What would you do if you found others' keys?

[btc123thatthere]

What would you do if you managed to come across someone else's private key and it's worth an amount that most people would 'prefer not to lose', assuming you have no [idea who it belongs] to or [location clues]? Eg. Sweeping through common books' text for BIP39-based keys.

I suppose you could send a dollar's worth to a different address and hopefully they'd get the hint.

[White pawn]

What would you do if you managed to come across someone else's private key and it's worth an amount that most people would 'prefer not to lose', assuming you have no [idea who it belongs] to or [location clues]? Eg. Sweeping through common books' text for BIP39-based keys.

I suppose you could send a dollar's worth to a different address and hopefully they'd get the hint.

Is there a particular amount of money that some people would actually prefer to lose? I don’t know about you, but I would prefer not to lose any of my money.
Since we’re all assuming, I’ll assume you’re not asking if it’s okay to steal someone’s coins just cause you happen to come across it.

[lovesmayfamilis]

I would send this amount to some charitable foundation for sick children or children without parents. It's not my fault that the keys that someone lost were found by another person. I doubt the real owner can be found. Too many people will show up. Accordingly, it is considered easy money or someone's alms. Therefore, alms should be given to those in need. If you leave yourself such amounts, you can expect trouble. In my opinion, it was a fair decision.

[un_rank]

Coming across someone's private keys does not mean they have no copy of it stored away. They could still have access to it, and you do not need to take any action to finding them, except to inform them that their assets could be compromised, cause if you could have come across it, there is a possibility that someone else could.

I suppose you could send a dollar's worth to a different address and hopefully they'd get the hint.

A hint that it was compromised?

- Jay -

[LoyceMobile]

What would you do

I'm more curious how this works legally: with "normal" found objects, you have to report it. If nobody picks it up within a year, you become the new owner.
With crypto, you basically find data, and the original owner can still have a backup. I've never seen a legal case about this.

[btc123thatthere]

What would you do if you managed to come across someone else's private key and it's worth an amount that most people would 'prefer not to lose', assuming you have no [idea who it belongs] to or [location clues]? Eg. Sweeping through common books' text for BIP39-based keys.

I suppose you could send a dollar's worth to a different address and hopefully they'd get the hint.

Is there a particular amount of money that some people would actually prefer to lose? I don’t know about you, but I would prefer not to lose any of my money.
Since we’re all assuming, I’ll assume you’re not asking if it’s okay to steal someone’s coins just cause you happen to come across it.

Yes; they'd not want to lose it.
Yes; you'd not want to steal it, but would feel awkward having discovered that their valuable key isn't safe.

Coming across someone's private keys does not mean they have no copy of it stored away. They could still have access to it, and you do not need to take any action to finding them, except to inform them that their assets could be compromised, cause if you could have come across it, there is a possibility that someone else could.

I suppose you could send a dollar's worth to a different address and hopefully they'd get the hint.

A hint that it was compromised?

- Jay -

Yes, I'm assuming that they'd still have their key in question.

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

[crwth]

In this type of scenario, I don’t think I would take it. I would first find someone looking for it and probably send it back to him or just let him know that he should change his wallet already. But I don’t understand how can someone get that unless they are really careless and just not thinking about their protection and put a lot of money in. It’s not a good idea.

[Yawa2020]

Is there a particular amount of money that some people would actually prefer to lose? I don’t know about you, but I would prefer not to lose any of my money.
Since we’re all assuming, I’ll assume you’re not asking if it’s okay to steal someone’s coins just cause you happen to come across it.

Lol, this is a savage response. To me, there's no any amount I would prefer to lose just like that unless in some circumstances like trading and investing in crypto. But do you mean coming across such is purely a stealing? And you would just let those coins wasted despite knowing that locating the real owner would be so difficult? Like you said, since we are all assuming, I'll stop assuming and rest my brain.

[btc123thatthere]

What would you do

I'm more curious how this works legally: with "normal" found objects, you have to report it. If nobody picks it up within a year, you become the new owner.
With crypto, you basically find data, and the original owner can still have a backup. I've never seen a legal case about this.

Good point, I guess the authority who is reported to might be able to ask exchanges if any of their customers withdraw to specific addresses.

[un_rank]

[...]

In this situation, 90% of users would probably make away with the balance on the wallet. And I would not know how I would react until I am in the situation.
I would like to think that I would not steal any of the funds and your idea of sending a minute amount out would send a message to the original owner.

P.s, Consecutive posts is against forum rules.

- Jay -

[btc123thatthere]

In this type of scenario, I don’t think I would take it. I would first find someone looking for it and probably send it back to him or just let him know that he should change his wallet already. But I don’t understand how can someone get that unless they are really careless and just not thinking about their protection and put a lot of money in. It’s not a good idea.

Any thoughts on how you'd find them? (Assuming that all you knew was their key/s and address/es.)

[hosseinimr93]

I would send this amount to some charitable foundation for sick children or children without parents.

But it's possible that the real owner of the fund has another copy of the private key and can still spend the fund.
It may be better to wait or make a transaction sending a small fund to inform the owner that the wallet is compromised.

[taufik123]

It will be a dilemma when actually finding other people's keys that have thousands of bitcoins. But would someone be that careless with a wallet of thousands of bitcoins or other amounts. Or because of some phrase incident, the seed was lost and found by someone else.

If I find it, the first thing I will do is check the transactions that were made. checking whether someone legitimate has the address or they are looking for it. i will actually tell the owner if i find it. Not wanting to be hypocritical, maybe I can get a few percent of the assets I find.

Feel sorry when someone loses their keys accidentally with quite a lot of assets. Just imagine if it happened to ourselves, of course we would be very frustrated and try to find out whether other people held the seed or not. But the worst thing would be losing the seed and never finding it, it would be immovable asset.

I would send this amount to some charitable foundation for sick children or children without parents.

But it's possible that the real owner of the fund has another copy of the private key and can still spend the fund.
It may be better to wait or make a transaction sending a small fund to inform the owner that the wallet is compromised.

good suggestion so that the owner of the wallet will know if someone is trying to tell that a seed was found and a transaction was made. The actions taken by @lovemayfamilis are indeed good actions, but it's better to wait for the owner to respond first.

[Oneandpure]

I am a Muslim and my religion teaches not to take other people's property, although have alternative for donating to children foundation or anything else need our helped I don't try to sent if found other seed phrase or private key. Its not mine assets and I don't have power for sending to other people although used it to foundation or some community need helped.

I left it and not sharing to the other when founding private key, actually ever on the road I found much money and I don't take it because I know its not mine and bad thing happen later if I use it. Possibility with private key found have the owner and better finding the real owner by tracking their transaction history, if can't found the owner I think not good ideas use for donation because can't expected if the real owner private key position want to donate his fund.

[kryptqnick]

I would make an effort to return the money to the owner (my thoughts are writing to a local Facebook group anonymously and saying I found a BTC key which I will return to who can name the book it was in or prove ownership in other ways), but I suspect that isn't going to be possible. At the same time, I wouldn't feel right using the money because it belongs to someone else. I guess giving it to a good charity after making sure I can't find the real owner would be something I do. Normally, though, I don't pick up what I see, so if I saw a paper inside a book, the most likely course of action for me would be to put the paper back where I found it without trying to use it in any way.

[Little Mouse]

There's a thread where someone asked what if someone mistakenly sent 10 bitcoins. Would people send them back or keep it. Well, the same reply goes here too. I would like to quote myself here. No one is going to say they are going to send the fund back or the private key. Everyone here will pretend they are honest but the real test is when they will get the keys or coins. Try that with someone random lol.

Lol. I didn't expect such a thread here.
You can ask people whether they will be honest, they will surely say a big yes. But whether they will be honest or not will depend when you actually test them. Send 10 bitcoins to 100 random people from the forum who here pretend as scam buster or who here pretend as honest. I'm sure only a few of them will return the money.

In my local, one of my friends always say that everyone will be corrupted at some point. Some may sell their moral for $100 bucks while some for a grand and some for a million.

If I say I will send you back, that won't guarantee that I will really be honest. However, I never count someone else's money as mine even if that's a single penny or a million (though no one so far trusted for a million lol).

[jrrsparkles]

Almost every reply shows how good and honest the fellow members are but come to the reality, I don't think we are going to take an effort and find out the real owner but actually its impossible to find who is the actual owner and technically who own the key becomes the owner of the wallet so its yours and completely you decide what to do with it, I would say if there is enough money to buy a Lambo then I would. LoL

[teosanru]

What would you do if you managed to come across someone else's private key and it's worth an amount that most people would 'prefer not to lose', assuming you have no [idea who it belongs] to or [location clues]? Eg. Sweeping through common books' text for BIP39-based keys.

I suppose you could send a dollar's worth to a different address and hopefully they'd get the hint.

Honestly if it happens to me and I see the amount is something that I cannot prefer to lose, I'll do everything to make sure I delete the trail and make those coins mine. You can say you should be honest and all but let's face it practically most of us are going to do this, it's human nature, but yes If i was rich enough to not care about the amount in the wallet I would let it go. It obviously all depends on the amount and obviously the amount will be different for everyone.

[GideonGono]

It would really depend,
What if the private key has already been leaked or posted online? Then it is pretty much just a giveaway so I would just take it.
I once saw someone just dropping private key to give out some crypto.

[BenCodie]

It would really depend,
What if the private key has already been leaked or posted online? Then it is pretty much just a giveaway so I would just take it.
I once saw someone just dropping private key to give out some crypto.

Similar to what GideonGono said here...if I found the keys then it is likely someone else could too. I would put whatever is there in another address. Maybe wait some time to see if the owner somehow presents themselves and take a safe-keeping reward. If enough time passes I guess it was just my lucky day It would be a nice situation either way.