Bitcoin Forum

I would have thought it has happened to at least one person here.

It has obviously happened, but people likely would not want to admit it as it would open them up to a number of potential scams and would make their brainwallet more vulnerable to attackers. If an attacker knows that a certain person has created a brainwallet with BTC in it then the attacker can look at the movies and books the person likes as well as how they speak/write to get somewhat of an idea as to what they may have used for their brinwallet.

Plus the tricky thing with a brainwallet is what happens if you die unexpectedly?
Harder to ensure that your descendants will be able to access the btc

you need a dead man switch service.  or some kind of secret sharing or multi sig.

Here's a cool idea you could do if your family is bitcoin savvy:  You create a family
dictionary, similar to electrum dictionary but you scramble the word order of the dictionary
itself so that the words correspond to different numbers.  The dictionary is only known
to closest family members. 

Then in your will, you leave them the seed.  It could be in possession by the lawyer and he could not
use it himself.  or it could simply be in safe deposit box which is willed to the next of kin.

Or to prevent your family from having so solve a puzzle to get money you intended for them to have while they are grieving, you could write down what the brain wallet is and instructions as to how to use it in a safe place that no one would have access to prior to your death but could access it easily once you die.

I can totally see a family fight getting pretty serious when one family member insists that they know how to decipher this when in reality they have no idea.

Never forgot my private key anytime, nor will I do. Because I keep it written in physcial form.

OP did you loose any?:O

This does seem like a serious weakness of them... you write it down and you lose the benefit right...  :-\

No...you store it encrypted and hidden inside a picture of a cat (done offline of course) , in case you ever forget.  :-)

Never been one to use a brainwallet private key because I feel that it's not the best to use especially since I can so easily forget things and it seems I am defeating the purpose of the brainwallet key by having it written down so no I have never forgotten one but I feel if I did have one I probably would do.

I have remembered my password for more than 10 years (some may argue that not changing it is bad). If I wanted to use it as a brainwallet, I'm confident that either I remember it, or I forget it and lose access not only to my bitcoins, but to all my internet life.

Well, I guess you're right. What I actually do is use KeePass with my main password, and then generate long random passwords for all my services (including Bitcoin).

Write down clues that only you would understand to jog your memory.

Imagine the embarassement, going through stress or an accident or even drugs and forgetting it.
brainwallets are more of a gimmick. It makes better sense to keep em printed and offline.

The concept of a brainwallet is very interesting. Storing coins into your memory. But I have no brainwallet yet.

it's not a gimmick.  they have advantages other wallets don't. (drawbacks too)
Also it would be equally embarrassing to lose coins in
another kind of wallet.

That's true , if your have the mnemonic capacity it is the ultimate security.
I lost a couple of bitcoins back in 2010 due to IT failures.

I think it would be difficult for anyone to really ever know that you had lost your bitcoin with either a brain wallet or a "traditional" wallet. IMO a brain wallet is really only ever appropriate if you are in a very high risk situation in which all of your assets will be seized and searched (similar to Ross in the SR case).

Luckily I haven't, but I only keep a very low amount of BTC in brain wallets! Most of my coins are in safe paper wallets or encrypted Electrum wallets. Better safe than sorry, man!

I do not even try to use brainwallet because I forgot few passwords already. The less you use the password, the higher chance of forgetting it.

What if you lost everything you own? What if you had to flee the country with just the clothes on your back? What if you did 10 years in prison and when you got out everything you owned was gone, even your email accounts closed for lack of use? Where would your bitcoins be then?

http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/DNA_Exonerations_Nationwide.php (http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/DNA_Exonerations_Nationwide.php)

Think about this: If a prosecutor is so corrupt that he will get an innocent man sentenced to death, do you think he will have any qualms about getting an innocent person convicted of a drug crime or a sex crime?

I use to work as a research assistant. My job was to read criminal trial transcripts and make a list of all of the mistakes. The average trial has at least two or three major ones (that could affect actual guilt or length of sentence) and a dozen minor ones (probably don't affect guilt, but are a deeper sign of a corrupt system). You can appeal these issues, but they will almost always be ignored in state courts. You have to get to federal court for any hope of relief which takes about 10 years. The state courts know this and will take advantage of it if they know that you will be out within that time and just AWOP (Affirmed without Opinion) the case.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/05/21/11756575-researchers-more-than-2000-false-convictions-in-past-23-years?lite (http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/05/21/11756575-researchers-more-than-2000-false-convictions-in-past-23-years?lite)

Think about it. It takes a miracle to get a false conviction overturned. How often do miracles occur? 1 in a 100? 2000 known false convictions overturned would mean that there are 198,000 false convictions that weren't overturned. Besides, I think miracles happen less than one in a thousand. That would be close to two million false convictions in the last 23 years.

I can't prove it, but I believe that at least 10% of the people in prison are innocent of any crime. I also believe an additional 10% were not guilty of the crime that they were charged with (like being charged with robbery when only guilty of shoplifting) and given an unjustified sentence for their crime.

This is why brainwallets are so important.

you can write it down in a book, but not easy to find, hide the private key, so no one think that's important,
or tell someone you trust, i mean very very trust
or put it somewhere you feel safe. no one can find it, undercover it, even others find it, no one know what it is.