The trouble! I need some help / Advice!!!

[ginlane]

Hi there,   
I need some serious advice and would be pleased if someone could explain what the hell has happened!
So I’ve had a very small amount of Bitcoin for a few years now stored in Blockchain account, where it has stayed and has been ignored by me.     https://login.blockchain.com/en/#/login
Of late however, what with coronavirus,   I got to thinking about selling some of my Bitcoin.
So on Thursday I logged into the Blockchain account,  and I discovered that I could sell my Bitcoin on Blockchains exchange website.    https://exchange.blockchain.com/trade/BTC-USD   
So I registered on the site, and upgraded to Gold status,  and then the next evening, transferred 1Bitcoin to the exchange website.     (All good so far I thought!)
Yesterday evening I attempted to log back onto the exchange site,   for some reason I’m not allowed,   and it looks like my account does not exist any more!   I contact the support and they were exceedingly cagey and would not give me any information at all,    except to say that there has been a breach in the terms and conditions.   They tell me there is some Bitcoin on the exchange of mine,   but they will not tell me how much.     They say they will transfer this amount of Bitcoin back to me,   but refused to give any information about what the hell has gone on!
I have made a meticulous log of every action that I took from Thursday,  including all emails,  live-chats et cetera.   
What is particularly frustrating for me is,    if I have done something,   (heaven knows what!)   They absolutely won’t tell me anything.    This is really shaken my faith in these platforms and makes me a bit distrustful of Bitcoin as a whole.     I need to know what has happened,   and if a mistake has been made.  (Maybe by me)     I think that knowing what I did is useful so I don’t make the same mistake again!!     
I’m beginning to wonder if this company   “Blockchain”    and their exchange website,   are legitimate,    or if I’m getting scammed in some way,    will I receive my 1 Bitcoin back in its entirety?    The thing is,   they won’t even tell me how much of my Bitcoin, they are holding.   I consider this to be truly bizarre behaviour from a supposedly legitimate organisation!
Please can some people get back to me and tell me what I did wrong.   Did I divulge too much information?
I look forward to hearing back from you
kind regards ginlane.

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[20kevin20]

I agree with you: if what you just said is 100% true, then the information they gave you is too vague. If the T&C were breached, they should've notified you and I'm sure that doesn't let them grant ownership to your funds.

I've personally had a shit experience with Blockchain too, although I have transferred dozens of BTC through their wallets. This is a very shitty time to have legal problems with a company.. If they are giving you 0 information about the exact terms you have breached, then I really cannot find something wrong you've done according solely on the post above.

Have you used VPN? Or was there anything else you remember you have done on their website? Maybe they flagged your account, but that still makes no sense. Nobody should have ownership of your money. Have a problem with me? Let the cops seize my money. What they're doing is legally illegal...

[ginlane]

Have you used VPN?

Hi 20kevin20

No I did not use a VPN.      I don't think I did anything particularly out of the ordinary.   To be honest I didn't really know what I was doing.
I don't have much knowledge with regards to Bitcoin or these platforms and how they work!    I did ask the live chat facility lots of questions!

However, I do have a question that I would appreciate if you could answer for me!     What information is safe to give out,  and what information is not safe?

For instance,  regarding the Blockchain wallet,   is it safe or usual for other people to know or to see your login "identifier"

And also what about the Bitcoin address for the wallet,  is it okay for the people to know or to see your Bitcoin address?

Also on the exchange website,  is it okay for someone to know or to see the address of your exchange account?

Kind regards    Ginlane

[20kevin20]

As long as it's a Bitcoin address, you will be fine. Nobody should ask for your wallet identifier or any kind of password because that's how they get access to your wallet where all your coins are stored.

One thing you should never give no matter what is any of your private keys. Giving that to someone means granting them access to your funds.

Did someone ask you for the wallet identifier or exchange wallet?

[Theb]

If they have given you an offer to receive your Bitcoins back then I would really grab it before they change their mind, now if you don't received the whole 1 BTC you have deposited to them that is when I'll do some follow ups with their support since even if there is a breach of contract it doesn't mean that they get to keep the Bitcoin you have deposited. Simply the law on obligations and contracts doesn't work that way not unless the breach of contract was lead to the second party losing something.

Hi 20kevin20

No I did not use a VPN.      I don't think I did anything particularly out of the ordinary.   To be honest I didn't really know what I was doing.
I don't have much knowledge with regards to Bitcoin or these platforms and how they work!    I did ask the live chat facility lots of questions!

If they aren't answering what specific terms and conditions you may have violated I would suggest that you start reading their terms and conditions' pageand see if you have violated something because just by skimming their T&C there is a lot of terms where I honestly can violate unknowingly.

[Pmalek]

If and when they return your Bitcoin, make sure you withdraw everything from there and move it to Electrum, a hardware wallet, or a proper exchange if you want to exchange it to fiat.

Since you are obviously new to this, scammers might try to PM you pretending to be support members of some sort. DO NOT GIVE OUT ANY OF YOUR INFO to anyone over PM.

And don't give up on Bitcoin. The technology isn't to blame, the operators of centralized services are. Stay calm and good luck!

[BitMaxz]

The blockchain exchange is pretty new and there are many people complaining about their wallets before(Stolen bitcoins or Hacked accounts). That's why I didn't trust them and stop using them.


What I think is your country might be restricted or prohibited according to these terms below

9.2 Availability of Service
Blockchain.com Exchange may not be available in all markets and jurisdictions. We may restrict or prohibit use of Blockchain.com Exchange in certain jurisdictions (Restricted Locations), and change such restrictions or prohibitions at any time.

Can you check your country here https://exchange.blockchain.com/availability
If your country is allowed to deposit and withdraw.

[ginlane]

Nobody should ask for your wallet identifier or any kind of password because that's how they get access to your wallet where all your coins are stored.

One thing you should never give no matter what is any of your private keys. Giving that to someone means granting them access to your funds.

Did someone ask you for the wallet identifier or exchange wallet?

At 1 point I did send a screenshot attachment via the live chat facility on the exchange website and on this  screenshot it showed my Blockchain wallet identifier
as well as my Blockchain Bitcoin Address.           And it also showed my exchange Bitcoin address,     However I didn't send or show any passwords of any sort!

Kind Regards    ginlane

 

[ginlane]

If and when they return your Bitcoin, make sure you withdraw everything from there and move it to Electrum, a hardware wallet, or a proper exchange if you want to exchange it to fiat.

Since you are obviously new to this, scammers might try to PM you pretending to be support members of some sort. DO NOT GIVE OUT ANY OF YOUR INFO to anyone over PM.

And don't give up on Bitcoin. The technology isn't to blame, the operators of centralized services are. Stay calm and good luck!

Hi Pmalek,

Thank you for your advice,       I will need to do Bitcoin transactions,  so can you recommend a "Proper legitimate Bitcoin exchange"   1 that is trustworthy and or well known?

Kind Regards    Ginlane

[20kevin20]

I would recommend you to make sure you don't give away that identifier again. If you have a good password for your wallet, you should be fine though.

Another personal suggestion is for you to move away from the Blockchain wallet to an open-source trustless wallet like Electrum. If Blockchain ever closes (or if the Internet would somehow shut down), you may never have access to your wallets again. "Not your keys, not your BTC"! And Blockchain never lets you get the private keys.

Even if they would, there's a possibility they own your private key which means, again, that you are not the only one having access to your funds.

Regarding your request to share a well known exchange, I will give you one but, again, using a non-peer2peer exchange comes with risks. Hence, knowing there have been exchanges going through exit scams and hacks, you never know when the exchange you are using may be a victim of one too.

Here's what I personally recommend:

• Use peer to peer, decentralized exchanges as much as you can. Some I have used a lot are BisQ and Atomic DEX (this is only available on your mobile) to prevent the risks centralized exchanges come with.
• If you're willing to use a centralized exchange, I have personally not used any in years but Binance is well known and pretty trusted by our community. However, try to keep your money off the exchange if you don't plan to do trades. This lowers the risk of fund losses.
• If you are against KYC, then make sure the exchanges and/or services you are going to use do not have KYC policies. If they do and you are against this policy, you may become the next victim of the coins legally stolen by exchanges abusing the KYC policy. I really don't want to scare you or anything, I just want to prevent you from going through the negative experiences I have gone through in my last 7 years.
• If you plan to make transactions often and are moving/holding larger funds, I recommend you to buy a Ledger or a Trezor. They're like a vault for your coins and they will make you feel way safer.

[BitMaxz]

Thank you for your advice,       I will need to do Bitcoin transactions,  so can you recommend a "Proper legitimate Bitcoin exchange"   1 that is trustworthy and or well known?

Kind Regards    Ginlane

You can try Binance they allowed to exchange your Coins to fiat and withdraw through the bank.
You can also check https://pro.coinbase.com/

Both of them require KYC but you can trade on Binance without KYC.

If you are looking for an exchange that doesn't need verification you can check hotbit.io it's completely no KYC verification.

You can find more exchanges from here https://www.coingecko.com/en/exchanges

Just choose any exchange on the top 20.

If Blockchain ever closes (or if the Internet would somehow shut down), you may never have access to your wallets again. "Not your keys, not your BTC"! And Blockchain never lets you get the private keys.

Even if they would, there's a possibility they own your private key which means, again, that you are not the only one having access to your funds.

Actually you can get your private keys from blockchain if you know how to extract them from the backup seed phrase.
And I agree online wallet is not always safe. So better to use Non-custodial wallets like Electrum but if he is looking for a high secured wallet.
Offline or hardware wallets are safer than any other wallet.

[ginlane]

I have been told that a A non-custodial Blockchain Wallet is better from a control point of view.

What do you think?

Kind Regards   Ginlane

[BitMaxz]

I have been told that a A non-custodial Blockchain Wallet is better from a control point of view.

What do you think?

Yeah, but making a wallet online is risky compared to other non-custodial wallets. I'll be safer to use Electrum than Blockchain because you have full control of your wallet and it is easy to use.

Keep in mind that Blockchain wallet is always online and have high-risk of vulnerability attacks(Bruteforce, Keylogger, Phishing, etc...).

That's why we recommend you to use a wallet like Electrum or other non-custodial wallets like Wasabi or Mycelium for mobile. For high secured wallet Ledger Nano or TRezor are the best options.

Read this below and decide if you still want to use the blockchain wallet.
- Blockchain.com scam - lost funds
- SCAM - Blockchain Wallet. Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum
- MY BLOCKCHAIN WALLET WAS HACKED JUST NOW $820,000 STOLEN!! HELP!!!

And many people experienced the same issues

[pooya87]

this is a problem that happens to almost everyone who mixes bitcoin (decentralized) with exchanges (centralized). however if your bitcoins are in your blockchain.com wallet and if you had made a backup from the recovery phrase when you created that wallet then you should be able to easily recover all your keys without needing to log into your account there.
it works because that recovery phrase is a BIP39 mnemonic that is supported by other wallets such as Electrum. you can also use a tool such as this (https://iancoleman.io/bip39/) (offline) to get the keys if the default path didn't work in Electrum.

[ginlane]

Hi  I have a question though.

Are non-custodial wallets slower to get things done than online wallets?

For instance,  if you want to make transactions?

I might imagine that they could be slower?   

And if so,     ......slower by how much?

Kind Regards     Ginlane

[Lucius]

Are non-custodial wallets slower to get things done than online wallets?

Exactly the opposite, in non-custodial wallets you have complete control over everything which includes private keys, coin control, transaction fees and some other things - in other words you are your own bank. This is actually the point of the whole story, because you found yourself in a situation that showed you that you had entrusted someone else with your funds and now have lost access to the same funds.

It is very important to emphasize that non-custodial wallets carry a very high level of personal responsibility, which means that you have to be well versed in how they work and pay very close attention to the safety of your devices (PC/smartphones).

[ginlane]

Hi there everyone just an update,

Blockchain exchange eventually got back to me,    they said that they would refund my Bitcoin within 10 days

No explanation why it should take 10 days, which I think is a form of sharp practice, ....but at this point I'd just be happy to have it returned!

I'd like to thank everyone who gave me advice on this thread,    the main takeaway from this fiasco is, keep away from Blockchain exchange!

Best regards   Gin

[Pmalek]

the main takeaway from this fiasco is, keep away from Blockchain exchange!

Keep away from web wallets in general and most of the software wallets, especially the closed-source ones. Don't keep you funds on exchanges either, they are a medium for exchange and not storage. Stick with Electrum as a software wallet and keep your seed off your hard drive or any online service. Write it down with a pen and paper and hide it.

Seriously consider investing in a hardware wallet if you are planning to hold Bitcoin again sometimes in the future. I'd recommend Ledger.

[bob123]

Are non-custodial wallets slower to get things done than online wallets?

For instance,  if you want to make transactions?

I might imagine that they could be slower?   

And if so,     ......slower by how much?

The "speed" of your transaction is not determined by the type of wallet you are using.
Generating, signing and broadcasting a transaction takes (roughly) the same time on every wallet. And that's all a wallet can influence.
The time it takes for your transaction to be confirmed can always vary and depends on the current amount of transaction waiting to be confirmed, your transaction fee and a bit of luck when the next block is going to be mined. Regardless of the wallet you are using.

As Lucius has pointed out, being your own bank is the whole point of bitcoin. To not rely on any 3rd party.

[pooya87]

Are non-custodial wallets slower to get things done than online wallets?

Exactly the opposite, in non-custodial wallets you have complete control over everything which includes private keys, coin control, transaction fees and some other things - in other words you are your own bank. This is actually the point of the whole story, because you found yourself in a situation that showed you that you had entrusted someone else with your funds and now have lost access to the same funds.

It is very important to emphasize that non-custodial wallets carry a very high level of personal responsibility, which means that you have to be well versed in how they work and pay very close attention to the safety of your devices (PC/smartphones).

there is an exception to this which is when money is being transferred between two custodial wallets (between accounts). because in this case you aren't actually sending bitcoin but instead send IOUs in the custodial's wallet's centralized database it  doesn't take any time. but it might also be subjected to charge backs similar to PayPal.
and obviously using custodial wallets is unsafe because they control they keys.