I just lost 100 BTC and I have no idea how

Please refrain from too much criticism, I am already close to tears.

Vending for over 1 year, I don't use web wallets. My PC is totally clean and I create temporary Bitcoin addresses on bitaddress.org. It's client side and open source, and I disconnect my internet when I create an address so I know it's using the JS. My PC has the hard drive removed, I'm running TAILS and never downloaded even a single file using this computer. It has only ever accessed the markets, the courier website, this sub, and bitaddress.org.

My bank had started asking questions about my income, Bitcoins ended up backed up in my address for months, over 100 of them.

Today, gone. Moved to some random address I've never used. I can see the Bitcoins are being split up, probably into mixers. Saying I am devastated is beyond fucking words. This is not an amount of money I can earn back. What am I doing. I posted some orders today as usual and nobody knows that anything is wrong but I am dying inside.

Why


Comments


[127 Points] iliketoopana:

DUDE. I am so sorry to hear that man. I'm not even going to read the other comments, fuck anyone who talks shit to you if they did. That is the most heartbreaking thing ever man. that's close to $40 grand and now u have the bank asking about money you don't even have. I fucking feel for you man. I spent the nearly $40k I had in the bank last September thru April. All 3 of the stocks I had invested all my money in have all double since then.... My life is a fucking joke. I use the needle and I've lost my friends and the good people in my life. as well as my gf who I loved more than anything. I'm doing worse things than ever for pills. luckily in thre past month I went to detox and am doing somewhat better. stopped doing the shitty thigns I was doing before. I even started a job today. Anyways, I didn't mean to hijack your thread man, but I fucking love you dude. even though I don't know you. I love you and I hope you find your coins and life turns around for you. God bless


[83 Points] gage69:

money comes and it goes. you made it once before, you can do it again, plus LOTS more. Stay positive in the Universe and the Universe will take care of you


[36 Points] ShulginsCat:

That sucks ass. Could you go through the entire setup?

Which wallet software holds your main?

How are the coins transferred from temp addresses to your main?

Is there any other person on earth that has your private key or that could feasibly get it?

Is the private key stored in more than one place? (backup etc.)

On the day the coins were transferred what were you doing? Retrace your activities


[29 Points] D15EA5ED:

Sorry this happened to you bro.

My guess is your weak link was bitaddress generating a low entropy private key and someone is exploiting that able to generate the same keys. Just a guess though.

I recommend you check out electrum or armory and use those to generate new wallets in the future.


[17 Points] galaxyandspace:

I have no ideas on how to get you coins back, but I do have some advice for the future (and yes, you do have a future).

  1. Electrum wallet. Use a software wallet instead of an online wallet. Electrum is very convenient.
  2. 26+ character passwords. capital letters, numbers, and special characters included. Encryption is only as good as the passwords you use. make sure they are awesome.


[14 Points] ApricockApecot:

Condolences, truly :(


[12 Points] CocaineNose:

<n/a>


[14 Points] bytetheft:

Hey man in case you're in a dark place right now here is a list of resources. 100 BTC may seem a lot right now but it's nothing in the long run.

Hotlines

Reddit Resources

Safety Plan Apps (thankyou /u/eddielement)

Miscellaneous


[11 Points] None:

BLOCKCHAIN OR IT DIDNT HAPPEN


[12 Points] polvb:

This is why I use coinbase, complete with me receiving a text and email verification for even drawing $1.


[11 Points] mnhty:

Post the txid please.


[8 Points] esterbrae:

If you want to know how you were taken, there are a few questions:

Where do you store your private keys ?

Do you ever re-use addresses for more than one transaction ?

How do you spend btc, i.e. which software signs transactions for you ?


[8 Points] AdrianBeatyoursons:

Trezor works mad decent


[6 Points] out_with_the_rubbish:

I know it doesn't feel like it, but it will be okay. You've made money before, you will eventually do it again. I don't mean to minimize your loss. That is devastating. But you CAN earn it back with time. Remember it's just money, man. Seriously though I am so sorry.


[6 Points] Sparkler11:

Could this be the MITM cloudflare crap?


[6 Points] cannabisity:

if it makes you feel any better I once lost $18 when SR1 was seized


[4 Points] Vornnash:

Fuck I'm really sorry man. Life is truly a bitch sometimes.


[5 Points] Theeconomist1:

So, where did you store these wallets that you created with bitaddresses? Were they ever held in digital format, like in a digital file? If so, you may have your answer. A silent virus swept your OS looking for bitaddress private keys and once they found them, you were screwed. Did you just print them out right after creating them?


[4 Points] jratcliff63367:

Sorry about your loss. You claim these bitcoins were on a cold storage address, generated by bitaddress code, but offline and never connected to the internet?

This is essentially how I store my own bitcoins except that I have 100 unique addresses and never store more than one btc in each.

However, if we the community cannot trust bitaddress.org that is very disconcerting!


[2 Points] yayapfool:

This is the reason why - as much as i truly love the notion of Bitcoin - the idea of Bitcoin becoming mainstream and primarily used as currency is absolutely ridiculous. There's no way in hell. Not when things like this happen.

I am so sorry. As someone else conveyed: it's just money, you have made it before, you can again, all is not lost.


[3 Points] None:

Damn that truly blows.


[3 Points] agoraplease:

Sorry for the loss. Hang in there man.


[3 Points] twigburst:

As fucked up as it is you still have your freedom. If there was an issue in your OPSEC, its better to get robbed than arrested.


[2 Points] None:

Sorry to hear about your loss. Assuming this is legit I see no way how they could of got to your funds.


[2 Points] agorathrow80:

Did u use blockchain..seen a bunch of people loose recently due to malware


[2 Points] impost_r:

I'm not entirely familiar with bitaddress.org but couldn't it serve you bad js? Even if you used it offline you can't really trust their code. Their server could've been hacked and the RNG could be messed with for example.

Edit: Inb4 bitaddress MITM, could it be the same type of MITM attack as the whole blockchain situation as "its possible a bad node would edit the js to make private keys the attacker can predict"

OP when did you access bitaddress.org to generate your keys and how did you access it?


[2 Points] iKlutch:

Excuse me if this has already been created, but someone needs to make a wallet or program where in order to withdraw or transfer any btc you must first verify with a gpg message. Kinda like the gpg login on Agora.


[2 Points] huntokartography:

That sucks man. But it will be okay. Things have a way of working out. And if you've made money once, you can make it again. Here's what I am wondering aboutL Why would the bank give a shit about your income (assuming this pestering stuff wasn't bcause of a loan request) unless they were being pestered? Disclaimer:I don't know shit about the dark net or bitcoins or anything. But I do know that the bank is insured for deposits no matter what so they don't usually care how you make your money. If they've asked you more than once or twice about how you make your money for any reason other than a loan then that seems pretty suspicious. Were you trying to get a loan, or was this out of the blue? Was it a casual conversation with a teller, or multiple emails and calls? the bank stuff could be unconnected to this loss I guess. I just find that weird.


[2 Points] Taek42:

It's not your fault for not knowing better, but once you start moving larger amounts of money you really have to up your game with the OpSec.

I imagine that your vulnerability was using bitaddress.org. Writing crypto is very difficult, and there are any number of subtle-yet-catastrophic mistakes that bitaddress.org could have made that resulted in weak private keys or worse. They could have the most pure intentions in the world, but unless they are very skilled using their software is high risk.

I don't know how easily you can shake off this loss. In the future though (this goes for everybody), you should only use very popular wallets that aren't actively being criticized by the professionals. The bitcoin devs pretty much universally hold that you should not use an online wallet. I believe Trezor, bitcoind, and bitcoinj are the most trusted, with Electrum also being pretty trusted.

I personally would use bitcoind and keep things in a cold storage address - the bitcoin devs are super careful and super paranoid.

Hope you are able to shake this one off, and I hope everyone else can learn from your mistakes.


[2 Points] CDRCRDS:

Sounds like you were robbed by someone you know.


[1 Points] Sparkler11:

I seriously feel bad for you. It's the holidays, too. I don't know anything about you, but I feel like I need to make you a gofundme page. I wish there was a way somebody could help you.


[1 Points] None:

fuck.. i feel so bad for you, it's stuff like this that makes me worried about doing stuff like this


[1 Points] None:

[removed]


[1 Points] Audrion:

37,000 USD ... And its gone! I bet someone is having real grand time sorry for your loss I don't think I could even handle losing 100 dollars


[1 Points] iliketoopana:

pity upvote.... maybe we can get this to 100 upvotes so it will be like almost as valuable at 100 btc.... said no one ever, but it might make op feel good. because as I said earlier I love OP and he deserves to feel good. So let's upvote OP because he at least deserves some upvotes.


[1 Points] Deleetdk:

Who stores 100 BTC in one wallet? I don't understand. For safety purposes. Create wallets on an offline computer. Never connect it to the internet. Send money to wallets on that computer. Split them up in many wallets each with different passwords. Take encrypted backups of the wallet files.


[1 Points] wigcoin:

HOLY SHIT. So sorry to hear this. Something similar happened to a close friend only a few months ago. Very large sum too, but it was on a BTC gambling site. Somebody guessed his login info and stole a year's worth of salary in an instant. All I can say is:

2FA ALL DAY


[1 Points] deftware:

there has been a lot of hackers running tor exit nodes to gather bitcoin access lately.


[1 Points] GeorgeForemanGrillz:

Are you running tails under a VM or a separate computer?


[1 Points] solution103:

Why? Because bitcoin.


[1 Points] 13tom13:

well i suppose if it was fed they would have arrested you so at least be grateful for that. You need to look on the blockchain you might even be able to email them although considering what you do i doubt you would.


[1 Points] Xeeroy:

Well you just gotta get your elite hackerskills on and backtrace those motherfucking bitcoins (if you don't have any hacker skills then I'm pretty sure losing 40.000 is a good enough motivator to learn)

Some bastard out there is laughing his ass off but you cannot let him get away with it!


[1 Points] WasteAmez:

Well, losing 60k is not that big a deal in the universe of dealers.


[1 Points] None:

That is terrible, I got robbed for 10.5k when I was 18 y.o . Worst experience in my life . I was devastated I thought there was no way from bouncing back. I bounced back and been living life fine.You will prosper


[1 Points] dildoge_investor:

here ya go buddy 10 bits /u/changetip


[1 Points] Metagen:

User never posted another word? Is this a scare story?


[1 Points] None:

Damn bro I feel for ya. Best wishes.


[1 Points] jerguismi:

bitaddress.org is known to have some security issues, at least earlier versions. maybe too low entropy.


[1 Points] silkyyyyy:

Stop beggin for that tip!


[1 Points] somejohnguy:

Ur getting H with a better Rush than Oxymorphone?


[1 Points] RedditVsEveryone:

Multi-Sig funds would have prevented this...no?


[0 Points] bagofm3th:

You should store ur bitcoins on a thumb drive or external hard drive


[0 Points] iliketoopana:

This is exactly why I'd never posted more than like 1 ntv at once. I saw boosie 51/50 say he made 13k deposit. fuck .... I understand serving and how you need more htna 1byc to start serving lol but fuck that. I believe btc is a bad investment because it is too unstable and is constantly being stolen in so many ways by so many people. I truly believe hackers go from wallet to wallet trying to steal peoples shit over and over. IT's fucking disgusting to think that, but it's the damn truth. If you are young and have money, wait for the next crash in the stock market and invest low and sell high.... then do it again. or just patiently wait it out because who cares.... in the end you always making a killing on the stock market if you know what you are doing. I think Bitcoin could be essential in the future and the idea of it is fucking brilliant, but the truth is until it's proven as safe place to put money into I wouldn't put any money in it that I either a) wouldn't mind parting was with (stolen) or b) was already planning on parting ways (dnm purchase)

it's fucking sad it's that wayand I hope one day it changes, but like boosies deposit earlier and this guy now, that's proof at any moment you can lose all your money doing something simple as fuck that shouldn't even be possible to lose your money doing. That's sad as fuck since bitcoin is such an amazing tool with limitless potential. The next few years are crucial for bitcoin, it will all be either figured out and the price per bitcoin will be very high or it will have fizzled out and it will be like selling a pokemon card. (not really that cheap, but you get what I mean)


[0 Points] None:

Holy...wow! That must fucking hurt dude, really really hurt. Write everything you can remember down while it's fresh and then step away from the computer for a week or two and take a break, seriously.

I'm not sure it's even possible to start a business and make it successful without losing money at some point. It's obviously galling that it was stolen but you've now learned a very valuable lesson, perhaps if you start again with this in mind you'll get the business back where it was but with much better security?

Or call it a day and take the lessons you've learned in to another area but these sorts of things can't be unlearned, you'll always be a bit more shrewd in what you do

If you want to keep your options open before you take a break, contact your customers and let them know, unless you don't want them to connect you with this reddit account? Once you've had a break, read and discuss security more than you ever have, religiously and come up with a new plan.

if it was me, I wouldn't be able to keep up sending orders as if nothing had happened. I'd be second guessing myself to the point of psychosis. I'd get angry and frustrated and probably feel it was going to be fruitless anyway. I'd need a few weeks away to invent a new plan, it would definitely build my determination and confidence.


[0 Points] 3domfighter:

Nothing sucks worse than taking a big loss like that, but try to look at it a different way. In my days in the game I've had well over a million dollars taken in home invasions, crops ripped, and the biggest offenders: cops. I always tried to look at it like a tax. Everyone pays it somehow, whether it's to the government or the thug on the street. Sometimes both. You live, you learn, and you live another day to earn. All in all, I'd do it all again the same way. IThis could be worse--you could work 9 to 5 in a little grey box.


[0 Points] hpshout:

Here's the advice I was given in a similar situation (far less money) - you obviously have a super secret virus, but are a computer idiot so can't find it. End of story in Bitcoin land, you will find no support here.

I think the actual answer is private keys can eventually be guessed, just takes a very long time /luck.


[0 Points] TulipCoins:

Be your own bank!


[-1 Points] maestro1184:

lol


[-2 Points] None:

Really horrible. People need to learn cols storage techniques print them out or use a hardware wallet. Online in any manner is risky. Can't wait for butterfly labs wallet it looks like it will be nice.


[-9 Points] dnmthroway3o523:

Just created a throwaway for this.

DUDE wtf are you thinking? You lost $37K and you're still shipping out orders? Fuck it dude, as you said, you're at an irrecoverable place, no sense in trying to preserve your reputation. To the people who already ordered and paid, "oops, i'm sorry, i don't know where your package is", then sell your listing to someone else, ship to them and at least attempt to recoup a little bit of your losses. Eventually a bunch of bad feedback will hit, at which point it doesn't matter because you're not vending anymore, or you want to vend so you just post a new bond.

Sorry, I know a whole lot of people are going to be up in arms at the suggestion, and i'd hate to be in their sitation, but as they say in self-help circles, you can't help anyone else until you've helped yourself.

That's the dirty honest truth about what most would do in your situation. That're you're not taking that route doesn't make you a saint, just a martyr for no cause.


[-12 Points] Mith8:

Your tears nourish me.


[-22 Points] None:

[deleted]


[-37 Points] realblack:

Crime doesn't pay.


[-49 Points] rac1st:

Cool story, bro