How I Lost $1500 Worth of BitCoins

[cly]

Yeah... I have over 100K in a wallet that I cant get into.  I can get into the wallet I transfered them OUT of and I see the 4 transactions where they were sent to the receiving wallet....

but I cant remember the new wallets password.  When this all occurred, BTC was worth pennies.... there are 760 BTC in that damn wallet.

That's terrible....I really feel for you! Hope somehow you are able to remember it.

There seems to be many BTC that are being lost forever and this is only within it's first few years of existence. By 2140 when the last BTC is mined, I can foresee a massive quantity having disappeared forever.

If only 22 million Bitcoins can ever be in existence and Bitcoins can be lost forever what are the effects to the system when large amounts of Bitcoins are lost?

Simply by changing the Algorythm to create some.

Destroying BTC is easy and will compensate the decrease of economy if there is some.

If economy grows, there will be more bitcoins needed to have a stable currency.

Just 51% of miner-power is needed to make a change in the system, like generating more bitcoins.

And miners are the ones who have most interest to keep the system up and working to not leave their bitcoins worthless

[nathangonmad]

Hey guys,

I am running Bitcoin-qt on Windows 7.

About a week ago I purchased around $1500 worth of Bitcoin and withdrew it into my freshly downloaded Bitcoin client.   I decide to protect it with a passphrase, so I open up KeePass, a password database I use often and generate a secure password and encrypt my wallet with it.   5 Minutes later, I decided to change the passphrase with a more secure passphrase (not sure why), so I generate a 128 bit secure password, change the passphrase on my wallet file, and overwrite the passphrase saved in KeePass earlier.  I save the KeePass database and to be extra safe, I back up the database to an external drive, as well as my wallet file.

Fast forward to yesterday. I had to restart my computer for some reason.  Prior to this everything was working fine, and my passphrase from KeePass worked.  Today is the first time I try sending coins since restarting my computer, I go to enter the passphrase saved in my KeePass database, and boom, it tells me I'm using an incorrect passphrase.  You can imagine the feeling in the pit of my stomach.    I tried restoring the backups and nothing works.  I see no reason this should have happened since I saved the passphrase inside KeePass.   I could see if I had forgot to save the new passphrase in KeePass but I honestly believe I saved it.

So, I guess I lost $1500 worth of Bitcoin.  I only have one passphrase inside KeePass and it seems like I lost the one I overwrote it with.   I tried all my backups and nothing works.   Worst feeling ever.   If anyone can successfully provide advice on how to get them back I will give them some BTC.   My skype is media504

This is why you should always keep a hard written down copy of very important stuff like that in a safe place, you never know when technology will fail you.

[richie88]

I haven't encrypted my cold wallet for this reason. I personally feel the chance of someone stealing my wallet.dat (physically as it is never online) and them then finding the bitcoin and transferring them before i realized it was missing are more remote than me losing my encryption password/something happening to me where it is unavailable over the long term.

[Neverest]

Sorry to hear the bad luck stories.

As far as I know with Lastpass you can still see the last few passwords generated, as there seems to be a dropdown list (in the Chrome version, not FF). Did you check if your PW keeper has more/different options in a different browser?

[NY11giants]

 

I f'ing got it.  I F'ING GOT IT.  Now, I just want to cash out and run for the hills.....

[Trommie]

I f'ing got it.  I F'ING GOT IT.  Now, I just want to cash out and run for the hills.....

All 760 BTC!! Nice one! Must be like you've won the lottery. i guess drinks are on you

[Neverest]

I f'ing got it.  I F'ING GOT IT.  Now, I just want to cash out and run for the hills.....

Good for you, congrats. How did you do it? Feel free to tip if my advice above helped you

[dekay2323]

Hey guys,

I am running Bitcoin-qt on Windows 7.

About a week ago I purchased around $1500 worth of Bitcoin and withdrew it into my freshly downloaded Bitcoin client.   I decide to protect it with a passphrase, so I open up KeePass, a password database I use often and generate a secure password and encrypt my wallet with it.   5 Minutes later, I decided to change the passphrase with a more secure passphrase (not sure why), so I generate a 128 bit secure password, change the passphrase on my wallet file, and overwrite the passphrase saved in KeePass earlier.  I save the KeePass database and to be extra safe, I back up the database to an external drive, as well as my wallet file.

Fast forward to yesterday. I had to restart my computer for some reason.  Prior to this everything was working fine, and my passphrase from KeePass worked.  Today is the first time I try sending coins since restarting my computer, I go to enter the passphrase saved in my KeePass database, and boom, it tells me I'm using an incorrect passphrase.  You can imagine the feeling in the pit of my stomach.    I tried restoring the backups and nothing works.  I see no reason this should have happened since I saved the passphrase inside KeePass.   I could see if I had forgot to save the new passphrase in KeePass but I honestly believe I saved it.

So, I guess I lost $1500 worth of Bitcoin.  I only have one passphrase inside KeePass and it seems like I lost the one I overwrote it with.   I tried all my backups and nothing works.   Worst feeling ever.   If anyone can successfully provide advice on how to get them back I will give them some BTC.   My skype is media504

I had the exact same thing happen, specifically with keypass. Luckily I had no money in the wallet and was just trying to change the password. I now do the password change with the same password religiously. I am also considering moving to a non encrypted Wallet.dat file that I keep on a few USB pens, or a paper wallet.

I can suggest a few things, you might have used the wrong key combination and used your USERNAME from keypass. Also just try the passwords in keypass that you use a lot, you might have used one of those. It is worth trying.

[rothschild_666]

I f'ing got it.  I F'ING GOT IT.  Now, I just want to cash out and run for the hills.....

Hashcat?

[SystemDisc]

I f'ing got it.  I F'ING GOT IT.  Now, I just want to cash out and run for the hills.....

Good for you, congrats. How did you do it? Feel free to tip if my advice above helped you

I, too, would like to know how you managed it. It would be good to know some things to try in case this ever happens to me or others.

[Aahzman]

Sorry to come onto the end of your post but I am desperate, and I am in a similar predicament as you and hoping someone is able to HELP me please.

I have my own PC, its tweak the way I like it, very v fast and I have warned my Bro off it so many times. Bitcoins I've been following more or less from the start, lack of cash has prevented my making any serious cash but I understand its not just about that.

Well after using an online Wallet that's just announced its pulling the site as its been compromised, thankfully I just used the site this once and for a short stay with my Btc's which I sent to my Tablets Wallet, never really been that keen on the Tablets Wallet, and have been looking ages for 1 that I like, and at last I found what I classed as my perfect Wallet in Electrum.

I downloaded it, installed, and in meantime went and got myself a beer, came back to it up and running, Wow I thought, I like this. So I played around for a couple o minutes to familiarize myself with it, and Yes I thought, this is the 1 I'll use, so I scan the Wallets Addy with tablet and send them to Electrum Wallet without thinking, and Duh, the bombshell dropped as soon as I sent: I didn't recall getting the option to create a password or select a server on installing it etc.

And then it dawned on me, why did I not get this freaking option... and after 20 mins or so trying to guess its password etc. I stroll into my Bro's room asking him if he's used my PC lately, "not for a few months he added" So after a couple of slaps I got him to admit that he'd used my PC when sourcing a Wallet for himself. Turns out he'd already tried Electrum but had uninstalled; So when I came to install it, not realizing its for the 2nd time, obviously its defaulted to 1st install for passwords and seeds etc and now my bugger of a Bro cannot remember ANY of the info he entered, so I'm stuck with a nice Electrum software that is goner be my Wallet, showing just over 5 Bitcoins in and cannot retrieve them in anyway as I don't know the password.

Please if anyone can help and show me a way I can get around this. I'm so broke atm and selling these coins would make a big difference as you can imagine (I'm was hoping to put the cash towards our mums medical bills). I've thumped my Bro enough and I do also take a little responsibility for it, I should have been more alert when installing it

many many thanks in advance
regards Oinky

I recommend further brother beatings, followed by slow torture. Sooner or later, you will unlock that corner of his memory where that password is stored. Or he'll break and devolve into insanity and you'll have to have him institutionalized.

[Kitemike]

I only have one passphrase inside KeePass and it seems like I lost the one I overwrote it with. 

This is why when I wrote my own program equivalent to KeePass, it automatically saves previously used passwords when I generate new ones.  I've had websites restore backups and forget my new password.  Remembering old passwords comes in handy.

[idividebyzero]

Things like this scare me way more than hackers, I never use passwords I cant remember since the chances of losing them are so much greater than your account ever being stolen. Such a big risk when using huge passwords, a copy/paste could be wrong, a typo, you could do everything right and it still gets messed up.

[NY11giants]

I just kept trying... and trying.  Whats really scary is that i had been in "password->enter->deny" mode that when the wallet opened up, I wasnt sure what I had just typed.  I immediately began moving them to other accounts I know like the back of my hand.  Whatever, its all good now.

Whats ironic is that I was elated to find them again (there were 719 in actuality) then, the crash.  funny.  BUT, Im not complaining, so happy.

BTW, being a newbie, I think i am restricted from other boards, but I wanted to say that during the massive decline, I sold many of them to fastcash4bitcoins and was worried that because I sold well above what the price eventually fell to, I would worse case get stiffed (highly UNlikely) or just have them sent back to me.

Im please to say that all payments were indeed processed today and are enroute.  Couldnt be more happy with those guys, and in both good or bad times, they will always get my business.

Cheers!

[nobbynobbynoob]

For BTC719 I'd be pretty stoked/relieved too!

Now no panic selling please.

[NY11giants]

I sold about 10K worth through various channels.  But with what I had in accounts I already knew about, I am still at ~705 or so.  Honestly, because I am not KYC/AML certified at any exchange, I was afraid to sell and trigger account freezes, or to be honest, I would have sold a lot more.

So in that sense, Im relieved I couldnt, or I may have.  At one point, I just want to sell the 800 or so for 100K cash and call it day.  Glad I didnt.
Im now going to try and re-buy... Ive never actually "bought" a coin.. but now, I think I am in the game.

[Blindfolded]

I felt sick reading this. I'm so sorry

[BitCloud]

I never use passwords

At least use a very simple to remember dummy password, doing that for year for unimportant sites etc friends/wife know the passwd

Might save you from malware copying wallet.dat and actually using it

[simplydt]

I felt sick reading this. I'm so sorry

I think you missed the post right above you.

[solf]

Sorry for lost bitcoins.