Was a link to this story ever posted in this thread?

Anyway, loosing your money is no reason to end it all. I doubt there are many people in this forum who don't like money at all, but loosing all one's worldly possessions (which can happen to anyone) isn't necessarily the life-ending disaster it might appear to be. Just consider that many religions preach the virtues of poverty. Also, many of the people still remembered today for their accomplishments, long after they died, lived lives of poverty, sometimes extreme poverty. Personally, I'd rather live a full life and also have plenty. Who wouldn't. Even so, loosing it all can turn out to be a blessing in disguise, who knows?

This is the first I'm hearing of BIP 157, thanks. I'll check it out, but think it would be easier for me to go with Sparrow, since I'm already running a full node.

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Thanks so much for this, I didn't know that was possible. Yes, I want to send the entire balance from the Electrum wallet to a new Sparrow wallet. So if I understand correctly, it's not possible to import into Sparrow using the Electrum seed phrase, but you can do it with a wallet backup file? Awesome, I'll go that route.

One more question: how do I get the Electrum backup file without connecting to a server? Should I just open the Electrum wallet while offline?

Thanks for all these helpful replies. I am using Tor, but even with Tor there's the issue of addresses, transaction history, and wallet balance being visible to whoever is running the public server. True, running an electrum server is complex, and not worth the trouble IMO. I'm planning on migrating from Electrum to Sparrow, but even to do that I have to set up an electrum server if I don't want all the info from the migration leaking to the server owner  

That's what I figured, thanks.

I'm planning on setting up my own Electrum server to access my wallet with optimal privacy. But it's going to be a couple months before I'll be able to get it up and running. So meanwhile, I'm wondering which server or servers to use in case I need to access the wallet before my own server is ready. I realize there's no way to know for sure, other than having your own server; but are there any that have at least a relatively good reputation for not snooping on users?

OpenMonero.com has picked up a good deal of volume by now

Purse.io ceased to exist years ago.

This story reminds me of that guy who is still looking for his 8k btc at the bottom of a landfill because the hard drive with his keys on it got tossed in the trash (possibly by himself, although he blamed his girlfriend for it). Probably way more crypto is lost through owners loosing their keys than through theft.

You can exchange BTC directly for Monero on bisq, with zero KYC

All too true. I always see people complaining about CEX and how there's no alternative, and yet an actual alternative that works (maybe the only one) is available and they don't use it. And it's true, many (most?) don't care about their privacy and autonomy. This was already demonstrated by the (non)-fallout from the Snowden leaks all those years ago.

Thanks for this update. I'm planning on setting up my own Fulcrum server soon, so I look forward to hearing how it goes with the new version.

There are air-gapped hardware wallets...

This is where the DIY wallets really shine. Particularly the ones that let you build your wallet entirely from off-the-shelf components not directly related to bitcoin, like Krux and SeedSigner. This way you're buying hardware from companies like Raspberry pie. And the firmware is free and open source, so there's no company involved with a motive to ramp up prices with glitzy marketing crap.

The only advantages I see in hardware wallets over an air-gapped laptop is portability and the use of secure elements. Apart from that, the popular HW wallets have increasingly turned into shiny bling. As for secure elements, it seems to me they can be more of a liability than an enhancement in some cases. So now we have the hardware wallet businesses dropping devices with 2 or even three different SE's. Will we see 4, 5 SE's in the next generation of wallets? Soon the wallets will be bigger than laptops, with all those (in)secure elements.

lol, we're clearly living in a global police state.

100% agreed.


Not everyone would agree with that. With so many different options and approaches to security on the market now, it's difficult to claim that any one hardware wallet offers the "best security" and "more than all the competition" for all bitcoiners. Trezor 7 is not air-gapped, so not offering more than all competition, or best security--at least for those who prefer their signing device air-gapped. Or stateless, which Trezor also does not offer. And some prefer a DIY option as an added security feature. And Trezor 7 also lacks an option for user-added physical entropy for seed creation, like dice-rolls. Some would rather have these features than claims of "readiness" for some imagined quantum future. In my opinion, $250 is a lot to spend on a wallet that lacks so many security features. That's why it's a good thing there are now so many options on the market. To each their own.


Thanks for this info, that does clarify the issue. I'm not making any accusations, just stating my personal opinion. I find Trezor's marketing about quantum readiness, quantum-safe or whatever to be a ploy to charge higher prices. I may be wrong, but that's how I see it.

What is the status of coinjoins today? I thought coinjoin was dead ever since the Whirlpool admins got arrested and Wasabi discontinued their own coinjoin feature to avoid also being arrested. When I saw this thread I went to coinjoins.org and learned that Wasabi, apparently, is now back to doing coinjoin. And not only that, the Trezor wallet now has a coinjoin feature. I was surprised by this news. So is coinjoin now back in action? If so, what are the real volumes and liquidity, are lots of people using it?

The new Qastle wallet is one example. Looks like a gimmick to me tho, I wouldn't pay for something like that. Just another example of companies trying to monetize people's uninformed fears about the quantum threat. A software-wallet version of what Trezor is doing with their overpriced Trezor Safe 7, making empty and misleading claims about it having "quantum-safe architecture and firmware."  

In the USA, and possibly in other countries, you can pay with bitcoin at any restaurant that accepts Doordash or Uber Eats. Just buy gift cards with bitcoin on a site like bitrefill.com, then spend them at the restaurant of your choice.