Bitcoin is still early

[CordMcNally]

Can that hard drive wallet be copied on to another hard drive and put away? Then the police just have an useless non-password wallet on a hard drive and he has another wallet and the password.

You just need the seed phrase/private key which is what he isn't giving them and what they can't find. The name wallet is kind of misleading because the bitcoins aren't stored in it. It's mainly used for transactions. The Bitcoins are stored on the blockchain. They can confiscate all the equipment they want but it doesn't mean anything without the seed phrase/private key. I'm sure he has the seed phrases/private key stored somewhere else. The police have seized exactly 0 Bitcoins from this guy. He'll be able to recover his Bitcoins once he is out of jail.

[Hank]

On the other hand, if he’s been ordered to pay restitution and refuses to do so, he could be held indefinitely on contempt of court even when his current criminal sentence ends. (Plus his lack of cooperation probably isn’t going to do him any good at a parole hearing.)

[Panscan]

You just need the seed phrase/private key which is what he isn't giving them and what they can't find. The name wallet is kind of misleading because the bitcoins aren't stored in it. It's mainly used for transactions. The Bitcoins are stored on the blockchain. They can confiscate all the equipment they want but it doesn't mean anything without the seed phrase/private key. I'm sure he has the seed phrases/private key stored somewhere else. The police have seized exactly 0 Bitcoins from this guy. He'll be able to recover his Bitcoins once he is out of jail.

I must have misunderstood , if the coins aren’t stored on the wallets then how is there any security benefit of the hard wallets ?

[CordMcNally]

I must have misunderstood , if the coins aren’t stored on the wallets then how is there any security benefit of the hard wallets ?

Hard wallets store your private keys off line. If your keys are stored online then there is always the chance of a hack.

[Panscan]

Right that is my understanding as well but in the above post where you said the coins aren't stored in the wallets, just the transactions are, I don't know what you mean, are you talking about the online things like coinbase?

[chucki]

Online = exchanges (like coinbase); exchanges own the private keys
Offline = hard wallets; you own the private keys

[xraygoggles]

https://www.ledger.com/academy/not-your-keys-not-your-coins-why-it-matters

Good primer on why having a hard wallet is most secure.

[CordMcNally]

Right that is my understanding as well but in the above post where you said the coins aren't stored in the wallets, just the transactions are, I don't know what you mean, are you talking about the online things like coinbase?

The coins are stored on the blockchain. A wallet is like an email address. You use it to send and receive messages (transactions). Any wallet connected to the internet has the risk of being hacked, albeit incredibly low with the most popular exchanges like Coinbase. If someone physically steals your hard wallet (i.e. thumb drive, etc.) then they can't do anything without the seed phrases/private keys. The person who lost the hard wallet can always recover the Bitcoin if they have the seed phrases/private keys.

[pierre]

Police seize $60 million of bitcoin! Now, where's the password? | Reuters

This is actually pretty funny. The title is incorrect because they haven't seized anything. They just pretend like they did. I don't understand the last sentence, though.

"Prosecutors have ensured the man cannot access the largesse, however."

I don't believe this is true.

My favorite part: we asked him for the password, but he didn't tell us.

Can they just just guess the wrong password enough times to lock everyone out, including the thief? Like that guy who only has two more chances to guess his password or lose $200m

[CordMcNally]

My favorite part: we asked him for the password, but he didn't tell us.

Can they just just guess the wrong password enough times to lock everyone out, including the thief? Like that guy who only has two more chances to guess his password or lose $200m

No. The guy that only has two more guesses doesn't have two more guesses or he's locked out of his Bitcoin forever, he's got two more guesses to access the hard drive where all of his information to access the Bitcoins is on. He set it up to destroy itself after a certain number of failed attempts. There's no attempt limit on seed phrases, however, I don't believe even today's supercomputers could brute force those.

[Lordosis]

The coins are stored on the blockchain. A wallet is like an email address. You use it to send and receive messages (transactions). Any wallet connected to the internet has the risk of being hacked, albeit incredibly low with the most popular exchanges like Coinbase. If someone physically steals your hard wallet (i.e. thumb drive, etc.) then they can't do anything without the seed phrases/private keys. The person who lost the hard wallet can always recover the Bitcoin if they have the seed phrases/private keys.

If they lost the wallet but can still recover the bitcoin what is the point of the wallet?

Pardon the stupid question but what does stored on the blockchain mean? Is that a hackable target?

[CordMcNally]

If they lost the wallet but can still recover the bitcoin what is the point of the wallet?

Pardon the stupid question but what does stored on the blockchain mean? Is that a hackable target?

You need a wallet to do transactions.

The blockchain is basically not hackable with today's technology.

The following is a long read but really helped me understand crypto. I think I understand it much better than I can explain it.

https://www.cfainstitute.org/-/media/documents/article/rf-brief/rfbr-cryptoassets.ashx

[mianesmd]

I bought $50 of Bitcoin and $50 of Ethereum last week...purely for entertainment value lol. Rest assured it is not a part of my written investment plan

[xraygoggles]

I bought $50 of Bitcoin and $50 of Ethereum last week...purely for entertainment value lol. Rest assured it is not a part of my written investment plan

Good idea in 2 different ways: allocate half to each (and not just all btc), consider DCA-ing small sums monthly, weekly etc. You will likely be very happy you did.

[NapoleanDynamite]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-08/tesla-bets-1-5-billion-on-bitcoin-in-new-policy-crypto-surges

This is just the beginning.

In the end
It was inevitable