Thanks. Good luck on your journey - make sure you keep us up to date!

Thanks to everyone for the replies. Today I have finally tried achieving the offline workaround and it turns out you were all right - it's an unnecessary headache.

Fortunately, I found a workaround that does not work offline, but it does work anonymously through system-wide Tor on a pretty highly secure OS (at least that's what I believe). I'll leave my final results here:

1. First try: Ledger on Tails

• I have tried it but for some reason, I just don't feel safe when I install additional software on Tails. It gives a very strong feeling of unsafety when you push for something Tails isn't supposed to do. As soon as I started realizing I have to basically create a risk inside the system, I have stopped trying. Moreover, in order to get additional software, you need persistent storage. As everything is online and I want to leave no trace, I've moved to the next option:

2. Second try: Ledger on Qubes

• This one was a huge headache. I wanted to install it on an USB so that I could use it with different computers (all my hard disks are encrypted with strong passwords). I did achieve to install it on an USB, but it only worked on one PC out of 3. That was a big downside so I tried to install it on the same USB but from another PC - the other 2 did not recognize it. Otherwise, it would've potentially been the best (but not the easiest-to-use) option. Hence, I've moved on to the third and final option:

3. Final try: Ledger on Parrot OS Live
Not sure if it's the most secure one, but it certainly is my favorite. Here's how I've done it, beginner friendly (I'll leave links for easy access to tutorials and downloads):

• First of all, I have 2 USB sticks. One will be used as a bootable Live Parrot OS USB (you can find the ISO here and after you verify it, you can either flash it as they recommend using Balena Etcher or you can do it using the dd command; I have tried both and they worked flawlessly) and the other will be used only for the storage of the Ledger Live ".AppImage" file. The USB holding the ".deb" file has a physical lock switch I always have it on.
• As soon as the Parrot OS ISO is flashed onto the first USB and the second USB has the AppImage file on it, I turned off my PC, unplugged my Ethernet cable, ejected the second USB and booted my PC into the newly flashed OS (you have to use the Boot Menu key upon booting the PC to boot into the USB-flashed OS instead of your hard disk). As soon as a list of options appears on the screen, I chose "Live Mode" and let it boot properly. Live Mode lets you make changes, download files, install updates etc but as soon as you shut down or restart your PC, any change is gone and your OS returns to its initial, fresh stage.
• Once the system booted, I popped up the Terminal and entered the following command: sudo anonsurf start. You can also start Anonsurf from the menu in the upper-left corner of the screen. This option will enable system-wide Tor for anonymity.
• Now you can plug in the second USB and launch the AppImage file. Ledger will start. As soon as it starts, you can plug in the Ethernet cable or connect to your local Wi-Fi and use the Ledger app as intended.

Now before someone argues it makes no sense to use Tor if I've used my Ledger before on my personal computer, for now the best solution I can think of is creating a fresh new seed for my new setup, moving all my funds through decentralized apps and then probably using 5-10 different accounts for each crypto on my Ledger & sending random amounts to them (say I have 1 BTC => I'll split it into 0.3, 0.22, 0.20, 0.1 and 0.18BTC on 5 different accounts).

If someone has a simpler idea, I'd highly appreciate it. If you think I've made a mistake in the process, let me know

Gambling on Martingale is the worst thing I have ever done.. start from 1 satoshi and you're 27 losses away 'till your bet gets to 1.34BTC on a 49.50% gambling session.. so even after you bet 1.34BTC (you'd need a total of 2.7BTC to do it), if you win you're going to have a grand total of 1 satoshi profit! Adjust your strat to a higher profit per bet and you'd bust even faster..

I guess it was more of an ironic statement, something like "watch out, the house is coming for you!" Nevermind, apparently it wasn't.

That is very interesting, but you probably understand the level of research needed to find out all these secretly planned safe-level-exceeding installation of towers and antennas.. Lots of them are probably out there in the plain sight already and we don't even notice.


I sure as hell won't go mad. But I can't say the same about the majority of people. I guess that, after a while, this constant confusion proceeds to generate even some sort of psychological damage. My "strategy" right now is to just read everything, bullshit or not, with a very critical mind and believe nothing but the uncensored and real facts.. That takes a lot of time though - and a lot of information to process.

Haha, indeed, if a kid texts their friend "pos" nowadays, it'd get them punished

To be honest, I did not even notice you're pretty much going all-in with those bets. That is an aggressive strategy for sure Well, Good job on your third roll! So far so good, will be following your journey to see where this is gonna head.

I have never tried betting on esports and never really understood this "odds" thingy - so I guess "1.4 odds" means a win will get you 1.4x profit, right? But if you lose, would you lose all of it and this challenge ends or just partially and you'll go on with what you have left?

First of all, I am not a professional video editor but I've done video editing as a hobby for quite a long time. Your intention is great, but the video is pretty basic and it looks like something I could do in under 20 minutes including looking up the videos and pictures. I have seen a few flaws and things that make the video non-appealing to a larger audience:

• Your video only has 4 frames and they are mostly lengthy (especially the "hacker" one) - they are videos that basically give you no context whatsoever
• The video in the end with the coin and the 3D one both have the wrong aspect ratio. In both cases, the width of the coin is larger than its length which give it a quite oval look
• It's a very, very basic video, basically a compilation of a few videos and a picture with some text slapped onto them.
• Is it just me or are both the 3D coin and the last vid shown in the trailer uncentered?
• From 0:24 to 0:47 you only see these slow-mo videos and then the video picks the pace up by showing Bitcoin's features quickly - I like the idea of picking up the pace but I think it should be done in a different way..

You have to work more on it but practice makes perfect. Keep it up!

Ti-as fi dat si tie un Merit, dar l-am consumat pe ultimu' cu putin timp in urma. Iti raman dator eu tie acum

Nici nu mi-a trecut prin minte, sincer sa fiu! Cum n-am mai iesit din casa deloc, nici nu mai stiu cum e "normalitatea" acum. Dar ai dreptate, nu suna deloc rau. Protectie patogenica si niste ochelari de soare si ne-am scos

I'm sorry to hear your story and hopefully there is someone with advanced skills out here who could help you with the recovery. As I am not that advanced guy I just talked about and this post is very long;

I'll make a Tl;dr for you to summarize the most essential stuff from your OP:

What happened:

• A private key has been lost 5 years ago
• The ".dat" file was lost in a hardware failure; Samsung couldn't recover it and OP does not have the drives anymore

What OP has tried:

• Working with a major company and others on the recovery

Possible helpful information OP has about the lost wallet right now:

• It was a company wallet with a few investors
• Has a few characters of the privkey
• Has the PK range
• Has the K value
• Has the pubkey
• Has a valid output txn
• Has the BIP creation type
• Might have the ".dat" file from an "old old backup" but it's corrupt and could be related to something else
• Mentioned they have other information that is not publicly available

Other potentially important info:

• OP thinks a proof-of-concept is more applicable at this point

---

I'd advise you to move your thread to Bitcoin Technical Support, I think the best people when it comes to the advanced skills & technical side of BTC are over there and less shitposters will visit your thread.

Parerea mea e ca atunci cand e vorba de specula, nu se mai pune problema daca sa se faca anonim sau nu. Intr-adevar, pentru trading trebuie sa utilizezi o platforma a-la-carte de trading care sa-ti ofere toate beneficiile si conditiile optime unui mediu de trading.

Problema nu este ca exchange-urile sau alte afaceri s-ar conforma legilor statului. Doamne fereste, nu instig la nerespectarea legislatiei. Insa am cateva probleme cu anumite afaceri:

• Cele care isi promoveaza afacerea drept ceea ce nu reprezinta (de exemplu, anumite exchange-uri centralizate care se dau a fi decentralized atomic-swaps)
• Cele care abuzeaza de KYC in diverse feluri (1. daca ma lasi sa depun fara sa ma legitimezi, atunci consider un abuz sa ma legitimezi cand vreau sa imi retrag banii de pe site-ul tau, fie ca am facut castiguri sau retrag mai putin decat am avut sau.. in cel mai grav caz prin care am trecut, fie ca doar i-am depus si apoi m-am razgandit! Si 2. daca imi ceri buletinul si dupa ce ti-l dau imi ceri si permis de conducere, pasaport, facturi etc pentru ca ti se pare tie ca nu e suficient, atunci mai da-te ..)
• Cele care isi promoveaza serviciile drept "cele mai sigure" de pe piata - nimic nu e sigur, nici macar un hardware wallet daca nu-l pastrezi cum se presupune ca trebuie pastrat. Inteleg ideea de marketing, dar prin marketing-ul tip inselaciune ("tine-ti banii la noi ca suntem cei mai siguri, cei mai tari!") nu faci altceva decat sa imi creezi dezgust si sa inveti noii jucatori de pe piata lucruri gresite despre crypto. It was supposed to let you "be your own bank".

Nu te inflama, nu te acuz pe tine personal sau pe vreunul din business-urile tale. Cine se stie, se simte. Ideea e ca incerc de ceva vreme sa lupt impotriva centralizarii si.. ca sa vezi, exchange-urile si serviciile decentralizate au venit ca un mare "fuck you" in fata legilor date de stat si sper ca asa va ramane si in continuare.



Da. Pana acum, ca prima faza, iti cer doar datele celor care sunt suspecti. Dar stai linistit, din pacate vine si acea vreme si va fi enervant si un stres in plus si pentru voi, si pentru noi. Uita-te la ceea ce s-a intamplat cu Coinbase si baza lor de date ceruta de americani si ai sa vezi care-i faza si cu asta. Vezi si in ce directie s-a indreptat Ro in ultimii ani privind crypto.. Se va ajunge si sa-ti ceara toate datele ca mna, un mic pui de comunism si autoritaritate nu strica, nu?..

Eu as sugera ceva tuturor ownerilor de business-uri crypto: sa avertizeze utilizatorii, pe scurt si "babeste", legat de noutatile legislative din mediul crypto. In caz ca te intrebi de ce: avand in vedere ca un numar infirm de oameni studiaza ce mai apare nou prin legislatie, poate asa se mai trezesc si ei si realizeaza ca statul le baga cate un sfert de bocanc in viata personala cu fiecare lege de genu'.

Parerea mea e ca la un moment dat o sa apara si acel exchange "perfect", decentralizat si anonim sub Tor, care va rupe orice interzicere si reglementare din partea statului. Si atunci va aparea "buba": business-urile vor incepe sa ii sara statului in cap pentru exagerarea privind reglementarile date.. deoarece e logic ca oricine va prefera sa foloseasca un DEX fara sa il intrebe nimeni nimic decat un exchange sau serviciu care ii cere buletinul si alte date personale.

---

E clar ca e trist ce se intampla si atata timp cat un exchange e okay si nu face abuz/nu induce in eroare, n-am nicio problema cu el. Ce se petrece e un fel de semi-downfall of crypto din punctul meu de vedere. Dar o sa se intoarca roata intr-o zi, vine si ziua aia cand o sa inceapa lumea sa se intrebe "auziti, da' cate mai vreti sa stiti?" - ma intreb atunci ce-o sa mai faca statul..

These casinos probably don't count as scams, but before the guy who won ~$19M I'm sure the casino earned way more than that. The big wins are there to make you believe chances are you're going to get rich. If you've ever gambled some money, you know how easy losing is.. it could be a one-click loss!

---

I'd add something: if you've been scammed and Game-Protect contacts you, don't give them any money. You'd be on a double-loss!

Dude, that thing in the 2nd vid looks massive.. are you sure it is a 5G tower/mast?

These markings and lines are pathetic to say the least.. It looks like they're some sheeps or slaves waiting in line.. The insane number of misinformation flying around us is shared on purpose imo, it's to confuse us constantly and reminds me of the video from BBC about non-linear warfare very well.

We've been confused so well we have been perfectly steered away from the truth. We have arguments for any narrative: you have arguments for any of the theories about what caused COVID, you can argue about the pandemic being real or fake, about microchipping being on its way or not etc.

It's a big strategy and I think it's the same one they have been using for a long time (the non-linear warfare) now. If we did not have everything in contradiction, we, as a community, could've headed towards the truth long time ago. But we just can't. And it's gonna be more confusing the deeper we get into the rabbit hole.

I have thought about holding it for the staking. But on a second thought..

Is infinite supply + this kind of staking return a good idea? Wouldn't it drive the price way, way lower for ETH hodlers that do not qualify for the staking? To me it sounds like other coins with PoW like Bitcoin are way better investments. With BTC you have halving, limited supply, huge mining power, decentralization etc.. aren't these features way more advantageous than ETH2.0's? 

Fair enough! Regarding the "likely to vary by country" point you've made though, as far as I know, manufacturers not willing to assume liability will not sell their vaccines/treatments in countries where they don't have immunity. This is a big concern, however, for the +320M people living in the USA. And 320M is a huge number.

I haven't read any negative news about Sweden/Belarus until now, so thanks for the article.

I guess it's not so surprising that illegal activity is one of the largest markets - "illegal activity" is everywhere around us. Shops selling without giving you the check (or bill?), a lot of people evading taxes in some situations (say you bought something for $10 and gave it to someone for $11 but never paid taxes for the $1 you earned) we've probably all been through at least once during our lifetime, giving someone money etc. Some situations just seem too normal for us to even think we may do something illegal like tax evasion - and tax evasion apparently accounts for approximately $200B per year in the USA.

Take fiat, precious metals, crypto, drugs and all assets used in illegal activity away and soon you'll hear news about some sandwich cartels or whatever other item they'd use. They'll always find a way to do their thing.

The only solution is letting cryptos be. The illicit activity in crypto accounts for much, much less than we think. Keep in mind that a criminal can lose their BTC by not properly storing it too.. and they have to first learn to use BTC and find someone who accepts it too! So it's not as easy as it sounds And taking BTC down one way or another will not stop this activity.

Agree with me or not, I'll always defend privacy and BTC! I'm now apparently officially obsessed with it

Is it just me? These acronyms give me some kind of nostalgia as if I'm reading a forum post from long time ago ASL reminds me of Omegle, 420 of those very popular "MLG" videos and memes on YouTube and, to be honest, I haven't really heard of the rest yet besides IRL which I used to write all the time many years ago on online games. Maybe it's me not chatting for very long to English speakers. Do people still use these acronyms nowadays?

Sounds like a SS trap question to catch the fools admitting to having done illicit activity, lol. I only stole one thing in my entire life and that was a sub-$2 item when I was a little kid. That scared me well enough not to steal anything ever again.

Stealing to get money to gamble or to recover your loss is a disgusting behavior. You lost due to your fault and you're stealing from someone who hasn't done anything wrong. In other words, you're going for two-damages-in-one, both caused by yourself. If someone decides to gamble their house hoping to become a millionaire and loses everything, it's their own fault - you accept a risk once you open up/go into that casino and nobody else needs to pay for your loss.

Marea majoritate nu citeste legislatia. Nici cea veche, nici legile noi care apar. Iar cei care citesc o fac de cele mai multe ori degeaba, deoarece un om normal trebuie sa citeasca o lege de 10 ori ca sa o inteleaga pe deplin.

Ideea ta legata de felul in care nu ne avertizeaza exchange-urile decentralizate poate fi transpusa si in cazul bancilor: De ce nimeni nu ne spune ca dobanda lunara/anuala pe care o primim la sumele tinute in buzunarele bancilor cam este de multe ori depasita de inflatie si de ce nimeni nu ne invata sa investim banii in loc sa ii tinem in buzunarul altuia?

Cred ca stim amandoi care este raspunsul la ambele intrebari.

Si eu sustin cat de mult pot decentralizarea si incerc sa provoc chiar si noii utilizatori de cryptomonede sa foloseasca serviciile decentralizate. Prin 2017 (sau 2018), cand am folosit pentru prima oara Bisq, am fost putin stresat pentru ca e un sistem care clar nu iti ofera cel mai mare confort in utilizare, fiind p2p. Dar apoi am dat de Atomix DEX si il ridic in slavi mereu pentru ca e ceva spectaculos pentru mine. P2P alaturi de confortul si usurinta utilizarii unui wallet normal.

2013-2016 a fost un Rai pentru cryptomonede si ma bucur ca am facut parte din comunitatea crypto inca de atunci. Am sa las aici o postare de acum cateva zile, special pentru OP:

Depinde de ATM - am gasit unele care-mi veneau la burta sau aveau camera fix in dreptul ochilor (Bitcoin Romania), eventual am sa imi pregatesc ceva folie cu care sa acopar bine camera inainte sa il folosesc. Dar mi-e ca incerc sa fiu anonim si fix eu cad "in plasa" de suspecti ca mna, ar fi cam suspicios

Complet de acord. Urasc ideea ca acum s-a ajuns sa fiu numit un "money launderer" sau "terorist" deoarece caut anonimitate. Nu spal bani si nici nu finantez vreo activitate criminala, si cu toate acestea exista cineva intotdeauna care trebuie sa-si bage bocancul in viata mea personala. Ca sunt finante sau nu, intotdeauna exista cineva si se face cumva ca in toate cazurile acel "cineva" sa fie statul sau anumite institutii/corporatii.

Sunt foarte curios de un lucru. Ce ar fi daca s-ar dezvolta puternic o platforma tip Bisq, puternic in sensul de a se dezvolta intr-o platforma mai puternica si voluminoasa ca Binance, si nimeni nu va mai putea sa stie care utilizator cine e? Ne-ar aresta pe rand, fiecare cum e gasit, pentru ca "utilizam o platforma care sustine indirect spalarea de bani"?

Sunt satul de mult timp de gluma cu "trebuie sa va identificati si sa platiti taxe & impozite". Spala unii cu miliardele si nu-i controleaza nimeni, da' punem KYC pe faucet-uri de BTC unde poate ca face un utilizator $1 pe luna.. Doua extreme, ambele complet incorecte. Daca cineva e interesat de spalarea de bani, va gasi portite prin care sa o faca oricum.

Cu alte cuvinte, am intalnit BTC si am avut speranta ca in sfarsit voi putea lucra fara sa stau cu teama ca o parte terta mi-ar putea trage teapa.. ca sa ajungem in 2020 sa dam legi care sa puna cryptomonedele si utilizatorii lor la pamant. Na' pai si cu bancnotele cum ramane? Ca poate nu spal BTC-u' dar spal RON-ul ca e mai usor, mai stii?