In the past, you might’ve worked on digging some Bitcoins for future investments, but now you don’t know how to restore the wallet where you kept your crypto coins. Retrieving your storage depends on whether it was a hardware or software type. If you had the software type, then it’s going to be a little more difficult to find it. Here you will find out the best way to restore everything lost, if possible. In some cases, if you wait too long, there are small chances of restoring anything.
Before jumping into our article about digital wallets, techtimes.com can explain the entirety of Bitcoin and how everything works.
In case of a lost digital wallet:
If you’re trying to find a hardware pocketbook, look around your house or ask the last person you might’ve mentioned it to about its whereabouts. Try to remember what you were doing the day you last had access to your storage.
If you have had a mobile or desktop pocketbook, start by searching your email for “Bitcoin” or “BTC”, chances are, you might have some old information on there. There should also be old information in your computer documents. It’s important to mention if your history from the wallet wasn’t backed up, chances are, you won’t find everything.
Whichever pocketbook you were using, you can choose between this method and a second one. The second method is also fairly simple, just by entering your seed phrase into a replacement wallet. After doing so, if the balance shows some leftover Bitcoins, download the blockchain so you can access them. Downloading it might not be so ideal because it has over 150 gigabytes of information, but with a little help from the internet, you can download the specific blockchain for your pocketbook.
Although, the second method isn’t always the one to help with recovering your storage, as some pocketbooks rely on a unique recovery key and recovering seed. When the recovery seed and key are combined, you can gain access to your balance, but all of your funds must be stored separately.
You can also try cold wallets. They are basically pocketbooks that don’t have any access to the internet and are made for holding cryptocurrencies. If you were using this type of storage, you can ask for additional help restoring your funds very quickly by a professional. If you don’t know how to obtain a cold wallet, an encrypted device works with the same system. The device can be a mobile phone, laptop, or computer, but it needs to be encrypted to work.
In case it was stolen:
The anonymity Bitcoin created made a positive and a negative impact. The positive side is that every transaction on the blockchain ever made is anonymous, but the negative side is that it’s perfect for criminal activity. Although Bitcoin made sure its servers are on high-level security, some hackers still manage to breakthrough.
If your storage was stolen, whether it was digital or paper, someone else will have complete access to your funds and your private key. Try not to wait too long to retrieve your assets, because the longer you wait, the harder it becomes to restore anything. If you still can’t manage to find your storage, you need to contact the firm of your pocketbook and ask for your assets to be frozen until further notice.
In this case, if the firm and legal action isn’t helping, you can try methods of importing and sweeping. To start, you should sweep your private key.
To explain what a private key actually is, it’s a practical security measure that ensures the safety of your cryptocurrency. Every key is generated in a unique sequence, from random letters and numbers to a seed phrase that makes no sense.
Even after entering the needed seed phrase from the old to your new pocketbook, a paper trail still might exist, making this only half the job done, but still a risk. To avoid this risk, it’s a smart choice to sweep the entire old wallet and transfer it to a new public address. This should transfer all and every bit of information and funds from your old storage to your new one through a transaction.
If you want to import your private key to your new digital pocketbook, first you need to make sure all physical documents of your wallet are gone or destroyed, just to make sure no third party can ever access it. After that, you can finish the importing in no time.
Although, if your initial plan was importing the private key to a hardware pocketbook, a middleman needs to be involved. By sending the private key to a middleman, you can then import it to your ledger address.
Now, if you’re changing the brand of your pocketbook, then you need to be careful with the derivation path. A derivation path is essentially an HD wallet or key where you have a readable seed phrase that can unlock multiple accounts, private keys, and addresses through a supported network. These paths should be carefully set, as they create master seeds and all subsequent keys are derived.
Switching wallet brands can be a little on the expensive side, but if it helps with returning your lost goods, then the price is fairly small. We hope this article was of any help in finding your lost or stolen storage. A little helpful tip, be sure to backup your pocketbook weekly to a fully secure place, preferably to a cold wallet. This will keep your storage a lot more secure.
Also, an important tip to mention, if you do manage to get your Bitcoins back, you probably won’t be able to spend all of them. This is because after losing your storage, you lose keys that are needed for purchasing. The lack of those keys makes sure you can’t spend those coins. This is one of the main reasons for weekly backups, when backed up, even after being lost they are still spendable.