Advice To Experienced Users; Do Not Get Complacent

[Upgrade00]

The usual theme of discussions we get around here is advice to 'newbies' on what to avoid and what mistakes not to make in crypto; considering you are your own bank. This is in order, as taking responsibility requires one to be responsible for their actions and inactions.

This thread was inspired by an error I made when backing up a seedphrase recently and it is to draw awareness that experienced crypto users or those who have been using it for a longer time period should not get complacent as they are open to mistakes and errors which could cost them.

Some tips which I consider to be helpful;
• Always pay extra attention when backing up a seed phrase,
• Always triple check all information about a transaction before signing, this includes address, amount and fee,
• Avoid clicking on random links and bookmark important websites,
• Your memory is not a reliable backup, for passwords or seed phrase. Have a place you store useful information which you can easily access.

This is a short list as more experienced users usually have things covered, just try not to get comfortable.I'm curious to know, are there any errors you've made as a regular user of cryptocurrencies?
Do you have tips to avoid such?

[Z-tight]

I'm curious to know...

I am curious to know the actual error you made, that is of course if it is okay by you to say, you know when you tell what the error was in a step by step way, you are also teaching other members, so they can avoid the mistake you made when they remember this thread.

When you also tell the exact error, i am sure other very experienced members will give corrections and other methods, if there are, to go about things more easily without running into trouble.

[libert19]

I'm curious to know, are there any errors you've made as a regular user of cryptocurrencies?
Do you have tips to avoid such?

Yes: I was fucked.. Do not repeat same mistakes as me

[cryptoaddictchie]

I'm curious to know, are there any errors you've made as a regular user of cryptocurrencies?
Do you have tips to avoid such?

So far in my crypto experience, I never did get hacked by foolishness of clicking any random phishing sites and thank God Im still safe with all those shitty scammers. But once I have did a certain error where I transact to a random guy and do a first send off tokens and unfortunately the guy was a scammer and ended up losing the tokens I entrusted with. You are right, dont be too complacent even thr sweet words and proof are look so real cause they are evolving now from a recognize scammer to a professional talker.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

Get wallet from official source (website)
Don't search mobile apps in app stores (Apple Store, Google Play)
Verify the software or apps you download and install
Backup your empty wallet
Use the backup to recover your empty wallet
If the backup is good for recovery, you can start to use your wallet
Have multiple backups is necessary

When you make transactions, double or tripple check with address.

How to lose your Bitcoins with CTRL-C CTRL-V
Security checklist

[Daniel91]

Upgrade 00, thanks for your warning.
Sometimes we older users relax too much and lose our attention, and then serious problems can occur.
The hard way, I also learned my lesson, that the seed phase should be kept in different places, not just on the computer.
A mistake can happen to any of us, it’s all life.

[lovesmayfamilis]

Maybe I'm a little off-topic, but I always respect those people who made some kind of mistake and can give advice, and even more, warn others so that they don't make such a mistake.

We are all not geniuses and not robots. Anyone can make mistakes. Improper storage of the seed of the phrase very often happens, but the understanding of this comes only when everything is already lost. Our confidence sometimes plays tricks on us.

You have to assume a lot when storing a seed phrase or something valuable for us. Even if there are no natural disasters in your country, you still need to take this into account, and even more so other small points.

The same goes for transactions and inattention when surfing the Internet.

Even though it's been written a thousand times, people can't say it won't happen to them.

It is better to be ready for anything, thereby constantly keeping your finger on the pulse.

[Upgrade00]

I am curious to know the actual error you made, that is of course if it is okay by you to say, you know when you tell what the error was in a step by step way, you are also teaching other members, so they can avoid the mistake you made when they remember this thread.

It's a very silly error thinking about it in hindsight.
When backing up seedphrases, I'm usually careful with every word and enter it right afterwards, i.e, try to use it to recover the address. On this particular occasion, I was in a bit of a hurry so I was sort of careless in the backup and did not confirm the seedphrase after finishing up. Fast forward to a few days and I wanted to import that address into a different wallet software and only then realized that I got 11 words and not 12  

Thankfully, I had a backup for the password I used on the initial wallet and used that to access the seed phrase directly, which saved me some blushes. I was actually surprised I backed up the wallet as I expected that I would have forgotten to do that as well.

Get wallet from official source (website)
...

Great advices you got there.
Learning is the only constant and no one goes above that.

The hard way, I also learned my lesson, that the seed phase should be kept in different places, not just on the computer.
A mistake can happen to any of us, it’s all life.

Sorry for the hard lesson. We all are prone to mistakes which we would consider silly retrospectively.

[boyptc]

• Your memory is not a reliable backup, for passwords or seed phrase. Have a place you store useful information which you can easily access.

This made me thought of someone I've remembered who posted on the forum on how he keep his keys and that's only through his memory. That's a very rare way of keeping your keys as you keep your money just like that.

Get wallet from official source (website)
Don't search mobile apps in app stores (Apple Store, Google Play)

These two is a combination.

There are people that have been searching wallets through google(search engine) and they've ended up with a copy cat app of the specific wallet that they search.

It's full of sponsored ads that appears at the top of the results so be mindful of that when using search engines for wallets that you'll use.

[witcher_sense]

a
• Always pay extra attention when backing up a seed phrase,

I'd also add that besides backing up your private keys and seed phrases on physical media such as a notebook or metal plates, it is equally important to test them before sending funds or making cold backups. The testing usually consists of several steps, which may slightly vary depending on the wallet type you are dealing with. Let us take, for example, the case of hardware wallets, which are devices that both generate secret keys offline and use them to sign transactions without users having to be connected to the Internet. The steps are the following:
1) Generate a seed phrase using your hardware wallet;
2) Write it down on a piece of paper;
3) Add a passphrase to your seed phrase. For security reasons, your passphrase should also be generated offline using dice, for instance. Back it up on a different physical media;
4) Insert a new passphrase to your hardware wallet and generate a new receive address;
5) Send some negligible amount (which you can afford to lose should something go wrong) to a newly created address;
6) Factory reset your hardware wallet;
7) Restore your wallet again using the seed+passphrase you backed up previously;
If funds are still there, then you did everything right and is good to go.

[Charles-Tim]

• Always pay extra attention when backing up a seed phrase,

That is true, but such attention should go also towards seed phrase backup on paper or on steel sheet, newbies should avoid backup on phone, computers or online backup like on Google or iCloud cloud.

3) Add a passphrase to your seed phrase. For security reasons, your passphrase should also be generated offline using dice, for instance. Back it up on a different physical media

If using dice, how about just using a seed phrase generated on a reputed wallet, then used as passphrase which is also secure just as seed phrase with 128 bits of security and remain almost impossible to bruth force.

Including passphrase along with seed phrase will generate different keys and addresses, I too will recommend this, especially if using hardware wallet like Trezor that has only MCU but not having secure element. Also, if a seed phrase is compromised, adding passphrase will generate different keys that the attacker can not get as long as the attacker do not have access to the passphrase, so the wallet would be more secure to be compromised.

[Pmalek]

The hard way, I also learned my lesson, that the seed phase should be kept in different places, not just on the computer.

I hope you don't keep the seed phrases to your crypto stash digitally on your computer or anywhere online at all anymore. Only offline backups on paper or metal should be used for optimum security. Storing these backups in different locations is of course always the way to go.

There are people that have been searching wallets through google(search engine) and they've ended up with a copy cat app of the specific wallet that they search.

It's full of sponsored ads that appears at the top of the results so be mindful of that when using search engines for wallets that you'll use.

Everyone should use uBlock Origin nowadays, especially if they rely on Google's Chrome as their go-to browser. AdGuard AdBlocker is also good. It gets rid of the sponsored ads you see when you search for something on Google among many other benefits it offers. 

If using dice, how about just using a seed phrase generated on a reputed wallet, then used as passphrase which is also secure just as seed phrase with 128 bits of security and remain almost impossible to bruth force.

Take a dictionary or a big book and stick your fingers in 8 different random locations. Pick 1 random word per page without looking. That's a total of 8 words. That should be enough for a secure passphrase. You can even spell them backwards or include a number and/or special character in each word for more security. 

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

One error is not sticking to time frame of a buy order on most centralized exchange like Binance. Because I can remember losing over $20 while trying to buy a coin (USDT) on Binance, thou actually there was a bank network issue that day. I was given 15minutes time frame to make payment and click on the confirm button, but unfortunately after making payments I had a network issue and couldn't log in on time till the 15minutes ellapse and the trade got concelled while payment has been made all because of bad network.. so my advice is, always make sure you have a strong internet connection before going into any trading

[boyptc]

There are people that have been searching wallets through google(search engine) and they've ended up with a copy cat app of the specific wallet that they search.

It's full of sponsored ads that appears at the top of the results so be mindful of that when using search engines for wallets that you'll use.

Everyone should use uBlock Origin nowadays, especially if they rely on Google's Chrome as their go-to browser. AdGuard AdBlocker is also good. It gets rid of the sponsored ads you see when you search for something on Google among many other benefits it offers. 

Yes, that's for the peace of mind for those that can't spot out the actual apps and the clone scam apps. As it automatically remove those ads, they're free to search for those legitimate wallets that they're looking for.

Those ads have been victimizing a lot of users. Starting from those ads popping up to the cloning and scamming phishing apps that they never copying because there's always a victim of it.

[cheezcarls]

We can avoid getting hacked as much as we want, but take note that the hackers are also learning and finding new and innovative ways just to get their hands on our hard-earned money and assets. For years, I did my best not to get hacked but it all changed last April of this year when I didn't do my own diligence and my mind was successfully penetrated by the hacker.

As a result, I am stupid enough to click the fake PDF malware and ended up getting drained the next day with 3 of my Metamask and Trust Wallets with a combined amount of more than $12,000. Yes I was so complacent that day even if I am already experienced and I've got nothing to do but learn my lessons.

[Pmalek]

As a result, I am stupid enough to click the fake PDF malware and ended up getting drained the next day with 3 of my Metamask and Trust Wallets with a combined amount of more than $12,000. Yes I was so complacent that day even if I am already experienced and I've got nothing to do but learn my lessons.

I am sorry to hear that. Seems like you downloaded and opened a malicious attachment sent to you over email as a PDF or how did you get infected? I treat everything I receive over email as scam and malicious. It's better than randomly opening things you think are safe. I have even found myself in situations where friends asked me did you see that email I sent you last week? I am like, why are you sending me emails? You have me on social media and you can contact me over the phone. I just move them to the trashcan.

[Upgrade00]

As a result, I am stupid enough to click the fake PDF malware and ended up getting drained the next day with 3 of my Metamask and Trust Wallets with a combined amount of more than $12,000. Yes I was so complacent that day even if I am already experienced and I've got nothing to do but learn my lessons.

Sorry for your loss.

Recognizing how easy it is to make mistakes is the best way to avoid them; it's even possible to inadvertently click on a suspected malicious file without meaning to.

Best way to avoid this is to hold the bulk of your funds in a hardware wallet or an air gapped device, this way we cannot make any silly errors which would cost you big time.

[PrivacyG]

I'm curious to know, are there any errors you've made as a regular user of cryptocurrencies?
Do you have tips to avoid such?

Yes to both questions.  I am convinced even the best and most experienced still make mistakes every now and then.  After all, it is a matter of just one mistyped character, forgetting to do something or one wrong click and you are screwed.  The biggest con and also the biggest pro of Cryptocurrency is that you are all on your own.  Pro because this is how you go decentralized.  Con because you do not have an option to gather your needed information back from a central database, you can not recover a 'forgotten' seed and you can not undo a transaction.

My tips?  Never do Cryptocurrency stuff when feeling tired and always pay extreme attention, even if well versed into the Bitcoin stuff.

-
Regards,
PrivacyG

[Upgrade00]

My tips?  Never do Cryptocurrency stuff when feeling tired and always pay extreme attention, even if well versed into the Bitcoin stuff.

This is a yet simple but important advice to safe one from costly errors.
Any action such as transacting, creating a wallet or backing up requires extreme level of attention regardless of how many times you have done this before.

I consider it best to stick with one method of access; For example, if you mostly use your PC to access your crypto stuffs, then stick to that as much as possible and same if you he a mobile device.

[Z-tight]

Thankfully, I had a backup for the password I used on the initial wallet and used that to access the seed phrase directly, which saved me some blushes. I was actually surprised I backed up the wallet as I expected that I would have forgotten to do that as well.

Thanks for replying for the sake of other members. I am pleased you were able to prevent that loss of your bitcoin, luckily for meself i have not made too many errors, or the ones i have made have not led to any loss for me. @Upgrade what i do is that i am always ever fastidious, maybe even to a fault, i do not entertain side talks, nor text, calls or any form of distractions when i am doing stuffs that pertain to my bitcoin, wallet, crypto, it is either everything else has to wait, or i suspend my crypto stuff for later. Next time do not back up in a hurry, it could cost you friend.