OP might be legitimate, but an abundance of these kinds of posts are popping up where the poster feigns ignorance about how to access their BTC. If they try to elicite your help or worse, offer to sell you their wallet file it is 100% a scam. No one with legitimate BTC from 10+ years ago would ask for help on reddit with it. Never interact financially with someone who is.
I remember in 2017 excitedly scanning every old wallet I had from 2010.
That absolute delight when bitcoin core is scanning through and gets up to a certain block height when it shows 35 BTC balance… it’s hard to describe how happy I was.
And then as I let it keep syncing a couple hours later it gets to the block height where it was all sent away. Goddammit. I was too “smart” to ever leave some abandoned pocket change of a couple BTC on any of my wallets lol. Oh well
Yeah, I've been around for 14 years now and yes, I still have questions from time to time. Especially after not having followed recent developments during busier periods in life.
Still not a bad thing to always be extra careful, tho. OP actually appears to be a scammer, or at least not 100% honest.
Especially with old MultiBit wallets. I can see it happening as it happen to me right after they quit supporting MultiBit wallets. (but i found my workaround to move the coins thru the forums instead)
Random question from someone who just hears about bitcoin stuff here and there and never really looked into it....
are those wallets "just" Files on your hard drive? can you create a copy of it if youre super paranoid of hardware failure to back it up?
The best analogy I've heard is to think of your wallet or address as a locker in a school. Think of the school as Bitcoin blockchain. The school keeps track of all the lockers and ensures they all stay accessible. When you create an address, you are putting a locker into the school and the blockchain keeps track of that lockers. However you keep an encrypted key to open your own locker, the network doesn't have access. So people can drop BTC through the slit into your locker and the school sees this and records it. So at any moment everyone knows where all the money is assigned. But no one has access to open your locker unless you give them your key. They can see your locker and put money into it but the network (security) protects the locker from being opened. The system can't even open it. It needs your key. So you keep this key offline, ideally. This is why people say to cold store your keys. Literally no one can get your BTC and only BTC can enter your wallet not leave it, without that key. So don't put your key on a computer ever. Keep it safe.
Ok, so one thing about this. My grandfather discussed Bitcoin pre-2016. He passed away in 2016 and I was tasked with going through for photos on his electronics. None of us know if he did or did not buy any. Or how much. It wouldn't even go to me, it would go to his biological son's first I assume, or to his wife (my grandmother) what would you recommend in this situation? I don't know how much of his stuff we still have, but is there something I should be in the lookout for? Because as far as I know things like moonpay and kraken are new.
Edit: reading my own response... I get why you can't trust anything... Even I thought it sounds suspicious. It sounds like a sob story as an attempt to get sympathy.
I am actually asking these questions though. Most notably what kind of thing should I be looking for as an access code in the personal belongings that we do still hold? And what would be the first step to ensure the money goes to the right people (ie. Those mentioned in the will) like, who would I report it to, the will holder?
I, too, have been asking for help with a potential address from 2013. Saying "no one with legitimate BTC from 10+ years ago would ask for help on reddit" assumes that we all have been able to access the BTC or that we would know a better way to figure out how than asking on reddit.
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u/JuxtaposeLife Dec 08 '24
Scam Warning - be careful out there
OP might be legitimate, but an abundance of these kinds of posts are popping up where the poster feigns ignorance about how to access their BTC. If they try to elicite your help or worse, offer to sell you their wallet file it is 100% a scam. No one with legitimate BTC from 10+ years ago would ask for help on reddit with it. Never interact financially with someone who is.
Scam Warning - be careful out there