Will You Return Hardware Wallet That Contains 3+ BTC in a Hotel Room?

[CryptoHFs]

I'd report that I have it but I will not give it to the hotel must meet the owner in person

[_BlackStar]

How would you know that there are 3BTC on the hardware wallet? Zaguru12 made a good point, those HW wallets are always locked with extra passwords and other security mechanisms. So even if you were tempted, you would not be able to access the funds.

Yes - it's never the same as someone finding a physical wallet filled with fiat. Hardware wallet is completely useless if whoever finds it doesn't know how to access the assets inside. The wallet has an inherently strong cipher especially if the owner has a large amount of bitcoin or other vrypto assets.

The only thing worth keeping would be the hardware wallet itself.

Oh I agree - might be good for key decoration or something.

The right thing to do would be to give it back to the owner, and who knows, they might even give you a little something as a reward!

Exactly - I also recommend returning the wallet to its original owner. But I'm curious how one can know the amount of assets in someone else's hardware wallet?

[Beparanf]

Returning it to the owner is the best thing to do not only because it’s the ethical way but also it’s useless to owned the hardware wallet since you can’t access it without the seed phrase. The owner can easily import his backup seed phrase on a non custodial wallet to recover his funds immediately before you can brute force or reverse engineer a hard ware wallet.

You can receive a reward money to the owner if you returned rather than having a useless hardware wallet unless you sell it as second hand in the market. 

[Fivestar4everMVP]

if any of the above can not be found in the locality then I will handover them to the police.

Good Name is Better Than Silver and Gold

I love my Name to be good

Lolz, 😂 you make me laugh bud, handing that over to the police will the the biggest and most foolish mistake you make in your lifetime..
And even going to the radio station to announce such a thing will only open doors to random scammers to try to claim they are the owner of the funds, and if you don't have a way of verifying who the true owner is, you might end up giving it to the wrong person through pressurization from claimers..

Best thing to do is, if you don't know who owns the bitcoin, and no means of locating the owner, and you don't also know anybody that might have a link to locating the true owner of the bitcoin, keep it, it's not a crime, and it's still better than dashing those bitcoins to the police who will still keep it to themselves.

[The Cryptovator]

In such a situation, it is imperative for me to return the money promptly. If the money does not belong to me, I have no right to use it, as I believe in a higher power that watches over us. If the money was found in a hotel, it would be relatively easy to return it, given there would be a record of the person who stayed there. However, if I cannot identify the rightful owner and their whereabouts, I would turn to social media and the press to seek help in locating them.

Should my efforts be unsuccessful, I would not hesitate to involve law enforcement. I would file a written complaint and hand over the money to them, so they can take appropriate actions and disseminate information to relevant parties. My utmost priority would be to ensure that the money finds its way back to its rightful owner, in accordance with my principles and the belief in doing the right thing.

[darkangel11]

How could I even return the money if OP says that I don't know who it belongs to?
If I found only the seed phrase to someone's wallet, curiosity would make me check it out to see how much money he has. I wouldn't steal his money, but I'd want to see who he is and maybe try to give him a warning that he should move. I'd probably send dust transactions from his wallet to let him know he's compromised.
If it was a hardware wallet with a password visible and I couldn't get to the person who lost it, I wouldn't leave it there. I'd of course take it and use it. Better me than some other random guy.

[KiaKia]

Will you hope that your hardware wallet that you carelessly lost never get back to you? I am sure you will pray that a good samaritan find the hardware wallet and try to locate the owner, only someone with a dead conscience will see something value like Bitcoin and not think about what the rightful owner will be going through.

If I see someone hardware wallet on the floor I will head to the police station first unless I can find the owner nearby, they must also have recovery seed as back up too I guess so even if I can't find the owner the Bitcoin is still safe because the recovery seed is stored somewhere by the owner.

But in care of the police will buy the right time for the owner to use recovery seed and recover the Bitcoin when he noticed that the hardware wallet is lost.

[SatoPrincess]

How could I even return the money if OP says that I don't know who it belongs to?

According to the story, the bitcoins was found in a hotel room. The hotel management will definitely have a record of the customers who previously occupied the room. I would inform the management and have them contact their list of customers who used the room recently to see which one is the owner. If perhaps they can’t reach the owner because of maybe wrong information in their books. I’d drop a email for them to reach me if someone comes searching.
  

I'd probably send dust transactions from his wallet to let him know he's compromised.

That’s probably even a better idea, the owner would definitely noticed and realize his wallet has been compromised and move his bitcoins to a new wallet.

[Crypto Library]

If you were in the woman's shoe, what would you do? Or if you see such amount as bitcoin in your working place with the seed phrase in aseed plate, what will you do? And probably you know the person and there is no way to locate the person. But if I am the one, I will also do the same as the woman and if I don't know the person and I can't locate the person, I will take to the nearest Radio or Television Stations for Broadcasting, or if any of the above can not be found in the locality then I will handover them to the police.

Good Name is Better Than Silver and Gold

I love my Name to be good

First of all, I will say that Bitcoin and fiat currency are not the same, to open a hardware wallet or to make a transaction, many times its private key and the password of the owner of that wallet are needed, so if you don't think about morality here, then I don't think you will get any benefit from getting that hardware wallet or I will get any benefit.
And I don't think the owner of a wallet worth three bitcoins would be such an ass that he would leave it private with it. But if you think about the conscience, you can return that hardware wallet to the owner if you want, especially if you look at the list of passengers rented by that hotel, you will get his name, address or number and also sometime his email. So it's pretty simple or easy to find or locate the hardware wallet owner for just sending a mail on his email. Moreover, if you cannot connect or communicate on his email or mobile number, then talk to the authority of the place he is coming from, like if he is a foreigner, then communicate to their high commissioner or ambassador.

[Blitzboy]

"Finders, keepers," right? Wrong. A unexpected windfall, especially an untraceable one like Bitcoin, is tempting, but its not ours. In such conditions, envy is natural but not moral.

Its tense. The cognitive contradiction between sudden prosperity and morality is difficult to resolve. Wisdom and cooperation are needed. No matter how doubtful we are that the missing cash would be returned, we must help. Inform the authorities, act honorably, and maintain your name.

[jeraldskie11]

Because we are not in his situation, it is easy to suggest that you will return the seed phrase if he unintentionally loses it. Most of the time, if a person finds something, even if it is small, they will not return it. How much more if you discovered something that will make you rich quickly, allowing you to quit your work and create your own home. Some people simply return the items they find since they know they can be traced. We all know what to do in that scenario, and there are still nice individuals who will return what they found; I hope we remain true to ourselves.

I didn't expect read any comment from any user saying that they won't return it. Nobody would want to look like a morally depraved person. But unless the person who picked up the device and knows what the worth of the content is, there is going to be a mental battle that will start-off in their heads. It will be between right and wrong. What is good and what is bad. Especially if you are in a bad place. It would even become worse if you tell family and friends.

Whatever the case may be, the right thing must be done whether there is an external reward or not. Because the best reward is being proud of yourself that you did the right thing.

Believe it or not, it really happens in real life. I know that there's a lot of people want to do good things and live with their lives to the fullest. But we didn't know what they're going through to life, that makes some good people to be bad. This comment was made to remind those people not to do bad things, but to put in their mind that if they always do good things in life just like returning what's not theirs will give peace of mind and good conscience.

[serjent05]

In such a situation, it is imperative for me to return the money promptly. If the money does not belong to me, I have no right to use it, as I believe in a higher power that watches over us. If the money was found in a hotel, it would be relatively easy to return it, given there would be a record of the person who stayed there. However, if I cannot identify the rightful owner and their whereabouts, I would turn to social media and the press to seek help in locating them.

If you turn to social media, that would be the start of your headache since there will be lots of impostors to claim the lost hardware wallet, I would not do that if I am in your situation.  The person who lost something important will definitely go back to places where he is been and will keep on inquiring about the lost object.  It would be easy if it happens in a hotel but it would be difficult if it happen else where.

Should my efforts be unsuccessful, I would not hesitate to involve law enforcement. I would file a written complaint and hand over the money to them, so they can take appropriate actions and disseminate information to relevant parties. My utmost priority would be to ensure that the money finds its way back to its rightful owner, in accordance with my principles and the belief in doing the right thing.

That is one brilliant move, since you can report lost items to the authority and when time expires for the owner to claim the object, you can claim it yourself and be the rightful owner of that item.

[PX-Z]

Let's have a practical mind, a lost money in a hotel can be recovered by the owner itself, s/he just make a report/complaint in the hotel's management. Regardless if you knew the owner or not, the chance of it getting recovered is pretty high, cctv are all over the place, once they knew and saw that you're the one who is in charge in owner's room then you deny that you never get/found the money when its on the cctv, you will end up losing your job and getting imprisoned.

About the HW, no matter how do you look at it, once you knew how HW works, you can't recover or you can't open it in coz its protected by a pin. As a hotel worker, the chance of having the knowledge and tools to recover it is pretty low. So your best choice is handle it to the management coz owner will come back for it probably.