Topic: Wrong conception - page 2. (Read 316 times)

You can explain it pretty easy when it comes to the private keys or seed phrase by using the CC analogy.
Compare the private keys to your credit card number, someone can spend the money on our credit card even if it doesn't have your physical card as long as he has your information, also, just like a private key that once known is accessible by anyone and nobody can do a thing about it, so is credit card information till it gets closed down by the bank.

The same stands for the security, just as you shouldn't tell anybody your cc details, keep your PRIVATE keys , well...private!

In short, bitcoins are stored in bitcoin blockchain, not in a wallet as they are just some numbers and records are kept in the blockchain. Private key allows user to spend the fund.
Many users including a lot of old buddies still have this misconception.

It's definitely a common misconception, and I've pointed out a few such wrong statements too in the past. Recently though, I've been thinking about things like this and the "layman" side of Bitcoin— do the masses really need specifically need to know things as specific as this one? Or might it be a bit unnecessary and what's important is just that people secure their wallet's keys?

Now I'm not saying that pointing out stuff like these out are unnecessary, but just something to think about.

Can you put a tl:Dr of a summary or the quote at the top?

The post looks quite big and I'm not sure newbies will stick around until the end.

There is a mistaken belief (misconception) amongst many Bitcoin users, and that's that their coins/funds are stored in their wallets. I know it's a pretty easy term to understand that it's not, but with how many people share their seed phrases on public platforms, write them down on pieces of paper left unattended to on the table or even post them in open forums when seeking assistance, I beg to differ that many people don't understand this. Scammers do also ask for private keys and seed phrases on different kind of giveaways and other patterns they use to steal people's funds.

So i have been thinking that one cause of this could be that newbies think their funds are in the wallet in their possession and if you do not get their PC, phones or their hardware device, then you can't steal/spend their funds. Imo it'll be better for a lot of people to understand this (mis)concept(ion), I think it will help, because it could be confusing for some, notwithstanding the warning the wallet comes with. "How can someone steal my coins with my seed or private keys when I have my wallet on me"? Sounds pretty easy for us to understand how, but it may not be for others, and hell when I started using BTC newly, it wasn't easy for me.

I'll update newbies here that their funds/coins are not stored in their wallet, but on the Bitcoin network, and with your private keys or your seed phrase, a scammer can import your funds (you feel is in your possession/wallet) in another interoperable wallet and spend your funds, what that means in another form is that your private keys/seed phrase is your wallet, and any other person other than yourself who has it, is at liberty to spend the funds in it. I'll finish this off with a quote from 'mastering Bitcoin':