Flood took my seedphrase

[Riyabitt]

Recently i experienced flood in where i recide and it was in the weekend when i wasn't around. I have a fire proof lockers where i keep my valuables and important details which i normally lock and this locker my seedphrase written in a sheet of paper was inside. This is a place where no one can break into it and no other keys apart from my own key can open it but unfortunately as gentle as water is as done what i never expected.  Where i reside, i was born and brought up here and we never experience any form of flood but it is unfortunate that i cant recover my seedphrase that have been able to accumulate  0.004084 BTC. I dont want to blame myself for not having another location for my seedphrase but i tried my best as one that is new, i planed of making an alternative of keeping my seedphrase but i didnt want to rush not to make mistakes.

[sunsilk]

I am sorry for your loss. With backups that we're creating, we have to anticipate any type of acts of nature not only about fire safety but also the flooding and even earthquake.

You have to start somewhere again but this lesson has given you the idea on how you should keep your keys next time.

I know that it's not that easy and you haven't expected that flood would come to your place which isn't common.

Climate change is a real deal and those unflooded areas right now are becoming flooded too, water level is rising year by year.

I am rooting for your come back as you start to accumulate again and make sure you create multiple back ups that are disaster proof or you have a back up plan if ever the same thing or the other happens.

[PrivacyG]

Losing around 300 Dollars is not a lot in many countries, but can be a LOT in some.  If you are in the situation where that meant a lot, which I suppose you may be considering you are also posting in the Nigerian local Board, one way you could get that back is offering activity and the least value you can to this Forum and in time you will have opportunitites of earning it back.  Maybe you have some skills you can turn in to money.

I am really sorry for the people who have these kind of incidents happening.  This is why storing Seeds on paper is not the best way to do it and it is rarely ever suggested by people around here any more.  A flash flood can take all of that and you can not do much about it.  But it can be as stupid as your three year old child finding that Seed and drawing all over it, your dog chewing it up or you simply spilling coffee on it that may affect the Seed in such a way it becomes impossible to recover again.

Although.  I am curious how you did not think about this possibility, considering Nigeria had really bad floods last year.  I would personally advise against putting significant amounts of money in an Asset before being able to properly secure it against theft or damage, so keep this in mind now.  Learn how to do it properly, and only after you secured your Seed put money back in it again.

[hd49728]

Recently i experienced flood in where i recide and it was in the weekend when i wasn't around. I have a fire proof lockers where i keep my valuables and important details which i normally lock and this locker my seedphrase written in a sheet of paper was inside. This is a place where no one can break into it and no other keys apart from my own key can open it but unfortunately as gentle as water is as done what i never expected.  Where i reside, i was born and brought up here and we never experience any form of flood but it is unfortunate that i cant recover my seedphrase that have been able to accumulate  0.004084 BTC.

It's hard to verify your story and without way to do that, believing in the story means assuming that you shared your actual story.

If it is your actual story, I am really sorry for your loss, which can be a big fund and important for you and your family. If it's like that, I hope that your family will quickly recover from this painful financial loss.

I dont want to blame myself for not having another location for my seedphrase but i tried my best as one that is new, i planed of making an alternative of keeping my seedphrase but i didnt want to rush not to make mistakes.

You were careful by making wallet backup, saving it in a fireproof locker but you forgot and ignored one of important principles in wallet backup.

Make multiple wallet backups.
Store them in different places.

With two principles above, if you apply them for your wallet backup practice, you won't lose your wallet if an incident happens with one wallet backup and at one location.

How to back up a seed phrase.

[Finebone]

Sorry for the loss because things like this can happen to anyone, no matter how careful you think you are.
I want to ask if the  wallet that contains the 0.004084 BTC is not in your device, because you can retrieve back the seed phrase from your wallet directly, if you still have it in your device.

A friend of mine has experience such before, but his own is not flood, but it was a fire incident that burnt down the building he was staying, so that was how he lost his seed phrase, but what saved him was that he still have his electrum wallet in his phone, so that was how he was able to retrieve his seed phrase from it the following day. So if the wallet is still in your device, I think that all hope is not lost.

[YellowSwap]

Are you saying that flood has never happened in that location before? This is really sad, because I have experienced something like this before, flood can come to places where it never happened, it almost took our home that year.

I know how bad that thing can get, we lost almost everything and it's been 8 year now but the experience forever sticks in my head, this is one of the reasons why having seeds placed in different locations is good.

I don't blame you, even if you have one backup in the locker and another elsewhere in the same house flooding can get serious to the extent that it will cover your home completely, everything will still be lost.

Learn from it and stand up again, it's not too late.

[Basels]

You were careful by making wallet backup, saving it in a fireproof locker but you forgot and ignored one of important principles in wallet backup.

Make multiple wallet backups.
Store them in different places.

With two principles above, if you apply them for your wallet backup practice, you won't lose your wallet if an incident happens with one wallet backup and at one location.

How to back up a seed phrase.

Even though I don't believe OP's story, I think you just can't be too careful in these things, unless you're a very meticulous person. You can even have two locations where you saved your seed phrase and they both come to ruin. I think engraving on a metal sheet is safer, especially if you have a lot of coins. Also, having one at home and another in the office is better. But the risk is that proliferation of seed words could make them fall into the wrong hands.

[Lucius]

Recently i experienced flood in where i recide and it was in the weekend when i wasn't around. I have a fire proof lockers where i keep my valuables and important details which i normally lock and this locker my seedphrase written in a sheet of paper was inside. This is a place where no one can break into it and no other keys apart from my own key can open it but unfortunately as gentle as water is as done what i never expected.  Where i reside, i was born and brought up here and we never experience any form of flood but it is unfortunate that i cant recover my seedphrase that have been able to accumulate  0.004084 BTC. I dont want to blame myself for not having another location for my seedphrase but i tried my best as one that is new, i planed of making an alternative of keeping my seedphrase but i didnt want to rush not to make mistakes.

I see that you wrote a post in Nigeria local, so I assume you are from that country? As far as I can see, Nigeria is quite exposed to floods, so it's strange to me that you didn't take that into account when you came up with protection for your seed. When you say that the water took your seed, does it mean that it literally took it away or that it penetrated locker and destroyed the paper?

You know, even if the seed has disappeared/destroyed, if you have a wallet that generated it, you can simply move your coins to a new wallet.

[Antidote47k]

Even though I don't believe OP's story, I think you just can't be too careful in these things, unless you're a very meticulous person. You can even have two locations where you saved your seed phrase and they both come to ruin. I think engraving on a metal sheet is safer, especially if you have a lot of coins. Also, having one at home and another in the office is better. But the risk is that proliferation of seed words could make them fall into the wrong hands.

Why are you finding it hard to believe his story, I mean, the story doesn’t seem so far fetched and looks like a scenario that can happen to anyone, although I don’t know why he failed to have another backup of his seed phrase, he already had a backup in his safe so I don’t get why he’s saying he didn’t want to rush to avoid mistakes, it can’t be that hard.
It’s cause of situations like this that people recommend having more than 1 backup, and it’s not just enough to have more than one, it has to be in different locations. In this case even if you had other backups in the same house, the flood would have still affected it.
Although having multiple backups is recommended, it comes with more responsibilities, the more backup you have the more prone you are to compromising your seed phrase. When backing up your seed phrase, you should consider durability, separation and confidentiality.

[HajiBagi]

Recently i experienced flood in where i recide and it was in the weekend when i wasn't around. I have a fire proof lockers where i keep my valuables and important details which i normally lock and this locker my seedphrase written in a sheet of paper was inside. This is a place where no one can break into it and no other keys apart from my own key can open it but unfortunately as gentle as water is as done what i never expected.  Where i reside, i was born and brought up here and we never experience any form of flood but it is unfortunate that i cant recover my seedphrase that have been able to accumulate  0.004084 BTC. I dont want to blame myself for not having another location for my seedphrase but i tried my best as one that is new, i planed of making an alternative of keeping my seedphrase but i didnt want to rush not to make mistakes.

Sorry for your loss, it was an unexpected accident that can happen to anyone, but you should have save the seed phrase in different places, I don’t know about others but email is one of the place someone can save their seed phrase, writing it in a paper is not a bad thing but you should have it in another place where you can get it when flood took away the one you have in where you live. We should be always careful when we have bitcoin in our wallet, and we should never forget that anything can happen, so we need to do things in a good way that we will have two ways of getting access to our wallet, some people wrote their seed phrase in a papers and keep it in different places so that if anything happens they can get access to their wallet.

[Decimetre]

Losing around 300 Dollars is not a lot in many countries, but can be a LOT in some.  If you are in the situation where that meant a lot, which I suppose you may be considering you are also posting in the Nigerian local Board, one way you could get that back is offering activity and the least value you can to this Forum and in time you will have opportunitites of earning it back.  Maybe you have some skills you can turn in to money.

I am really sorry for the people who have these kind of incidents happening.  This is why storing Seeds on paper is not the best way to do it and it is rarely ever suggested by people around here any more.  A flash flood can take all of that and you can not do much about it.  But it can be as stupid as your three year old child finding that Seed and drawing all over it, your dog chewing it up or you simply spilling coffee on it that may affect the Seed in such a way it becomes impossible to recover again.

Although.  I am curious how you did not think about this possibility, considering Nigeria had really bad floods last year.  I would personally advise against putting significant amounts of money in an Asset before being able to properly secure it against theft or damage, so keep this in mind now.  Learn how to do it properly, and only after you secured your Seed put money back in it again.

Storage of seed phrase should be a full subject in schools and every crypto orientated classroom. The problem is that we have various fears we deal with when storing seed phrase which is the reason many people tend to choose papar storage over many other storage systems. The fear of exposing your seed phrase when you use a metal sheet which means that you can't even hide it completely from people when searching for your seed phrase becomes their intention.

Paper backup allows a person to have a way of distinctively hiding it but fire outbreaks and floods render this style ineffective. But this incidence happens once in a while because even in this forum, not up to 5% will have same experience.

You can store your seed phrase in a rigid structure that criminals will stumble on whether in your presence or absence which will still render it porous. We can only do our best Nd see how far it takes us.

[Zlantann]

Are you saying that flood has never happened in that location before? This is really sad, because I have experienced something like this before, flood can come to places where it never happened, it almost took our home that year.

Global warming has caused some areas that have never experienced flooding to begin to suffer it. My area experienced flooding that has never happened. It is a lesson that we should prepare for new challenges or uncertainties. Keeping seed phrases in different locations that are far from each other is essential.

Sorry for your loss, it was an unexpected accident that can happen to anyone, but you should have save the seed phrase in different places, I don’t know about others but email is one of the place someone can save their seed phrase, writing it in a paper is not a bad thing but you should have it in another place where you can get it when flood took away the one you have in where you live.

Storing your seed phrase online is very risky. Email can be easily hacked, and you could lose your funds. Don't ever advise anyone to keep any sensitive information online.

[Cointxz]

This is the reason why I invest on a fire and water proof safety vault since my country was frequently being flooded due to frequent typhoons especially now that climate changes have happened.

I’ve been thinking a lot of this possible situation since last year when we experienced lots of consecutive typhoons that flooded my area.

I suggest to invest on security vault and titanium seed phrase back up to have resistance to any physical damage.

[Donk1]

​Well this is certainly an unexpected event, and things like this happen in the crypto space often both digitally and physically. Still I believe anyone can make certain mistakes like this. That's why we should always have at least two to three copies of our seed phrase just in case, because as enthusiasts our number one priority is our assets. Best to say perhaps if the wallet is still logged in on your device, you can be able to access it and get your seed phrase back. That said, it's often advised to engrave your seed phrase on iron steel so it would be waterproof. Basically like I said earlier, check if your wallet is still logged in if it's not, then all I can say here is that whenever you have the capital to start investing again, you should at least take proper precautions because we all know holding through a volatile asset like Bitcoin isn't really that easy for anyone, so perhaps losing it would be way more painful. So sorry about that... that's all from me....

[Rruchi man]

Recently i experienced flood in where i recide and it was in the weekend when i wasn't around. I have a fire proof lockers where i keep my valuables and important details which i normally lock and this locker my seedphrase written in a sheet of paper was inside. This is a place where no one can break into it and no other keys apart from my own key can open it but unfortunately as gentle as water is as done what i never expected.  Where i reside, i was born and brought up here and we never experience any form of flood

You planned for fire but did not plan for water? That was a mistake on your part. Even if you did not buy a waterproof locker, the smart thing is always keeping your important documents in a waterproof file that can be sealed. As water penetrated the locker, your sepharose written on a piece of paper and the other valuable documents you have there would have been safe and not damaged by water directly.

When you say that the water took your seed, does it mean that it literally took it away or that it penetrated locker and destroyed the paper?

I had this question too because OP was not specific enough, but I imagine that even if the room where the locker was got flooded, the locker will still remain in the room because the doors are locked.

[AmaGold70]

This is quite an unfortunate story and I sympathize with you for such a loss. Many people are loosing access to their wallet in so many ways, but their is a saying saying that " where your treasure is, that is where your mind will also be". Apart from the fact that flood took away your seed phrase, it is also possible that your cupboard would have been broken by criminals, and your belongings their would have also been missing. While keeping such an important information, ensure they are kept in different places, it can be inscribed in a device where you can gain access to it even if fire engulf your device or flood, just your password can give you access to it.
Well " experience is the best teacher" I believe you will learn more protective measures in securing your Bitcoin better.

[BABY SHOES]

This means that this is not a flash flood, right, but an ordinary flood that flooded your house so that the locker box was filled with water and the paper with the seed phrase written on it was damaged? Isn't that so?

Is there any local news of this kind in your country?

If you know the situation is often flooded in your area, you should keep it in a high land, at least suppose in the closet but the top, because I think the flood will not exceed like that.

It's just that this scenario I do not know if it is real or not... if it's true I'm down concerned about losing your BTC.

But... your wallet, still on the phone should still be saved, as long as it is not "view only" mode only.

[Lucius]

~snip~

When you say that the water took your seed, does it mean that it literally took it away or that it penetrated locker and destroyed the paper?

I had this question too because OP was not specific enough, but I imagine that even if the room where the locker was got flooded, the locker will still remain in the room because the doors are locked.

It is possible that it is as you say, but if it is a poorly built house and the force of the water was strong, it would not be strange if the water simply collapsed the house and carried away everything in front of it. It's strange that the OP protected himself from the fire, and didn't even try to protect himself from the water with a simple plastic bag with a seal or a plastic bottle.

[Cryptomultiplier]

It's a sad story indeed if it's actually true, but just as most of the comments have been made, it's always good to prepare for contingencies such as flood or fire or theft or any such I didn't remember to mention because we can't really be too safe mostly as Bitcoin investment is more or less self custody responsibility.

I was thinking that probably if you still had the paper where you wrote the seed phrases, you could at least left it to dry and try as much to figure out the words, but if that isn't possible, then it's really lost am afraid unless you are still logged into your wallet wherein you can still transfer your funds out before the wallet gets deleted or locked out in total due to careless operation.
 

[Ruttoshi]

Don't you have access to the wallet and login through your password. I think that's the only option for you because if you didn't write down your seed phrase and you don't have access your your wallet, it means that your fund is gone.

Keeping your seed phrase in a fire proof locker wouldn't save you if you don't have the duplicate of your seed phrase in another location far from each other.