South African Man Loses $900,000 Worth Of BTC After Accidentally Deleting Keys

[Sithara007]

It is better to store BTC in an online wallet, such as COINBASE .

And you will be royally screwed when they ask for KYC, in order to access your coins. Already the governments have mandated KYC for all the mainstream exchanges. The online wallets are going to be next. Imagine getting locked our of your coins, just because you don't want to undergo the KYC process. And in case you do the KYC, then it is goin to open a can of worms. The IRS will send you a notice and ask you to explain all the tens of thousands of transactions that are recorded in your wallet. All the best with that!

[1714666815]

1714666815

[lenovop-70]

How can he do someting sloppy like that ? Dont he know that blockchain doesnt store our key 
The important lesson for me is to keep our keys in the safe place, i usually write it in the notepad and keep it as .rar files and set password for it, for the viruses attack case, i also copy that in other hardware that didnt connect each other.
And last, i write it manually in the paper and store it in my safebox.

Maybe my way to store it too traditionally for this advanced technology, but i believe it is the safes way to keep it.

[777Jolami]

I don't understand what he is thinking, why not backup his private key and put it in other places.  If he is afraid of being hacked, at least 1-2 copies of the key should be backed up, which should be kept in a secret place.  This is a lesson for him and a bell for those who are sloppy.
It's no different than being irresponsible towards one's own property though

[junmisakiro]

It's a shame if we have to lose such a large amount just like that, even though this is purely his own fault because of his negligence and carelessness when dealing with his wallet, so news like this will certainly be a lesson for us to always keep our wallets as safe as possible and always back up private keys, when we made the wallet.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I believe there should find solution to this and look for a way to recover your private key even if anything happens to it.

There is a way. It's called backing up your wallet file or seed phrase. If you don't create proper back ups, then that's a problem with you, not bitcoin.

But the issue mentioned with how do you know that they don't just get the private key and then tell you that they couldn't resolve your problem?

If you know the address, then you can watch the coins to see if they are moved. If they are, you know the recovery company stole your keys. Good luck proving that to a judge though with zero other evidence.

i usually write it in the notepad and keep it as .rar files and set password for it

Don't do that. You already say you write it down on paper. Just do that. Storing seed phrases on any device with an internet connection is a huge risk. If your computer is corrupted, lost, stolen, damaged, whatever, and you cannot access your wallet file, then your electronically backed up seed phrase will be lost anyway.

[buwaytress]

Can't trust the veracity of news like this anymore, especially coming out of a non-mainstream news outlet in S Africa. And no, this isn't just a "it's Africa/Asia so it's fake" but I've followed up a few stories like these before and they always end up not going through the proper journalistic rigour needed.

Anyway, damn. If you have that much money (and that's a hell lot more purchasing power in S Africa) you only have 1 copy and it's digital? Damn.

[Jating]

Can't trust the veracity of news like this anymore, especially coming out of a non-mainstream news outlet in S Africa. And no, this isn't just a "it's Africa/Asia so it's fake" but I've followed up a few stories like these before and they always end up not going through the proper journalistic rigour needed.

I agree, the news said that he has started mining bitcoin when he was 14 years old, so that raise some questions, and in all places, it was in South Africa.

Anyway, damn. If you have that much money (and that's a hell lot more purchasing power in S Africa) you only have 1 copy and it's digital? Damn.

In any case, add these amount this to "lost" BTC already.

Maybe when we hit $100k, we may hear another news similar to this but in different location. 

[Vishnu.Reang]

No sympathies for the individual. If you can't keep the keys securely, then you should not be investing in cryptocurrency in the first place. And for such people, nowadays there is an option of making their investment through third parties such as PayPal. So if you believe that backing up your wallet and enabling 2FA is too difficult, then you can just purchase and store your coins through a PayPal account. There is no room for complacency in the field of cryptocurrency. Your actions are permanent and irreversible. Always keep that in mind.

[buwaytress]

I agree, the news said that he has started mining bitcoin when he was 14 years old, so that raise some questions, and in all places, it was in South Africa.

Yeah, and it's not just in crypto too. Just a lot of crazy news coming out of there that's hard to verify, and harder to believe in the first place. Not saying it's not possible to have been mining when he's 14, but you figure people would have heard about it. Young tongues wag hard, and that's not an insult. I've been 14 before too and everyone knew what I was doing at that age, ha!

[mich]

I empathize with the South African man who lost the keys to his bitcoin wallet.
I feel it must be hard to be an early adopter of a new technology and put his work in as a miner but was not able to reap the financial rewards of his efforts.
However, I think he has a good attitude and I appreciate that he is not looking back with regret but instead looking forward with optimism.
Sometimes life puts challenging obstacles in our way that way can not control, how we deal with these challenges speaks volumes for our character.

[dreamer81]

It is better to store BTC in an online wallet, such as COINBASE .

Both have risks. Online wallets can get hacked. Though, coinbase is probably among the most secure places.

[Kakmakr]

It is better to store BTC in an online wallet, such as COINBASE .

You sure? Even though "Exchange" hacks are not that common anymore.... it does happen. Also, Coinbase is basically a Bank and they have the most stupid rules and regulations..... so if you break one of their rules... your account get "locked" and you have to battle them for months to get your own money back.

I have heard some horror stories of people gambling with their crypto and getting their accounts blocked... or underage kids accounts getting locked.... etc. etc...

Many of these "A guy lost 500 coins" stories are fake ....because the shills make up these stories to discourage people to buy Crypto currencies. 

[Sithara007]

It is better to store BTC in an online wallet, such as COINBASE .

Both have risks. Online wallets can get hacked. Though, coinbase is probably among the most secure places.

If you know how to keep your coins secure, then they won't get hacked or stolen. You can keep your cryptocurrency in any online wallet (but make sure that they allow you to access the private keys). Enable email authentication and 2FA (preferably with Google Authenticator) and your coins will be safe from any hacker. Only in very rare instances (such as an attack using SIM swap, or theft of your mobile phone), you need to worry. But always remember to keep multiple backups of your wallet. Losing access to coins is manytimes more common than coins getting stolen.

[MIldic1c]

This is the most common and easy mistake to make. It is this kind of easy mistake that often causes people to lose a lot of wealth. Therefore, everything we do must plan for the present and the future. It is good to be cautious in all aspects. I have heard of this situation countless times. You can't experience this feeling without it happening to yourself. It should be disappointed, frustrated, and difficult to calm down.

[Poker Player]

Well, this is one of the major risks associated with using bitcoin. With a simple mistake, one can lose all in a twinkle of an eye. One of the most effective precautive measures in keep your bitcoin safe is to keep your wallet keys as safe as possible. One method I employed is to make copies of each of my wallet keys and keep them safe. That way, I can always recover it even if one got lost or missing.
I sincerely do hope he is able to recover the coins because that's a whole lot of money to lose .

That's why I asked recently in a thread I created about additional security measures.

If I had the equivalent of $1M in Bitcoin, I wouldn't have it all in one place. It would be better to have like 3 wallets, with their seeds written and well stored, all stored in different places, the hardware wallets and the seeds, and maybe something else.

[dkbit98]

This could be one of the cases of coins being ''lost'' in boating accident to avoid paying tax extortion, but his story could also be true as we know that millions of bitcoin are lost forever.

There is one more funny case of Swedish Government returning approximately $1.3 Million in BTC to drug dealer, after seized his crypto grew in value since his initial arrest.
Swedish Government auctioning 36 Bitcoin seized by this guy, but they had to return him 33 Bitcoin's, because only 3 BTC was enough to match the fiat value.
I am not sure this would happen the same way in United States or any other countries, but court seems to be doing their job fine in Sweden, until they change regulations.

[Ali771samir]

Many people who used to get bitcoins easily in the past because of the easy mining of bitcoins, today we see them losing their currencies just as easily, which is not a good thing for the digital currency community and causes fear in Communities are talking about bitcoin and it is slowing down the acceptance of bitcoin among the people.

[wxa7115]

https://www.newsbtc.com/news/bitcoin/man-loses-900000-worth-of-bitcoin/

I think if he offers an NSA grade data recovery outfit a couple of btc, that they'd recover it for him.
But then how can you trust that they won't say they couldn't do it went they actually did.

Well, this is one of the major risks associated with using bitcoin. With a simple mistake, one can lose all in a twinkle of an eye. One of the most effective precautive measures in keep your bitcoin safe is to keep your wallet keys as safe as possible. One method I employed is to make copies of each of my wallet keys and keep them safe. That way, I can always recover it even if one got lost or missing.
I sincerely do hope he is able to recover the coins because that's a whole lot of money to lose .

This is the thing, you do not need to actually have to face those risks as long as you have several copies of your keys or your seed words lying around in the case you happen to make a mistake.

Obviously this kind of stories are terrible and they are being used to try to discourage people to adopt bitcoin but all of this could have avoided by doing something as simple as a paper backup that takes less than a minute to make and now this person is going to regret this, as it does not matter how rich you are losing that much money for no reason at all is always going to be painful.

[Fatunad]

https://www.newsbtc.com/news/bitcoin/man-loses-900000-worth-of-bitcoin/

I think if he offers an NSA grade data recovery outfit a couple of btc, that they'd recover it for him.
But then how can you trust that they won't say they couldn't do it went they actually did.

Really hard to trust someone when it comes to recovery of those lost bitcoin but there are indeed legit services out there which had been trusted by the community although they do really charge up some chunks as a payment but doesnt matter as long you do able to get those coins back rather than on losing it all.

When it comes to your private keys then you should always have several counts of copies so that in case you had lost or accidentally deleted it then you could still have that back up.

Compared when you do have a single save up then for sure risk of losing or odds or chance is high.So you should be careful because that is indeed a ton of money if ever
it wont really be recovered.

[o_e_l_e_o]

You can keep your cryptocurrency in any online wallet (but make sure that they allow you to access the private keys).

This is bad advice. The majority of online wallets are either woefully inadequate and horrendously insecure, or are outright scams. You are gambling with every coin you store in an online wallet.

Enable email authentication and 2FA (preferably with Google Authenticator) and your coins will be safe from any hacker.

This is also bad advice. Email authentication and 2FA is not foolproof and can be bypassed. And even then, they only protect you from attacks against your individual account. They do nothing to protect the security of the actual wallet and system where your coins are stored. 2FA does nothing if the online wallet in question is hacked and their wallets emptied. It does nothing to protect against scams, poor security, wallets being lost, and so on.

Also, Google Authenticator is a bad choice. Better to choose an open source alternative.