Flood took my seedphrase

[uchegod-21]

Sorry, @op, for this unfortunate incident. This is one of the reasons why newbies are advised not only to learn how to buy, sell and hodl bitcoin but also to learn how to secure and backup their seed phrases. I understand your claim that your area has never been flooded before, but how is it that you were smart enough to protect it against a fire outbreak? Or has the building been caught in flames before?

When investors learn security tips, one thing their instincts tell them is to store their seed phrases in different safe locations, just in case a situation like this occurs. This is something you would have learnt even before buying your first bitcoin.

If you still have your wallet on your device, you can transfer your bitcoins to a different wallet and do the right thing now. Alternatively, create a new backup immediately if your wallet allows it.

[JoyMarsha]

This is life, we get to learn our lesson in a hard way. You never knew that your mistake of not having an alternative to store your seed phrase somewhere else would hurt you in a way you didn't imagine.

Sorry for your loss. Losing up to $300 is not something some of us can easily lose and be happy about at this point, when everyone is buying and hodling their Bitcoin in anticipation of the bull run to come

[Hatchy]

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.

Your post history says you are from Nigeria, but we haven't had much news about flooding recently. However, I can confirm that there was flooding in several states during the rainy season. Right now, we're experiencing only a little rain and more sunshine The mistake you made was not having multiple backups of your seed phrase. You should always have more than one backup because storing it in just one location is not enough to keep your coins safe. There are many uncertainties, like the situation you described, which is why it's important to keep multiple backups in different secure locations. I'm sorry about your loss, though. I wish there were a way to dry the paper and recover the seed phrase.

[Abuobyda218]

I am sorry for your loss but I will give you an important suggestion where you can correct yourself later. Since you wrote it down and saved it in only one place but if you had saved it in multiple places and stored it in fireproof and waterproof containers then of course you would not have lost your Bitcoin. Since you know your area can be flooded so in this case you should have stored it in waterproof bottles. And if you had saved the seed phase of your wallet in multiple places then maybe you could have recovered your Bitcoin wallet. However some losses in life can teach you some important lessons which you can correct yourself later.

[Queen uloma]

it’s really painful because people take time to accumulate bitcoin only for something they never expected to occur and wipe out everything. Nobody will believe that flood will reach a place where they kept valuables, most especially when the place has never been flooded before.

This incident has really taught us  that no matter how secure a place is, it’s good to have a backup location for our seed phrase. Never you put all your trust in a particular location because disaster doesn’t create warning. This experience should be a warning to all of us.

[Nothingtodo]

This unexpected event happens in your life and it is normal for you to temporarily regret losing some of your Bitcoins forever, but prepare yourself and learn how to keep your Bitcoin wallet secure in such situations in the future. If you had stored your wallet security phrase in a waterproof place instead of keeping it in a place where water could get in, you might not have had to face this situation.
Although most people now store their Bitcoin wallet security phrase in both hard drives and manually. If you could have stored it manually and on the hard drive at the same time, then maybe even if you lost it offline, you would have saved it on the hard drive. Then you would not have worried and you could have recovered your wallet.

[Su-asa]

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.

The first mistake you made was to keep your seed phrase in one location. Wish you had kept it in different places; maybe the flood wouldn't have affected the other ones.

This is a place where no one can break into it and no other keys apart from my own key can open it

The safe might have a manual, but what if you misplaced the only key that only you could use to access the place no one could break into? How would you have opened it?
Which is why it's important not to store a seed phrase in one location.

There are 2 major things we should always look out for if we want to protect our seed phrase, and these are waterproof and fireproof. If you had also bought a waterproof and a fireproof, then stored your seed phrase in both of them, I'm sure at least one wouldn't have been affected

[Jewan420]

I am not exaggerating the extent of the damage. Rather, I am exaggerating the lesson we can learn from this loss. OP, I have nothing else to do but express my condolences for your loss. But I hope you will learn from this incident that it is important to take even small chances seriously.

Maybe the probability of theft or robbery in your area is very low, but you still need to be careful. Maybe the probability of flooding is very low, but you still need to be careful. You may be suffering the consequences of not taking small chances seriously.

You have proven why it is important to keep your seed phrase in multiple safe places. You have even proven why it should be fireproof and waterproof. Relying on paper alone to keep your seed phrase is also a bad decision, as proven by your incident. Newbies have a lot to learn about security from this, and even this incident should serve as a warning to us.

[Queentoshi]

This is life, we get to learn our lesson in a hard way.

Not all of us need to learn our lessons the hard way, like we can simply learn from this one. The lesson is that have all factors that can lead to loss of your seed phrase in thoughts, so you can avoid the situation from happen or be able to control the damage when it happens.

[Smartvirus]

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.

Okay, I might be wrong in this as per individual base but, I’ve got to state it out that;

I don’t in anyway believe what the OP wants us to believe in this. This have to be said so it doesn’t get robbed on the whole country because someone wants to fish.

It is true that, this year flooding did hit at an unexpected level and many cities and zones that haven’t previously experienced flooding got their share. Some households were particularly surprised at how they were having their buildings flooded up to 4fts high and they haven’t seen nothing of the sort.
Places with previous flood history had their worst but then,
The OP must really have his safe underground or on the floor to have had his safe flooded.

Also, $300 isn’t a lot of money in Nigeria as well, you can burn through that very quickly and that’s where inflation has brought the country.

[lionheart78]

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 am sorry to hear your loss, but it was an oversight to not see things that might happen. It could have been solved by simply laminating the paper, but what happened happened.  This is also one of the reasons why those who keep a sensitive document put the document in a waterproof ziplock bag or a heat-sealable plastic pouch.  Other also create a digital back-up and save it on a flash drive, keeping it in a different place with proper sealing that can withstand corrosion, water, and fire.

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.

Also, $300 isn’t a lot of money in Nigeria as well, you can burn through that very quickly and that’s where inflation has brought the country.

For a poor family in my country, $300 is already a lot.  It is equivalent to more than a month of work for some individual that is hired in a small storeas an assistant/helper.

[Issa56]

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 about what happened, it’s really sad to hear a story like this, after struggling to invest, it’s annoying to end up losing everything again. Also you should know that your environment is prone to flood disaster, you are suppose to be prepared for it, at least you are suppose to back up your seed phrase in different locations, if anything happens to then you will be able to access the other ones which you have. You were procrastinating and that’s the reason why you didn’t back up your seed phrase in other places, we should know that delay is always dangerous. I just hope you will be able to recover back, this loss shouldn’t stop you from starting your investment journey again, and this loss should serve as a lesson to you.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

Sorry for your loss, it doesn’t seem like much money to those of us in first world countries so I hope it doesn’t cause you too much upset. I also hope the water damage hasn’t caused you more financial problems. I guess it’s an expensive lesson about seed storage safety that I wish you didn’t have to learn this way.

[Smartvirus]

Also, $300 isn’t a lot of money in Nigeria as well, you can burn through that very quickly and that’s where inflation has brought the country.

For a poor family in my country, $300 is already a lot.  It is equivalent to more than a month of work for some individual that is hired in a small storeas an assistant/helper.

Indeed, $300 can account for several months of work, at least 4-5months going by the minimum wage here for a petty jobs and its likes although, I don’t know a lot of poor families that have safes, I’ve hardly encountered any 2nd class citizen that keeps one. Perhaps it’s going to be a thing here in time but, not this time.
Perhaps the OP might own one, perhaps but, having to afford a safe and then be careful so much of a $300 being flooded away, I hardly take that to be real.

It’s okay to be sympathetic except, I’m not just buying into this though, it’s not about the amount involved if anything should be taken out of this, it’s the proper means to store your seed phrase and what to expect as disaster.

[GeorgeJohn]

If your seed phrase is been misplaced because of flood, is not possible to recover your bitcoin in your wallet, so that's why it's good to keep your seed phrase in metal cave so that if their's fire outbreak or flood it will not affect your seed phrase documents, but most of us that have bitcoin or keeping bitcoin for long-term will not like to adhere with some of our opinions...it's obvious that you have lost the bitcoin without the seed phrase...

Because their's no support this forum can give you at this moment to recover your bitcoin...so it's a lesson to all of us who have bitcoin and fail to store the seeds phrase in metal cave.

[Italian Panic]

It’s a really bad situation losing your seed phrase, even for just a few satoshis, is always a shame, because a handful of satoshis today will have enormous purchasing power in the future. I hope you manage to recover everything, and bear in mind that next time you’d be wise to make more than one copy and store them in different places.
If you search here on the forum, there’s also a method for making a physical backup of your seed phrase using steel washers on which the words are stamped with a punch and a hammer. It’s a very interesting method, look it up and read about it. If you make two copies and keep them in two different places, they’ll be fire and flood proof.

[HelliumZ]

I am sorry for your unconscious loss. It is really sad that the seed phase of your wallet was destroyed due to the flood. Natural disasters are unpredictable and you cannot predict when they will strike. Sudden earthquakes, fires, sudden rains and wildfires are all sudden events. No one can predict when these events will come and destroy your valuable assets. However, some measures can be taken to minimize the damage in advance. However, it is unfortunate that the seed phase of the Bitcoin wallet was destroyed due to the flood water. if you could have kept it properly wrapped in a waterproof container or wrappingit might not have been destroyed.

[hmbdofficial]

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.

Why I also don’t believe his story is the fact that Nigeria didn’t experience much flood this year as this year recorded lowest rainfall in the last 5 years. And the OP is already projected to be a Nigerian as he also post on our Local board. However, if it’s true then I’m sorry for the loss of those coins, they are definitely worth something as that amount is almost four times the minimum wage set by the government, and it should mean a lot to him actually. He probably have just learnt the hard way that one backups isn’t just enough because we don’t know what natural disasters will happen us or our environment. Next time have multiple backup on different locations if possible, and think of every possible scenario when making backup plans so you don’t end up in situations like this.

[fullfitlarry]

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 to hear that, I'm also in a country wherein floods are a common occurrence specially during typhoon and rainy seasons. But I make sure that I have multiple copies of my seed phrase store that can't be reach by flood unless it's really like huge rain for days that our house was swept by it.

In any case, you can just start all over and forget about that bad experience. You have done it before so for sure you can do it again.

Best of luck and hope that you learn your lessons here.

[aoluain]

If the OP still has access to a wallet he can just get a hardware wallet and transfer the funds
from the old wallet 'without the seed' to a new wallet and start again, no loss in funds.

Its a lesson that paper is very fragile, metal is not. There has been plenty of posts made on
the forum regarding Stainless Steel 'seed plates' and Washers. to preserve seeds in a more
safe and durable way.