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

[ILuckyGuyI]

What a pity! We have seen some other examples like this also before. Keeping wallet information in a safe place should be the number one concern for an investor. Because there is no turning back when you lose it once and can't remember. Unless you remember, your coins are all gone. So one should just let that sink in and act according to this.

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[BuNga_cute]

One thing is for sure, I don't want to be in his shoes, I don't know how I will react to such a grave mistake, am just feeling really bad for this fellow,  crypto is a very sensitive space and things like keys and wallet phrase should be properly kept in a secured place because once anything happened to this phrase and keys, uour asset has gone down the drain, this is such a bad situation.

Of course losing a large amount of Bitcoin will be very painful for anyone who experiences it. Therefore, if this does not want to happen, we really
have to be careful in maintaining our private keys and wallet passwords. Store properly and safely, there have been many articles and discussions
on this forum that explain how to store private keys and passwords properly. Never underestimate the things related to private keys and
passwords, because we all don't want to lose our Bitcoins.  

[worldofcoins]

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.

Ye, that's an obvious giveaway.
If he makes up his mind to use a recovery service then he should know that there's always a possibility of no recovery disregarding Recovery service lying.

Also, it's not like the service holders are going to know instantly that this is a bitcoin wallet private key unless they use the wallet or have 3rd party information gathering on the data they recover.
Or he can directly tell the service providers what's in it and they'll get some percent of it after a successful recovery.

[iTradeChips]

This is really a big failure, is there really no way to get them back?

The problem is that the hard drive was formatted several times, and data was written over it on multiple occasions. After 2-3 times, it becomes impossible to recover any data. So unfortunately, the answer is no. With the current technology, you can't get the data back. Even if you have some FBI guys to support you, the technology is not that advanced to recover such data. I feel bad for his losses, because he's so young (unlike me  ). Hopefully, he will be able to carry on and book profits from cryptocurrency in the near future.

Now that is a problem. If I have that kind of Bitcoin amount meaning very big amount. He should have asked some experts on how he can make his investment safer, for a fee of course as I know those who handle cryptocurrency security are getting paid for their services. Millionaires tend to try and protect their assets and the person should have done so as well. He will be able to carry on with life and hopefully learn a valuable lesson from this.

[meanwords]

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.

This is probably the saddest thing I've read on the forum today. I mean, it's not his fault because people make mistakes like this often, especially when you are really an early bird. Like who would expect Bitcoin to grow like this at that time? We really can't blame him for that. At least he had learned his lessons and still into cryptocurrency though. What's important is that he is aware about cryptocurrencies and is positive about it.

[Kelvinid]

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, that trust broke him instantly. I'm not sure if he is not totally aware of the possible hacks but he just let someone do it in front of him because of such trust thing that he endures to someone who couldn't be trusted. I can't imagine losing it but to say, it was really happening and could happen to anyone in the future.

This actually gives a lesson, not only for him but also for everyone who keeps their keys/password on the laptop/PC. If it needs some repairs, it was best to do it ourselves or to rely on a close and trusted friend of yours, that was guaranteed safe, I think.

[molsewid]

this is a very confusing and sad thing how it is possible for someone to delete an account and lose millions of assets from bitcoin, and of course it is very impossible to restore assets that have deleted the password in your bitcoin account, what happened to this South African man was such a folly that he had to remove the password by losing millions of dollars in bitcoin

Reading this thread I come to think how do this man left no marks of his keys like does he didn't write it down in any of his book because knowing that this key contains a hundred thousand worth of BTC deserves to be written in any of my favourite book that I've read. And if he didn't make any note about his private key in his digital wallet then I think he couldn't do anything to retrieve it. I feel sad about him because I do know that it takes a lot of time for him to accumulate this huge amount of asset.

[macson]

One thing is for sure, I don't want to be in his shoes, I don't know how I will react to such a grave mistake, am just feeling really bad for this fellow,  crypto is a very sensitive space and things like keys and wallet phrase should be properly kept in a secured place because once anything happened to this phrase and keys, uour asset has gone down the drain, this is such a bad situation.

the nominal is not small, surely i will be very stressed if i become that person.  Since reading the number of people who have lost their passwords, private keys, and even wallets that have been accidentally deleted, i've become even more careful with my passwords, private keys, and BTC wallets.

[Imran232]

I feel soo sad for him. $900k is a huge amount of money its a bad luck for him. If he write down on a physical note book now he didn't fall into this problem he might save his money. Storeing secret key on online, hard drive is not quite safe because all those things are technical. And if anything happen like virus attack or something your file can be crushed. So the best way is too keep it write down on note book which quite safe. And second thing about recovery i saw lots of experts talk about this so i think i didn't need to tell anything else. Thank you.

[Fortify]

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.

Sometimes it is simply impossible to recover data if it has been mangled badly - large portions may be missing which might as well be the hold thing due to the way the security of a bitcoin wallet is structured. It's certainly worth a try to use recovery services in this situation, but it can cost a lot of money upfront for no guarantee of recovery. They might even recover the amount and sit on it for a few years before taking the money for themselves if they found out the true value - possibly destroying whatever is left of the original hardware to make sure no one else can get to it in future. He will definitely be kicking himself for years to come and hopefully makes peace with the loss.

[Kayum10029]

Oh my goodness, it's a big mistakes in the history because in the modern time how a person can delete his personal wallet keys. Before any deletatoin one should check his data again and again. I feel very sad for this mistakes.

[wxa7115]

What a pity! We have seen some other examples like this also before. Keeping wallet information in a safe place should be the number one concern for an investor. Because there is no turning back when you lose it once and can't remember. Unless you remember, your coins are all gone. So one should just let that sink in and act according to this.

The owner had mined those coins long time ago and did not expected bitcoin to get so valuable so soon and did not took the right precautions in order to protect his bitcoin, however while we can in a way understand why this happened as back then the worth of his 20 coins were not that high we must make an effort to protect our coins at all times even if we do not think they have a lot of value right now.

After all if the price of bitcoin really skyrockets during the next decades then bitcoin that due to the current standards could seem as just dust could become valuable enough and by the time we want to recover those coins we are going to go through the same scenario, so always remember to keep a physical copy of your seed words and the passwords necessary to open your wallet so this does not happen to you on the future.

[lixer]

Oh my goodness, it's a big mistakes in the history because in the modern time how a person can delete his personal wallet keys. Before any deletatoin one should check his data again and again. I feel very sad for this mistakes.

I haven't read the entire story but I think such keys can be easily restored by using data recovery software or since the amount involved is gigantic, he can also hire an expert to help him out and promise them a good amount. If my maths is right, it is nearly 20 BTC that's lost and any good hacker/technician will recover them for a mere 1 BTC.

This private keys and decentralization part of Bitcoins is what makes it tricky sometimes. I have friends who always ask me what's the best wallet and while I refrain from suggesting them custodial wallets, I don't have a very good suggestion to offer them regarding the non-custodial ones because all these core software can be tricky for a new user.

[DapanasFruit]

I am hoping that I will never experience this same problem in my entire lifetime or in my involvement with Bitcoin or any cryptocurrency for that matter. What I experienced was losing my Bitcoin to scammers which appealed to my greed that I would be earning more Bitcoin if I joined their schemes...but at the end I was crying and holding an empty bag. What this unlucky man lost is a substantial amount of money and I am sure he is very devastated by it and he can only blame himself and nobody else. With the vision that nobody can touch your coin but you it also means that it would be so difficult if not impossible to recover one's private keys when lost...and since keys could not memorized by anybody except maybe a genius like The Rain Man then we can be in quandary under the same situation.

[AicecreaME]

This is such a tragic event for every investor and holder of btc. Given that huge amount of btc, it's really necessary to always be careful and have back ups on where to store your private keys aside from just storing it online. Because events like this really happen and when it happen to you, you will regret big time for not being extra careful on securing your assets.

There is still a possibility that his private keys would be recovered. However, it isn't guaranteed. He should definitely hire experts in the field of restoring because surely this won't just be an easy work. Computers, softwares, and skills are needed to do such work. It would be very tiresome and would certainly take time. Paying the professionals is one of the possible way, but he should also know that whether they would recover his private keys or not, he should pay them for their service. Also, there's a possibility as well that if he happen to stumble upon greedy experts, they wouldn't return his keys despite recovering them. It's easy to lie after all that you haven't recovered it and still be paid, then you have the keys for yourself.

[MartinsCoin]

In this specific case it was a reserve of almost 10 years ago, when bitcoin was worth pennies, at the time he was very young and he didn't imagine that bitcoin was worth much in the future making the withdrawal
for original bitcoin wallet software without worrying about storage and without taking care of the private key. Bitcoins were stored on the computer's hard drive, that's when it happened formatting and bitcoins are lost forever. It was very common in the early days of bitcoin for many people to explore bitcoin just for fun, as bitcoin was not thought to have such significant value as it does today.

[zanezane]

On the one hand, I feel very sorry for him, but on the other, I am to blame. It is better to keep such data well.

Why would you be blamed though? Do you know the guy? The problem with keeping data right now is that it's really hard to be consistent, one second this is safe and then the next one it isn't, you really don't know how to keep it consistent because technology keeps on changing and everyone wants to make money.

[wack slacker]

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

Even if he leaves his Bitcoin online, the possibility of loss is still possible. My friend forgot his wallet recovery keychain and he lost his money. He sent a letter to Coinbase wallet support, but they couldn't do anything because the signatures are private and confidential.
Many people have lost their Bitcoin wallet password and can't find it again.
The news from the above article is a wake-up call for us about managing our cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin or cryptocurrency is financial freedom, self-regulation. It is not like a traditional bank, so we need to be serious about managing our own assets.

[eaLiTy]

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I haven't read the entire story but I think such keys can be easily restored by using data recovery software or since the amount involved is gigantic, he can also hire an expert to help him out and promise them a good amount. If my maths is right, it is nearly 20 BTC that's lost and any good hacker/technician will recover them for a mere 1 BTC.

If he has the hard disk with him, he can use any decent recovery tools and try to recover everything and it is not a huge deal. There are many who never bothered about the coins when there were no valuation and millions of coins were lost because they forgot the password and some never bothered to keep a back up of their private keys and once the price started to rally some bothered to check their old wallets and then found out their grave mistakes.

If he still have the password stores in a notepad he can always recover even if he formatted multiple times.

This private keys and decentralization part of Bitcoins is what makes it tricky sometimes. I have friends who always ask me what's the best wallet and while I refrain from suggesting them custodial wallets, I don't have a very good suggestion to offer them regarding the non-custodial ones because all these core software can be tricky for a new user.

There is nothing much confusion, all you need to think is like a bank vault and you can print out the private keys and keep them safe. There are many light weight wallets available in the market which are much easier to use in mobile as well like Electrum, Armory, Edge which can be used in multiple platforms and OS and then there are hardware wallets. You will get all the tutorials online and it is not that hard.

Never suggest custodial wallets.

[Kiley33]

Sad things, we must keep the private keys and secret keys,
We can tell our family members our password or private key.
If we accidentally delete all our passwords, the chances of recovering them may not be very high.
This incident is also a good reminder to us that some consequences may not be affordable.