Bitcoin Forum

I created a topic https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5246731.msg54384321#msg54384321 earlier describing how I was finding it difficult logging into my Ethereum wallet which I created last year. I saved only the keystone file because of a past experience where I lost huge amount of money by saving my private keys. I decided to open this new wallet which I use my keystone file to access about two days ago and the feedback I received got me disturbed. Initially, I thought this was just a little glitch and I could get it solved but it happens my funds are gone forever.

I reported this in several other communities and it seems this has been the fate of others as well. Going forward I want us all to take the advice of not using Myetherwallet platform in creating and accessing our ethereum wallets.  I think there is a loophole with their platform and hackers are exploiting it at some point in time and the saddest thing is that they are not aware of this loophole. If you have ever been a victim of this situation please support this post with just a comment just to warn other forum members to stay away from using MyEtherwallet and if your funds are valuable to you I suggest you start moving them one after the other!
 
Below is the image of feedback that I get when I try accessing my wallet. I have open this wallet for like 3 times with this same Keystore file. All my other Keystore files are working just the one with the money lmao.
https://i.imgur.com/hRxtoh7.png

Since last year I moved from myetherwallet to metamask so in 1 year I have never accessed myetherwallet, thank you for sharing your experiences.
I hope everyone is also careful or can check on myetherwallet to see the assets they have. Is it alright or having problems like OP

You should try to download mycrypto desktop wallet and just try to open your keystore use mycrypto desktop wallet and i have been using it since MEW has made me feel inconvenience.

I hope that will be working perfectly.

I have not used myetherwallet for more than 2 years because there have been many problems and cases of losing money there, now I have moved to use metamask and trustwallet.

I have stopped using MEW long time ago. I had also lost a significant amount of funds while using this wallet. I prefer other wallets that can be downloaded either on my mobile or desktop. Web wallets should always be avoided for storing crypto assets as there is high risk of these wallets getting hacked. If anyone is interested in knowing which are the best Ethereum wallet in 2020 (https://cointikka.com/best-ethereum-wallets/) then click the link.

okay, I would give this a shot and see. Actually, I was a bit reluctant moving away from the use of MyEtherwallet even though some friends of mine advised me to stop using their platform. I guess I have learnt my lesson the hard way :(.

Honestly I don't like myether wallet, the first time I tried it out I decide  not to send coins to the wallet address, after trying few other eth wallets I later choosed coinomi wallet over others until trust wallet came around

Ever since I found out about Trustwallet, I've given up on them. Trustwallet has everything I need, simple and fast. Also they are managed by Binance so I always trust this wallet absolutely

coinomi  only have few listed tokens more of the tokens created in ETH platform will not supported by that wallet so its not a good choice to use coinomi.

I only using imtoken  application in play store to stored ETH and other tokens. Its the same you can create a new wallet or use the old wallet you have if secured your keys.

I was shocked when I visited MyEtherWallet last month and indeed I was difficult to access my wallet. But I tried some way that suggested by the support I was able to open my wallet. Until now I can access the wallet without any problem. MyEtherwallet thing is doing a good move I think, this is not something that will be harm for the user. At least it will make an awareness (especially for me) to not access the wallet carelessly.

Fake sites do make us have to be more cautious, especially with the fake MEW site making our assets seem insecure,
I wonder, is online wallet still safe? or maybe we all need to save it in an offline wallet?  ???

Surely this is something that is less fun for you, friend. But have you made sure that all your data is valid without forgetting something like:

• Correct password
• Your json file is safe and not damaged
• Create an address on the original MEW not on a phishing site

If you want people to stay away and be careful with MEW, then you should consider bringing this thread to the beginners and help (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=39.0).

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OP, you dont need to forbid anyone else to use MEW because what you are experiencing right now is something that is not recommended by the site for everyone who uses it as shown in the picture. It would be better if you ask the user to be careful and not just save the json file to access the wallet because saving PK and json is a good attempt to be on guard if one of them cant be accessed.

You can print private keys on a piece of paper and store them in a safe place even if you already have json files on a PC. If you have a private key then you will easily access your wallet with another wallet even if you don't have access to the json file. Consider it. ;)

Safe, as long as you dont make mistakes like logging into phishing sites and hackers dont spy on you maliciously.

there use to be a way to access our mew wallets offline but this option were not available after some updates. i think it was still there back in 3.10 version which we can use our keystore file and password. mew isn't getting easy and slow to load because they allow all tokens to appear in the wallet instead of just making us add the token by our selves with the contract address.

Does mycrpto desktop wallet is safe? once I download it is it the same private key I am going to use them in the wallet to access my account to that platform anyway? Its been one almost now I think that I didn't use my mew to check the balance I have on it. Anyway thanks for the tips you gave us here for this reply.

Yes carelessness itself can happen. There are many factors make you lose assets in your wallet. My experience of almost 3 years using MEW is still good. Just my carelessness to publish my private key without realizing it in the bounty form so that my assets are gone.

Perhaps your keystore file has been corrupted, possibly due to a virus. Storing a keystore on a computer is not safer than storing a Private key. I think you should use the wallet with the local password, you will just need to save the seed phrase on paper and keep it safe.

Of course, the security of your assets is your own responsibility and user carelessness is the beginning where valuable assets are lost or stolen.

Even though online wallet has a vulnerability to be hacked, but if the user understands how to make it safe then I think the incident might be different. MEW is one of the wallet sites recommended by many altcoin developers who use the ethereum platform. So as long as you can maintain the security of your wallet and PC, so far you might be safe using it.

I think we should save both of them, keystore and private key just in case if we lost one of them or cannot using one of them like you.
Did you try to open your wallet with the keystore before ? We should try to open our wallet after we just create them to ensure the keystore work properly, and we should only open the MEW web from our bookmark to avoid phishing.

Do you save the keystore only on a computer? You should save it somewhere else besides on the computer so that something like this does not happen again, or maybe you can try editing the keystore file and look for the private key on that file

Look like he don't have any backup and just saved it onto his computer. This is common for somebody who mostly don't care about his wallet during that time.

Could you explain if there's a procedure how to do this? if there is then that should be the solution but sad to say, that's unlikely.

I haven't opened my MEW account for months and my method was using the private keys.
I still have some valuable tokens there but some of it I already sent to another account.

Thanks for the warning but I got some questions.
Is this just for now, (the glitch part) or will this be a forever like problem?
Are we safe if we don't access it for a while and let it calm down for a bit?

I wonder what is the meaning of the error 'unexpected token b in JSON' could be.
Your keystore file format must be in JSON format, did you check whether the JSON format change or not ?
Does the coin balance still exist in your wallet ? If we want to using MEW, i think we need to save the keystore and private key separately in some safe place.

I'm still using MEW with private key. Luckily my wallet is safe until now. After reading your post i think i will find another wallet to use.

This problem just occurred only while using JSON?

I am now using Metamask taking out the risk of copy pasting my private keys since it is just a one time input.
Then, you will be using just a password for logging in the second time.

Before, I have the same method which is logging in with private keys at MEW which is risky. (MEW had a warning in their website)
Maybe you should try alternatives from now on.

If you are still safe, there is no need to look for another wallet, I also still use MEW until now using private key and I don't think to move to another wallet. The most important thing is you really keep your private key in a safe place, so I think it will be fine.

Is it possible to get all json file, private key and mnemonic phrase at once? Just in case we forgot one part of our wallet access code we can still use the others. But since I created myetherwallet before, I only granted one and just going to pick only from one choice. But they dont recommend private key anymore and using mnemonic phrase as advised.

But some wallet cannot be imported once you save Private key cause they only have mnemonic phrase as choice.

To answer this question, I think yes, I tried accessing my wallet created last 2018 using my Keystore file or the JSON file, I also got the same error prompt and wasn't able to open it. Luckily I also saved my private key and still able to open it using that method. I think the old JSON file is not supported now but I am not quite sure.

I think this should clarify some of the concerns of members although I would suggest reaching out to their support team for further information regarding that error for those who would prefer to access their wallet through JSON file,
However, I have been using my mew through private key, I believe it is still as secure as it use to be, it is a matter of being careful and visit the right website if you are accessing through the web or better yet use mew app, it is very convenient and handy as well.

OP already reached out to the support team about this issue, it is said that the file might be corrupted, but as per OP, he never edited those files, the same as mine.

From the last couple of years mew team has made some improvements in their wallet but it's still looks insecure with lot of bugs and it has higher chances to be hacked so it will be wise decision to not make this wallet as a permanent wallet these days we have much suitable options in crypto wallets which is much secure and user friendly than mew and recommended by mostly crypto community.

I don't know why you save only the keystore file, maybe it is really corrupted or what,
'kay, it is given that you had previous experience of losing your funds because your private key was compromised but haven't you think that it is better to have another option to open your wallet and your private key will not be compromised if you put it to safety. Also, using keystore file is not recommended to use when you access your wallet.

Did you try importing the file into other wallets like Enjin wallet? But it is certainly quite scary if json files are not working. What did their support say?

Yes, just keep the private key safe. I believe we will always be okay with MEW. I have been using MEW for many years and have never had any problems with it, recently I moved to the TRust wallet because it is so much more convenient.

This is my favourite. Apart from the fact that Trust wallet can be trusted and it can store ethereum and its associated tokens, it has the ability to stores coins from other chains. In fact, it is user friendly and has an inbuilt DEX for whoever wants to trade on it.
I do not know why people still use mEW, knowing the challenges and the insecurity problem it has been having. The OP's post is just a reminder to those who already know and a warning to those who are yet to know.

Oh, it is my nightmare to see messages like this. Personally i haven't use MEW for one year or even more, but now if i will need it i am warned.

I'm an old user of this site and I find it difficult to open my wallet back then till now. thankfully with some enough knowledge and extra careful when opening it, I didn't face a problem till now. but they really need to change their site's appearance to more user friendly because only those who had enough experience can use their site well. This will lead to confusion and some evildoers will take advantage of those who are not familiar with their site. from time to time they need to update their user if any new scamming attempts made to warn their users and prevent them to fall to such thing.

Actually it is not a nightmare for you, because with a warning like that you have been more careful in using it later, so it is not a nightmare because you have not had time to use it, hopefully you are not trapped into a fake MEW when using it.

Good idea! I have been moved to Mycrypto long ago, I really hate myetherwallet for many reasons. Though I love MEW connect and Mew wallet android app but their web version still looks vulnerable to me. Mycrypto gives better services than Myetherwallet. I think OP will get a good result in Mycrypto browser or the web version of it.  

I was surprised to see this because I have been using myetherwallet and I also don't have any problems, everything looks fine. the difference between me and you is, you use the keystore file and I only use the private key. I think the problem is not myetherwallet but the keystore file you have, maybe someone is editing it

I think the site is already user friendly enough for even those even with less knowledge to understand it, there are different option to open your mew wallet already given on the website, it is up to the user to choose which option they will use in opening their wallet, i have been using the private key option to open my wallet and never encounter any problem,
but as you said, they need to update users about any danger to prevent users from falling in the hands of scammers.

I guess your PC or whatever you're accessing from has been compromised. Try exporting the keystore file on other wallet like imToken or metamask.

To avoid this problem, I recommend using Trust Wallet or imtoken. They both support ERC-20

I have been using the ETH wallet generated from Myetherwallet for 3 years now and I don't encounter any problem with it. I have one question is your funds on that said wallet is still intact? If it is, it is not hacked or something. I was thinking it is a user side error. There are many possible cases. Since Keystore is a file it can be corrupted, your system maybe has a virus and corrupted the file, second, you copy the Keystore file but it was not fully copied, resulting to a corrupted file, If you made some copy try to use those files.

This issue started occurring when they redesign their platform. I remember I do make use of the vintage site without any issue unless my data network is not that good but recently I do receive this error when I want to login using the keystore file I have downloaded a long time ago on my computer. I do not know why MEW has not resolved or comment on this issue this is really bad

I have never faced such an issue while accessing myetherwallet but i have heard people complaining with such issues, you should try to connect to a different server which you can find on the top right section of the page also you should try to check with your isp for filtering or restricting website access and lastly you need to clear your cookies and then try again.

Try to log in to another wallet that supports Keystore, then move your money. My suggestion is better to use trustwallet because it is safer in my opinion.

If you use Ethereum wallet more often, it is better to use MetaMask extension because it stores your private key, so there is no risk that spyware in your computer will reveal yours private key.

I haven't used mew since many years now I am surprised to read this. I moved to Imtoken then to trust wallet. Because I don't want any difficulties whenever I want to access my funds without any fear. You should try to import the wallet into trust or imtoken.

I don't think this is wise advice, you can't prohibit other people from using MEW, while you haven't been able to ascertain whether your means of accessing the wallet are correct or not. Pay attention to the warning on the picture that you embed. It could be that you are stuck on a phishing site.

I have used mew for many years, and that is no problem, and I hope there will be no problem in the future. I also use Metamask to facilitate access.

Thank you for this as of now I didn't experience this on my wallet did you try check if it is your wallet for mew as you mention all your wallet is working and just the only one who did not function maybe there was an error on your keystore or maybe it was not the keystore for the mew by the way you educate newbie for not using mew.

Well, this applies to all wallets, One has to be extremely careful to avoid misplacing sensitive information and In so doing, exposing your wallet to several potential hacks. This is the most reason why i prefer trust wallet. Trust wallet offers everything from security down to simplicity and great usability. Using trust wallet minimizes a great deal of insecurity.