People Losing Passwords & Wallets...

[RealBitcoin]

It has come to my attention, that people are starting to lose their passwords/wallets/access to bitcoin more and more often. They are either idiots or careless or just naive, but this really needs to stop.

Just today I see at least 5 reports of people losing their wallets, frequently in the wallet subforum but also on reddit. Of course economically speaking this is good for the rest of us, because the money velocity slows down making our coins more valuable, but it also makes newbie integration very unfriendly.

Really if we want bitcoin to be global, we need to make newbies more comfortable with bitcoin. Many people are irresponsible, so we need to warn them of the consequences, because they never read the fine print.


My suggestion:

1) Everyone more experienced with BTC should write tutorials for newbies and give them out for free for newbies, that will teach them how to start out in bitcoin, and what risks they need to consider. Highlighting important topics like backing up wallets, and passwords, and also keeping their systems safe from malware.

2) Every wallet software should integrate a warning window warning users to backup their wallets and passwords before creating the wallet. The warning should be in big red letters , so that newbies can see it, and this might make them realize that it is important for example:

WARNING!! BACKUP YOUR WALLET/SEED/PASSWORD OTHERWISE YOU COULD LOSE ACCESS TO YOUR BITCOINS

3) A pinned thread on the Beginners & Help section warning users to backup their wallets & passwords

4) Bitcoin.org and wallet websites should also tell newbies to backup their stuff.







Consequences:

If we don't make bitcoiners more responsible, then they will demand the existance of "bitcoin banks" that will store their bitcoins for them "safely".

If the newbies cannot be responsible, then they will hand over the control over their coins to middleman, centralized wallets, and we will accomplish nothing.

Bitcoin banks will be born,and the same fractional reserve shit will start over again. So it is in our interest to make people responsible, to keep bitcoin decentralized.

[RealBitcoin]

People already treat exchanges and online wallets as banks but they need to realize any service where you don't have your private key is a flaw. Bitcoin banks will happen is to people being lazy and stupid, they rather just put their coins somewhere and have zero responsibility. I personally ....

And if more trendy leftist people join bitcoin, they usually have 0 responsibility, and always come with the demands.

People are either self-governed, or others will govern them. If they can't store their money, other will store it ,and then the fractional reserve cancer will come into bitcoin as well.

We really dont need that. The flaw is in people not in the currency.

So the only option is to educate people to be more responsible.


Also you might not want to reveal how you store your private keys online ,so just edit that post.

[BTCLovingDude]

people have been losing their passwords for as long as passwords exist, and it is neither limited to bitcoin nor limited to internet.

why do you think most of the people use passwords like "123", "abcd", or their brithdays? because they lose/forget their passwords all the time. whether it is the password to open their physical lock or it is for their bitcoin wallet.

creating tutorials never change anything in this case.

[yayayo]

People forgetting passwords is certainly a problem. However I really doubt that any educational campaigns will be able to solve it. There already is a ton of information and tips on data security available, yet people are not paying much attention. Sadly, safekeeping of personal and financial data is a learning process that is triggered by bad experiences. In turn, some people will ask third parties for help, others will adjust their own behavior.

Regardless of user-related problems with the security of funds, I don't think that banks will be able to maintain their dominant position when Bitcoin becomes a major currency. Today's fiat fractional (or zero) reserve system is a legalized process. Quite ironically the same is not true when banks do the same with Bitcoin - it will be considered financial fraud. The simple reason is that Bitcoin is not subjected to state monetary policy. Money creation with Bitcoin happens outside the regime of central banks.

ya.ya.yo!

[Daniel91]

people have been losing their passwords for as long as passwords exist, and it is neither limited to bitcoin nor limited to internet.

why do you think most of the people use passwords like "123", "abcd", or their brithdays? because they lose/forget their passwords all the time. whether it is the password to open their physical lock or it is for their bitcoin wallet.

creating tutorials never change anything in this case.

I agree with you.
In fact, it's still obvious that old people prefer offline banking and finance and don't want to use Internet banking, online payments etc.
It's sad that even middle and younger age people don't understand fully benefits of Internet banking or online payments and also they are often not careful enough with their online passwords, online security etc.
It seems that we should teach people about Internet security already in the school.
I guess that some people are more careful about security and some less and it's probably depends on character of the person.

[poptok1]

Also you might not want to reveal how you store your private keys online ,so just edit that post.

I think he is safe, those tokens have secret order of alignment, doubt that its easy to guess.
Cleaver idea by the way. Good to know that some people know how to have a little fun in life, even with money.

And if more trendy leftist people join bitcoin, they usually have 0 responsibility, and...

You couldn't resist of throwing politics in to this subject, didn't you?  
Unfortunately this is true, people as a whole are generally stupid, uninformed and more users equals to more problems, obvious.
Warning idea seems good, but if someone is careless, greedy and unaware of his doings than I bet not even the best tutorials or big ass warnings will save him from loosing coins.    

[shinratensei_]

why do you think most of the people use passwords like "123", "abcd", or their brithdays? because they lose/forget their passwords all the time. whether it is the password to open their physical lock or it is for their bitcoin wallet.

I can't say a lot of people is using a password like "123","ABC', or their birthdays because they lose or forget the passwords all the time but, they just searching about the simple passwords and it's easy to remember.

[pereira4]

The only way is to make a tutorial implemented in the actual wallets, before you use the wallet, it would explain you how to do it an secure your stuff. You have for example Electrum doing a good job with this, it tells you to save the seed and stuff.

[RoommateAgreement]

The only way is to make a tutorial implemented in the actual wallets, before you use the wallet, it would explain you how to do it an secure your stuff. You have for example Electrum doing a good job with this, it tells you to save the seed and stuff.

all the wallets have some kind of warning that pops up and tells the user to backup and/or encrypt the wallet with a strong password.
besides i don't think making a tutorial or a pinned thread on the Beginners & Help section changes anything, because it is their money and those who are wise enough will think of making a backup and reading those warnings in the wallets themeselves.
and only those who are not so wise won't do that and when they have lost their money they will start searching about what happened and what they can do now!

[helloeverybody]

i have to admit that i am a naive careless idiot because ive lost my wallet before but if anything its been a great learning experience and im pretty sure i wont make that mistake again. Nowadays i like to use different wallets the like of mycellium which forces you to write down your seed before you can continue as you have to type in the seed after its shown. After my first loss of a wallet its improved my security 10 fold.

[RodeoX]

I think this is always worth mentioning. People seem to forget that there is no bitcoin incorporated or bank to help you do security. If you are doing it correctly, then you are the only one in charge of security.  It's sad to see posts asking for the bitcoin "master key" or to have their account "reset".

If you lose access to your private key then no one on Earth can help. Not the NSA, not Satoshi Nakamoto, nobody.

[raphma]

ATM and banks dont say us how to manage the account, how to store the card and/or how to store our money... like you already said:

They are either idiots or careless or just naive

So, doesnt matter what we try to do, these retards will always lose money.
And just to clarify, i do agree some services need more warnings and other helps, but a wallet doesnt seem the case.

[RealBitcoin]

Not only warning window which only show once, maybe also show the warning every days/weeks.

That would be an overkill, its enough to warn the user once, if he doesnt listen, then its a futile for that person.

Might be good idea, but as far as i know, most newbie that i see never see pinned thread.

Better than nothing.

I think bitcoin.org and wallet's website already tell newbies about it.
Maybe make the info bigger or put it at homescreen to get their attention.

Not very visible. I havent seen any reference to wallet security there.

So, doesnt matter what we try to do, these retards will always lose money.
And just to clarify, i do agree some services need more warnings and other helps, but a wallet doesnt seem the case.

Still its our task to make bitcoin userfriendly.  Otherwise they will leave and start mocking bitcoin, stupid people can never admit their faults they always blame something else.

But bitcoin should not be a target for trolls, so we must be professional and helpful to newcomers.

ATM and banks dont say us how to manage the account, how to store the card and/or how to store our money... like you already said:

Actually they do, i got a user manual when i opened a bank account for first time at a bank.

And ATM's have a help page in them where you can read how to use it.

[topiOleg]

If we don't make bitcoiners more responsible, then they will demand the existance of "bitcoin banks" that will store their bitcoins for them "safely".

If the newbies cannot be responsible, then they will hand over the control over their coins to middleman, centralized wallets, and we will accomplish nothing.

Actually centralized wallets are not  much safer for the newbies, without hardware walets like trezor or keepkey you cant make the use of Bitcoin safe for the masses. Current centralized wallets F2A is not good enought, and many Bitcoins are stealed from these services.

[RealBitcoin]

If we don't make bitcoiners more responsible, then they will demand the existance of "bitcoin banks" that will store their bitcoins for them "safely".

If the newbies cannot be responsible, then they will hand over the control over their coins to middleman, centralized wallets, and we will accomplish nothing.

Actually centralized wallets are not  much safer for the newbies, without hardware walets like trezor or keepkey you cant make the use of Bitcoin safe for the masses. Current centralized wallets F2A is not good enought, and many Bitcoins are stealed from these services.

I'm not worried about their security, that can eventually improve. I'm worried about fractional reserve system on exchanges.

Hardware wallets might be too expensive for newbies living in poor countries, especially those joining from africa or SE asia

[romero121]

These days wallets have provided increased security features, so to retain their wallet even when password were lost. Possibly every small portion lost got lost from wallets have added a big volume under the lost list, which have some impact on the circulation.

[Kprawn]

The fractional reserve practices will not be done with bitcoin, because banks loaned money recklessly and the whole fiat banking system was developed to create this type of problem. Bitcoin has no reserve and

they do not manipulate the supply, so there is no threat of that happening in Bitcoin, if people start using centralized service to access their coins. While you hold the only private key to your Bitcoin stash, you

are the sole owner of these coins. I agree with you on one thing... people should be educated on password safety and how important private keys are. 

[subham1]

I use block.io wallet i want to know is it safe to use.I use it because its pretty easy for me.
Can anyone tell me if this wallet is good or not...
if not then which wallet..

[CrazyCraig]

It has come to my attention, that people are starting to lose their passwords/wallets/access to bitcoin more and more often. They are either idiots or careless or just naive, but this really needs to stop.

When i was brand new to bitcoin, circa 2011-12, I had my bitcoins on a flash drive. Needless to say i put it through the washer. I was devastated. I came back though, and now make sure that i evenly distribute amongst a few separate wallets. These days though, I've been moving to fiat currency and I'm financing a new boat engine..

[Doamader]

Well when my computer burned it took with it 0,03btc it were a big ammount, im glad my main wallet is present at blockchain, thats online wallet, soo i trust those, i dont trust those we have to install, im afraid to open some bad page that give acess to my documents, and steall the words....
But sure this is a huge problem as people arent taken the right measures as i havent done the seed, soo coins lost forever.