Bitcoin Forum

Here's 2 of the Bitcoin related news I've seen yesterday:

https://i.imgur.com/WXGGLz6.png (https://www.businessinsider.com/man-offers-council-70-million-dig-up-bitcoin-hard-drive-2021-1)https://i.imgur.com/lLuMoC7.png (https://www.ign.com/articles/programmer-has-240-million-of-bitcoin-locked-on-a-hard-drive-and-only-2-password-guesses-left-to-access-it)

What do both have in common?

A safe assumption would be that both people had their bitcoin for a good number of years already, and they totally underestimated the price rise bitcoin would have. Hence why they got immensely careless about the security of their funds, probably because back then "it's just worth a few hundred dollars anyway".

So what's the lesson here?

Regardless how much your bitcoin is worth today, make sure you don't lose them because we don't know how high bitcoin can go in the future. Your 0.01 BTC holdings might just be worth like $350 today, but who knows, while there are definitely no guarantees, it could buy you your future house sooner or later.

I've been through a good number of bull markets already, and every single time I've absolutely underestimated how high bitcoin could go. Just a quick reminder to those who are totally underestimating the small amount of BTC they hold.

It is a learning each and every Bitcoiner should know about. The market is subject to correction and followed will be the growth. Whatever you've made is a big thing of tomorrow. There is a saying "Small bruises can help with tooth decay" and the same can be connected with bitcoin. Even a small part will have a big value. Maybe now it looks nothing, but for tomorrow it pays us big. So, never lose anything, make use of the possible ways to increase the holdings.

You're right about the underestimating part of what one's Bitcoin may be worth in the future. It isn't just with Bitcoin alone. I believe the warning should cut across the altcoins too. I once left a fraction of Litecoin (around 0.01) in a paper wallet which I discarded completely in my early days in 2017. That was when 1 LTC was worth less than $10 or so. It was nothing then but today that same fraction is worth something and we never can tell what that will be worth 10 years from now.

Bitcoin first cam to my attention around 2013-2014 through an SEO forum I belonged to.
There were posts on there offering people 1BTC for writing articles for their website. Looking back that seems cazy. People so underestiated what would happen to the price of bitcoin. I have no doubt their are millions of coins that have been lost over the years.

Absolutely correct, there were times some campaigns paid $6 to $10 in bitcoin back in those days, comparing that to this present bitcoin price. There is nothing absolutely small when talk about bitcoin accumulation on a long term basis becasue i was a result of that. The programmer thought the price of Bitcoin won't appreciate from what he used to see it, but unfortunately to him; 2021 has been the best for the said bitcoin that was once be rejected by so called experts in the past.

the best way is not to buy a very small amount and then wish for bitcoin to go so high that the tiny amount makes you rich.
the best way is to buy small amounts every now and then with money that you don't need. for example a good source of fiat is to abandon a bad habbit like smoking and use that money you used to waste for buying bitcoin.
after some time you realize that you have actually accumulated a lot of bitcoin while only buying small amounts.

In my own opinion, I think what they both had in common is lack of believe in Bitcoin which of course made them think those number of Bitcoin they had was not worth it, but they failed to understand that, many technologies today didn't grow overnight, it took time for it to attain the growth worthy of it. Therefore, although it is a painful experience, but I think they should continue using every forms or steps at their disposal to regain their Bitcoin, at least that will encourage others to dig up theirs and at the long run, bringing more people into the crypto space. Also, I agree with you totally, that irrespective of the amount of Bitcoin we have today, just keep on holding them because Bitcoin is already valuable and the future is already filled with good tidings which means more price increase will be realised moreover more institutional investors are already paying more attention; however, if you are opportune to get more, then do so accordingly and as required.

The lesson is, every carelessness will lead to regret at a later date. and those of us as bitcoin users or planning to start owning bitcoin are always doing everything that will be important in the future. always keep your passwords and data as safe as possible.

You are right, back in the "pioneer" days, 2010, 2011, 2012 & 2013 a bitcoin
was only worth cents to $120. Security wasnt as much of a concern as it is now
so keys were most likely stored on HD's as well as wallets.

Obviously if the keys were/are stored securely seperately to the wallets, the
destruction of a HD is not a major issue.



Sound advice from BrewMaster, something I have been practicing for a few years.
Many many small transactions can add up to something substantial even if it isnt
as much as you like its better than not acting at all.

in 2013 Bitcoin was still not as popular as it is today and of course those who have a lot of bitcoins and can get it easily, are not careful to keep their private key wallets, even seeming they don't care. However, after Bitcoin continued to reach new ATHs, those who owned a lot of bitcoins forgot their private keys and did not have a backup private key anywhere else.

Therefore, it is important to maintain the private key that you have that will help you in the future when the price of your coins has increased tremendously. Setting up backups elsewhere will also help.

Probably the best way to store a small amount of coins for long time is by making many unencrypted backups that are stored offline. You can put your wallet on an old USB stick that you no longer use, an SD card, a Blu-ray disk, write down a seed on a piece of paper. Put them somewhere where no one would accidentally throw it away, like next to your personal documents or your cash savings.

I am measuring bitcoin in satoshi.  

1,000,000 satoshi is a very large amount of money.  Earning this amount is a great result!  100,000 satoshi is also an impressive amount.  And even 1000 satoshi is a sum that cannot be neglected.  

Now for me the unit of account is 1,000,000 satoshi.  In Russia and Ukraine, 1,000,000 currency units are called lemon.  Hence, 100 lemons is 1 BTC.  

This allows me to understand the value of each fractional part of bitcoin.

 People tend to forget that investing is believing no matter the circumstances, those people lost their bitcoin because they stopped believing and that's normal for us humans, but when it comes to crypto investing we all should know that in just a second the chart could turn for or against the holder or the buyer, that should be on every crypto investors mind.
 

Like other members here in the forum says bitcoin was not really a big deal probably when they buy bitcoin and not knowing its real value in the forum so they probably buy bitcoin put it in a wallet and then forget about it.

They probably make a backup of that password but just lost because of a long time wait, only when the market price has a high value in the market most of the people know that they should put great security into their wallets.

We can't really blame them but it's their loss, it's their fault because they neglect it, and now that it has value they just lost a big amount of money I guess it's just different in the past years.

The "best way" you're talking about sounds pretty much like dollar cost averaging which is indeed a great tactic in buying pretty much any type of asset. Not only does it minimize your losses while keeping your winnings in check, it also inadvertently allows you to diversify on your buys which then gives you further security in case one of your buys drop in value.

Now it's more than just saying that you'll buy a little bit of let's say bitcoin everyday since you still have to consider multiple factors such as timing and projected price.

While the days of getting rich easily in crypto are in the past, it is always good advice not to lose your money. However, when it comes to Bitcoin, one man losing coins makes all the rest of ours more valuable, so it’s tough to shed too many tears about lost BTC.

I think the same way. If you invest in bitcoin now, then in a few years you'll understand why it was the best decision in your life. So many people write on the forums about their regrets not buying bitcoin a few years ago because now they could be swimming in money.

2021 is gonna be the year of cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin. Only at the beginning of January, we could see how its price reached a record figure. I'm so excited about 2021 and have big plans for this year  ;) :D

That's really dirty but I do have to agree with you, satoshi even said that. The articles though, they are more of an hindsight for many of us because we never knew that it will reach this height in the first place, our best predicted peak was 20k but we have reached a double number. The only way I know that works for safekeeping my coins is to have a cold wallet that is inside a case together with a paper with the passwords written on it.

It doesn't take a genius tbh to realize that, especially with the current price of Bitcoin. But honestly, can you blame them? They had those coins way back in the years where crypto wasn't a thing, it wasn't even becoming one. It only rose up to attention after a few more years. It became prominent, yes, but it didn't have that assuredness that it would be one way back then. When I heard Bitcoin I just thought of it like "what's that?", and that was with my friend being all gung ho about it back then.

Both stories sound so weird. Even if you own a really small amount of Bitcoin, why don't you care about keeping them safe. $1 isn't a wealth, but who will ever though away a banknote?

It is very regretful and painful to loss access to such a huge amount of bitcoin a big lesson for us here to always keep our password safely, I also agreed that cryptos will thrive very well in future going by the present bullish market sentiment thus the future value of a satoshi will likely be huge and massive, we should  hodl and accumulate no matter the amount of bitcoin now its better to save now spend later so the future can be well secured of course early investors in bitcoin will have been earned massive profits now.

One thing to keep in mind is that if your bitcoin holdings are important, it is very risky to have them just in one place. I understand that the two cases cited by the OP are from people who acquired their bitcoin long ago, when it was worth much less than now. But if you see that the value increases, it's worth not keeping all your eggs in the same basket.

This was one mistake that I did very early during my association with Bitcoin. Back in 2012, giveaways were very common in this forum, and I was receiving BTC0.01 or BTC0.02 quite often. But I never took the necessary steps to backup my wallets, and in the end lost a considerable portion of what I earned from airdrops, faucets and giveaways. I don't know the exact amount, but it should be worth at least a few tens of thousands of USD now. 

If you already bought the bitcoin at the smallest price this is good news because its continuously pumping and becomes more profitable, if you bought bitcoin today still there is a chance to pump again because of the recent market price drop of the coin there is a chance goes up again to the price of 40k USD again. Always watch the market because from the previous years there is a chance it will drop it rapidly and unexpectedly still makes your own research and keep aware of the market movement.

As aways, do you backup in the safe place. Yes, maybe encrypted usb sounds really secure but are you sure that youwill know password in the next 10 years? Maybe its better to just buy separate small usb and store your seed there in the safe place

If bitcoin continue to grow then likely many will get rich. A small amount of bitcoin is can still make everyone rich in the coming years. I believe holding also altcoin will do the trick. There are some potential projects that are following the pump and bull run of bitcoin. If btc increases their chances of flying high is also huge. I had my regrets selling off my btc and not holding it but still have other alts that I think in the future could be my life saver.

What I found in all these stories is that people who held Bitcoin in the early days didn't have much confidence in their assets, and I don't blame them. Who would have thought that young projects with a price of less than $1 per coin would continue to reach a high of $42,000, and no one could do it.

Recently in both cases, both of them Underestimate the Bitcoin value and careless too. I also advise if someone has even a small amount of Bitcoin with him to keep it safe in any condition and do not sell it even in worse conditions because we never know what will be the worth of BTC in the future So be serious do not take Btc in a light way.

Both of them doesn't really seems to acknowledge the future of cryptocurrency at their time so they just ignore,forget or abandoned it.
Both of them have early access in crypto but doesn't seems to believe in it's potential to grow so they just leave it behind and now having their regrets.
I could say that it is same for most of us we only value something once we lost it and other see's it's potential.
We should value what we have who knows what it could bring in the future it might be cheap right now but it could turn to be expensive in the future.

Completely true. Whatever investment is made, it should not be underestimated and should always be protected. Maybe some time will come, and you will think that the Bitcoin you have is not worth anything to you. But protect your new investment with caution because it can have millions of value at once. The fundamentals of Bitcoin will manifest more and more as digitalization spreads. We can say that this year has been a lesson for many people on these issues.

You are right about that, a lot of people became careless with the bitcoin way back the year when the price of the bitcoin was so cheap, they didn't expect that bitcoin could be like this to the point that it could reach $39000,. Imagine if they keep it until now then for sure they have already a huge amount of money in their wallet. Bitcoin could still go up so better to keep on hodling it.

I guess he didnt have the patience to wait for bitcoin's price to go up, or rather he didnt believe that bitcoin had the potential to grow in value. It's hard to lose a hardware wallet, it's best if you put it in a safe place. 7200 bitcoins is not a small amount, only if he wasnt that careless, he could've been rich by now. Now here he is, troubling himself and others to find his hardware wallet. The lesson here is, dont give up on your coins, no matter the dips that you're experiencing.

Well There are some who thinks that Satoshi might reach a Dollar each and if that happens meaning we are able to gain  hundred folds from our Faucet income lol.

There are faucet that still gives 10 satoshi per hour , and that would be a great chance to accumulate now.

I agree that many Bitcoin owners have lost Bitcoin, because they didn't store Bitcoin very well. Because when the price of Bitcoin was still
very cheap, I am sure many people who already have Bitcoin did not expect the price of Bitcoin to be so high as it is today. Therefore we can
become a lesson for all of us, never underestimate no matter how small the Bitcoin we have. We have to keep it well, because the price of
Bitcoin will continue to rise. Maybe the Bitcoin that we have today is not that great, but in the next 5 years our Bitcoin value will be very high.

That is so sad and the most regretful in their lives, this rally huge amount of money, too bad to lose it all. I hope they have learned a lesson, no matter how much value you have, still keep it. Do not underestimate things just because of its price, remember that the value of bitcoin that year 2013 is cheap, imagine how millionaire they are now if they did not throw it away.

I remember 5 or 6 years ago the worse faucets paid 100 satoshis per claim (some without time limit) and there were really good ones paying 1000 or 2000 satoshis per claim every few hours at least. You could easily make 0,001 btc or 0,002 btc daily on those days, what would value right now about 55$ or 110$ dollars daily without any effort!

But to have each satoshi pricing 1$ dollar, bitcoin would need to hit 100,000,000$. It's too much, however it could happen on long long run...

Yes that's right, it's too bad for those people to lose that big amount of bitcoin. But well, nothing can be done. As you said, they probably think that it doesn't worth that much, so they won't take care of it safely and carefully, since it's not that worth it anyway. However, things changed. It became so valuable more than anything else, until they willingly pay such a big amount to take that.
Lesson learned, we really should value it now. But well, we can only say this because those kind of things happened already. If not we won't learn by the mistakes.

Definitely nobody wants to disregard their sats now knowing the potential could still grow a 100x in the future who knows? But these stories set an example that never underestimate the value of Bitcoin no matter how many sats you hold, I’m rooting for 1 sats = 1$ thats why I take note every platform on which I had spare sats to easily recover it in the future.

since we always see news like this, it means bitcoin total supply will also be affected.
where can we find the stats of some of those lost bitcoins? so we can know how many bitcoins are still "available and accessible" in this world.

I remember when I hired workers to mine raiblocks (now NANO) and use it for tipping because I just want to have fun at that time ;D
a few months after that, boom.. ATH $30  ;D
however, I am very grateful because I've already spent it and I know where it goes. at least it's not locked because I forget where I store it.

This is a good advice for each and everyone of us. Learn to value the investment we have at the moment because we won't know it will be one's greatest ambition in the future years. I'm glad that i was able to secured my bitcoin even how worthless it was before. But then again, time changed and so with the value of one's investment just like bitcoin.

No matter how big or small amount you do have, no matter if you own a whole 1 Bitcoin or just a part of it, Bitcoin is still Bitcoin and having it into your account is already a privilege given to you that you have done a great work to attain even a small amount of it to be included into your account. Do not underestimate even a small part of Bitcoin you own because many are badly wanting to have even just a part of it to hold knowing that the price of it is increasing which we have seen in transition starting from last year until the entrance of this year and until now is show casing how it can still make its price go up in a desirable pacing. It is just an awful scenario reading news that people that have started very early in Bitcoin where the price is still not that expensive compared to what is it right now making them to have lots of Bitcoin before is now wanting to reclaim their Bitcoins and they are experiencing trouble and difficulty on accessing it once again. May this serve as a lesson to value your Bitcoin holdings and never let it miss out for even a single cent of it can grow into a massive amount in the future.

In both cases they're trying to take back time. They made some stupid decisions like buying an autolocking wallet and throwing away a drive with some money in it. Even if those coins were worth just $100, I wouldn't throw away a drive that had some value stored on it. I'd probably spend those coins to buy a new one, but not throw it away ::) What do these two cases have in common? It's simple: you can't go back, unlike those guys in back to the future.

I have seen that one of a programmer before and like seriously it really pained me lol.So he has only two passwords left and I know very sure that he’s going to be getting ready to make his two final attempts and if it doesn’t work that is how he’s going to lose his Bitcoin that is worth so much money in today’s market.

I can’t make such a mistake, if I was the one even if it’s just $50 that I owned in the wallet or hard drive I am not going to be messing around with it. So I guess they were rich then and that’s why they didn’t care about the money they had in there. Anyways I wish them luck in their attempt to reclaim it, and this will serve as a lesson to them and to so many other people out there not to look down on things like this.

It is very true. As there is no other way than keeping the private information of our wallet in a place, we should be very careful about it. I know that it is really frustrating not being able to change the wallet access info (private key etc.) when we lose it somehow. But as I said, we have no other choice unfortunately.