I do feel for the OP. But this points out a MAJOR flaw in bitcoin..... the fact that it's leading supporters / proponents / educators are currently a merry band of inbred idiots. Here's why I say this....
All over this site, I see people screaming in fear about the dangers of not using exchanges to hold your Bitcoin.
Exaggeration, but I get the point and the warning of the dangers are true. The past has shown that an exchange might run into problems and your coins will be gone. This is very simple with bitcoin, you either control the private keys or you dont. Only if you personally are in control the coins are yours, otherwise you should consider them someone elses and you have to trust them.
If you don't hold your private keys, you don't really have your bitcoin. So here you have this schmuck that goes out and dumps a bunch of bitcoin into a situation that he really has no discipline / technological maturity, or understanding, of what he is doing - and he loses his money/bitcoin. The reason this happened is because he probably listened to the advice of a bunch of idealistic morons on here - and ultimately he got over his technological head.
My personal guess is that OP either did not listen to any advice or bad advice. Whether or not there ist an ideology behind the advice is your speculation.
Which is SO DARN IRONICALLY AMUSING - because everyone here crows about how Bitcoin is a global currency, and yet they don't have the brains or wisdom to understand that the global population is NOT technologically savy to the degree that they can be trusted not to screw up their bitcoin.
Most wallets do a very good job at hiding the underlying things hard to handle, e.g. the raw private keys from the user. OP decided to go out of their way to download a piece of software that removes all layers of protection other wallets offer. The software used has proper warnings in place that OP either did not read or ignore.
To safeguard this wallet you must print or otherwise record the Bitcoin address and private key. It is important to make a backup copy of the private key and store it in a safe location.
and
If you leave/refresh the site or press the "Generate New Address" button then a new private key will be generated and the previously displayed private key will not be retrievable.
This thread really is the best advertisement in the world for why people should put their money into a "Professional Fiat Bitcoin" style Exchange (Circle, Coinbase, etc). Because your money is not only protected better from thieves (they have much better security than the average citizen), but more importantly, loss of an individuals money is best protected from THEMSELVES - their own stupidity.
Yes, for some people it makes sense to trust someone else instead of their own ability. It is however not the communites duty to judge which kind of person someone is nor has anyone here the capacity to do so. The people that constantly give good advice like e.g. DannyHamilton tend to advice in such a way that the user has a wide varity of options and can choose what is best for them. In the end, no one here can do the decision for you we can only show you possible ways.
And yeah, the big money running the exchanges.... they are greedy, evil, part of the system, basically the same people that are migrating over from running the fiat banks etc etc yatta yatta yatta.
You sound like you have an agenda which has next to nothing to do with the issue at hand.
But lets be perfectly clear.... ANY TIME that a person on this board makes reccomendations to people (who they have no idea what their technological maturity level is) that they need to be in charge of their digital money..... is basically just as evil as the banksters..... because ultimately you cause innocent people to lose their hard earned money.
No. Any time someone freely makes a light and rushed decision that involves a significant amount of value (regardless whether its BTC, FIAT or another crypto currency) it is their own fault. Bitcoin teaches harsh lessons in that regard as your transaction can rarley be undone.
Ohh, and PS.... I hate bankers more than any of you, and at least I have put a few in prison, more than I guess any of you posting here can say..... But reality and wisdom trumps paranoid teenage-minded anarchistic views any day. Bitcoin needs to grow up if it is to enter the mainstream, become a global currency etc.
Mabye thats not where bitcoin is heading?
Damn man, that's a lot of coins and a lot of money. What I am not getting, is how this person got a hold of so many coins without knowing how to take care of them? Did some newbie just come and drop $30,000+ without knowing how to secure their investment? This is the only logical explanation.
He was taking care of them by using a paper wallet. He just pressed the wrong button at the fatal moment. I've done it plenty of times with vital things myself but thankfully there wasn't any wealth involved.
Smaller batches would have definitely been a good idea, nothing more than 5btc per wallet. Satoshi did 50btc per wallet when they weren't worth anything right?
50 BTC was the mining reward when bitcoin started. I also dont think that anyone can tell how many wallets satoshis has or had, but you are probably refering to addresses. The point still stands though, test with small amounts until you feel you understand what you are doing well enough.
