Topic: HELP I GOT ROBBED! (Read 3718 times)
Glad to see some good came from a terrible situation. Always sucks to think of someone losing their hard earned coins.
Thanks, for everyone who added to this thread. I`m fairly new at this whole bitcoin thing, so this helped a lot.
Good luck in the future. Do not hesitate to use Beginners & Help section for future questions. Lots of people around here willing to help the newcomers!
Thanks, for everyone who added to this thread. I`m fairly new at this whole bitcoin thing, so this helped a lot.
Quote from: DannyHamilton
Quote from: the1 on April 04, 2014, 03:58:00 PM
I had made a brainwallet which i tought noone could have guessed and never put my private-key somewhere.
This was a very bad idea. People don't need to "guess" a brainwallet. Instead, they write computer programs that model human behavior and then generate all possible brainwallets that match a set of likely behaviors. Depending on where and how you created the brainwallet, it is also possible that the brainwallet creating program stored a history of the brainwallets that it created so that the author of the program could steal the bitcoins at a future date.
Quote from: the1 on April 04, 2014, 03:58:00 PM
Please is there anything I can do
Unfortunately recovery of the bitcoins is extremely unlikely. There is a small chance that the thief is careless and reveals something about themselves that allows them to be identified. With subpoena power, there is a very small chance that the thief might try to use the bitcoins at a service that would supply you (or law enforcement) with the identity of the thief from their records. Please don't take this to mean that there is any hope of recovery. I offer this information only in the interest of being complete in my answer. I don't want to instill you with false hope.
As a note to anybody else that comes across this thread:
Bitcoin is still experimental and is still a technology considered to be in beta test. As such, it is very important that people don't hold more bitcoins than they can emotionally handle losing. If a person would feel devastated to lose all their bitcoins (or if the exchange rate on their bitcoins were to drop to $0) then they have too much bitcoins.
I had made a brainwallet which i tought noone could have guessed and never put my private-key somewhere.
This was a very bad idea. People don't need to "guess" a brainwallet. Instead, they write computer programs that model human behavior and then generate all possible brainwallets that match a set of likely behaviors. Depending on where and how you created the brainwallet, it is also possible that the brainwallet creating program stored a history of the brainwallets that it created so that the author of the program could steal the bitcoins at a future date.
Quote from: the1 on April 04, 2014, 03:58:00 PM
Please is there anything I can do
Unfortunately recovery of the bitcoins is extremely unlikely. There is a small chance that the thief is careless and reveals something about themselves that allows them to be identified. With subpoena power, there is a very small chance that the thief might try to use the bitcoins at a service that would supply you (or law enforcement) with the identity of the thief from their records. Please don't take this to mean that there is any hope of recovery. I offer this information only in the interest of being complete in my answer. I don't want to instill you with false hope.
As a note to anybody else that comes across this thread:
Bitcoin is still experimental and is still a technology considered to be in beta test. As such, it is very important that people don't hold more bitcoins than they can emotionally handle losing. If a person would feel devastated to lose all their bitcoins (or if the exchange rate on their bitcoins were to drop to $0) then they have too much bitcoins.
Hello, I'm brand new to this forum and to Bitcoin, and I wanted to thank you for this information. I wanted to ask you and everyone else what are some good tips to staying safe and to keep this from happening to me?
Posted From bitcointalk.org Android App
There are loads of threads with tips on security and being safe, mainly in the beginners and help section.
Best of luck.
Hello, I'm brand new to this forum and to Bitcoin, and I wanted to thank you for this information. I wanted to ask you and everyone else what are some good tips to staying safe and to keep this from happening to me?
Posted From bitcointalk.org Android App
Welcome
This is most probably a great time to buy, congratulations on your timing.
IMHO, the best way to be safe would be to keep most of your Bitcoins in Coinbase for the first few months, and keep a small percentage in cold storage. When you're new with Bitcoin, the odds that you mess up by having your own wallet stolen are quite high, it takes some time to learn all that needs to be learnt to properly secure them. Coinbase has more experience than you with this, and they keep 97% of their coins in cold storage. They have been audited recently and have proven that they did not lose any coins since their debut. Also, with all the investors that are involved with it, the odds are high that they will refund you if your bitcoins get stolen because of them.
If after a few months the coins you kept in cold storage are still safe and you feel you've learnt enough about security, it will be time to transfer the Coinbase coins to it
Good luck and have fun - it feels great to be able to truly control one's own money.
(even periods of crisis like this are exciting, if you're here for the long term
) Quote from: DannyHamilton
Quote from: the1 on April 04, 2014, 03:58:00 PM
I had made a brainwallet which i tought noone could have guessed and never put my private-key somewhere.
This was a very bad idea. People don't need to "guess" a brainwallet. Instead, they write computer programs that model human behavior and then generate all possible brainwallets that match a set of likely behaviors. Depending on where and how you created the brainwallet, it is also possible that the brainwallet creating program stored a history of the brainwallets that it created so that the author of the program could steal the bitcoins at a future date.
Quote from: the1 on April 04, 2014, 03:58:00 PM
Please is there anything I can do
Unfortunately recovery of the bitcoins is extremely unlikely. There is a small chance that the thief is careless and reveals something about themselves that allows them to be identified. With subpoena power, there is a very small chance that the thief might try to use the bitcoins at a service that would supply you (or law enforcement) with the identity of the thief from their records. Please don't take this to mean that there is any hope of recovery. I offer this information only in the interest of being complete in my answer. I don't want to instill you with false hope.
As a note to anybody else that comes across this thread:
Bitcoin is still experimental and is still a technology considered to be in beta test. As such, it is very important that people don't hold more bitcoins than they can emotionally handle losing. If a person would feel devastated to lose all their bitcoins (or if the exchange rate on their bitcoins were to drop to $0) then they have too much bitcoins.
I had made a brainwallet which i tought noone could have guessed and never put my private-key somewhere.
This was a very bad idea. People don't need to "guess" a brainwallet. Instead, they write computer programs that model human behavior and then generate all possible brainwallets that match a set of likely behaviors. Depending on where and how you created the brainwallet, it is also possible that the brainwallet creating program stored a history of the brainwallets that it created so that the author of the program could steal the bitcoins at a future date.
Quote from: the1 on April 04, 2014, 03:58:00 PM
Please is there anything I can do
Unfortunately recovery of the bitcoins is extremely unlikely. There is a small chance that the thief is careless and reveals something about themselves that allows them to be identified. With subpoena power, there is a very small chance that the thief might try to use the bitcoins at a service that would supply you (or law enforcement) with the identity of the thief from their records. Please don't take this to mean that there is any hope of recovery. I offer this information only in the interest of being complete in my answer. I don't want to instill you with false hope.
As a note to anybody else that comes across this thread:
Bitcoin is still experimental and is still a technology considered to be in beta test. As such, it is very important that people don't hold more bitcoins than they can emotionally handle losing. If a person would feel devastated to lose all their bitcoins (or if the exchange rate on their bitcoins were to drop to $0) then they have too much bitcoins.
Hello, I'm brand new to this forum and to Bitcoin, and I wanted to thank you for this information. I wanted to ask you and everyone else what are some good tips to staying safe and to keep this from happening to me?
Posted From bitcointalk.org Android App
It wont matter if he you can trace it, it can be mixed in easliy and not be traced also by trading it with litecoins, then he can sell lite coiins for cash
OK fine, but I just want to point out that you kind of stress me out a little when you say "any brainwallet you can memorize can be cracked" because it makes me doubt my understanding of cryptography (because it implies that the 12 word randomly generated mnemonics in wide use are not strong enough).
Those 12 words are generally meant to be written down.
There are very few people in the world who can memorize a completely random set of 12 unrelated words and recall them all in exact order a decade or two later if they haven't used the set for anything in the meantime.
If you are capable of that, then you can use a passphrase generator that generates properly random sets of enough words, and then memorize it if you like.
The vast majority of people who are trying to create brainwallets, are trying to come up with something out of their own head that they have enough of a connection to that they believe that they will remember it after a significant amount of time has passed. This is a VERY BAD idea.
*sigh* I'm not disputing that it's a bad idea. I just think it's possible to say "brainwallets are a bad idea for reasons X, Y, and Z, and here are examples of passphrases that would get cracked immediately and others that are considered safe (i.e., 12 randomly generated words following the electrum method)." I think most people have at least some intuition about what they are capable of memorizing, but very poor intuition for what makes a good, unfeasible to guess, private key.
OK fine, but I just want to point out that you kind of stress me out a little when you say "any brainwallet you can memorize can be cracked" because it makes me doubt my understanding of cryptography (because it implies that the 12 word randomly generated mnemonics in wide use are not strong enough).
Those 12 words are generally meant to be written down.
There are very few people in the world who can memorize a completely random set of 12 unrelated words and recall them all in exact order a decade or two later if they haven't used the set for anything in the meantime.
If you are capable of that, then you can use a passphrase generator that generates properly random sets of enough words, and then memorize it if you like.
The vast majority of people who are trying to create brainwallets, are trying to come up with something out of their own head that they have enough of a connection to that they believe that they will remember it after a significant amount of time has passed. This is a VERY BAD idea.
- snip -
theoretically one could memorize a private key. But you're not going to be remembering that
- snip -
theoretically one could memorize a private key. But you're not going to be remembering that
- snip -
You and I have a very different idea of what the word "memorize" means.
OK fine, but I just want to point out that you kind of stress me out a little when you say "any brainwallet you can memorize can be cracked" because it makes me doubt my understanding of cryptography (because it implies that the 12 word randomly generated mnemonics in wide use are not strong enough).
Well it's obviously false that any brainwallet you can memorize can be cracked, because theoretically one could memorize a private key. But you're not going to be remembering that in 6 months.
I had made a brainwallet which i thought noone could have guessed and never put my private-key somewhere.
Sorry, there is nothing you can do.The mistake you made was thinking that nobody would or could guess your password. No brain wallet is safe. There are 6 billion people in the world. What are the chances of one of them using the same password? What are the chances your password being guessed by any of the thousands of computers that are making millions of guesses every second? Both of those possibilities are very high. Any password that can be memorized can be guessed easily or accidentally.
... The 12 word mnemonics that have 128 bits of entropy generated by Electrum and others can be memorized, and so can be used as brainwallets...
There are people that would have no problems memorizing 12 random words. Heck, there are a few people in the world that can memorize thousands of digits of pi.
But, don't expect most people to be able to do that.
OK fine, but I just want to point out that you kind of stress me out a little when you say "any brainwallet you can memorize can be cracked" because it makes me doubt my understanding of cryptography (because it implies that the 12 word randomly generated mnemonics in wide use are not strong enough).
I had made a brainwallet which i thought noone could have guessed and never put my private-key somewhere.
Sorry, there is nothing you can do.The mistake you made was thinking that nobody would or could guess your password. No brain wallet is safe. There are 6 billion people in the world. What are the chances of one of them using the same password? What are the chances your password being guessed by any of the thousands of computers that are making millions of guesses every second? Both of those possibilities are very high. Any password that can be memorized can be guessed easily or accidentally.
... The 12 word mnemonics that have 128 bits of entropy generated by Electrum and others can be memorized, and so can be used as brainwallets...
There are people that would have no problems memorizing 12 random words. Heck, there are a few people in the world that can memorize thousands of digits of pi.
But, don't expect most people to be able to do that.
I had made a brainwallet which i thought noone could have guessed and never put my private-key somewhere.
Sorry, there is nothing you can do.
The mistake you made was thinking that nobody would or could guess your password. No brain wallet is safe. There are 6 billion people in the world. What are the chances of one of them using the same password? What are the chances your password being guessed by any of the thousands of computers that are making millions of guesses every second? Both of those possibilities are very high. Any password that can be memorized can be guessed easily or accidentally.
OK, I realize that caution has to be used with brainwallets, but what you say is overstating the case. The 12 word mnemonics that have 128 bits of entropy generated by Electrum and others can be memorized, and so can be used as brainwallets. They can't be feasibly brute forced or guessed.
I really feel like I want to puke and I'm shaking all over my body and can barely type.
I was just checking my wallet on blockchain and noticed that all my bitcoins were transfered to another account!
From the Details it happened yesterday.
I had made a brainwallet which i tought noone could have guessed and never put my private-key somewhere.
Please is there anything I can do or at least to make me feel better?
I just don't have a clue what to doaöäshefp9heWHFPAWHEFE
Sorry to hear man, brain wallets are not a good idea if you are going to use an easy password.
Yup. Not a good idea at all. You're going through so much trouble creating it and in the end you're using easy password - how messed up is this. 
Sorry to hear man, brain wallets are not a good idea if you are going to use an easy password.
why will entropy decrease?
There will be more and more brain wallets, so the chances will be higher that someone will stumble upon the same sentence.
Hence why you either dont use them OR use extremely long sentences which you wont remember so its not a brainwallet anymore.
i thought i'd seen 25 BTC
and even its 15 its a big damn loss
just hope that the thef will hit by karma this month
have you tried to search the address in this forum?
and even its 15 its a big damn loss
just hope that the thef will hit by karma this monthhave you tried to search the address in this forum?
why will entropy decrease?
There will be more and more brain wallets, so the chances will be higher that someone will stumble upon the same sentence.
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