We often hear horror stories of people losing bitcoins due to unfortunate mishaps. Broken or missing hard drives are a very common denominator in such stores. However, one Reddit user successfully restored an old computer which contained multiple private keys. It seems several thousand BTC were recovered, which is pretty impressive.
Regardless of the recovered amount, it’s always good to see stories like this. No one likes to lose their Bitcoin balance due to unfortunate mishaps. Upgrading a computer and hard drive can have major consequences in these cases. The Reddit user claims the computer was seven years old and has only recently been restored. With three Bitcoin wallet private keys to be used, the total balance was rather surprising. Several thousand BTC – allegedly – is a pretty decent amount to recover.
Bitcoin Private Keys Matter a lot
It didn’t take long for other users to claim this story is utterly fake. While it is very likely the amount of BTC is very different, the recovered information is always a good thing. It is evident there are a lot of people who lost their Bitcoin balance over the years. It hasn’t been convenient to store BTC until a few years ago. In the early days, these coins were worth next to nothing whatsoever. Things certainly have worked out in an interesting manner for Bitcoin holders.
We can only hope people start to take Bitcoin wallet backups more seriously now. It is always necessary to make a backup of the private keys. Never storing that backup on the same computer is the best course of action. Most people keep it on paper, or even on a USB drive stored somewhere else entirely. There are many options in this regard, and it is well worth paying attention to. Bitcoin is a non-refundable currency and once it’s lost, it is gone forever in most cases.
Success stories like these always need to be taken with a few grains of salt. There are people who recover lost Bitcoin wallets in 2017. However, not for the amounts depicted in this specific Reddit thread. No one waits seven years to successfully restore a computer holding thousands of BTC. That is just not how the world works, unfortunately. That being said, we should all be glad someone took the time to dig up an old wallet. If more people took this approach, fewer coins would be lost forever.
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