Riddles and Brain-Teasers for Bitcointalk Members (Newbies – Members)

[nakamura12]

This is a good way to have some entertainment for having fun and also learn at the same time. Maybe some are very lazy to learn slowly just by asking someone right away without searching first before asking rather having fun plus it also help exercise our brain to store such knowledge about cryptocurrency.

[Pmalek]

Riddle #4

John loves computer technology and is always on the lookout for the newest trends. After buying a new graphics card at a local PC shop, he gets offered a 50% discount on a brand-new hardware wallet. John already owns a few coins, but they have been sitting on an exchange ever since he purchased them.

The store clerk explains that hardware wallets present a much safer method of storing cryptocurrencies. John is hesitant at first, but for $39.99, he decides that it’s a good deal. He has heard about hardware devices in the past and is pretty confident that he knows everything to operate them properly. The clerk gives him his business card and tells John he can call anytime he has any questions or runs into problems, and he will receive free support.

Back home, John unpacks his new hardware wallet and connects it to his computer. There is an instruction manual and a couple of cardboard pieces where you are supposed to write down some kind of backup words - what a waste of time. I’ll just save the words somewhere on my phone or computer; it’s not the 19th century anymore. The coins will be on the wallet after all.



He sets up his wallet and is given a long list of words he saves on his computer. He is also required to set up a PIN code. Finally, something that makes sense, John thinks. Not a bunch of useless words. Now that he has protected his wallet with a PIN code, he has everything that he needs to work with his digital coins. He logs in to his exchange account, barely remembering the password, and transfers all his funds to his new crypto wallet. It worked like a charm.   

John loves playing PC games, but after 2 years of continuous use, his computer has slowed down quite a bit. He reformats the OS to get his machine back to normal. He decides to check on his coins, but it’s like his wallet isn’t recognized anymore. It asks him to restore his accounts or create a new wallet. He dropped the device a few times in the past while searching for other things in his drawers.

It’s time to call Mike, the store clerk who sold him the device. He will ask him to reset his accounts, email him a new set of recovery words or something. After he makes the call, Mike tells him something he never expected to hear.


What did Mike tell him?
What happened with his device? Why is it not working even though he has his PIN code and all?
Can cryptocurrencies disappear from a hardware wallet? They were there after he sent them from his exchange, weren’t they?

[Minerall]

I think Mike caught a virus. The virus infected his computer with a Trojan, for example. The virus could send the data to enter the wallet to the person who wrote the virus. Mike saved the passphrase on his computer - this is a mistake. There was a piece of paper with the wallet, it was there that you had to enter the phrase to the wallet.
Also, if Mike saved his phrase on the C drive, which had the operating system, and formatted the drive, then he lost access to his wallet.
Never store your recovery phrase on your computer or smartphone. It is not secure if your computer or smartphone is connected to the internet or if someone else is using this device..
I've never used a hardware wallet, but I know the general rules for using it.
Everyone who deals with cryptocurrency should know and understand how to store access to the wallet.

[Pmalek]

<SNIP>

It's John, but the name isn't important. Mike is the guy who works in the tech store who sold him the device.

Let's focus on the recovery phrase. He saved it digitally on his computer. After formatting his OS, the phrase was lost. But Mike promised him free customer support. After he called the store, couldn't Mike just reset his accounts and send him another copy of his recovery seed?
John transferred the coins from an exchange to his hardware wallet. They are now stored on the wallet like pictures and videos on a USB, correct? If not, what is stored on the hardware wallet?   

[Pmalek]

Let's give riddle #4 another try before giving the green light for all ranks to answer. Newbies, Jr. Members, and Members can you solve the problem?
Another question for our 3 lowest forum ranks: Are the riddles and questions too difficult, or does it hurt when you strain your brain and you are not that into it?  

Current thread status: Open for all ranks

[Minerall]

I learned a little more about hardware wallets. The wallet only provides additional security. The device stores the data for accessing the wallet, and additionally asks, for example, to press a physical button to confirm the transaction. He doesn't store anything else! Even if John broke his wallet (broke, drowned, it doesn't really matter), he could ask Mike to send him the same wallet and help restore access to his money. And he would have succeeded if he had a seed phrase. Only if you have a seed phrase, you can restore access to your wallet and your money. For this, it was proposed to write down the seed phrase on a piece of paper, so that in the event of a breakdown or loss of a physical wallet, access could be restored.

[*1Bishop1*]

John need a phrase of 24 words in the correct sequence. If the phrase is lost, then everything is useless! Without phrase, access does not restore. He can transfer money at his wallet as much as you like, but access to it will not receive it without a phrase. And vice versa, if someone found out the phrase John, he can control his wallet. Wash the cold key keeps only private keys in yourself, or am I mistaken?

[Pmalek]

The device stores the data for accessing the wallet... He doesn't store anything else!

Tell me more precisely what kind of data the hardware wallet stores and what it doesn't store? 

And he would have succeeded if he had a seed phrase. Only if you have a seed phrase, you can restore access to your wallet and your money. For this, it was proposed to write down the seed phrase on a piece of paper, so that in the event of a breakdown or loss of a physical wallet, access could be restored.

That's good. So with the help of his recovery phrase, John can easily restore his accounts in the same or in a new hardware wallet. Can Mike the store clerk do it for him and find his seed?

Wash the cold key keeps only private keys in yourself, or am I mistaken?

Can you please explain this quoted part of your post?

[Minerall]

There are different hardware wallets. It can be a protected flash drive, then anything you want can be stored there. The point is that access to data is carried out only after entering a password. All data is encrypted. If the password is lost, then access to the data is also lost.
But there are also dedicated hardware wallets that have physical buttons. I think they store the wallet software. Probably nothing else can be written there. But I am not sure of my words, I have never had such a wallet.
Mike will not be able to recover the seed phrase for John, it is impossible. If Mike can still restore the seed phrase for Mike, it means that John is not an honest person and can take all his clients' money at any time.

[*1Bishop1*]

Can you please explain this quoted part of your post?

Oops! I wanted to write a cold hardware wallet. I thought there was only private keys stored? Well, yes, still firmware for performance.
There are still hot wallets, they work online, these blockchain are stored there, they occupy a lot of space and work slowly.

[Pmalek]

OK, riddle 4 can now be considered solved.

John made several mistakes. He did not take enough time to study how hardware wallets work and the importance of properly storing a recovery phrase. He stored the seed on his computer and after he reformatted his machine, the seed was gone. A seed phrase shouldn't be stored digitally. It should be written down on paper and stored in a safe and dry place.

Had John invested more time in reading about his hardware wallet, he would have learned that a properly generated recovery phrase can't be known by another person. Mike from the store doesn't have a copy of John's seed, and he has no way to restore or otherwise reset his wallet. Hardware wallets are physical devices that store private keys. They don't store coins because coins only exist as inputs and outputs on the blockchain. Therefore, there were never any coins on John's device. If a hardware wallet malfunctions, the only way to regain access to the coins is by restoring your account via the recovery phrase. Sine John lost his, he ultimately lost his coins the moment his hardware wallet stopped working. 

[Pmalek]

Riddle #5

Marcus has never owned bitcoin in his life. He holds some stablecoins and finally mustered up the courage to treat himself to a few bitcoins that he plans to store long-term. Marcus doesn’t know much but knows that Binance is one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges globally. He visits the official site, creates a brand-new account, and logs in.

It all seems a bit overwhelming to him, so he decides to speak with someone from customer support to obtain some basic advice for beginners. He notices that Binance’s Telegram group has almost 200.000 members and decides to talk with someone there.

He writes a quick introductory post and asks if a support agent can help him navigate the platform to exchange his USDT for bitcoin. After a few minutes, he receives a PM from Binance Official Support. The agent asks him if this is the first time he uses Binance, to which he answered affirmatively.

Lisa, the support staff, informs Marcus that new accounts need to be activated before they can be used for trading crypto. She tells him that the activation fee is 0.0003 BTC or $20. His account will automatically obtain the status ‘activated’ as soon as the deposit is confirmed. The funds he deposited will be added to his trading account and used to purchase coins or withdraw. Lisa gives him a deposit address where he needs to send the $20 for account activation.

Marcus thinks that it’s a reasonable request and sends the requested money. He informs Lisa that he has sent the funds. She tells him that she will check and contact him when she is done. After not hearing back from Lisa for an hour, he decides to send her another message to ask about the status of his account. He still doesn’t see an ‘activated’ tag anywhere on his profile. But it’s as Lisa disappeared from the face of the earth. He can no longer find her on Telegram, and their conversation is missing as well. He never received a reply from Lisa.


What happened, and where did Lisa go?
How did the Telegram conversation between Marcus and Lisa disappear?
Will his account still be activated eventually, and when will his funds be deposited to his Binance account?

[Marvelman]

Oh, cool! Another riddle.  

I sensed a scam already in the third paragraph. I believe I know the answer, but I'll let the other members take a shot first.

[Pmalek]

I believe I know the answer, but I'll let the other members take a shot first.

Feel free to take a shot at it. No one seems interested or knows the answer. I guess newbies are better at complaining how unfair Bitcointalk is and that they can't get any merits. But when there is an opportunity to take part in a discussion and provide the answers to a few questions, they are nowhere to be found.

[Zilon]

Tom was too much in a haste to purchase his first coin. I guess he didn't download the right electrum wallet. The exchange where he bought the bit coin from was right but the electrum wallet was from a fake site owned by scammers.

If he had little or no knowledge about the coin he should have asked questions. You only get electrum wallet from spectrum.org

[Pmalek]

@Zilon
Are you talking about Tom from riddle #1? We are currently on riddle #5. Take a look at that one and reply if you think you know the answer.

Please don't refer to bitcoin as "bit coin". You did it a few days ago in a Meta post where you talked about "bit coin talk" users being "barned".
No, you don't get Electrum wallets from spectrum.org. The official website is electrum.org.

[Zilon]

Riddle #2

The year is 2018. Anna works in the most prominent law office in town, and she just received her yearly bonus of $2.000 from her boss. During the lunch break, some of her colleagues talk about investing their bonuses in Bitcoin. She remembers watching news reports about Bitcoin and crypto on several occasions throughout the last couple of months. She decides to give it a try.

She has no experience with cryptocurrencies and thinks, how hard can it be? She powers on her computer and visits the only crypto website she has ever heard of, Bitcoin.com. Between the options Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Core, she clicks on the Cash version. She wants to buy digital coins, so that’s cash. What is she going to do with Core anyway, and is that even a thing?


Image source: A thread on Bitcointalk that I won't link to, to not give away the answer.

She purchases the coins with her credit card. She withdraws them to a legacy address on her non-custodial bitcoin wallet. After a few days, she opens up her wallet to check the value of her coins. But the wallet is empty.

-   She sent the coins to the correct bitcoin address.
-   She used a genuine wallet.
-   The wallet has synced with the blockchain, and there are no other problems with it.


Why is her wallet empty? What did she do wrong, and how can she correct the situation?

She didn't purchase bitcoin rather she purchased bitcoin cash. she transfered the bch to the wrong address so the coin  hanged. She made the mistake of sending Bch to a btc wallet address

[GeorgeJohn]

I have seen that this question is basically meant for newbies who are new forum user depending on the rank according to op, I will like to know when the question will be open generally, from my understanding any user who is beyond junior member position and member position is not entitle for any reward based on my view, when can full member, senior member, hero member and legendary member I notice the proper time to render suggestions???

[Alisha-k]

What did Mike tell him?
What happened with his device? Why is it not working even though he has his PIN code and all?
Can cryptocurrencies disappear from a hardware wallet? They were there after he sent them from his exchange, weren’t they?

She asked mike if he wrote down the private key given to him while he was creating his hardware wallet account

While his pin could not work even though he had his pin is because he misplaced his private key

Crypto can't loss from hardware wallet he only mosplaced his assess to the wallet

Yes there Crypto was there

[Pmalek]

I will like to know when the question will be open generally, from my understanding any user who is beyond junior member position and member position is not entitle for any reward based on my view, when can full member, senior member, hero member and legendary member I notice the proper time to render suggestions???

Yes, this was intended for users of Newbie, Jr. Member, and Member ranks. If no one from these groups provides the proper answers, I open the thread for all other ranks after a few days. There isn't a set timeframe and the lower ranks found the answers to all the previous riddles. In just one case I had to open the thread for everyone, but even then, the answer was provided by a member of the targeted rank.