Hardware wallet lost with over $700Million worth Of Bitcoin

[Ambatman]

https://indiandefencereview.com/after-12-years-of-failed-attempts-the-man-who-lost-his-hard-drive-containing-742m-in-bitcoin-is-forced-to-abandon-his-search/#google_vignette


The news can be accessed above about a Man that lost its Hard drive during cleanup.
It's persistence shows he never kept his private key well.

Many people take protection of private keys for granted either by screenshotting Or even saving them in emails.
Worse are the ones that believe that as long as they are with their phones they are still in control of their funds.

Even while using a non custodial wallet, if your seedphrase isn't properly secured, your funds are not in your control.

[SmartGold01]

I think 12 years is quite far to lose hope as it's very hard to find such a thing in a dump yard, just not scrap yard but a waste yard where things can be easily subjected to melting them down for a new product. Most times at the dump yard or scraped yards after several years, it could be from 8-10 years above things over there such as metals and any other useful material can be used to for molding of things, and there are some companies that usually comes to purchase those waste products and whenever they buy something like this it's easier for them not to have ideas of what they have bought from scraped yard and they could easily turn them into heat and get them melted.

[electronicash]

well he can consider it a donation and his name will be forever on the internet about the guy who lost his drive with a ton of BTC. such as waste but it is what it is.

there was an article about quantum computer able to recover its coins in the wallet and just put it in circulation so that no BTC will be unused. i know its kind of a news that makes BTC insecure asset but that was just a story. if its true though, its going to be quite a bummer.

[0t3p0t]

well he can consider it a donation and his name will be forever on the internet about the guy who lost his drive with a ton of BTC. such as waste but it is what it is.

there was an article about quantum computer able to recover its coins in the wallet and just put it in circulation so that no BTC will be unused. i know its kind of a news that makes BTC insecure asset but that was just a story. if its true though, its going to be quite a bummer.

Well that donation would be I think the most tragic and painful that ever happened to that owner because we all know that $700 million worth of assets isn't just a wealth but also a life full of more than just a financial freedom to the owners entire family's generation. I am still hopeful for the owner to recover it and tell us his unforgettable story with his Bitcoins.

[Faisal2202]

Many people take protection of private keys for granted either by screenshotting Or even saving them in emails.
Worse are the ones that believe that as long as they are with their phones they are still in control of their funds.

This line really hit my nerve and surprised me as well because I had this mindset from a long time and recently I started to travel for work from places which are not good and I usually travel in wrong times too haha like early morning and in evening when there is no one on those roads and places. Well this made me think that, what if I lost my phone I would lose everything.

Therefore I made some pre-cautions and I will suggest everyone to keep this line for sure and don't under estimate it because if you lost phone you should have proper measures in mind to do to undo the lose.

[Mia Chloe]

Therefore I made some pre-cautions and I will suggest everyone to keep this line for sure and don't under estimate it because if you lost phone you should have proper measures in mind to do to undo the lose.

With the amount and numbers of stories stirring the internet concerning lost funds via misplaced private keys and stuff, it now seems more like storing your keys gets harder as time goes by. The internet hasn't been a good place to store your keys since the beginning but it seems to be getting even worse.

For storing offline many vulnerabilities come up when you fail to keep your Hodlings as secret as possible especially if you have huge amounts. You may be safe from hackers when you store offline but you aren't safe from theft and burglary.

[TomPluz]

After long 12 years, the popular saga of James Howells may have finally ended...and though I am feeling sorry for his failure to get back that hard drive with mined Bitcoin worth millions. I think the time has come for him to accept his fate as it would be so impossible to dig the thrash for it. At least, he made it to one of the many colorful personalities connected with Bitcoin. The biggest takeaway here is to never be lazy in securing everything you own most especially cryptocurrency as losing the key or seed phrases means losing access to something that is and will be so valuable. I am hoping that Quantum Computing will be the technology to get back the lost coins...though I am really also doubting it as it might create chaos in the market. Now, I am advising James Howells to instead capitalize on his story by licensing it to movies, books, documentaries and the likes as he can easily create a goldmine in there - and there is no more need to dig the heap of decades-old thrash.

[bitterguy28]

Many people take protection of private keys for granted either by screenshotting Or even saving them in emails.
Worse are the ones that believe that as long as they are with their phones they are still in control of their funds.

Even while using a non custodial wallet, if your seedphrase isn't properly secured, your funds are not in your control.

i think you are quite confused mate a hardware wallet is an offline storage of your coins and he did not take a screenshot of his private keys nor did he save it in his email he stored it in a hard drive which is smart if only he took care of it well

he accidentally gave it away and it landed on a landfill and this was 12 years ago when bitcoin is not what it is right now so i can just imagine his regret but anyway cold or hot wallet both needs to be taken care of well

[Ambatman]

i think you are quite confused mate a hardware wallet is an offline storage of your coins and he did not take a screenshot of his private keys nor did he save it in his email he stored it in a hard drive which is smart if only he took care of it well

he accidentally gave it away and it landed on a landfill and this was 12 years ago when bitcoin is not what it is right now so i can just imagine his regret but anyway cold or hot wallet both needs to be taken care of well

No I think is the other way round.
Reread the post and you would realised I'm talking about two different things.

I was emphasising on the fact that individuals that chose to keep/protect their private key do such with the aforementioned methods which I'm stating isn't safe.

This line really hit my nerve and surprised me as well because I had this mindset from a long time and recently I started to travel for work from places which are not good and I usually travel in wrong times too haha like early morning and in evening when there is no one on those roads and places. Well this made me think that, what if I lost my phone I would lose everything.

Been there Before, mine was I lost my phone and was lucky that it was returned that's when I realised the irrelevant risk I have been taking.
What I do now is I usually delete my wallet app in case another gain access since I can tell roughly how much is in it through explorer.

[rdluffy]

James is “famous” in the Bitcoin community, there have been news stories about him trying to recover his hard drive from the city dump for years
Unfortunately this case is all but lost and I'm sorry for him, it must be a horrible feeling to have thrown millions of dollars in the trash, literally
It must be hard to get on with your life without thinking about your fortune every day

The reality is that these BTC are like Satoshi's BTC, they were donated to the network, and for us it's a great lesson to always protect our seeds and have a backup so we don't lose access to our wallet

[Freemind]

After 12 years, even if James found that hard drive, I highly doubt it would help him get his coins back. The deterioration that the device must have suffered (especially humidity and corrosion) would make it impossible to recover the private keys, although it is also possible that it had a small chance, computer forensics has improved a lot in recent years. What I can't understand is why he has been denied access for 12 years. Maybe the hard drive isn't where James thinks it is... I know it sounds like a conspiracy or a spy movie, but there are people who would do anything for that amount of money, and for less.

[yhiaali3]

Yes I heard his story a long time ago, a really painful story for this young man and a disappointing ending, but the good thing is that his story can become an icon like Bitcoin pizza, he became famous but lost his fortune forever. 

Of course he should have taken more security measures to keep the private key at that time but that doesn't work anymore, maybe the value of Bitcoin at that time was not that big because its price was very low so he didn't care much about taking precautions to keep the private key.

In the end he couldn't do anything anymore, I'm really sorry for him.

[Z-tight]

It was his girlfriend who threw the hard drive away, but it is James' fault for leaving his hard drive carelessly, probably because BTC was not worth so much back then. I can understand how he feels, chasing this all these years, but it was obvious to many of us a long time ago that there was no hope of him recovering those funds, that is the reality.

[Baofeng]

I think it's finally over for him, the city council has rejected his plea to go to the dumpster and search for his hard drive.
He even attempts to buy the landfill himself but to no avail.
So with that, it's really bad for him to not find his hard drive, but there's no one to blame but himself in this situation.
Maybe it was really fate that he lost it so that the price is going to skyrocket. Just imagine if he found it and sold everything, it will create a lot of chaos in the price.

[tabas]

Oh, this was the dumpster guy. I feel bad and terrible knowing that he's been dedicated in finding his keys but in no success. This is what his fate and he didn't took care of his belongings on the early days and that's why he's sorry for himself. This is a fortune that can put him into retirement and don't have to work anymore until his deathbed. But, he has to start from somewhere and needs to move on because looking for it for several years is tiring. He's given up and it's just a history for his life that would surely give him nightmares.