Bitcoin Forum

Hi all, I'm a newbie to Crypto but am trying to learn.

I've recently set up an account with Blockchain.com and CEX.com to "play around" with some crypto currencies in the hope of learning a little bit.

As part of this process I have purchased a small amount of Bitcoin with CEX (c£200) and transferred to Blockchain.com.  The Bitcoin landed in my wallet and was visible for a few days before disappearing without any notification.

I e-mailed support at Blockchain.com to find out what has happened and have been quite persistent over the last two weeks but had no response (aside from the auto allocation of the ticket number of the support request).

I have all the confirmation info of the transaction provided by CEX, but no bitcoin sat in my Blockchain.com wallet and no engagement from the platform.

Can anyone help with how I would go about escalating or recovering the bitcoin.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help out.

James.

Hi,

First of all, it's a petty your first experiences with bitcoin are rather negative.
To be honest, i always try to steer people away from web wallets, like blockchain.com... These services are high-risk, since you're not the only one in controll of your keys, you're not the only one in controll of your funds. Blockchain saves an encrypted version of your wallet on their servers. They say you're the only one that can decrypt said wallet, but it's hard to check this statement.

Case in point: if you have issues like the issue you describe, you NEED support from blockchain.com. If you'd have used a decent wallet, you could have restored your wallet from backup or seed.

First things that pop to my mind when i read your story:

• Did you, by any chance, save the seed words for your blockchain wallet?
• Are you certain you only have one wallet?
• Are you certain you didn't fall victim to a phising attack?
• Are you certain your computer is clean? No virusses or malware?
• Were you using the web client, or the mobile client?

Hello

First of all, go to https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/YOURADDRESSHERE and see if you can see the balance there. Sometimes blockchain.com have sync problems and shows zero balance, even though you have some balance.



Sadly, if someone really transferred the bitcoins from your wallet there is nothing blockchain.com or anyone can do to recover your funds, and the statements from CEX.io are useless for you now.

Blockchain transactions are irreversible.


Blockchain.com is a very insecure wallet, as hacking it is as easy as hacking an email. You should really avoid it.

My suggestion is that you buy a hardware wallet (trezor, ledger, bithd etc) if you spend more than 100 EUR in bitcoin again. Hardware wallet are almost unhackeable and your coins will be safe there.

Thank You Mocacinno. I really appreciate the quick response! 

I have the seed words yes.  Also I'm not certain on the other things you ask, but as confident as a non tech person could be!  I initiated the transfer from CEX via a mobile App.

Bitmover, thank you also, I will check that address now and report back.

I have since progressed onto a Ledger storage device and successfully move additional Bitcoins and Ether onto it so I am progressing in my understanding.  Its just really frustrating that there is zero engagement from Blockchain.com even to acknowledge what has happened.  It would even be useful if they simply said that the coin was transferred out at X date.  At least I'd know that someone had stolen it.

Thanks again all, much appreciated.

To learn in crypto, why don't you begin with testnet?

You can learn and practice with testnet. Bitcoin Core and Electrum wallets give you testnet wallets. With testnet wallets, you can practice all things with Bitcoin testnet and don't get any real monetary losses.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Testnet
https://en.bitcoinwiki.org/wiki/Testnet
https://bitzuma.com/posts/a-beginners-guide-to-the-electrum-bitcoin-wallet/
List of Testnet BTC Faucet (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5237763.0)

Happy to see you got your seed...

The "best" option would be to use the seed phrase to restore your wallet in a decent desktop wallet... That way you at least have some idear of what might have happened...

Ok Bitmover I have checked the address and the coin is there!  ;D

I guess I still have the same issue that I can't access it as its not in my wallet and Blockchain.com are basically not responding.

What is my next move? 

....as an aside, Its a sad state of affairs when you get world class (and instant) support from a open forum and zero support from the platform you are actually paying to manage the transaction.

James.

Yup... To be honest, a lot of centralised services (like exchanges) are known to have sloooooow support. Blockchain is not an exception.

My next step would probably be to download electrum from it's official repo, check the signature (ThomasV signs his builds), the import your seed into electrum (there are some caveat's when you try to do this tough. But since i don't have a blockchain seed at hand, i'm not able to write down the complete procedure for you).
Once your unspent outputs are visible within electrum, i'd probably empty out my wallet by moving all funds onto your ledger... Really, there is no need to use a web wallet if you own a hardware wallet. I only use a mobile wallet when i go out to a place that has a high chance of accepting bitcoin as payment, the rest of my funds are always safe on my hardware wallets.

[GUIDE] How to Safely Download and Verify Electrum [Guide] (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5240594.0)

It takes a few minutes to safely download and install GPG, download and verify Electrum wallet.

Excellent! Thank you all for turning around a pretty negative experience to a positive one.

James.

No problem... I really hope you stick around.

By the way, a quick google turned up this link:
blog.blockonomics.co/how-to-restore-blockchain-com-wallet-into-electrum-f593ec79ab3d?gi=ed73891cfd60
I can't really endorse it, since i haven't tried the steps myself... But a quick browse doesn't show any malicious steps, so worst case scenario it just doesn't work (no harm done).

don't forget: download electrum from it's OFFICIAL repo, check the signature, encrypt your wallet and make sure your computer is clean.
Being your own bank is hard work :)

Frankly, all these blockchain.com stories scare me. It's one of the wallets I have come to trust and to think that it could be unsecured makes me vulnerable to hackers. But I haven't had any issues since I started using it three years now. Am I just being lucky or what?


I stopped using the Electrum wallet in 2018 when it had that constant phishing incidents. Has that been resolved now?

Does constant phishing incidents in 2018 come from Electrum? I don't know what happened in 2018 with Electrum but phishing is always here and there and it is why we must verify wallet before using it. People who don't verify wallets will be phished sometime.
I decide to use non-custodial wallets on my computer. If you know steps to move from blockchain.com to Electrum, you should use Electrum at start.
Custodial vs. Non Custodial Wallets - "Not your keys, not your coin" Explained. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5173370.0)
[General] Bitcoin Wallets - Which, what, why? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1631151.0)

You shoulkd just recover your wallet using the Seed in a good wallet such as electrum.org

This would solve your issue and you will be using a much safer wallet.

Consider buying a hardware wallet in the future and transferring your coins there.

Well that seems like you have restored your coins successfully. If so, congrats!
Also I would like to say that never use any web wallets. You could instead use mobile wallets which provide the private key or the seed phrase.
This way you are eligible to control your funds in the wallet.
Also, beware of phishing attacks and copy-paste programs that steal your funds from your wallet.
Browse this forum and you will get immense knowledge of what bitcoin is and what are the do's and dont's before you start anything.

Yes thanks again.  I have a Ledger S set up and am now storing my coins offline.  In summary for anyone stumbling across this thread

1. The problem arose due to technical issues with Blockchain.com wallet which meant my coins were not showing
2. The problem was further compounded by absent customer service on the platform
3. The solution was to use the seed to restore the wallet on another platform in this case - Electrum
4. All coins are now stored offline.

If you don't have any pending transactions on your current wallet, you should move all your funds to a new wallet that is created from Electrum wallet. Creating a new wallet offline.

You successfully imported your wallet with seeds that you created with blockchain.com but let migrate your funds to a new one. Don't rely on the current wallet.

It is your key you create offline, it is your own bank. Choose the right time with low fees to migrate your funds if you are care about fee. If you are not care about fee, migrate your fund ASAP.

Restoring the seed in Electrum doesn't make your wallet safer neither is electrum a cold storage solution (stored offline). That seed is compromised as it was generated in Blockchain.com wallet, a very unsafe wallet.

You should transfer from electrum to your wallet generated with ledger nano S.

Yes. There have been countless reports of problems and issues with blockchain.com. They've had poor security and technical practices in the past, which has resulted in losses of hundreds of bitcoin. Accounts are frequently hacked and their customer support is non existent. You are simply lucky that none of these issues have affected you yet.

Yes. New versions of Electrum do not allow arbitrary text to be shown in pop ups. As long as you only ever download from electrum.org and verify your download prior to installing, it is quite safe.

If you have restored the wallet on Electrum by entering the seed phrase in to Electrum, then your Ledger Nano S is irrelevant. If you want to use your Ledger Nano S in this set up, then the seed phrase needs to be entered on the hardware device itself, not on the software interface. Also, your coins (or more accurately, your keys) are not offline. They are duplicated from your blockchain.com wallet, which is still online.

Having said that, the two posters above are correct. Since your seed phrase was generated by a third party and is still stored on their servers, it will forever be insecure, regardless of whether you enter it in to a hardware wallet. Create a new wallet from scratch, back up your new seed phrase on paper, and send all your coins to it.

So my steps were as follows:

1. I set up a new wallet on my Ledger S.
2. I recovered my Blockchain.com wallet in Electrum with the seed
3. I then transferred the recovered coins from Electrum to the new wallet on my Ledger S.
4.  All my coins are now in my Ledger S and I no longer plan to ever use Blockchain.com again! :)
5.  If I decide to store additional coins on Electrum then I understand that I need to generate a new wallet.

Am I good?

In terms of an exchange to buy/sell coins in the future. Would everyone recommend CEX? It seems like a good platform in my experience so far.  If there is another one that is better (by 'better' in my instance I would value user interface, speed, fees and simplicity, mobile add etc)

Completely correct :)
About step 5: do realise there is hardly no upside to storing funds in a "normal" electrum wallet... Some people (including myself) do use electrum together with their hardware wallet, since the gui offered by most hw wallet vendors has a feature set that is inferior to electrum... But a "plain" electrum wallet only has one upside: it can be used if you don't have your hardware wallet at hand... But that's about it.

About the exchange, i used binance one or two times in the past and i was happy with them... I've used Litebit aswell (once), but their fees were on the high side.
I'm not a frequent trader tough, so maybe somebody else will give you better advice.

I use a blockchain.com for a long time and I think that it is a good and compfortable in usage wallet. It is safe.

So, because you have used blockchain.com for a while and didn't suffer any loss, you are comfortable endorsing it...
Blockchain.com stores your wallet on their servers (they claim it's encrypted, but you never know). Blockchain users have fallen victim to phising scams. Blockchain users are vulnerable to malicious browser plugins. Blockchain is known for bugs (some critical, some annoying). Blockchain support is slow and usually not really helpfull.

My dad used to smoke and work with asbestos on a daily basis for 45 years, and he still doesn't have lung cancer (i really hope he stays safe tough...), maybe it's time for him to start declaring that smoking is safe and asbestos is not dangerous either?

I’ve had an account there too for years, and I’ve never had any problems. Although blockchain.com (before .info) has a long history of bad experiences, some of them are partly the result of some users making mistakes themselves. If you are not aware of what phishing is, or how important it is to make a backup - in that case every online wallet poses the same risk.

However, from everything I've read on the forum over the years, it seems that this wallet also has serious internal vulnerabilities, especially when it comes to their official mobile application, especially iOS.

Using online wallets as cryptocurrency storage is definitely an illogical move, except that it is of course risky. Bitcoin is at its core decentralized, but millions of users keep them in crypto banks, which is definitely wrong. They actually have nothing but trust in completely unknown subjects who can raise the anchor at any moment and disappear without a trace.

Hey, I also make use of Blockchain mobile wallet and I have been using it from 2017 to now, and I have not had any single issues with them that will lead to having to contact their support, and I don't hope to have such a problem. But, have you checked your wallet Activities?

When you open the Blockchain mobile wallet, below where there is a Home button and others, you will see where it's written Activities, click on it and you will see all the activities of your wallet, that's if you have not checked that yet. After you have seen it, check for the transaction you're referring to (I believe that's the only activity that you have done), and if it's there, click on it and you will be able to figure out the problem to an extent, maybe see whether the problem is due to confirmation.

Because, I can remember that someone once sent money to my Blockchain wallet and the confirmation fee they paid wasn't enough and the money disappeared, they had to add more money to the fees and within a few minutes it reappeared in my wallet.

Look in the transaction history of your wallet address

I have also experienced problems with the blockchain, sending support will take a very long time to reply, it can take months

I think even if support replies to your ticket, they won't be able to help if your Bitcoin is sent out by someone

In your words, you have seen your balance on blockchain.com wallet but now balance 0. Probably you saved your keys in an area where someone saw and stole your funds using that key. You have to safe in a safer place and should use 2fa code both email and mobile for safety. Or, you have sent in a wrong wallet with unconsciousness as you are new.