Topic: What would you do if you found others' keys? (Read 621 times)

I won't touch it for a few months, and if no one moves it and uses it, I'll take it for myself. Maybe I'll donate some to charity and hold onto some for myself. I don't believe what people say here, I have a feeling that people here live too fake and call themselves heroes but that's not true, don't trust anyone in today's society.

I see many people claiming that they won't touch it or will donate to charities or orphanages… but honestly, I doubt all of those claims because we're simply the same. We are human, and we have bottomless greed. I wonder even 1 dollar or 2, we can still grab it, so when we pick up a large amount and we do nothing with it is a blatant lie I have heard. There are not many good people in this world like we are hearing them say. If you want to watch someone pick up money and return it, it only appears in the movie  .

I will wait for at least months or even a year and if that key still has no activity(eg.no deposit/withdrawal for that certain time) maybe then I will go for action and what would I do?
maybe send the amount to various institution that needs more fund to sustain their helping hands.
I am donating to some charities over the year and yes this will be a big help that I wanted to imply but has no enough funds to act for me.

If it was just me, I'd let it sit for a few months or a year and if there wasn't the slightest change in face value, I'd consider it a gift from God.
and if the amount is very large I will give it to people who need it more or build orphanages and buildings that benefit many people, such as places of worship or others. Because what I mentioned was my wish from the past and I can only hope or have good intentions like that, so I consider this incident as a way or a bridge that I can indirectly do in that way.

and hopefully this Thread and my answer will come true.. Aamiin.

I will advice the person to take to the nearest police station or a radio or television station to announce. It. Or if there is no any other way for you took the owner and your mind to be pure as it is. You should come here and make a clear announcement so if the coins should be use for donation, people would still say it and tell what to do here.

That's right and that's why even if I do nothing with it, as long as the owner has backed it up then he'll be able to just take it back.

What if that mentor of yours will tell you to do something that's beyond of your thinking and against your will? That's why it's best to just let it be as is and do nothing since it's not ours.

To be candid the temptation will be there but I will inform my bitcoin mentor about what to do with the keys but I definitely know I won't hold on to what is not mine in the first place

Ideally, we tend to think that it is not right to move or use the balance on the found wallet, but I believe most of us who stated that they won't touch it would be the first one to move the balance towards their own address  (no accusation intended just my belief).  Honestly it is tempting and that is also the one of the many that is circulating in my mind.  But I believe if anyone wanted to use the balance legally, they should conform with the law that tells about lost items and how to have the right to possession them.  Doing the right legal process is the key to free us of any guilt and give us the right to own lost Bitcoin keys that the owner failed to claim.


If the original owner has still the key of that wallet then I believe he will take precautionary measure to safeguard his Bitcoin by moving it to another wallet.

Is that even possible? I'm thinking with all of these situations that you may accidentally find it but then if there's a chance I'd give it like a 0.000001% chance. Yeah, random zeroes.

Will probably do nothing and I think the owner has a backup as well and if by any chance that it's just a piece of paper and has flown on the streets and "accidentally" found it.

The owner might probably appear on some forum and most likely here since this is the main bitcoin forum telling this crazy incident.

I am a very humble and trust worthy Gentleman. If i found your private keys then I’d mostly likely try tracking you and let you know about the key. Humanity is still alive 

If I were in that situation and it was a large amount of money, my greed would definitely rise, like it or not because I'm human. It is a harsh fact that I see a lot of people trying to cover up and think they are noble. Honestly, if I told you I would never touch that money, I'd be lying to you. Being human, everyone has greed, and I don't believe anyone who is saying they won't touch it and won't take it.
This is a question that really puzzles people's honesty, because even if they took it, they'd go online and say they wouldn't take it.

If I'm gonna be honest, I'd say I wouldn't do anything about it, because the rightful owner do still have access on that private key and I don't have the right to steal those money from him in any way. My conscience cannot handle that kind of act, I'd still rather have my own money earn from my own hard work and not an easy money that just stumbled upon in the internet.

Many of us would never even bother about the source of the money because we all know that things are easier said than done. We can admit to do something without looking back when it does not involves money but when money is involved, people tend to behave contrary to what they had admitted to. Money influence of money is huge and we can always be a victim if we are not discipline.

Truth is bitter and sometimes if I saw people writing about similar cases like this, I just laugh at them if they say that they would return the money in Bitcoin to the owner or Charity so they will not have anything to do with the fund. We know we all are humans and if this kind of scenerio eventually happens, that is when you will see people that are writing/saying they are gokg to keep the money running away with the whole fund with thinking twice.

Your case is a different situation, because if someone mistakenly transfers money to your account, they can also report to the bank and ask the law to intervene, if it is a large amount and you intentionally do not want to give it back to that person, and you'll be in more trouble. But if it's bitcoin, they can't know us, and they can't rely on police support or sue us. Both cases are not the same.

I used to return the money when I picked it up, but it was a small amount for me, so I didn't need it. But if it's bitcoin and it's a huge amount, I really don't know how to deal with it, because I've never been in that situation. If someone says they will find a way to give it back or give it to charity, I doubt it.

Lol Are you kidding me with this? If I give it to poor people, I must give it to an organization that has real poor & Helpless people. How can you be a Helpless man where you have enough means and ability to earn

In a decentralized world there is no way to trace an owner with a private key because when you make it public thousands of people will claim it and who do you consider to be the real owner?

In general, I have noticed some exchanges (like Binance) basically assign an unique Legacy address and Segwit address for clients to deposit, anything that goes to that address is added to the balance of that specific client, so they have a data base with the clients and their deposit addresses.

Even if the client requested for a change of address, I would have the date of the transactions, so I can give the address and the date to the exchange for them to identify the client.

The biggest obstacle would be to get people from the exchange to cooperate.

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Another idea would be to wipe the wallet of the person towards mine using a single transaction, on that transaction I could leave a message on the blockchain using OP_Return, something like:

"Contact me: Bitcointalk user: Hispo"

The person would contact me as soon as realizes it and just to be sure it is the actual owner, I would ask for a signed message from the seed we both have.

Majority would be sweeping out that address and im sure to that.Only a few in todays world would really be that honest and would be thoughtful when it comes to money.If they do saw
something that is really an amount which it would really be causing up for your entire life to change when it comes to money or finance then you would really be having any doubts.
You would really be that thinking that you arent been seen or known about it or totally anonymous basing up on those coins that you had just accidentally logged in.
Its unrealistic but most of the time you would be sweeping those funds.

Maybe i'll just keep it and do nothing and wait for a few months or years if it doesn't seem like someone has claimed it like there's no activity on the wallet and i think it's an abandoned wallet maybe I'll move it and use it for something useful for other people not for self. If I use it for myself it makes me feel guilty to use other people's money without permission

In my opinion you shouldn't move the coins. If you somehow get hold of someone else's keys, you do not have the right to steal these bitcoins. From my point of view that would be theft and you should ask yourself if you are a thief. I would and have never stolen fiat money and I wouldn't do anything like that with bitcoins either. If all of a sudden your own coins were gone, it would certainly be a hard blow for every person. So the motto should be what you don't want to experience yourself, don't do it to anyone else. 

That is a cleaver idea, but the idea of identifying exchange is a bit tricky. You will have no idea what exchange that particular address is from and I think to find out the exchange you need to make a list of potential exchanges and ask for their support one by one.

Another thing, if you somehow manage to identify the exchange there is no guarantee that the support of that exchange will help you out with information about the owner. Or maybe he sold to someone and it was his customer's exchange address.

That exchange address owner might not be the owner of that wallet. The owner of that wallet or the private key just made a deal (sold, donate, or transfer for any other purpose) with the user (exchange address owner) that's why you saw the transaction.

If that really happened, I think that day is the most unlucky day for the owner of the key.
No one wants to even deliberately to remove it right?.

If I find it, of course it will do various ways to find the owner.
If I still can't find it I'll just keep the key.
Just secure it and do nothing to the funds stored there.
I assume the owner must still have a copy of the access key.
And if he realizes he has lost the key, he will definitely back up or move the funds in it.

I just think if we lose the private key, we will immediately back up or move funds there.
If someone misuses the private key, of course we will be very annoyed and curse the person who took our money, right?.

It isn't shameful in my opinion, you had waited enough, you had sent a message by sending out and sending in transactions to alarm the owner of the keys.  Being honest isn't shameful, at least you have the guts, to tell the truth, unlike most people who pretend to do good deeds but when the situation happens, will do the opposite. 

I admit that if I found a seed phrase there is a huge chance that I will use the balance in it.  After doing several attempts to notify the owner like sending a message days before moving the coins.

No amount is too small to lose, but sincerely speaking I will settle myself first because I obviously need the money, my promise to the owner I won't take all, 90% of the money is okay for me

I am too excited to see this post and people's opinions about what they would do if they eventually see it. I am happy that almost everyone here sounds like a true saint that would be ready to return the BTC even though it worth upto 10 BTC. In this case I don't think many of us would ever return it even though it worth just $100. From everyone perspectives I can see that words are easier said than done.

This would be more on like a giveaway for the fastest finger. I don't think finding a private keys online would have so much $ in it even though it's a giveaway. Could that be possibility for this? No, maybe on a rare basis.

You just explode my thought and it's good for you being sincere to yourself just like other people that are not money conscious would also react since there problem is not about taking what does not belong to them.
We are all humans and the flesh cam tempt us even though we don't have the interest to go with what does not belong to us.


Maybe I might be lucky to get some funds from you since you would want to be send part of it to the poor and needy.

Since everyone one has some level of greed then we might be mislead by our thought to go away with the BTC but our consciousness cam drag us to give part of it out since we can not always find the owner.

Without a doubt, I can truly say you have a good personality.
Even in this modern age someone who is honest is really hard to find especially when it comes to money. But I think you can say anything at this point, but you won't necessarily be able to resist any temptations and urges if you're in that situation. 

OP, it's hard to expect someone to return those bitcoin to an owner he or she never knew about, in fact I'm pretty sure someone would run away if they got 1 or more bitcoin accidentally sent for them. But if it's me, it just depends on how much balance there is. If it's only 0.00001 then I think I'm more likely not to get it. Lol

Though the chances of it happening for me is slim to none, I think of keeping the wallet's contents if I ever do stumble to one unattended address with its keys out in the open. Chances are, nobody knows who the owner is and I'd only doubt anyone who would come forward to claim its theirs because of little to no evidence that would suggest they are. So as much as it may seem immoral to other people, it's best to just keep the wallet and its contents, but not touch it as much as possible because some scammers leave and even give their wallet and its details to take advantage of people.

To be honest, I've never thought about this issue, so it's a bit difficult to answer the question, I'm not lying or being as noble as many people here. But suppose I found someone else's keys, my greed would surface, and I would definitely open them up immediately. If its value is so little and insignificant, I certainly won't need it because I'm not too poor to have to steal. But if it's a large amount of bitcoin worth millions of dollars, I don't think I'm in a hurry to return it to that person, but maybe I will take it because I think then greed will overwhelm reason.

It's all blatant lies, I'm sure everyone who claims to give back those bitcoins will never try to give them back but they'll find some way to quickly transfer those bitcoins to their wallet. We all crave bitcoins, we accumulate satoshi every single so no one will be kind enough to return bitcoins if found. Through OP's story, you can see a lot of shameless and self-righteous liars.

If I find someone's private key and if there is a lot of money in it, then since it is not possible to trace the owner through this private key, I will distribute the funds in this wallet to poor people and donate to some organizations where orphans live. I don't know how honest I can be then because the greed of money tries to drag everyone down the wrong path.  But I will not use them in my own work until I have good knowledge

I would probably try to backtrack it if I can relate the address to some of the exchanges (if there was any traffic between some and the wallet) and maybe contact them to get info on the owner, but I think that's a long shot.

Acutally. I would also do the same thing in a sense that I will find the true owner of it. But imagine, these 12 words that we called seed phrase are hard to identify and hard to knew who is the owner. In a sense of having no idea or random found of the key. I might be sure to enter it in a exact wallet and applicable in order to use the funds and then I will eventually use the money that will somehow makes more meaningful. Hypothetically, these are the things that I might do.

Yet. In cryptowallets, a person who had a good knowledge or security to its wallet, will never ever just save a one copy of his seed key yet he will also have it in his computer logged in and also digital save. I think the main idea or the scenario of this question is that how will you react or what will you do if you found a seed phrase to a digital wallet? Either you will access it faster or none.

The key question is that if I have the 12 mnemonic words of the wallet, I don't know who the owner is? So no matter how you deal with the assets in the wallet, it is reasonable. If there are a lot of digital assets in the wallet, I may choose to repair the roads in our community first, because there are many elderly people, and it will be very inconvenient when it rains. The rest of the money I will choose to improve my quality of life.

I'd give it back without a doubt, but I will make sure the real owner will be the one who will receive it. Don't want to fall to the hands of those who are dumb enough to think they won't be traced if they try to pass it to a new address and then another.
Even if you pass it to an exchange, it can still be traced. What's worst is that if whoever tries to steal it did a KYC.
That's the good thing about cryptocurrencies unlike when you drop your wallet in the street.

I think most people are attracted to money. If it was a lot of money, I think I would be tempted to probably accept it to improve my life. . .

I think if you lose the key, it's very difficult to find the original owner, and you don't know which one is the real owner, which is really embarrassing.

The place you found the private key matters and can give an idea of who may have it and what to do with it. If it was found on a road like a lonely street, trying to find the identity of the owner will be much more difficult than when you found it in someone's house or private space. If you found it in someone's house and you still even went ahead to check the balance, that's criminal to me, but if you somehow found it on a lonely street, on a public bus, in the park or any public place where it can belong to just any individual, it will not be a crime to know what the seed phrase is worth, not to take it but to be conscious. The owner of the seed phrase will most likely know that they have lost their seed phrase and make efforts to try to get to where they kept the back-up to move their money away, so your duty is just to keep the seed phrase and give the owner some time to move his money out.
 
Note: By keeping it, you have prevented the seed phrase from getting into the hands of people who do not have good intentions and may just want to withdraw everything to another place before the owner can do so.

In the case where it seems like it is something that the owner has completely lost, it is just too sad, but giving it to charity becomes the next best option.

Most of us will for sure say we will try to track down the owner and try to return it, but the reality is that it is difficult and for sure you will keep it or transfer it immediately. Still, I belong to the lowest percentage of people who are honest. This happened to me earlier this year, around December, when I received an amount that was sort of large in our local online wallet with our own fiat. Someone mistakenly sent me an amount, which fortunately is easy to track, so I was able to return it. It is not good to own money you don't have. If you found it, you should leave it there and wait for the owner to discover it. Don't touch it.

Funny you should ask this question in a place full of thieves and cheaters, no one will admit publicly that they will steal the money which doesn't belong to them.

First of all if I find a large amount, I will transfer to my address and sign a message with the old address then
Post the signed message on forums, social medias, the owner will contact me then, and why should I do that? Because someone else could also find, take and run with them.

I would keep the private key and do not move any money out of it for some time, to see what happens if nothing happens then I would try to investigate the history of some of the addresses linked to the private key.

Some transactions are easy to distinguish when come to exchanges or go to exchanges, if I found one of those transactions and manage to identify the exchange there is a enough good chance I could convince the technical support of the exchange to send a mail or notification to the user about his seed being completely compromised.

We all have greed, and I really don't believe people are telling the truth here. Since this is just an assumption, we will say we will return it or ignore it as it is not our property or will use it for charity...but when we pick up such a large amount of money, and no one knows about it, I'm sure our greed will prevent us from doing good. Human greed is still the scariest thing in the world, so I really don't believe what people are saying here.

Actually no one ever falls into such a situation, but even if one ever falls into such a situation I have never seen private key/wallet backup key returned to the original owner.  But if I ever find myself in such a situation I will take whatever measures I should to return it to the original owner.
If I accidentally get the backup key of a wallet, I will headline the news paper with the address of the wallet and wait until the original owner gets the wallet back.  Also if that doesn't work then I will broadcast news with wallet address on radio and television.  So that the owner can see or read this news.  If that doesn't work then I'll be constantly posting news on my youtube and tiktok channels.
Finally if that doesn't work then I will hand over the said wallet to the government police force.  Believe it or not I will never use the cryptocurrency or assets of said wallet for my own use.

If you check almost all the replies you'll see everyone saying one of the following; that there'll find a way to return back to the own, that they will send the money to charitable donations, that they will look for ways to use the money to help others etcetera etcetera etcetera.
But the truth is that majority of those writing those stuff there don't really have those things in mind, but still wrote them so that others won't look at them as people that are greedy or so. I know that there are alot of users that are really going to abide by what they replied I'm this thread.

As for me I won't be certain if I'm going to return it. Me returning the key will be determined by some certain factors like;

• where was the key found, the place where the wallet key was found is going to affect my decision if I'm going to return the key or not.
• The amount that the wallet holds, if the money isn't that significant I definitely would return it. But if the funds is huge greed might come in play and it will become more difficult to return it back to the owner.
• there other factors like ; if I'll have any guilty conscience when I refuse to return it, if the owner eventually starts looking for the wallet key

The list goes on... All these are things that are going to affect my decision on whether to return it or give it to charitable donations.
It's best to be true to oneself and receive advice that will help you change for a better person than to live in lies. This is me been true to myself.

Surely I'll find the ways to return it to the real owner. If someone have been found and identified as the right one, I'll give the keys. If not, this will be shared between friends. Because someone have earned and person who doesn't have any connect enjoying it is really bad.

Easy to say things related to 'returning it to the owner' but that won't be easy for sure unless there are IDs perhaps in a wallet or just something which would help you to identify its owner. Morally this is the best thing to do but not giving it back if there are no identification is also fine. It just depends on your eagerness to help and if you're not that interested to do so, no one could push you. But to how I see such things, I'll never wish to experience it so for sure I would be returning it to the owner  as my pure intention. If there will be no identification information, I'd wait for communities to reach me out (facebook crypto groups). If I won't be posting the concern or announcing it but there are people who'd somehow ask for what happened, then that could be an indicator that he/she is the owner.

that's true, what is not our right is not very good to use because we don't know if the owner is still there or not, still needs or not the assets he owns
let the assets be in place forever

Interesting thoughts. Not at all legal advice, just based on (my own) logic, I would say this is quite similar to finding a house with doors and windows wide open.
Even if you see gold coins glittering inside, you have no right to enter or take anything. You probably don't have any legal obligations to report such a finding (glittery goldcoins in an openly accessible unsecured house) but good manners (or call it moral standards) would suggest you should probably report it to police if you can't contact the owner directly.

I will not use what is not mine, because I'm sure karma will come back to me later, and someday it will come back to me because of our behavior in the past

This issue is a moral issue. Our beliefs, our culture, and our view of the world can answer this problem. So we can all have different answers... I would first take a symbolic amount of money from the wallet and then send the same amount back to the wallet. Thus, the owner of the wallet would understand that their funds were not safe and transfer their Bitcoins to another wallet. If he/she doesn't transfer their Bitcoins to another wallet, I would send clear messages from several social media platforms to be more careful. If I don't see any movement again, I think the wallet is unclaimed. As a last resort, I would be a little reluctant but after waiting a few years I would get the Bitcoins in the unclaimed wallet (I'm ashamed to confess it).

Really depends on the exact scenario of me finding keys.


I'm not planning to search for someone's keys intentionally

If it happened unintentionally, like me going to a library and finding a note with a seed in a book, I'd try to find the owner of the keys. If I couldn't, I would keep the seed but not take the coins, in case the owner has a backup and is simply choosing not to touch the coins. Then after many-many years I would assume that the owner lost access, and since I couldn't find them, the coins are now mine.

Because the fair and moral action of what must be done has to change if it is bitcoin. Your principles should not change in action or process if you get something that does not belong to you, do what you think is right.

If generating Txs makes you happy and it's only fair, do it. But it is not good to play with things that you should not spend.

I would send a message to the same address with a message on the transaction, that's a nice way to let someone know his key has been compromised without risking any amount with the transaction.

And the second step would be to google the key, maybe we can find some public information about the owner and try to contact him directly to let him know about the issue.

Definitely gonna take it. If He comes looking good job if He doesn't it's mine now

I have been thinking of this same thing earlier. That what if I saw a piece of paper with a 12-word phrase written on it when I walk on the street? Not a crowded one or at the city but just near on my place because it seems peaceful here and I think not many people know about cryptos here.

I am thinking if I will return it to the real owner but how? Posting it on social media is going to be a bad idea because someone will just load the seeds and empty the wallet. Surrendering it on the police station or on the radio station looks like a bad idea as well because this isn't a typical wallet, plus some of them may not be really that trusted. I guess I will just keep them for now and wait if there are people who will look for it.

It's difficult to make a decision in this case, but if indeed when we find someone else's key, I'm even doubtful about finding out who the owner is, moreover, we also can't make a report about finding it because surely many people will admit that.
I might put it on hold for a while and let it sit for a while as surely the owner will look into it and hopefully meet me but if not then I think maybe I will donate the portfolio it contains to some agency in need. Sounds a little naive but I really think it's for the best because I also realize that if I eat this and I transfer it to myself I think this is unethical especially I still believe in bad karma if I do something that is not good.

I would keep it and wait. Of course the owner of the keys would come back to the place trying to recover his lost item or at least to ask someone if they have seen it. Or I could ask people around if they have seen who lost that. I think it's not too risky to make this question, because most people are illiterate about bitcoin, anyway. After a while, if all my attempts and expectations failed, I think it wouldn't be an issue if I claimed the lost coins for myself, as it would similar to finding lost cash on the floor of the streets.

The first option that is fair in my opinion is to donate a portion of the contents of his wallet to anyone in need such as a charity or to those we know of people who deserve it. There are many poor people around, I get to know them and I tend to give priority to donations like this instead of entrusting people through any charity for their distribution.

But of course, I would wonder who owns it because the contents of the wallet are not entirely ours. There is one thing I believe, if we don't want to deal with other people's (unknown) property then ignore it or just donate it all.

I really do not find it funny someone would careless misplace details of such huge asset. Well since OP talk based on assumption them it is better to assume that way. Let us say someone finds such, is expected is to make an announcement which I believe people will turn up to claim but there should be some measures or procedure put in place for claiming it. Anybody coming should be able to state some numbers and alphabet relating to the wallet and also some tokens found in the wallet too. This I think will yield some results.

This is somehow tempting, I won't deny that there will be an urge for me to transfer all the funds to a different address just for "safekeeping"  .  Anyway, it is a good idea to send a dollar's worth to alarm the owner that his Bitcoin is compromised and at the same time report it, if ever after a year of no response happens, following what Loyce stated, it is legally ok to claim the amount in that key.  It is somehow unethical but not illegal due to the process is taken into consideration.

Sending it to charity when you have a need by yourself... sounds too good to be true, honestly. ... but it would be great if it is actually done.

If I found Bitcoin private keys loaded with Bitcoin, I don't see any other option but to donate. Something like this is unlikely to occur. Because someone else will lose their entire life savings. But, for the time being, I will not donate to charity. It's because even if a person loses his private keys or seed phrase, he may still have access to his wallet. It's possible he's been holding for a long time. For testing purposes, I would transfer some funds to alert him if he still has access. If he becomes aware and transfers his funds to another account, I will return the funds to the original address.

I'll safe keep the private keys with me and allow it for 1.5yrs or 2yrs, if nobody had moved the coins in it, even a bit of it, I'll start using it for charity.
But while waiting for 1.5yrs or 2 and I discovered that someone is spending from the fund whose private keys I'm holding, I'll remain mute and calm and allow the person use their coins.
But I don't think it's possible to see a random private keys.

Firstly, if that key is put there intentionally for someone to get their hand on that key, and if that kinda seems sketchy, then I will avoid dealing with that key entirely. This is just the first step for you to get scammed. The moment you put that key in, there are some scenarios that are going to happen.
You may get hacked immediately after putting that key in your device.
Your other wallets (if logged in, in the same device) might get hacked.
Your wallet will may get controlled by BOT, in this case every token or valuable coins available in your other account may get transferred to a totally unknown wallet controlled by hacker.
There were a scam recently where scammer send fake stable coin into wallet and when they tried to transfer that stable coin, hacked had taken the control over his wallet.

If not sketchy, then I will keep them. Call me greedy, but whom can I find with this piece of paper that has nothing about them and no way to trace them from a wallet address.

So beware of scammers and keep your assets safe.

I have experienced accidentally entering the private key in the airdrop form at that time, my wallet has been emptied and the top valuable token has been sent to another address, but I'm sure he's not here because after I read many wise posts above that no one uses a wallet that and some choose to donate to the foundation. But for this case, if we find another wallet's private key then it is possible that the wallet is vulnerable to being hacked by other people and it is better for the asset to be temporarily transferred to the new wallet until we get the original user report from that wallet, if when we get the original user it will be returned and if not until a certain time, the funds will be used for charity, donations to foundations and activities for other charities.

Similar to what GideonGono said here...if I found the keys then it is likely someone else could too. I would put whatever is there in another address. Maybe wait some time to see if the owner somehow presents themselves and take a safe-keeping reward. If enough time passes I guess it was just my lucky day It would be a nice situation either way.

It would really depend,
What if the private key has already been leaked or posted online? Then it is pretty much just a giveaway so I would just take it.
I once saw someone just dropping private key to give out some crypto.

Honestly if it happens to me and I see the amount is something that I cannot prefer to lose, I'll do everything to make sure I delete the trail and make those coins mine. You can say you should be honest and all but let's face it practically most of us are going to do this, it's human nature, but yes If i was rich enough to not care about the amount in the wallet I would let it go. It obviously all depends on the amount and obviously the amount will be different for everyone.

Almost every reply shows how good and honest the fellow members are but come to the reality, I don't think we are going to take an effort and find out the real owner but actually its impossible to find who is the actual owner and technically who own the key becomes the owner of the wallet so its yours and completely you decide what to do with it, I would say if there is enough money to buy a Lambo then I would. LoL

There's a thread where someone asked what if someone mistakenly sent 10 bitcoins. Would people send them back or keep it. Well, the same reply goes here too. I would like to quote myself here. No one is going to say they are going to send the fund back or the private key. Everyone here will pretend they are honest but the real test is when they will get the keys or coins. Try that with someone random lol.

I would make an effort to return the money to the owner (my thoughts are writing to a local Facebook group anonymously and saying I found a BTC key which I will return to who can name the book it was in or prove ownership in other ways), but I suspect that isn't going to be possible. At the same time, I wouldn't feel right using the money because it belongs to someone else. I guess giving it to a good charity after making sure I can't find the real owner would be something I do. Normally, though, I don't pick up what I see, so if I saw a paper inside a book, the most likely course of action for me would be to put the paper back where I found it without trying to use it in any way.

I am a Muslim and my religion teaches not to take other people's property, although have alternative for donating to children foundation or anything else need our helped I don't try to sent if found other seed phrase or private key. Its not mine assets and I don't have power for sending to other people although used it to foundation or some community need helped.

I left it and not sharing to the other when founding private key, actually ever on the road I found much money and I don't take it because I know its not mine and bad thing happen later if I use it. Possibility with private key found have the owner and better finding the real owner by tracking their transaction history, if can't found the owner I think not good ideas use for donation because can't expected if the real owner private key position want to donate his fund.

It will be a dilemma when actually finding other people's keys that have thousands of bitcoins. But would someone be that careless with a wallet of thousands of bitcoins or other amounts. Or because of some phrase incident, the seed was lost and found by someone else.

If I find it, the first thing I will do is check the transactions that were made. checking whether someone legitimate has the address or they are looking for it. i will actually tell the owner if i find it. Not wanting to be hypocritical, maybe I can get a few percent of the assets I find.

Feel sorry when someone loses their keys accidentally with quite a lot of assets. Just imagine if it happened to ourselves, of course we would be very frustrated and try to find out whether other people held the seed or not. But the worst thing would be losing the seed and never finding it, it would be immovable asset.

good suggestion so that the owner of the wallet will know if someone is trying to tell that a seed was found and a transaction was made. The actions taken by @lovemayfamilis are indeed good actions, but it's better to wait for the owner to respond first.

But it's possible that the real owner of the fund has another copy of the private key and can still spend the fund.
It may be better to wait or make a transaction sending a small fund to inform the owner that the wallet is compromised.

Any thoughts on how you'd find them? (Assuming that all you knew was their key/s and address/es.)

In this situation, 90% of users would probably make away with the balance on the wallet. And I would not know how I would react until I am in the situation.
I would like to think that I would not steal any of the funds and your idea of sending a minute amount out would send a message to the original owner.

P.s, Consecutive posts is against forum rules.

- Jay -

Good point, I guess the authority who is reported to might be able to ask exchanges if any of their customers withdraw to specific addresses.

Lol, this is a savage response. To me, there's no any amount I would prefer to lose just like that unless in some circumstances like trading and investing in crypto. But do you mean coming across such is purely a stealing? And you would just let those coins wasted despite knowing that locating the real owner would be so difficult? Like you said, since we are all assuming, I'll stop assuming and rest my brain.

In this type of scenario, I don’t think I would take it. I would first find someone looking for it and probably send it back to him or just let him know that he should change his wallet already. But I don’t understand how can someone get that unless they are really careless and just not thinking about their protection and put a lot of money in. It’s not a good idea.

Yes; they'd not want to lose it.
Yes; you'd not want to steal it, but would feel awkward having discovered that their valuable key isn't safe.

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Yes, I'm assuming that they'd still have their key in question.

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

I'm more curious how this works legally: with "normal" found objects, you have to report it. If nobody picks it up within a year, you become the new owner.
With crypto, you basically find data, and the original owner can still have a backup. I've never seen a legal case about this.

Coming across someone's private keys does not mean they have no copy of it stored away. They could still have access to it, and you do not need to take any action to finding them, except to inform them that their assets could be compromised, cause if you could have come across it, there is a possibility that someone else could.

A hint that it was compromised?

- Jay -

I would send this amount to some charitable foundation for sick children or children without parents. It's not my fault that the keys that someone lost were found by another person. I doubt the real owner can be found. Too many people will show up. Accordingly, it is considered easy money or someone's alms. Therefore, alms should be given to those in need. If you leave yourself such amounts, you can expect trouble. In my opinion, it was a fair decision.

Is there a particular amount of money that some people would actually prefer to lose? I don’t know about you, but I would prefer not to lose any of my money.
Since we’re all assuming, I’ll assume you’re not asking if it’s okay to steal someone’s coins just cause you happen to come across it.

What would you do if you managed to come across someone else's private key and it's worth an amount that most people would 'prefer not to lose', assuming you have no [idea who it belongs] to or [location clues]? Eg. Sweeping through common books' text for BIP39-based keys.

I suppose you could send a dollar's worth to a different address and hopefully they'd get the hint.