From the author: in 2013, news spread all over the world that a certain British man, who did not at all look like a homeless person, was very actively prowling around a landfill. You can think anything: he was looking for a family heirloom, trying to find evidence of a crime... But he simply did not know how to restore his Bitcoin wallet in any other way.
The situation turned out to be funny. Once he spilled coffee on his laptop, which caused a breakdown. Some parts were sold and some were thrown away. He believed that he had copied all the necessary information. Having learned about the rise in the BTC rate, he realized what a mistake he had made. Luck did not smile on him, and to this day, 7,500 Bitcoins lie somewhere under tons of garbage. How can you avoid ending up in such a situation?
Preparing for recovery
Wallet restoration begins long before it is lost or broken. The preparatory stage is relatively simple, however, it depends on the type of wallet you have. There are 5 varieties of them, but recovery of hardware and software on a computer is available.
On devices, this stage only involves recording a mnemonic phrase. It consists of 24 words and is provided during the initial configuration of a new wallet. Be sure to write it down, because in the future you will find it nowhere. It also follows from this that the piece of paper with the written phrase must be reliably protected. If someone gains access to it, they can steal your funds.
We carefully check transactions
Wallets become full-fledged nodes for conducting operations and checking validity. Payment analysis does not require trust in third parties. If the node is full-fledged, then it will provide the proper level of security. But in this case, you need to free up more disk space, up to 145 Gigabytes. Bandwidth also needs to be increased. Synchronization initially takes longer.
If the verification is simplified or decentralized, the wallet uses random services from the list of dropped options. This means that the user himself decides which portal is more trustworthy. This is not as secure compared to wallets that have the form of full nodes.
With a centralized system, the project relies on centralized servers. This third party can be trusted 100% for all transactions.
Transparency
It can be full or basic.
- The openness of source codes and data is characteristic of a full degree of transparency. The program's assembly procedure is strictly fixed. The location of the developers does not matter; auditing is available to everyone.
- Basic transparency also means publishing source code. Code auditing is acceptable for all developers. But additional security checks are required when new software and various applications are installed.
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Desktop clients, regardless of whether the wallet is thin or thick, store transaction history in one file. It is usually called wallet.dat. By default, it is located in the folder C:/users/computer_administrator/appdata/roaming/Bitcoin. Your task is to copy this file and store it on another medium.
Moreover, it is recommended to periodically create a new copy, because it will store more information about your transactions. It is especially important to make a copy after receiving funds.
Speaking of desktop clients, it is worth mentioning a second recovery option. In this case, a personal key is used, or, as it is correctly called, private.
- You still need to start by backing up wallet.dat. It will never be superfluous.
- Open the console in your wallet and enter dumpprivkey “wallet address”.
- Your private key will be provided upon request.
Copy it, write it down somewhere... Do whatever you want with it. The main requirement is storage safety. If anyone gets access to it, then your money is on the line.
Everything you need to know about Bitcoin. A detailed guide for beginners in the world of cryptocurrencies.
Good afternoon
Some people these days feel more than confident in using cryptocurrencies, while others are just beginning to become interested in the opportunities that their use provides. My professional field of activity involves the use of cryptocurrencies on a daily basis, so I decided to create a FAQ for beginners who once, somewhere, heard about Bitcoin from someone, but have not encountered it in practice. Without further ado, I present instructions for a person who decides to enter the crypto world. Let's start with theory and later move on to practice.
I have made a plan for myself that I will adhere to during my story:
- What is VTS
- What is blockchain
- Pros of Bitcoin
- What does the Bitcoin rate depend on, why such a rate?
- Types of wallets
- Installing the Electrum wallet
- How to use Electrum
- How to get bitcoin
- About the cue ball rate
- Cons of Bitcoin
- Wallet Security
Well, let's proceed to a complete analysis of Bitcoin?
How to recover a hardware wallet
Let's say your device is broken, lost, or you forgot your PIN code. The first thing you need to do is buy a new wallet. Even though they are not cheap, there is no other way to restore access to Bitcoins.
When you first start, you will be asked: “Do you want to create a new configuration?” Answer “no” and choose wallet recovery. Next begins the culminating and very long process.
Take out the piece of paper on which the mnemonic phrase is written. For each word, you must first enter the first letters. Afterwards you will be offered several words from which you must choose the correct one. Once you have entered all the words, the wallet will be set up. The last step is to download the Bitcoin wallet configuration.
On average, the process of entering a phrase takes up to 15 minutes. You will get tired of this very quickly, since hardware wallets are not very convenient. However, there is no other way. It is unlikely that laziness can outweigh the desire to get your money back.
Converting incorrect tokens
It's up to you to decide what to do with your tokens. It should be noted that BEP20 tokens can only be used on BSC, and ERC 20 tokens can only be used on the Ethereum network.
Similar to DeFi on the Ethereum network, there are also many applications available on BSC.
If you want to convert incorrect tokens into correct ones, there are two ways.
- You can send the token back to your Binance account and withdraw it as an ERC20 token. This way you send the tokens back to the correct network.
- You can use tools like Binance Bridge. This allows tokens to be converted between blockchains. All you have to do is connect your MetaMask to BSC and choose what to convert. Please note that transfer and conversion to BSC requires BNB as gas fee.
Restoring the desktop client
To begin with, an easier way is to restore from a backup. Download the wallet to your computer again. Then copy the previously saved wallet file and paste it into the same path as above. Next, you will have to wait a little while the client downloads all the blocks. At the end of synchronization, you will see your usual transaction history and your old balance.
Why is this option not the most reliable? Because the file can be lost, the second media can be infected with viruses, lost or broken. If access to your Bitcoin wallet backup file is lost, you will not be able to get your funds back.
Using the second method, naturally, involves using the console. Enter the command importprivkey "your private key". We are waiting for synchronization with the network again. Once completed, access will be restored.
The second option is much more reliable, with one “but”. It is advisable to store the private key on paper rather than in any file on a computer, flash drive or smartphone. This way it will definitely not be stolen. Except for the case when they find the piece of paper itself. But the likelihood of this is much less, since you need to know exactly where it is stored.
No. 2 Carrying out recovery activities through the console
You can also recover your Bitcoin wallet password using this method. In simple terms, the console is similar to the command line. Using this tool, it will not be difficult to obtain information about the private key, and then begin recovery measures. Using the ELECTRUM program as an example, the algorithm will look like this:
- go to the console;
- select the required command: Dumpprivkey wallet_number;
- press the Enter key;
- the value you receive will act as a private key. It is this that needs to be stored and protected as carefully as possible.
Further, knowing the key, you can carry out restoration measures without difficulty.
Light version
Sometimes the problem can only be a small glitch in the system or in the wallet itself. To restore access in this case, you can use the repairwallet command. It is advisable to enter it through the wallet bat file. That is, you need to create a bat with the following content: bitcoinwallet.exe –repairwallet.
Here “bitcoinwallet.exe” is the file name that you use to launch the wallet program. Once launched, the wallet will check all transactions that have passed through its address and arrange them in chronological order, which will correct any failures.
How to avoid sending funds to the wrong blockchain/network?
Before depositing funds into your Binance account or withdrawing funds from Binance, pay special attention to the type of network you choose.
It's easy to confuse Ethereum (ERC-20) and Binance Smart Chain (BEP-20). Don't choose BEP2/BEP20 simply because this network offers lower fees.
So which of these networks should I choose when withdrawing cryptocurrency to a wallet or other exchange?
You should always only choose a network that is supported by the target exchange or receiving wallet.
Remember that other than Binance, most exchanges do not support BEP2 or BEP20 networks. Therefore, if you are sending an Ethereum-based ERC20 token, choose the ERC20 token standard for the transfer, even though the fees for ERC20 transfers are quite high.
If you are transferring coins to a wallet such as MetaMask or Trust wallet, then it does not matter whether you choose ERC20 or BEP20. Both wallets support Binance Smart Chain so you can recover your coins.
Likewise, when making a deposit to your Binance account, it does not matter whether you transfer via the Ethereum or BSC blockchain.
On Binance, your deposit address is the same for ETH, ERC20 and BEP20 tokens. There is also no need for a memo, tag or payment ID.
READ
What is MetaMask? How does it work, security? Step-by-step installation instructions
This way, the BEP20 or ERC20 tokens you sent to your ETH deposit address on Binance will still show up in your account.
But don't do this when transferring coins to another exchange. Most exchanges generate a separate address for each specific token. Also many don't support BSC yet.
READ
How to connect your MetaMask wallet to the main and test network of Binance smart chain (BSC)
Remember to always double check the network type and destination exchange or wallet address before making a transfer. This way you can avoid sending the wrong coins or tokens to the wrong network/address.
If you've already made an incorrect deposit or withdrawal, here's what you need to know.
READ
/articles/metamask-dobavit-erc20-bep20
Recovery by address
People often wonder if it is possible to restore a Bitcoin wallet using an address? Unfortunately, the answer to this question is no. If you are using an exchange address, you can contact support. However, the success rate is very low.
The fact is that addresses are always known, as they are displayed during transactions. If such a recovery method were available, then the reliability of any online wallet would become very low. After all, it would not be difficult for hackers to hack the wallet using recovery.
What conclusion follows from this? You should not store large amounts of money online. Restoring web versions of the wallet is impossible. Try to send your funds to a desktop client or device, and do not forget to create a backup copy when doing so. Only in this case will it be possible to restore access to your Bitcoins.
What conclusion can be drawn
As you can see from the situation described above, you can always find a way out. The complexity of solving the problem and the duration of the procedure, as well as the order of actions, depend on the type of resource used. In each case, you may encounter your own difficulties. But with a little effort, you can quickly regain access to your wallet and, accordingly, to your money.
It is important to know! To avoid taking the situation to such an extreme, it is better to pay more time and attention to the safety of using the resource immediately after completing the registration procedures. The first thing you need to do is ensure that your passwords and passphrase files are securely stored.
Remember that there are several measures to prevent hacker attacks. To do this, software experts recommend using reliable anti-virus programs and regularly updating databases.
last hope
Imagine a situation in which your computer is in perfect condition, but for some unknown reason you deleted the wallet file from memory. This is a rather strange action, and it is very difficult to imagine circumstances under which such a thing would even be possible. However, no one is immune from force majeure.
Here you need to look for the last salvation, which will be a special utility for recovering data directly from the hard drive. If anyone doesn’t know, even if a file is permanently deleted from the computer, its particles remain on the hard drive. This is very often used when important information is lost, as well as to obtain various types of evidence.
Such utilities can be R-Studio, HDD Regenerator and Recuva. You should be careful when using them, since incorrect actions can greatly harm the system. Also, before using the program, create a backup copy of your system in case of failures. If the utility did not help, then you can forget about your money.
Features of working with a cryptocurrency wallet in the Bockchain system
Online wallets for storing digital currency are the most popular among users today. A popular service for these purposes is the blockchain wallet. This resource has become widespread thanks to its user-friendly interface and simple management. Features of the blockchain wallet include:
- Initially created to store Bitcoins, but later support for Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash was added to it.
- The service has developed mobile applications for Android and iOS.
- Purchase and sale transactions are available directly from the personal wallet interface.
- The size of the commission depends on network activity and amount.
- Additional settings are provided for account security.
- After each transaction, a new address for your blockchain wallet is created.
- There is a Russified version.
Important! Online wallets for storing digital currency are considered not the most reliable way to store cryptocurrency. If you use large amounts, it is better to create light or heavy wallets.
