BTC Paper Wallet Recovery

[PomskyFluff]

Hi guys, can someone help me? Here's a background.

* Paper wallet generated from dot_walletgenerator_dot_net
* Funds have been sent to this wallet over the past two years.
* 7 days ago, wallet was wiped out.
* Balance is now zero

Thinking back, I believe the mistake was made when generating the wallet. Instead of going offline, the wallet was generated while still connected to the Internet.

What are the chances of the BTC being recovered. I saw a company called hireahacker(.)com which appears to be genuine but in this type of marketplace how can you be sure? I would be very grateful for any opinions and more importantly whether there's any hope in recovering the stolen Bitcoins.

Thank you in advance.

[1714320651]

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[1714320651]

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[1714320651]

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[1714320651]

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[OmegaStarScream]

Apparently, that platform is not trustworthy. There have been multiple incidents where people lost their funds as you can see here[1][2][3]. I doubt anyone could help you recover the funds if the transaction has already been confirmed.

[1] https://coinmarketcap.com/community/articles/64c2405dce5a541a0fd5505e/
[2] https://medium.com/mycrypto/disclosure-key-generation-vulnerability-found-on-walletgenerator-net-potentially-malicious-3d8936485961
[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/comments/rueeos/warning_major_paper_wallet_generator_sites_are/

[PomskyFluff]

Thank you for your reply, I was afraid of that verdict. Do you think it's not worth using a hacking website like the one I mentioned? Or am I throwing good money after bad?

[TheUltraElite]

Thank you for your reply, I was afraid of that verdict. Do you think it's not worth using a hacking website like the one I mentioned? Or am I throwing good money after bad?

I can give a good example of a specific type of scam here.

Once there were many HYIP/MLM websites that used to pop up, run for a month or two and then one fine morning shut down without a trace leaving the investors on this forum discussing about where their money vanished. A few days later a website claiming to recover money lost on that site comes up and asks for a small fee from everyone in order to get their money back. The ones who do that, are hopeful that this "recovery service" will help them, but after a few days even the "recovery service" stop responding.

I prefer to call this the recovery scam. It is common when people are in a chaos and emotional about lost money. Whether it is applicable in your case - I think you have already understood that. Remember that to keep bitcoin secure you need to secure your devices, how you generate and store your keys, what shit you download from the internet. So called people who hack and recover stuff are mostly charlatans.

[LoyceV]

@OP: Please obfuscate the scam wallet site, don't reward them with another backlink from Bitcointalk.

Unfortunately, that and another paper wallet site have been known for (selective) scamming for years. And any recover "offer" is a scam too. That's not how Bitcoin works.
Your money is gone Don't throw more money in the pit.

[PomskyFluff]

Thanks everyone. As much as it pains me, I will walk away from this and put it down to a very expensive experience.

What about bitaddress.org as a paper wallet generator. This time, of course, I will generate the wallet offline. Is this still asking for trouble or should I stick to hardware like ledger?

[LoyceV]

What about bitaddress.org as a paper wallet generator.

I've never read anything bad about them. But there are phishing sites out there, so a typo could be costly.

This time, of course, I will generate the wallet offline.

If the code on the site is compromised, that doesn't help you.

Is this still asking for trouble or should I stick to hardware like ledger?

As much as I don't like Ledger, it's still a better choice.

[OmegaStarScream]

Thanks everyone. As much as it pains me, I will walk away from this and put it down to a very expensive experience.

What about bitaddress.org as a paper wallet generator. This time, of course, I will generate the wallet offline. Is this still asking for trouble or should I stick to hardware like ledger?

Yes, Bitaddress is good. It's probably best to do it offline and with a LiveCD. You should also sure to download the source code from the official GitHub repository:

https://github.com/pointbiz/bitaddress.org

Stay away from any other generators. In addition to the one you lost the funds to, BitcoinPaperWallet is also a known scam:

https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2021/02/24/bitcoinpaperwallet-back-door-responsible-for-millions-in-missing-funds-research-suggests/

[apogio]

Thanks everyone. As much as it pains me, I will walk away from this and put it down to a very expensive experience.

What about bitaddress.org as a paper wallet generator. This time, of course, I will generate the wallet offline. Is this still asking for trouble or should I stick to hardware like ledger?

Yes, Bitaddress is good. It's probably best to do it offline and with a LiveCD. You should also sure to download the source code from the official GitHub repository:

https://github.com/pointbiz/bitaddress.org

Hi! I just want to point out that JS is not a superb language to use for entropy generation. The reason behind my claim is that they usually tend to use user input to generate it. For instance, they tell the user to move their mouse around. This process looks "random" but in my opinion it is not the safest. I don't know whether they (at bitaddress) do something that increases the randomness, but in my opinion, even though bitaddress is commonly used, I would avoid it. Anyway, if OP wants to use it, they should definitely follow your advice and do it properly to diminish all risks.

[Stalker22]

Thanks everyone. As much as it pains me, I will walk away from this and put it down to a very expensive experience.

What about bitaddress.org as a paper wallet generator. This time, of course, I will generate the wallet offline. Is this still asking for trouble or should I stick to hardware like ledger?

If you are looking for a web-based wallet generator, there is another option worth considering – a deterministic one. Take a look at https://iancoleman.io/bip39/. When using these tools, it is always a good idea to clone them and run them from your hard drive while staying completely offline for that extra layer of security.

[Cricktor]

If you are looking for a web-based wallet generator, there is another option worth considering – a deterministic one. Take a look at https://iancoleman.io/bip39/. When using these tools, it is always a good idea to clone them and run them from your hard drive while staying completely offline for that extra layer of security.

Working offline with such scripts isn't enough precaution and security when that computer will go online again at some later point of time. It's difficult to assess a computer's security status and be very sure there's no hidden malware. If you want security for your mnemonic recovery words or paperwallets, then you need to operate in a pristine and secure and disposable environment, like a live Linux box or agnostic Tails OS that don't permanently save any persistant data on the device.

You have to be certain that no data traces of your handling with mnemonic recovery words or exposed private keys are left on a device that might go online later. Don't do such things on your daily internet shit computer/device.

[BlackHatCoiner]

I would strongly recommend you to stay away from any browser-based wallet software. Besides known paper wallet scam-sites, as the ones mentioned, javascript (which is what they all use) is non-recommended by cryptography experts; https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5324030.msg56590276#msg56590276

https://github.com/pointbiz/bitaddress.org

I would add that they should verify the binaries using signatures from outside Github: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=43496.0

[hosseinimr93]

Like BlackHatCoiner, I also recommend you to avoid any website for creating wallets. I recommend you to use a trustworthy open-source wallet like electrum or Sparrow and create a HD wallet.

With creating a HD wallet, you will have numerous addresses all generated from a seed phrase and in this way, you don't have to keep multiple private keys if you want multiple addresses. Also, writing down a seed phrase is much more easier than writing a private key.

[Kakmakr]

I created some paper wallets with bitaddress.org with a computer & printer that I never connected to the Internet again. We have a local computer shop that sells "cheap" second hand computers and I bought a low spec computer and printer from them.

I created the wallets and printed multiple copies of the wallets and then I stored the computer in the basement. (I can actually destroy it, but I might want to make more wallets)

Some people use an air-gapped computer, but I feel that there are still some ways to access a computer, even if it was disconnected for a while. 

[LoyceV]

Some people use an air-gapped computer, but I feel that there are still some ways to access a computer, even if it was disconnected for a while.

Use a Linux Live DVD, run from RAM, without hard drive, without internet, with the curtains closed, and there's nothing left to access after you turn it off.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Some people use an air-gapped computer, but I feel that there are still some ways to access a computer, even if it was disconnected for a while.

An air-gapped computer is permanently disconnected, not "disconnected for a while". If your computer is "disconnected for a while" and then reconnects, then it is not airgapped. What you have in your set up - a computer which never connects to the internet against - is exactly what is meant by an airgapped device.

And as Loyce says, you don't need to destroy it. Remove all permanent storage before you start and use a live OS, and then after you shut the computer down all traces of everything you have done disappear within a few minutes.

[Synchronice]

Thinking back, I believe the mistake was made when generating the wallet. Instead of going offline, the wallet was generated while still connected to the Internet.

No, the mistake was that you used an unknown website for generating your bitcoin wallet and stored your coins there. Don't even trust offline versions of those websites because there was a website that would let you to generate bitcoin address according to the move of your mouse cursor, i.e. you had to move it many times on your screen and this way you would get randomly generated bitcoin address but the actual truth was that even offline, this website already had generated thousands of bitcoin addresses, they have already saved them in their database and when user would generate one pseudorandom bitcoin address from this website in offline mode and would store coins there, website's owner would get a message about it (he was watching absolutely every address) and would wipe out your wallet.

Thanks everyone. As much as it pains me, I will walk away from this and put it down to a very expensive experience.

What about bitaddress.org as a paper wallet generator. This time, of course, I will generate the wallet offline. Is this still asking for trouble or should I stick to hardware like ledger?

The safest and the most secure options among hardware wallets are: The Passport Foundation and Coldcard.

You can use Sparrow or Electrum to generate bitcoin address on your computer. Users above me have already written what you have to do.

[m2017]

Some people use an air-gapped computer, but I feel that there are still some ways to access a computer, even if it was disconnected for a while.

Use a Linux Live DVD, run from RAM, without hard drive, without internet, with the curtains closed, and there's nothing left to access after you turn it off.

Does anyone use DVDs anymore? Maybe you meant to say Linux Live DVD USB? Nowadays it is rare to find CD/DVD drives.

https://tails.net/install/linux/index.en.html - here are instructions for Tails OS (is a security-focused Debian-based Linux distribution aimed at preserving privacy and anonymity).

Tails OS pre-installed on a flash drive is essentially a live USB. In principle, you can choose any other Linux distributive, each of which allows you to boot into live USB mode (you must select this item, skipping “install Linux”).

[LoyceV]

Does anyone use DVDs anymore? Maybe you meant to say Linux Live DVD USB? Nowadays it is rare to find CD/DVD drives.

I specifically meant a DVD because of it's write-once characteristics. You can buy an external USB DVD burner starting at $20, and that's what I use for this purpose. I still have a pile of empty DVD-R disks, and another pile with all Linux distributions I've burned in the past.

[panganib999]

First off, why would you use a flimsy site such as that to store your most precious asset? That was a little negligent of you dude. But let's save the reprimands for later.

I don't think there's a good way for you to even get your coins back, from the moment you generated that wallet you already relinquished any form of privacy that you may have over your crypto wallet. What's yours is theirs basically. Would've been really nice too if you asked the forum first before you actually dipped your toes into this ordeal. look into this article too though and see if this could enlighten you on how crypto scams work legally so you could discern if you could file a formal complaint or even sue them. Can You Recover Stolen Bitcoin From Crypto Scams?, but if I were you, I wouldn't get my hopes up. Let this be your first pricey lesson not to trust anyone on the internet with anything you own.