Topic: How Bitcoin Nearly Bailed Me Out (Read 648 times)

Most of the time our phone is been security locked or does have pin or fingerprint even with family members then there's no way that could be accessed out but for the sake of safety and security
then it would be good if you would be creating something new and transfer those coins into that new wallet yet being paranoid for security isnt really that bad because we do have that kind of saying that
its better to be safe than sorry. Creating one wont really be that hard and doesnt really cost an arm and leg. Lucky for those people who had able to remember that they had something for a long time.
In my case, i might able to forget those things and i might had lost those screenshots.

I don't know if seed phrase that was screenshot by op was in his phone gallery or a private place in his phone. If the screenshot seed phrase was saved it in the gallery,  it was not in a safer place because anyone close to op phone and have access to his gallery and get information of the wallet.  Op took risk by not saving seed phrase properly.

Yeah, I really can't see myself getting a new wallet and getting BTC into it and then forgetting about it. Not in 2016, and surely not now...

I also don't keep much balances in services (casinos generally, sportsbooks... Exchanges not anything for more than a few hours) so even if I might forget about them, or they die, no way I stumble upon those in future. Not my keys, and all that.

Screenshots? Gives me an idea actually. Obscure a couple, or leave out, but yeah maybe one other way. Wallpaper it (physically) ha ha.

The point you said it could never happen to you got me laughing hard, like you are always keeping a close eye on them. It’s necessary you do so for fear of losing out, because it’s almost like a risk, forgetting or abandoning your wallets. I do love the way the whole system was configured, you get to re-access an app, an account or wallet after so long. Kudos to technology, Kudos to Crypto.

In all and in general, I advise everyone to find safer places to store their key phrases, screenshots are not mostly reliable on, because such backups could fail in most cases!

If this is true, then congrats! You have now instant money out of the blue. But next time, be responsible in keeping your seeds as they could be more safe if you'll save it in a secured place than just a simple screenshot that can only be deleted accidentally. Otherwise, don't expect that by next time you will still be able to recover again your old wallet as its not all the time that the same situation permits.

Could never happen to me as have always kept a close eye on all my stashes, save the few faucet sites way back when I didn't know what I was doing or never had a wallet. I do often think back on all those dust -- back when minimum withdraws were still $10 or something and BTC wasn't even $1000. Pretty depressing fantasising.

I do have some alt wallets thrown out I'll never recover. Proper deleted and wiped HDD in a sordid spring cleaning exercise years ago. One or two make me shed a tear heh.

This explains why most hackers tends to target mostly exchanges but the success is often limited to resources and having an insider to do the other parts of job. Malware and Phishing actually works too and another is using brute force. Where the hacker gets to send several passwords or seeds until it eventually searches out the actual one. All this becomes the sole cause of the attention you draw to yourself in holding large funds within a single wallet address. You can generate a new address each time you want to receive funds and it all leads to a single wallet so, why not do that and stay off the hooks of having to much!

Hackers won't search everyone's phone. They have their own targets which they have marked. The people who are targeted for hacking are those who are heavily involved in crypto and those who don't really care about their security. One of the easy targets to be hacked is those who have a lot of assets that are publicly disclosed with the addresses they have, this certainly attracts hackers to start stalking them and perform several methods to get into the victim's device. and some other hackers also use random methods to hack one of them by using malware, phishing and the like.

Lucky for him, in the sense;

1. He didnt delete those screenshot
2. The phone hasnt reformatted
3. It wasnt seen by someone who holds the phone
4. Mobile malware

Once you do experience these things then say goodbye on your wallet
yet any PK exposed then expect on what would happen next.

I believe one thing but what I am reading is making me doubt what I have believed.
When we speak about hacking or stealing anything like seed phrase that is screenshoted.
I have a question, does hackers go on searching everyone's phone to see screenshot that has seed phrase?
I think there should be some signs of bitcoin that will attract hackers.
What I mean in essence is that how will a hacker understand that he saved his seed phrase in screenshot before thinking about how to hack it?

That's probably huge, mate. Not all were given chances to have stored cryptos in their old wallet, so i must say you really are lucky. But if you are still doing some screenshots on your current wallet, i don't think that will be a good idea since you are putting your seed words in danger once other people can access your phone. Try to be more careful when it comes to your savings accounts, as you may not want to lost them in times when you badly needed funds because you're in trouble with your finances.

risky or not depends on how to save the screenshot. Although saving in a text file will also be dangerous if you are not careful in saving the file. I even have a lot of screenshots and it's still safe as long as the security of the device is under my control.
I have several BTC wallets, some of which still have BTC and some even forgot the key.

Congratulations, we here do not know exactly how many bitcoins you found, but you are lucky to have found them. To be honest, I don't think someone saved the phrases on their phone and luckily it hasn't been deleted or stolen by someone. Taking screenshots and storing them directly on your phone with an internet connection is risky, as no one will do this as an investor.

From your story, I think we can draw a lesson for those who want to sell their bitcoins, hold on the value of bitcoin can only increase and will reward those who hold.

Quite a risky approach to screenshot your seed phrase but good thing that the BTC wallet came through for you when you needed it the most.

Yes, the OP is very lucky and because of the debt that makes him feel called to do it and remember or wish good luck.
because when in a position of stress by debt or need, and when that happens, it comes to mind to remember some wallets that haven't been used for a long time and try to recover them, and hope There are some bitcoins left behind or forgotten. And I've been in that position before and I did but unfortunately I haven't had any luck.

I have access to my original bitcoin wallet. The balance is zero but when i count the transactions over the years i found i had over 350 bitcoin go through it but i have nothing.   

Without a doubt the OP got lucky, how many times we have heard of similar stories in which someone needed some money and they remember they had some bitcoin only to realize the wallet where they stored those bitcoins is no longer available for some reason or they have lost their seed words?

This is a very common scenario, so while I am happy for the OP since he was able to recover that bitcoin and pay up his debts, he needs to keep track of his bitcoin otherwise he may not be as lucky the next time something like this happens to him.

Glad to hear bitcoin came through for you when you really needed it but i I would suggest doing a bit better or a job keeping track of your funds across the board. Also I don’t think I need to tell you that you shouldn’t keep your seed phrases saved anywhere except offline.

Lucky on the sense that you havent lost those screenshot or copy of your private keys specially if you do mind off on being one of the early fellas who do get involved with Bitcoin or altcoins into their early years

which it would be a good call if you do remember that you have some good amounts of coins in your wallet and then you suddenly remember on where you stored it and find out and able to access it.

It would really be a life changing scenario if you have keep lots of amounts plus having the increase of its value in years time.

You are lucky because firstly some wallet it is is not possible to screenshot the seed Phrase directly from the wallet but you were able to do that. You are lucky to get access to your old wallet when you were in the tight corner of need of money.

I did something similar to this recently. Unfortunately I am not doing great financially neither, I am doing fine thank god, but my nation has such a high inflation right now that people barely survive, so I am good compared to them.

But, I of course need money like any human in the world, even Jeff Bezos wants more money, so me wanting more shouldn't be a shock even though I am not starving or in poverty. I checked my poloniex which I haven't checked in many many years, and I had to try a lot and contact support and many other things, all of which turned out ot be absolutely nothing and had zero in it So not all of these stories end up with a fairly tale ending.

If this thing happens to me, it must not be Bitcoin that I would find but shitcoins, many of which must be airdropped for free. I doubt I would ever find some forgotten Bitcoin. I don't think I'd forget even a small amount of Bitcoin. Why, I made an inventory of all of them and which wallets they are stored. Especially now, I'm not keeping significant amounts of Bitcoin outside my hardware wallet. But, most of all, since I've only got a small amount, every Sat counts.

I have come across similar incident, but the amount isn't that big to make a difference. At some critical situation I searched and recovered $50. By that time it was really helpful, and myself too had the recovery seed in the form of screenshot. As different users mentioned it isn't good to have our recovery seed in the form of screenshot, but that was the easy way to have it stored in a separate folder than copying it on a notepad.

It's nice as you State it, and again bitcoin can give hope when some body is hopeless or lost hope totally, thing is that have coin that you saved and remember the seed phrase of the wallet. But i want to correct you if incase this your post is something you frame to have merit.no system that allows screen shot of seed phrase, when you screenshot the system will tell you that you can't screenshot from this platform, the only we do is to write it out or you snap it with camera with another system, with the two things i notice I'm not confidently believing that this is a live story

Unfortunately, I don't have one, I only have my wallet now and I'm grateful for that. But it is true that Bitcoin really helps us. 

Btw, is true that all members said here, that it is risky to save your seeds screenshots on your mobile phone. because once the phone was lost or broken, it means that the data is also lost and we can lose our assets. I remember how I lose some asset because I save some data on my mobile phone. and don't have any backup on the printing

First of all I'm very happy for you! Second, I hope you now saved the seed somewhere else and deleted the screenshot. Third, your story reminded me when I was a kid a I would find a few dollars in a winter jacket or in a pair of jeans, but at the same time it's also an indication of how things change, now even this kind of "surprises" are digital 

This is impressive op having a forgotten wallet that has good amount of Bitcoin which you couldn't remember since. This is one of the advantages of keeping your seed phrase safe from third parties. I see it safe to keep your Bitcoin in a wallet that you have access to the seed phrase than exchanges that could close your account and embezzle the fund that is there. Almost similar case had happened to me when I forgot that I had a good amount 9f Bitcoin in my Wallet.

You are totally talking shit because your post is totally irrelevant or doesnt really connect on what OP had been talking about.Its not about trading and experience but rather on having access on old wallets you do

have and going back to the topic then i dont experience this one since i havent able to engage into bitcoin on to those early years which you could possibly able to make huge money if you had bought cheap
into those days.

Its really that regrettable or having those kind of stress and being annoyed if you do really mind off on how you do miss out that big opportunity.

In general, many often have problems when working with bitcoin. And most often this is due to the fact that traders simply do not have enough experience.

Ahh, yeah the old is gold stuff. I know that and it has happened with me too. Many times we create different wallets, through simple sites like bitcoin dot org and end up with private and public keys with us. I have used it few times before I sat up proper wallet for me. But missed the printed copies many times and found it while doing the house chores. I know that’s really casual approach for it but since then I have proper wallet and cold storage wallet so that I won’t miss my coins like this.

You're still lucky that you never lost your screenshot and still access your old wallet. But never be confident in just doing a screenshot just to keep your seeds. Always be responsible in making it more safe by transferring that data to a more secure device which cannot be access by anyone of your family or friends. Or better yet withraw your bitcoin and store it in a hard wallet which i think will make your bitcoins safe from all sorts of scamming that will steal your bitcoins.

Wow that's a relief!  You're just one of those who successfully retrieve their old wallet with bitcoin in it, luckily you still have that seed screenshot. But maybe you're putting your seed phrase in danger when you are just keeping it in your gallery and that some friends of yours may accidentally open it. So have it store in a very safe place wherein you're the only one who can access it. Do it now before you lost your bitcoin and feel sorry for it.

First and foremost, I did love to point this out, keeping or storing  wallet seed phrase in the form a screenshot saved on your phone gallery is the most crazy and the most negligent way of keeping your wallet safe from hackers and exploiters, and thank God you added "crazy" at the end of the sentence, as that shows you really know its crazy.
This kind of negligence shouldn't be practiced under no circumstances, no matter how in a hurry you are to get things done, when it comes to creating a wallet, please slow down, calm down and do this properly to avoid future loss or losses.

This has happened to me earlier this year, though not with bitcoin but with Ethereum, if I could remember, it was back in 2017, when I decided to take break from crypto, I left a little above 0.09 eth (which I used for transaction fees) in one of my wallets, when I returned back to crypto in 2020, I created new wallets and abandoned all the old wallets, I had totally forgotten I had over 0 09 eth somewhere.
It was one day I was just going through all the seed phrases of wallets I've ever created in my crypto journey, then the thought came to me "what if there's funds in one of this wallets?", so then I decided to import those wallets one after the other and on this very one, 0.09 eth which I believe was worth less than $20 usd when I left it was now worth over $300 usd, I was so happy, it felt like money picked on the street, it was super exciting and the feeling was out of this world, and this happened in a time I was facing some serious financial difficulties.

Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies have made me determine that which is of the most importance with regards to the keys or seed phrases and how to keep them save. Screenshoting my private keys isn't one of the best methods or strategy towards that. Although, my devices might be sole to me and I entertain a high level of privacy towards how its handled but, you never can completely tell what could go wrong at the least minute. Hence, I don't have my keys or seed phrase anywhere on any electronic device even.

You must be someone that isn't about regular switch of devices or give attention to much advancement in technology as per phones. Or perhaps, you just keep adding to your collection. Either ways, you were lucky to have hot your seeds in your phone, not deleted, uncompromised and it reminded safe still. That's nice but either ways, you have to mind the way you handle your wallet and begin to see cryptocurrencies or bitcoin as important as it is and not something you neglect, only to pick up where you left off.

Btc bailed you out halfway through even though not up to the entire funds you are looking for. Good thing you still had the screenshot of you keys in your device, you never know how an old waller with little sat in it can make a difference now.
I had a similar experience long ago, I had btc in my old wallet that ignore because the value was small..... then btc price pumped to 20k and my small btc price was high I couldn't believe it, it was a good feeling.

If you are a kind of person who do keep things and dont easily throw off something important even you do miss or stop on dealing with it and move into the next then once the time you do encounter it again then its

impossible that you won't really be able to remember those things especially if you do know that you have some considerable amount then for sure you would tend to remember everything since it might be a life changing
kind of situation or something that you could buy that you do want with that amount.

Luck does really play a role for these kind of circumstances on which whether those keys are still intact after all the years you've been ignoring or rejecting it.

That's really great atleast you now understand is better you have bitcoin and also you have benefited from bitcoin, and am sure you are still going to buy and hold bitcoin again, but next time if you are storing your private key always make sure you don't screenshot it on your phone, make sure you store your private key in a place that's not connected to the internet for security purpose. Anything can happen to your mobile phone, anybody can have access to your mobile phone and they can easily steal your private key and your wallet address will be compromised. So learn to secure your private key offline.

Of course, it is possible that there are such cases, but people who were involved in Bitcoin in its early days most likely wouldn't keep their seed phrase on their phones. Think about it: if you had significant funds invested in some assets, would you take a screenshot with your mobile phone and completely forget about it for years? I find it hard to imagine.

Okay, maybe if it's a few hundred dollars, or even a thousand dollars, but that can't be called a life-changing amount.

Yes, the Op might be quite lucky about bitcoin. But somehow someone is still kind enough to compose a story that I don't think is 100% true without proof. You and I can still tell people you have dozens of bitcoins stored in your wallet for a long time without realizing that they have been very valuable and only realized after years. LOL

Of course I'm not asking the OP to prove the story is true, but I just agree that bitcoin is something that has benefited all long term holders so far. About that story, there is a good lesson to be learned and it is about keeping assets and wallets safe when one owns any amount of bitcoin.

Equivalent to 1 year's salary at work? it may be quite a large amount if calculated in the duration of 1 year. Can reach $ 10K depending on how much salary in a month. Indeed, the incident of saving seeds using screenshots is almost felt by everyone, including me because it may be a simple method. But again backing it up in someplace will really help us someday. Whether it's stored on your cellphone or computer, or in a notebook, it will be very important if you disassemble it at any time.

You are lucky because firstly some wallet it is is not possible to screenshot the seed Phrase directly from the wallet but you were able to do that. You are lucky to get access to your old wallet when you were in the tight corner of need of money.

Yes it's op luck still saving and finding the old seed phrase, even I think he forgot he saved it last time. The luck the op can't get a second time I think.
Indeed if talking about the past can still happen as op experienced, but for now it will be difficult to find such an experience. In fact, I think now most people will check their portfolio every day.

I had a bit different scenario than yours.. but it is linked to Bitcoin (BTC) in a way. So, I regularly sweep Paper wallets with Bitcoin in cold storage to my hot wallet and I have done many of those in the past. One of the golden rules are not to destroy those wallets, so I remembered that and I kept those Paper wallets.  

I was looking for some disposable cash to invest in a Alt coin that I suspected would go up very fast, so I remembered that those Paper wallets still contained some "Fork" coins and I converted them to cash and bought a lot of those coins. (I then sold that for a 80% profit and bought Bitcoin again.)  

What you experienced was very similar to mine because I used to store all the data on my laptop, so one day I sold the laptop, but I forgot that before reinstalling the laptop to secure my data first so that everything is just a memory.
But all of this is a lesson for me going forward to be even more careful in maintaining my wallet account.  But now I have tried to save all my data in gmail because that way we will never lose our data again as long as we still remember the gmail password.

it must be really fun when we need funds and check a forgotten wallet and find bitcoins in it.

and the problem of mnemonic phrases or the like which are screenshots and stored on your phone. it reminds me of my bitter experience. I used to do the same thing. and my phone doesn't have an external memory card. I used to back up my wallet phrase in the form of a screenshot on my cellphone. and my bad luck was that at that time my cellphone really couldn't be turned on because it was submerged in water and it was too long in the water. and was taken to a repairman, it turned out that there was a short circuit and had to be replaced. and more unfortunately the data in it cannot be retrieved or recovered because there are indeed damaged components. and I lost my wallet along with the phrase code. The lesson was really stifling because the price of the cellphone could be bought back, but the contents in the wallet which I think is more that makes me regret it.

from there I learned to save my wallet backup on paper in a special book and keep it in a safe place. because I don't want that bitter incident to happen again.

Let us put it this way, he is very lucky to remember where he put his seeds.
And the device is still with him. These days, we change our phones much often.
His story is a fortunate one. This is why I am also saving my eth address with password and keystore as well as bitcoin keys.
Who knows, those small satoshis and small amount of eth will be valuable in the future?
Don't forget where you saved your important keys, and make sure they are secure.
It may not be worth today but with how things are evolving in crypto, some are worth checking few years from now.

if that's the case you are very lucky. whether you have not previously checked it again or searched again in recent years.
if you completely forget the wallet and then recall it is a miracle. moreover you still have the seeds.
you are also too careless to save the seed only in your device, if it is lost or the device is corrupted it will not be able to be opened forever.

Yeah, like a friend who's knowledgeable in accessing those seed phrases and borrowed your phone.

While using the phone, he accidentally or intentionally searched for some things on your phone and found that screenshot of your seed. Well, not really a good idea to keep it there.

Just like what everyone said about writing, it will cost you some time and effort but it's still the best way to keep those keys.

Lucky for you, you still be able to recover your old address with complete private key but it's not a good practice to save your private key on an active phone though. Just like what the above said, you need to place it offline not online but how lucky you are having some old BTC address to left some BTC inside. Most of the News when I heard something like this they were either lost their private key or something worse happened to their hard drive while some would hire someone to brute force crack their long passphrase key but unable to do it.

Great you were able to use your stored seed to retrieve your funds in the old wallet. At the same time it is very dangerous to do so in the future, it can be compromised and when someone have access to it all your funds will be gone. Preferably and more secured when it is saved offline and kept in a safe place.

Hey, lucky you forgot about the old wallet before otherwise you might have spent what was in it. Probably a good idea for others to learn from this & write down all wallet passwords, seeds & what platform they are on.

Access back to the old wallet as if we found a treasure? where you forget to save a few satoshi with a long enough duration and are still awake. It's one of the things I do often. Opening several seeds that are recorded one by one in a personal book hoping there are forgotten treasures.
In 2017 I did that and thank you for changing my life since then too. The unforgettable lesson is that only we ourselves really have access to the wallet. How full control is the only advantage that keeps us from using it.

I recently found $250 in an old slushpool wallet when I was testing out a new miner.  Pretty funny because I know it was only in there when I stopped mining many years ago and left dust behind.  DUST!  That dust that wasn't worth paying the withdrawal fee to remove was now worth hundreds of dollars.  I can only imagine all the BTC I've left behind at various sites over the years.  If only all those sites still stuck around.  I'm sure I'd be mega super rich.

This has happened to me many many times before unfortunately. It's life, and I get it, we all have some needs. This is why super rich people with millions of dollars can do better investments then we can because they never need "urgent money" for small stuff like we do.

I was lucky during 2017 because I had to sell my coins at near top levels so that I could pay the debt I had for over 3 years, it allowed me to earn a lot easier and have no debt. It was a decision that I made, I could have just kept my coins and kept on paying the debt but it worked out in the end since the price went down.

For the past 6 months or so I have been in big debt again, life has been hard, it is a family medical situation that I don't want to talk about, and I had to cash out 70%+ of my savings just to pay for the hospital and drug bills as well. In the end that person is not even still healthy and we are still paying, but at the very least we are not in debt because of it, which is the silver lining.

Lol  You were just too lucky or may be you are trying to pull off an April fools day prank on us.

Somehow you remembered that you had a blockchain wallet.
Somehow you had stored the seed phrase as a screenshot.
Somehow you managed to access the wallet.
Somehow there were coins in it.
Somehow those coins were enough to make a difference to bail you out.

Now we must need a high level of luck to get such things accomplished.

The riskiest aspect of it is the screenshot your had on the phone, though it helped you recover access to the wallet but you're been lucky because the mobile was still intact and it never got expose to a third part, else they would have swindle the coin left in it, for future reference, find a suitable means to secure your keys other than on screenshots.

I had my Bitcoin stored on an online wallet, BitGo, for quite a few years had been left untouched and were recovered in 2020 (stored from 2016). Since then, I was in a hunt to track down any abandoned wallets, in hopes to recover them. Luckily, I found 3 Blockchain.com wallets, with approximately $200-250 worth of Bitcoin, not bad at all.

On top of that, I recently recovered 0.0025 BTC on a Coinbase account, not lifesaving but certainly not bad at all.

I had more than half a bitcoin sitting in a wallet before realizing that I had it last year. I had it from back in 2015 trying to purchase a fake IDs.

LOL it's been a habit of mine for at least once a year to check all of my saved backup phrases of my old wallets just to see if I for some reason received some bitcoin from an old failed business/blog/service that I've ran in the past. 4 out of 5 times I end up with nothing but whatever it only takes like 10 minutes or so.

..though it's quite a bummer to see transactions from stupid purchases I've made in the past lmao.

Great. I did that before the bull run but no funds were in the old wallets that I've used. You're lucky before something bad happened to your phone but this time, you don't do again and you must keep your keys safe elsewhere.
I've understood the laziness about screenshotting those important words and I've done that too not until my old phone was about to be broken so I did stopped it and learned the lesson.

I can think of worse ways of storing a backup for example storing them online via pastebin or something would be absolutely disastrous, but yeah it definitely isn't optimal, far from it. Not only from the malicious attackers point of view, but also phones are easily damaged. I don't know how many phones I've gone through over the years. Only takes water damage or a drop or two, and your data could be gone.

There's many ways of backing up a seed, you could go the washer route which is probably a little over kill for most users, but as long as your storing it offline in a reasonably secure place, then you should be fine.

You're lucky that your screenshot didn't get deleted and your phone still work, if not then it's different story. You're already learn the most important thing about Bitcoin, it's HODLing. Bitcoin is the best long term investment, don't need to worry if you have bought at the peak. Back on 2017 where many people regretting buy Bitcoin at $19K and then after 1 year it goes dump until reach $3K. Most of people panic and sold their coins since they thought Bitcoin would goes to zero. But if they keep holding until now, they've doubled their investment.

You were lucky to have your funds back but the highlighted part in your post is the worst way to backup your seed phrase as having Screenshot in your mobile phone is as risky as telling them to people openly.The first rule is i would say offline storage on piece of paper or metal sheets with full safety.What if your phone was lost, stolen or damaged would you be able to get your funds back then and it would be permanently lost adding up to the shrinking supply of 21million.

Writing up but not the way he has done is the lesson for us because everyone would not be lucky like him as this is very easy way in which your seed security is compromised but don't know how people do such things.He might be lucky to sell them at good price compared to what he would have got in past but he could have lost them all.So take this lesson from him.

Also, probably worth noting that storing your seeds as a screenshot in the future probably isn't the best way of going about things, since the phone is online, and you use it regularly if it were ever compromised so would your seed. Seeds should always be stored offline, and preferably not on digital media. Obviously, you still need to look at securing the offline backup from physical threats.

At least you made some sort of backup, and were able to recover them successfully though!

So I needed some funds to make up for a payment. I contacted three of my clients who were supposed to pay for some writing jobs but the payments were delayed. I was getting frantic when I remembered that one of my old Blockchain wallets. I started wondering if the wallet I hadn't used for years could have some valuable bitcoins. I also remembered that I had the seed words in my phone as a screenshot (crazy!) so I imported the wallet. Boy, you wouldn't believe how much I had in there. Not up to all the money I needed but enough to make a difference.

I wonder who else has access to old wallets