If your friend was smart his seed was not on the computer (or if it's there is in a password protected archive you'll never break). So get them search for a piece of paper containing
* either one or more lists of "random English words"
* either list of "strange letters/numbers" like KyNyPnXbYu31vwAfngmhYHdAb6jMymCRu6zTsmptZbQB7EtLSBuE (yes, you need to try to give them an example or explain a lot)
That's not so difficult to achieve and if the mother tongue is not English the list of words may somehow be more visible.

Of course, telling them such news needs certain skills, since it's probably very early after their loss and the may not care of anything really. But you have to tell them think about it. They may do.. later on, maybe even after years...
Maybe it's enough to not sell/throw away anything for a while and maybe someday you get to explain more detailed face to face.

1. Hardware wallets are not the safest. A correctly configured cold storage is safer. But hardware wallets are close enough to optimum between safety and every day convenience.
2. Hardware wallet signs the transactions. A txt file cannot do that without a wallet.
3. Hardware wallet works based on a seed which is recommended even by the manufacturers to write down after first generating it. That seed works in the same way in most wallets and will also work in a new hardware wallet too, so destroying your hardware wallet is not the end of the world.

All in all your points against hardware wallets are invalid and there are pluses too.

The only thing I can add is: finally! Great job!


Edit 2020-07-11: There's something to add now, there's a newer version in town, 4.0.2: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5260793

True. I didn't say it's easy to be that badly unlucky. But the possibility is there (and it's much-much higher than for the 5400 bets "case").
@crwth did have a very good point though: user ID and screenshot(s) with the bets history may give more info so we can see if we have missed anything.

You should have been done some research before throwing your life savings into something.

1. You should have been reading that gambling is not a get rich scheme. Some win, some lose and most try to have fun. The main rule in gambling is to never (but never!) gamble more than you afford to lose. Next time you'll know...

2. You should have read that all variations of Martingale (like your strategy too) are not a safe method to win, however they can increase super fast the amounts you lose.

The fact a casino doesn't let you win doesn't mean it's scam. Although it's tiny amounts, I did win now and then there back in the days I've been gambling a bit more.
Imagine what would happen if everybody would win.



You've done your calculation wrong. He didn't add 5k at losing, he doubled the bet value. And then it's only 12-13 bets. And 13 reds in a row can happen.

You are right. Still, he asked about "no tx" and I wanted to make sure he understands what he wants and maybe "refine" his request.
I somehow think that he may have confused the unused addresses he can see in his walled as "used, but with no transactions".

If indeed he wants addresses with "no tx" then they've never got any transaction ever. And in that case a dump of addresses will not help him much

If there are no balance and also no tx, the address is not used and you can't really know if somebody has it in his wallet or not.
So this makes you ask for pretty much all Bitcoin addresses, which is basically impossible to get, they're far too many.

I think that you are doing it wrong. If the computer had any "surprise" on it you'll find out very late, when the funds from your safe wallet get vanished.
I'd consider using a live OS (maybe on a stick) which you use only for this purpose (with no internet, obviously). And then you'll format the stick and you are pretty much OK. If you use Tails with default settings you'll have Electrum on it and it will never save the wallet, so you are sure the data is lost at reboot.

Also writing down the private key is easy to mistake, be careful.



Actually writing down seed is easier. But beware, Electrum seed works only with Electrum (if you use it with a different wallet you'll get different addresses).

Nice example! I agree. That's why I continued with "it's obviously worrying", it's an extremely unfair way to see what property means (what the Russians did there)

Two mistakes here.
1. He cannot own all the bitcoins because:
1.1 Some bitcoins are lost forever.
1.2 Some people will simply not sell.
1.3 Not all bitcoins are mined yet.
1.4 As he starts buying (them all) the price will go up and up and up until the point he cannot afford to buy more. At least this is how I understand the laws of supply and demand.
1.5 He is not stupid and he would understand that if he would buy all the bitcoins they'd become worthless. Also he will always hugely diversify his investments.


2. The transaction fee for sending the bitcoins doesn't depend on how many bitcoins there are there and what's their market value. It's (in this case) about the number of inputs (does he have a few "big bills", or a huge amount of "coins" or somewhere in between).

So stable coins backed by fiat are possible and coins/tokens backed by gold are not?!
Well, imho it's not difficult to build up a gold-backed-token business if you get the right contacts with a reputable gold distribution and storage company.
Many can find gold tokens easier to achieve and hold than physical gold in the same way as some hold stable coins, but this time they can profit against fiat since gold price usually goes up.
Yes, one could say that Bitcoin is a better investment for holding than gold, but that's a matter of taste (because of different levels of volatility).

Of course, reputation is a must. That's why the actual gold has to be handled by reputable, internationally recognized 3rd party.
The fake gold story is based on "gold bars" "manufactured" in the same company as the one asking for the loans (!!) and the company/products were afaik said as OK/reputable by corrupted officials.

All in all, throwing all such projects into bin without an actual thought it's a mistake.

I see it more like a "if legally we don't know what it is and what's its value, it's not considered property (hence there's no theft)".
It's obviously worrying and imho this puts Russia (way) under China in the way of dealing with Bitcoin.

It looks like the criminals had a good lawyer. However, I hope that civil court will correct this.

Keep in mind that this forum can be tricky for young people, so you'll have to warn them:

* the forum contains good and helpful people, but bad ones too; it contains useful info, but also scams.
* there is gambling section and young people can get easily to the point of gambling too big amounts or get addicted.
* there are scam projects (hyip, doublers, scam tokens) that invite people for "easy money", but actually stealing
* there are faucets which are usually a huge waste of time with little to no benefits

I feel like this forum needs a certain degree of maturity in order to be safe here.
It's far from me that you should keep them away of here, but at least warn them to be prepared.

I guess that I was misunderstood.
What I meant is that for everybody after a certain number of posts, the quality can decrease. But GOLD requirement is far from high, so there's no pressure, so GOLD users will most probably always achieve very good quality of posts.


The fact the campaign pays in token makes it a no-go for many. Name it laziness, name it extra-cautiousness, doesn't matter, the result is the same. The fact the campaign manager is from GOLD team and not somebody known can make people even more cautious.
I can say that I also came in only after seeing good feedback from others (feedback with was and still is scarce).
But the campaign is one year old now, people should have been convinced by now that the campaign is good.

I'll second that. I joined rather late and I was somewhat afraid the campaign will not last long. Until now, as a nice surprise, it goes on, while quite a number of other campaigns have ended.
Also it worth mentioning that in the GOLD campaign the requirements for the number of posts are much better (less spammy!) than for most other campaigns.

You are 100% correct. Still, keep in mind that people will still tend to download cracks and other shady software and Chrome's "block" is very easy to go around. Some will always think they know better.
Also malware attacking directly the computer if it finds vulnerable/open ports is a reality, don't forget about those. If the OS is weak/unprotected it doesn't matter how safe your browser is.

About the torrent sites.. that's debatable. I remember that most versions of KMSpico download in background a lot of surprises.

I've read it on my local forum, here's the original post.
Also (google) translated is here.

Is this available also if you hold in your own wallet? Germany has something similar, but it turned out to need to move your coins in a custodial wallet, which sux.
Also, is this available only for Croatians? (one can always hope )


However, the 2k EUR/day should be more than enough for everybody, so, yeah, well done Croatia!

From what I see you want to do cold storage? The first post is wrong, you should start with reading:
https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/coldstorage.html

The seed wallet stays always offline; you can use it only to sign transactions.
The live/online wallet is used to see the actual amounts of money, create transactions (unsigned), broadcast (after signing on the other wallet).

Incorrect.

There are also people that do jobs and also provide jobs. And here we can talk about rich people that still work and about medium class ones too that obviously work, but may need to hire somebody (individual or company) for house keeping, cleaning, food preparation, take care of the children...
And there are also people that don't do job and neither provide - from people in care of others (individuals of country/institution) to rich people that choose to not create businesses.

But actually, at least indirectly, everybody provides jobs.



There are discussions about a global minimum income. There are well fundamented opinions in both directions, from encouraging people just don't work (which in my country already happens in many cases) to the opinion that people who will want a little more than the average will actually work.

I think that giving anything for free is discriminatory for the ones who actually work for that and pay the taxes which are given for free to others.
I think that a system where everybody has a chance to earn is more beneficial for everybody. Reducing the working day from 8h would be a start. Some would work less and still have enough money and some others will work too.

A more fair wage system is also necessary. I don't see as normal that somebody who was able to remember a few lines and got lucky enough to live and work at Hollywood just get paid millions per year for that. And it's
only one of many many examples.


Governments have 2 simple points on their agenda: [1] get access to country's funds so they can fund their own pockets, preferably indirectly so they cannot be caught and [2] get re-elected.
All the rest is way lower on the priorities list.

What we need is:

1. Since we have a global economy, we need a global government. If then there will regional governing units, that's another story.
With one government and same rules for everybody, with same currency, .. things should be better.

2. Since current type of politicians are not of any good, we need something better. The current way of democratic elections are incorrect (you can pick for a small list where the same politicians get visibility over and over again), so we need a different way to get the government, by merit, by projects, by interview, like applying for any job. Of course, like in any job, one can be fired if he doesn't do the job well enough, not only after a number of years.
[The only flaw in this logic is that I don't know who would be capable to fairly pick from the candidates.]


Unfortunately the governing system always favored either the rich, either the governing group (political party, monarchic family, ... name it). Never the one who is fair and poor.