Bitcoin Forum

When you check your balances one day and all your precious coins are stolen what will you do?

Buy back in?
Suicide?
Never make another post?
Unsubscribe to /r/bitcoin?

and whose fault will it be? bitcoins? or yours?

it never happened to me but I would probably try to recover them working

Has any one ever successfully recovered their stolen coins? I don't think so. Once the coins are stolen, it is next to impossible to recover them from the thief. One of the major disadvantages with BTC.

it's also next to impossible to steal coins in the first place if they are properly secured.  one of the major advantages with BTC.

I got scammed 10BTC back when they were $1100 a go. Was a bit gutting but you just get back on the horse and carry on. Just learn from your mistakes!

You surely have never had money stolen before. To propose suicide as an alternative to this scenario is way too extreme, unless you already suffer from depression.

The reaction to stolen Bitcoins should be the same to stolen dollars: call the police for them to investigate, and continue working to continue earning more money.

Don't be an idiot and learn how to secure them.

You wont have to deal with this kind of dilemmas.

happened to me a while ago. I got lazy and left them "lying around" meaning in an unsecured hot wallet. I followed the coins from my wallet thru several jumps until they went into a tumbler. Aaaaaand they're gone!

It wasn't the worst loss for me, I survived, but I upped my security regimen, and also bought a ledger immediately.

I don't think anyone has ever gotten stolen coins back. A day may come where it is possible, but it is more likely security, at the layman user's level will improve dramatically. I know BTC is absolutely secure when stored properly, but it is expecting too much for the average joe to learn linux and all that geek stuff.

Providing high grade secure storage will be a big industry in the future, it is already emerging.

Just once, My bitcoin wallet stolen by someone from blockchain but this incident does not make me suicidal  :-X

I've tried to keep using the available security from blockchain, but someone can steal it with easy

however, any type of safety level  is always a possibility that yours will be stolen  :-X

Depending on the amount. If its large , I would probably leave bitcoins for holding large amounts.
I won't give up on it.

Figure out what I did wrong, learn from the mistake, and get on with my life.


Only once I convinced myself that I understood exactly what I did wrong and how to prevent it in the future.


Bitcoin is a highly volitile, risky, experiment.  If you are holding enough value in bitcoin that this is a possible thought, then you need to sell a substantial amount of your current holdings NOW.  It is foolish, and dangerous to be holding an amount of value in bitcoin that would be devastating to lose.


I don't understand. How would that help?


Is that a reddit thing?  Sorry, I don't reddit.  I wouldn't have anything to unsubscribe from.


Holding value in something that you don't understand and that you haven't learned enough about to properly secure is ALWAYS your own fault.  Learn to take some personal responsibility, and to manage your risk exposure to your own personal risk tolerance.

Buy back in and figure out where I went wrong so it doesn't happen again.

Sadly you cant do anything when your coins get stolen, feature of bitcoin. Dont go into gambling or anything you will just lsoe more. Take a reak from bitcoin or buy some and sit back and let them rise.

Agreed. But for the less tech-savvy people, those storage methods can be a bit complex. And I don't want to brand Bitcoin as a currency which is destined only for the tech-savvy people.

I don't keep all my coins in one location but I don't think I would leave Bitcoin. Always a bit more cautious.

Bend over and kiss your money maker goodbye  :P

It would probably never happen to be to be honest because I'am caution man , I don't simply download craps from the internet just like that . It can't be stolen by some people I know IRL because no one in my country even know what Bitcoin is .
But it happens anyway ... that would be totally my fault , how it will be Bitcoin fault :o I will continue with bitcoin and make posts etc ... I won't Unsubscribe to /r/Bitcoin because I'am not even subscribed haha

~ Madness

I would go back and check all my "honey traps" to determine why they failed.  ??? They are there as a early warning system, so if they failed, I will have a problem.

We have to learn from our mistakes, if we do not learn through them, we are doomed to repeat them.

It would be strange, if someone managed to get to 90% of my stash in cold storage/paper wallets. I created it on a computer and printer, that was destoyed and have been recycled into millions of pieces.

So it was never connected to the internet or accessed by anyone, apart from myself, and destroyed with my own hands.  :P

that would be hard but i would buy again probably.


check out a hardware-wallet:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=899253.0

It is really hard to steal coins anyways...but u can keep your coins safe and keep it offline if u have huge amounts.. there's no way anyone can steal it then.

First, if i have a lot coins, i will store on cold wallet, save private key, make a stregth pass! and actually im not store a lot coins on wallet :P

but if one day all my precious coins are stolen, i will buy back and earn more!

It wasn't hard for Mark Karpeles to steal 6% of all the Bitcoins in existence.  ;D

And it is not practical to always keep your Bitcoins offline. I we stash away all of our coins, then what is the purpose of having this currency?

Better check your balance....  again....

I am not suggesting suicide. If money issues made me suicidal, i wouldn't be typing this. Just wondering if other people are so compelled.

Police??? really? I find the thought of telling the police about my stolen bitcoins beyond absurd. "Look officer, let me tell you one more time, i have these digital thingees on my computer called keys, nobody else should have access to those keys.....do you understand what i mean by encryption?..... i swear i was using 2FA, no, no, no nothing like GTA. "

Famous last words.....

Suicide. These are my precious coin which I bought with the money I earn and some bitcoins getting paid from services

When your coins are stolen there's little to nothing you can do and that's why you need to make sure they are secure and backed up safely.


Likely an inside job and if it was it would have been like taking candy from a baby.

Many people have actually recovered their coins and in many different ways, but you're right that it's next to no chance if this does happen though sometimes you can get lucky though you may as well kiss them goodbye if it ever does happen.

That is interesting. Personally, I have never heard about any such instances. It can happen... if the thief is that dumb.  ;D

I forget who the guy was but so,e semi-famous bitcoiner was hacked and the thief tried to blackmail him for more coins. He somehow ended up doxing the guy and getting his money back. Some people have tracked down thieves on here too and they're all apologetic when they've been caught and risk going to prison.

Never happened to me.

If someone scam you or stole bitcoins from your wallet, that can only be your own fault.

- Never hold  big ammount of BTCBTCBTC in online wallet service, exchange, your cellphone etc.
- Stealing coins from offline computer or BIP encrypted, well hidden paper wallet is impossible mission

it never append when you save wallet.dat from bitcoin core in a "normal" place.
let many BTC in 1 place ... is like let wallet with FIAT money on the table of the coffee shop.

you can retrieve it ... or not.

I would cry if my coins were stolen  :'( :'( :'(.


I guess ultimately it is down to the person to secure their coins and if they lose them to theft they failed to secure them adequately, though thieves are often very cunning and relentlessness in their pursuit to steal your coins so sometimes people can't be blamed exclusively for that. If someone breaks into your house is it your fault for not bricking up your windows and doors?

Try to make some back through Sig camp and gamble with it till I reach the value I was at before.

I would never keep all my eggs in one basket, i may take a hit in future but i will keep trading until i've recouped even more.

That's how winnings done  :D

Well if you lose your coins as an early investor the only working you will be doing is in your aim at your own head.

I don't know if I'm lucky, but it never happened to me.

To prevent that, and to learn from the others' mistakes, I'd like to know how some people were stolen. Did it happened while the money was at an exchange? Was that from a hacker who gained access to the home computer?

All stoles ever:

1) Left coins at exchange
2) Got hacked (installed malware)

Not all but like 99%

In this case the thief was unbelievably dumb. He became too greedy after successfully stealing the coins and wanted even more of them.

I do not have a lot of bitcoin, only 2 BTC total.
 and if it was stolen, not too depressing. because I get everything for free :D

Thanks for info.
I guess I'm pretty safe as I have 2 computers, and I'm not doing much with the one with my wallet.
I've got some little money on blockchain.info too, it's just convenient.

I was just going to add a number 3 when I saw your post. Blockchain.info online wallet would be number 3. Too many people complain about losing money there, and there was a new story about them being hacked too. I wouldn't leave any money on Blockchain.info.

I don't have much there, but despite a few incidents, I believe blockchain.info is quite safe. If you look closely at their system, it's actually safer than most home computers.

I would try my best to find out where they are/went and do whatever I can to get them back xD
If I could'nt I guess I would try buy back.

Nice. That reminds me of trezor which I always have in mind that it was the best option until I saw the compilation in the list. What I need is something really small that can fit into the corner of my pocket not some bulky stuff. Even cards look too big.