I lost all my Bitcoin for five years

[YyuLong]

Directed by a friend to this forum, still fueled by anger but I will manage.

I lost some Bitcoin that I mined myself some years ago, I used Bitcoin wallet named Electrom and I was able to kept them for five years, I don't have interest in anything else than Bitcoin unfortunately something happened to my laptop and after several months of using my laptop after repair my Bitcoin was moved out.

That's a story for another day, I got angry because I suspected the repairer and I still landed in trouble, what I want to know is how to be more careful with Bitcoin so that I will not end up losing it after few years of keeping it, I regret not selling but how will I know that I will end up losing them? It is my fault, I should have been more careful.

What should I do so that this misfortune will never repeat itself in my life ever again.

[Bitcoin Smith]

It's your fault, despite you had months of window to move your bitcoins to a safe address, you just ignored it and now you paid the price for it.

How to avoid this in future? Use atleast 2 wallets, one for short term usage that is on a device which is connected to internet and another one is for offline and only you have access to that device, so even if goes through some issues, try to repair it on your own which is possible with laptops too but better move to a PC which is more convenient to work on.

[CONVOAI]

Directed by a friend to this forum, still fueled by anger but I will manage.

I lost some Bitcoin that I mined myself some years ago, I used Bitcoin wallet named Electrom and I was able to kept them for five years, I don't have interest in anything else than Bitcoin unfortunately something happened to my laptop and after several months of using my laptop after repair my Bitcoin was moved out.

That's a story for another day, I got angry because I suspected the repairer and I still landed in trouble, what I want to know is how to be more careful with Bitcoin so that I will not end up losing it after few years of keeping it, I regret not selling but how will I know that I will end up losing them? It is my fault, I should have been more careful.

What should I do so that this misfortune will never repeat itself in my life ever again.

I also use the Electrum Bitcoin wallet. But as far as I know, this wallet requires a password to open. You can't open it without your password. So how did your repairman transfer Bitcoin without your password? Did he get any passwords from you?

[Hatchy]

Your first mistake was keeping your long term Bitcoin wallet on a laptop.. and I assume you didn't back it up..  It’s very likely the repair technician tampered with it, but that will be almost impossible to prove now. Next time, never leave your wallet software open. Since you’re holding for the long term, you should use your public key to create a 'watch only' wallet..  This allows you to monitor your balance and generate deposit addresses safely without exposing your private keys.Don't beat yourself up too much. everyone makes mistakes, and that’s how we learn. But again, this situation was avoidable if the right security steps had been taken earlier

[sleepfirefly]

you said you have your btc stored in electrum it’s very secure even if someone got access to your device, without your seed phrase they won’t be able to access your bitcoin so maybe your seed phrase was easily accessible in your laptop and that was your mistake

[PX-Z]

... unfortunately something happened to my laptop and after several months of using my laptop after repair my Bitcoin was moved out.

That's a story for another day, I got angry because I suspected the repairer...

It's probably not the repair guy. Months have already passed, yet you're still blaming him, are you sure nothing else happened to your laptop? Maybe malware from downloaded software or another source.

If a repair tech had malicious intent and found your wallet, the funds wouldn't last for days or weeks, they'd be gone immediately.

[Zoomic]

... unfortunately something happened to my laptop and after several months of using my laptop after repair my Bitcoin was moved out.

That's a story for another day, I got angry because I suspected the repairer...

It's probably not the repair guy. Months have already passed, yet you're still blaming him, are you sure nothing else happened to your laptop? Maybe malware from downloaded software or another source.

If a repair tech had malicious intent and found your wallet, the funds wouldn't last for days or weeks, they'd be gone immediately.

If I have my wallet in my laptop and the laptop gets bad, I'm not sure I am going to fix it. I will rather get a new device and reinstall the wallet in my new computer and forget about the old.
If anyone is going to fix it, they should be able to do it before me and I will monitor everything. You don't keep your laptop with technicians overnight

[Bitcoin Smith]

~
I also use the Electrum Bitcoin wallet. But as far as I know, this wallet requires a password to open. You can't open it without your password. So how did your repairman transfer Bitcoin without your password? Did he get any passwords from you?

You can use passwrod or leave it blank which just adds a layer of protection but password is not going to save the wallet if the keys or seeds are exposed. But it's better to always use any extra protection that may give little bit more security to our bitcoin. I have been using electrum on both mobile and windows and never had any issues even while I am connected to internet because I keep the device free from any kind of possible malware but even if we can say I didn't download anything there is always a possibility that is why keeping the cold storage for long term is important.

[Salahmu]

Directed by a friend to this forum, still fueled by anger but I will manage.

I lost some Bitcoin that I mined myself some years ago, I used Bitcoin wallet named Electrom and I was able to kept them for five years, I don't have interest in anything else than Bitcoin unfortunately something happened to my laptop and after several months of using my laptop after repair my Bitcoin was moved out.

That's a story for another day, I got angry because I suspected the repairer and I still landed in trouble, what I want to know is how to be more careful with Bitcoin so that I will not end up losing it after few years of keeping it, I regret not selling but how will I know that I will end up losing them? It is my fault, I should have been more careful.

What should I do so that this misfortune will never repeat itself in my life ever again.

Is a sad one and on wishful experience, however I want to come in on the repairer you said you suspected, did you left the laptop with him and went back home to come back after he must have repaired it?, perhaps your suspicious could be right if you were not there because you wouldn't no what happened next after repairing the laptop, although my observation is not factual but after seeing it happen I believe something of this nation cannot be impossible but however random people is not nice to repair our laptop if we have something important  inside except is only one Repairer you trust. To avoid what happened again you have to strengthened your security more harder so that without you nobody could have there way on your wallet.

[I_Anime]

Directed by a friend to this forum, still fueled by anger but I will manage.

I lost some Bitcoin that I mined myself some years ago, I used Bitcoin wallet named Electrom and I was able to kept them for five years, I don't have interest in anything else than Bitcoin unfortunately something happened to my laptop and after several months of using my laptop after repair my Bitcoin was moved out.

That's a story for another day, I got angry because I suspected the repairer and I still landed in trouble, what I want to know is how to be more careful with Bitcoin so that I will not end up losing it after few years of keeping it, I regret not selling but how will I know that I will end up losing them? It is my fault, I should have been more careful.

What should I do so that this misfortune will never repeat itself in my life ever again.

This is why I encourage users to always do their research concerning bitcoin more (going for the knowledge) after starting their bitcoin accumulation journey , to avoid such thing. What actually cause this is poor management of assets .

Noncustodial are not 100% safe , but still give you the ability or the privilege to be charge of their asset . You are your own bank so the safety of your asset is in your hands , you would have added some pass key to your (like password ) that one need to go through before accessing your asset , is not completely your fault I was actually lack of proper knowledge, now just try and focus more on security.

[promise444c5]

I believe Electrom is a typo and you meant Electrum..

Now, how are you sure it was the repair guy?? You didn’t add any password to the wallet or You did but had your seed backed up on same device..
 
Another possibility is that, you used a weak password and it took the exact month for the repairer to bruteforce the password used for encrypting the wallet data file ( yeah he can just copy the file and then do the bruteforce on his device) but this actually depends on how weak you password is. Think about that.

Sorry for your loss..

[Jewan420]

It is very difficult for a repairman to get to the investment funds by breaking the private key of the wallet. If you do not have your seed phrases scattered around the laptop, it is difficult for the repairman to transfer the funds, if it was the repairman, it would not have taken long to transfer the funds. You would have lost the funds after the repair.

Remember if anything else happened to your laptop, if you clicked on a link or opened an email, maybe you downloaded something with malware or something. Try to keep long-term investment funds away from the internet connection and avoid logging into the software. After storing the seed phrase safely, delete the wallet.

[AVE5]

That's a story for another day, I got angry because I suspected the repairer and I still landed in trouble, what I want to know is how to be more careful with Bitcoin so that I will not end up losing it after few years of keeping it, I regret not selling but how will I know that I will end up losing them? It is my fault, I should have been more careful.
What should I do so that this misfortune will never repeat itself in my life ever again.

Maybe I should say you've already answered yourself with your realization that it was your fault of being careless and so, you'd had been more careful. So, the solution of keeping your funds secured lies in your hand which you've become aware that the key is to be careful and stay more careful with how you handles your device.

In my opinion, next time when you're taking your system to the maintenance engineer, take away your Hard Disc Drive if you aren't staying around the o watch the system fixed when taken it to the workshop because, it's the storage device that stores your informations in the computer.
You also shouldn't share your private keys but store in a self custodial if you must keep privacy.
Lot more to keep your funds safe is to be concious with the internet linkage of your device to third parties through sharing of internet access, downloading of phishing apps and clicking of malicious links and lastly, store your funds in non custodial wallets and write down your seed phrase and store offline.

[uchegod-21]

Directed by a friend to this forum, still fueled by anger but I will manage.

I lost some Bitcoin that I mined myself some years ago, I used Bitcoin wallet named Electrom and I was able to kept them for five years, I don't have interest in anything else than Bitcoin unfortunately something happened to my laptop and after several months of using my laptop after repair my Bitcoin was moved out.

That's a story for another day, I got angry because I suspected the repairer and I still landed in trouble, what I want to know is how to be more careful with Bitcoin so that I will not end up losing it after few years of keeping it, I regret not selling but how will I know that I will end up losing them? It is my fault, I should have been more careful.

What should I do so that this misfortune will never repeat itself in my life ever again.

You made lots of mistakes which cost you your bitcoins of 5 years, it's painful but now you have learnt that:
Storing your bitcoins in a device you use everyday is not safe. There might be unauthorised access or some attacks from the activities you do with the device
You should get a cold storage, it's safer
Next time if you must repair your device, remove your wallet from it or you move your bitcoins. Trust no one with your bitcoins.

[Moreno233]

If the Bitcoin were something significant, you would have used a hardware wallet instead of saving everything in your laptop without external backup. Assuming you backed up your wallets, you would have imported the wallet in another device and move the coins when the laptop spoilt. That would have enabled you save your coins and not allow them to be stolen by the laptop repairer. Next time, use a hardware wallet and back up your wallet externally.

[EluguHcman]

It's your fault, despite you had months of window to move your bitcoins to a safe address, you just ignored it and now you paid the price for it.

Yeah it is his fault and it is also good that he admitted it kindly by himself. However, I see a willingness to take correction in him so I think he should not be bashed on so hard on that course of him loosing his Bitcoin out of ignorant to secure his funds in a secured Wallet and his ignorance to maintain the privacy of his device PC too.

How to avoid this in future? Use atleast 2 wallets, one for short term usage that is on a device which is connected to internet and another one is for offline and only you have access to that device, so even if goes through some issues, try to repair it on your own which is possible with laptops too but better move to a PC which is more convenient to work on.

Using two Wallets as recommended may be necessary if OP actually tend to hold his Bitcoin asset in the both long and short term investment plans but for now, OP probably happens to hold long term and perhaps, managing two Wallets for such unconscious user maybe too heavy task for him.

OP really need to understand the threats about loosing Privacies in both storage device and personal keys to access and recover your Wallets.

[bangjoe]

I believe Electrom is a typo and you meant Electrum..

Now, how are you sure it was the repair guy?? You didn’t add any password to the wallet or You did but had your seed backed up on same device..
 
Another possibility is that, you used a weak password and it took the exact month for the repairer to bruteforce the password used for encrypting the wallet data file ( yeah he can just copy the file and then do the bruteforce on his device) but this actually depends on how weak you password is. Think about that.

Sorry for your loss..

Most likely he stored the seed phrase on the same device which was his laptop so that the technician could get the key to log in and send the bitcoins, the scenario could be that the technician turned on his laptop and saw the Electrum wallet on his desktop so that he could think about searching for the seed phrase and finding it in a file or in a note that OP hid on his laptop, this sounds more logical than doing a time consuming Brute force.

But honestly the incident has not been so detailed that OP explained whether he before fixing it checked whether the bitcoin was there or not in electrum, or it could be that the bitcoin was lost before fixing the laptop, he could provide txhash to see the transmission and where the bitcoin ran away.

[Z-tight]

So you mined BTC, when exactly? Did you mine BTC when it was still possible to mine BTC on a pc, or are you right now part of a mining pool and that is how you came about those BTC. I am asking this because from your post, you don't sound like you have good knowledge of BTC, so i am surprised you are a miner, or are you?

As for what you should do, if you have been in the network for more than 5 years and even been a miner within these years, like your thread suggests, don't you think you should have learnt the basics about opsec by now.

[Jegileman]

That's a story for another day, I got angry because I suspected the repairer and I still landed in trouble, what I want to know is how to be more careful with Bitcoin so that I will not end up losing it after few years of keeping it, I regret not selling but how will I know that I will end up losing them? It is my fault, I should have been more careful.

What should I do so that this misfortune will never repeat itself in my life ever again.

Did you collected your laptop from the technician and didn’t check your bitcoin until after several months? That means you are not even sure if it was the technician that moved your bitcoin. For the several months you’ve collected your laptop and was using it, your system may have even contacted external virus or malware that steals ones private keys if stored in the laptop.

So there is no case here to blame the technician guy even though there is a probability that it was actually moved by him. You should try not to always keep your saving wallets in your laptop and don’t expose your private keys or store them in your device that’s always connected to the internet. You’ve learnt the hard way and you should take lessons from this for future avoidance of same thing again.

[Mhizlove]

Am so sorry it happens this way, the pain is very understandable because the reason is not about you not selling but the security you used isn't strong enough that's why it happened this way , you see bitcoin gives full control but you see mistakes isn't reversible when it occurs.

If you want to avoid this again, I will advice you to always backup phrase  and avoid keeping long term bitcoin on a device that you repair or share with other people, make sure you use a strong offline storage like that hardware wallets. I know that this lesson might be hard but fixing your security isn't too late, fixing it now it's the way forward on how to keep your bitcoin strong.