I'm back into Bitcoin!

[LucidLynx]

Hello everyone, I recently did a cleanup on my external hard drive and I found a wallet.dat file.

At first I didn't have any idea of what this was, so I went ahead and deleted the file and continued my cleanup. I was still pretty intrigued by the filename, "wallet" so I looked up the exact name of the file: 'wallet.dat'. The first search result was this: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Wallet. I read that it's basically a file containing all of the important information related to a Bitcoin wallet. I also read that this file is normally located in the Bitcoin Core wallet directory, so I went ahead and installed the latest version of Bitcoin Core and looked in my trash bin folder, and sure enough, the wallet.dat file was in there. I had to wait 2 days or so for it to sync to the blockchain. Unfortuantely, I knew did not mine any BTC back then, I could only remember visiting a faucet a few times.

Today I woke up to this: 2.49 BTC sitting in the balance field. Man, I knew Bitcoin wasn't worth 20$ anymore! Let me tell you, this made my day, probably, my week or even this entire year!

Is there anything I need to do now that I'm holding a pretty big amount of Bitcoin? I've read that hardware wallets are the safest, should I buy one? Is there anything I need to know?

[1713293101]

1713293101

[1713293101]

1713293101

[sunsilk]

Congratulations, not everyone is able to retrieve their bitcoins if it's been on their hard drives for a long time. And yes, you should get a hardware wallet if you want to and I also own one because it's a good way to store your bitcoins. My suggestion either Trezor or Ledger Nano S. I own the Nano S version and there's some issues with Nano X.

Reference: Ledger Nano X Battery Pandemic

But if you have decided not to buy one, make sure that you're keeping the private key or seeds of it in a safe place, take note of it on a piece of paper that you'll keep and make sure to do a backup. Better not back it up on your cloud storage and email.

[RickDeckard]

Is there anything I need to do now that I'm holding a pretty big amount of Bitcoin? I've read that hardware wallets are the safest, should I buy one? Is there anything I need to know?

First of all, congratulations on your finding OP. I sure hope that you've managed to install the "official" version of Bitcoin Core and none of those fake ones that only exist to steal your balance. Verifying a program executable before installing gives you 100 % that the file that you've just downloaded is the one that the developer intended for you to have instead of being an malicious executable that somehow managed to "insert" into the download page of the "official" version to make it look real. If you want to try your hand at verifying the version of Bitcoin Core that you've got you can try this guide[1].

Now you seem that you've fairly new to this whole concept of hardware wallets and remaining terminology related to crypto so my advice for you is to take things slowly and learn as you go. For example, the forum provides a great there where you can learn all about Bitcoin Wallets right here[2]. In your specific case, we call Bitcoin Core a desktop wallet - you basically downloaded it and went ahead installing it on your PC. As Lauda has put it:

Bitcoin Core
Bitcoin Core is the “official” Bitcoin client and wallet, though isn’t used by many due to slow speeds and a lack of features. Bitcoin Core, however, is a full node, meaning it helps verify and transmit other Bitcoin transactions across the network and stores a copy of the entire blockchain. This offers better privacy since Core doesn’t have to rely on data from external servers or other peers on the network. Bitcoin Core routed through Tor is considered one of the best ways to use Bitcoin privately.

I think that you have two options here:

• First one - You can simply send your bitcoins that you have in your wallet directly to a hardware wallet
• Second one - You can install Electrum, send the coins from wallet.dat address to your new address (provided by Electrum) and then decide what to do with them (either let them stay in the new addresses or send them to a hardware wallet). The reason that I've spoken about this second option is that by doing this you'll have your coins on a easier desktop wallet program to use, plus it's faster.

If you do end up going by the second route, I highly advice you following the following guides (in order):

• [GUIDE] How to Safely Download and Verify Electrum [Guide] - In this thread you'll learn how to download and verify downloaded Electrum executable
• TUTORIAL: How to use Electrum (for beginners) - In this one you'll learn how to create a new electrum wallet to receive your coins from your wallet.dat file (generated from Bitcoin Core).

Regarding hardware wallets they are just as secure as the user actions towards them - If you do end up visiting a look a like (fake) website from a hardware wallet manufacturer, such as Trezor, and you end up entering your seed phrases, you'll be sending them to someone over the internet that will be able to use them to have access to your BTC balance. Imagine that the seed phrases are a set of words (that most likely you don't remember for your current wallet.dat file) that allows you to control your BTC wealth (similar to your PIN code in an ATM). You'll get seed words from your Electrum wallet if you've followed the previous link that I've shown you. The main difference between a desktop wallet and a hardware wallet is how they generate these seed phrases - while the desktop wallet generates them in your PC (and you never know if your PC is infected), a hardware wallet generates those seed phrases in an offline place (the hardware device itself). These seed phrases never leave the device and all the transactions are signed in it as well.

So yeah, hardware wallets are great, but as long as you are very careful with the generated seed phrases. There are two well know hardware wallet manufacturers:

• Trezor -https://trezor.io/
• Ledger - https://www.ledger.com/

Even when you're buying these devices you should be really careful and make sure that you're getting them from either an official reseller - or better yet - from the real website. Any kind of wallet that comes to you already with the seed phrases written is a scam and you should never use it.  The forum has it's very own thread regarding hardware wallets here[3]. There is also a

I reckon this is a massive pile of information (but I believe it looks like somewhat understandable) for someone that is starting out in some concepts. Do take your time to read and whenever in doubt just put your question here and I'm sure someone will help you out. Just three more final remarks from my side:

• Remove the mention of how many BTC you have. You'll put a target on your back by getting in the sight of scammers;
• Don't reply to any kind of PM pretending to help you. They'll most likely try to rob you of your BTC.
• Depending on how hold your BTC are, you may be edible to claim forked coins - such as Bitcoin Cash for example (and others). You can see if you're "edible" by pasting here[4] one address of yours and see the results. However be advised that this is not a "beginners" step (from my point of view) and you should only do it when you're more comfortable with crypto ...
  

[1]https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/wiki/verifying_bitcoin_core
[2]https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1631151.0
[3]https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=261.0
[4]https://someone235.github.io/btc-forks-balance/

[GeorgeJohn]

The statement you back into bitcoin really indicates that you were here before or you were dealing with bitcoin before but at of sudden you slides, but since you are back again, i can only tell you to learn all the procedures of bitcoin and start at fresh so that you will understand the basic concepts of bitcoin including the forum rules and regulations, so i will encourage you to follow the full step's others to do what is obtainable.

[electronicash]

The statement you back into bitcoin really indicates that you were here before or you were dealing with bitcoin before but at of sudden you slides, but since you are back again, i can only tell you to learn all the procedures of bitcoin and start at fresh so that you will understand the basic concepts of bitcoin including the forum rules and regulations, so i will encourage you to follow the full step's others to do what is obtainable.

he wouldn't be able to have such an amount if he didn't leave bitcoin. he probably had spent it when it's worth $1000 or had gambled it away already.
almost the same story with the girl who forgot her Bitcoin after the silkroad was closed. she was using her BTC to buy drugs during that time. after years she opened her wallet again from the same laptop and discovered she has a lot of money.

congrats!  comes as a surprise when all you just did was send a coin to your wallet practically worth $20 years ago and then now is worth more than $100K.  

[Vaculin]

Today I woke up to this: 2.49 BTC sitting in the balance field. Man, I knew Bitcoin wasn't worth 20$ anymore! Let me tell you, this made my day, probably, my week or even this entire year!

Is there anything I need to do now that I'm holding a pretty big amount of Bitcoin? I've read that hardware wallets are the safest, should I buy one?

Yeah, you're right, Bitcoin was not worth $20 but it has been multiplied many times.

That was good to hear that you've recovered your balance and I think you need to secure it now by using hardware wallets. That amount is certainly worth it.

Is there anything I need to know?

You need to find a way how to secure your funds at this time. Not even you already have hardware wallets on you will everything is at 100% secure? No, you should have to take care of it, that mistakenly visiting pishing site might catch you.

[jackg]

Today I woke up to this: 2.49 BTC sitting in the balance field. Man, I knew Bitcoin wasn't worth 20$ anymore! Let me tell you, this made my day, probably, my week or even this entire year!

That seems quite lucky. If you've still got some browser history or know of an email address you might have used, it might be an interesting idea to search your inbox to see if you can uncover any other funds - I've found some in the past in random places that I have come back to years later.

Is there anything I need to do now that I'm holding a pretty big amount of Bitcoin? I've read that hardware wallets are the safest, should I buy one? Is there anything I need to know?

Yeah hardware wallets are probably one of the best options at the moment but I'd also try to familiarise yourself with how everything works and how the hardware wallet works. Only buy them from the official websites too (no third party seller sites - they're still fairly cheap to ship internationally anyway).

I'd recommend trying not to visit random sites too, or to get a second laptop you can use just for crypto. It's possible messages can still be passed to a hardware wallet that might make you sign your coins across if you're not concentrating (the display on the hardware wallet normally says the amounts of funds and the address they're being sent to).

[sheenshane]

You're very lucky that you've still recovery your wallet, you almost made mistake by deleting your wallet.dat file that possibly will be lost forever.

All you need to have is a hardware wallet just like suggested above the Trezor and the Ledger Nano, they're trusted and well-known wallets so far but if you want a big list of hardware wallets you might head upon this [BIG LIST] Hardware wallets (80+).

Probably that's 2.49 Bitcoin came from your collecting faucet before, it's really worth it before to join a faucet, but now I don't think still the same and I don't know how will it take before you can collect even 1 Bitcoin.

[LucidLynx]

You're very lucky that you've still recovery your wallet, you almost made mistake by deleting your wallet.dat file that possibly will be lost forever.

All you need to have is a hardware wallet just like suggested above the Trezor and the Ledger Nano, they're trusted and well-known wallets so far but if you want a big list of hardware wallets you might head upon this [BIG LIST] Hardware wallets (80+).

Probably that's 2.49 Bitcoin came from your collecting faucet before, it's really worth it before to join a faucet, but now I don't think still the same and I don't know how will it take before you can collect even 1 Bitcoin.

Oh, I forgot to say, I recovered the wallet.dat file from my trash bin.

[Boov]

Hello everyone, I recently did a cleanup on my external hard drive and I found a wallet.dat file.

At first I didn't have any idea of what this was, so I went ahead and deleted the file and continued my cleanup. I was still pretty intrigued by the filename, "wallet" so I looked up the exact name of the file: 'wallet.dat'. The first search result was this: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Wallet. I read that it's basically a file containing all of the important information related to a Bitcoin wallet. I also read that this file is normally located in the Bitcoin Core wallet directory, so I went ahead and installed the latest version of Bitcoin Core and looked in my trash bin folder, and sure enough, the wallet.dat file was in there. I had to wait 2 days or so for it to sync to the blockchain. Unfortuantely, I knew did not mine any BTC back then, I could only remember visiting a faucet a few times.

Today I woke up to this: 2.49 BTC sitting in the balance field. Man, I knew Bitcoin wasn't worth 20$ anymore! Let me tell you, this made my day, probably, my week or even this entire year!

Is there anything I need to do now that I'm holding a pretty big amount of Bitcoin? I've read that hardware wallets are the safest, should I buy one? Is there anything I need to know?

I think you should buy it right now, indeed that's safe compared with web wallet or any software wallet. You can back-up using hard copy and the control is really secured, which anybody couldn't breach.
What you need to know is, keeping that hardware wallet on safe storage is very important to avoid being exposed from weather conditions. Maybe you should put it in safe vault together with your precious gems if you have any.

[The Cryptovator]

It's call near-miss, now you know what you were going to lose. But if you weren't curious about the wallet file, then you can't realize what you lost. However, congrats, and good to know you got it back. You don't need to do anything if you can secure your wallet file and device. But since you are accustomed to deletes files then it's better to buy a hardware wallet like Ledger to store your Bitcoin. So there will not be the fear of file deletion. But then you have to secure your wallet and seed phrase in safe places. Losing the device and seed together will lead to lost everything.

Anyway, you didn't back to Bitcoin. Your luck forced you to back into Bitcoin.

[Wexnident]

Welp, glad that you aren't me, any files that I deem useless since I permanently delete them ALWAYS. There's a method to recover them if windows (my OS) hasn't completely removed it, but it looked to be quite a pain to go through. Happy for you that at the very least, curiosity appeared at the right time, and that it didn't kill the cat (in this case, your wallet). If you're planning on holding then a hardware wallet is the best option, if not, then I'd still recommend getting a hardware wallet and only trade half of what you have right now, and hold the other.

[tbct_mt2]

Today I woke up to this: 2.49 BTC sitting in the balance field. Man, I knew Bitcoin wasn't worth 20$ anymore! Let me tell you, this made my day, probably, my week or even this entire year!

Congratulations but is is a real story?

Such lost or lucky story with old Bitcoin wallet is very common. I don't request and I don't have rights to request you to show evidence and convince me that your story is real.

If it is real, you are very lucky because you found your wallet file and it was not encrypted and your Bitcoin was not stolen.

Enjoy it but don't sell your Bitcoin or use it to buy shit altcoins.

[btc78]

Today I woke up to this: 2.49 BTC sitting in the balance field. Man, I knew Bitcoin wasn't worth 20$ anymore! Let me tell you, this made my day, probably, my week or even this entire year!

Your a F****** Lucky man dude 2 .49 bitcoin now? you are a 6 figure richer now mate and just because you cleaned your external drive 

Do you have other drive? i will clean it for you for Free 

congratulation mate , Hope that will ADD value to your living now.

Is there anything I need to do now that I'm holding a pretty big amount of Bitcoin? I've read that hardware wallets are the safest, should I buy one? Is there anything I need to know?

Indeed Hardware wallet mate, Have one now to keep safe your Bitcoin , and if you are still willing to Hold that then this is a Must now.

[Kakmakr]

If you are saying that you received those bitcoins through faucet activity, then you must have been in Bitcoin back in 2010 to 2014 or somewhere around then, with the Gavin Andressen faucet.   

I know Gavin's faucet gave out whole bitcoins, but you probably used other faucets that gave way less coins. I also received 1000 Sat/h from Freebitco.in back then and those Satoshis are almost worth US 50cents now... so if you claimed only 10 times a day for a year.. you will have had $1800 now. 

I am frantically going through my old hard drives now.... 

[Amor.]

Congratulations OP, I'm glad you finally got bitcoin back. I think the most profitable way to invest in bitcoin is to buy it, forget it, and come back to see it years later. Of course, the premise is to keep it. If I were you, I would sell one bitcoin and keep the rest.

[Yaunfitda]

Unfortunately, I have like scan 10 drives in 2017 and try to see if there is a wallet.dat file, but there's none. And good to hear the case of OP here, yeah, you can earn through faucets years ago and then totally forget about it years later and then rediscovered your hard drive and now you are rich instantly. For sure there could be cases like this in the past, with more bitcoins.

So the next best thing to do is to invest on a hardware wallet to store your precious BTC.

[elisabetheva]

Unfortunately, I have like scan 10 drives in 2017 and try to see if there is a wallet.dat file, but there's none. And good to hear the case of OP here, yeah, you can earn through faucets years ago and then totally forget about it years later and then rediscovered your hard drive and now you are rich instantly. For sure there could be cases like this in the past, with more bitcoins.

So the next best thing to do is to invest on a hardware wallet to store your precious BTC.

Of course, it's luck that the op received and usually something old is less likely to find again because some problems, especially obviously the computer where the file was placed may have been deleted or copied with new files that we don't realize. it was clear that luck had brought about something that was certain to make a huge profit because its current value was already high.

I agree with you if you can afford to buy hardware and can store it safely there and there is no fear anymore as long as the device remains in yourself.

[oktana]

Congratulations man. This is really big. Many people who bought Bitcoin back then have ended up losing their backup, while some others (like you) forgot that they had a wallet or even bought Bitcoin. It's also really cool to see that you still want to hodl it. It's not wrong to sell but it is more thoughtful to hodl since you're not in a loss (and you cannot be in the loss due to the RIO so far). Congratulations again and welcome back to Bitcoin!

[worle1bm]

This is great news for you that you suddenly own more than 2 Bitcoins at this time when prices are above $45k at this time and now you have high funds balance with you.You were lucky to recover wallet.dat file from the trash as if you have not searched for it and have cleared the trash this won't happen with you on on worse stage so now take care of funds and have proper backup on hardware wallet and your seed phrases store in best possible way.