term. That night, using this partial memory, he repeatedly tested and combined possible sequences to crack the code, successfully unlocking Feng’s digital wallet, transferring 107 bitcoins, and later selling the coins for an illegal profit of 660,000 yuan. The court ultimately convicted Zhang of theft, sentencing him to 10 years and 9 months in prison plus a 100,000 yuan fine.