Almost lost all my Bitcoin

I knew that when you take custody of your keys you need to be as careful as you could possibly be. Only now did I understand why you need to be careful. I recently moved by BTC from an exchange to a hardware wallet. I bought a metal plate from a company that provides private key storage products. You are meant to punch a sequence of 4 numbers for each of your 24 words according to the BIP 39 wordlist. I had done so but I didn't realise I made errors on 2 of the 24 words. I had previously written down the words on a paper provided by the company. The company also provided matches which are intended to burn your paper with after you are done transferring your private keys to the metal plate. Last night I was going to burn the paper but instead scribbled out my 24 words and ripped the paper into pieces before throwing it into the trash. Today I wanted to test my wallet by reseting it and accessing it with my 24 words which I was sure were correct. I was in complete horror when I saw that my 24 words were wrong. I ended up digging through my trash and spent around 5 hours trying to place the barely legible scraps in in order to read and access my wallet with. I knew the risks but I was still careless to record my keys properly and had I burned the paper I would have lost all my bitcoin forever. Please don't make the mistakes I made and be extra careful with self custody. submitted by /u/CapitalAgile [link] [comments]

Mar 25, 2025 - 01:45

I knew that when you take custody of your keys you need to be as careful as you could possibly be. Only now did I understand why you need to be careful.

I recently moved by BTC from an exchange to a hardware wallet. I bought a metal plate from a company that provides private key storage products. You are meant to punch a sequence of 4 numbers for each of your 24 words according to the BIP 39 wordlist.

I had done so but I didn't realise I made errors on 2 of the 24 words. I had previously written down the words on a paper provided by the company. The company also provided matches which are intended to burn your paper with after you are done transferring your private keys to the metal plate.

Last night I was going to burn the paper but instead scribbled out my 24 words and ripped the paper into pieces before throwing it into the trash. Today I wanted to test my wallet by reseting it and accessing it with my 24 words which I was sure were correct.

I was in complete horror when I saw that my 24 words were wrong. I ended up digging through my trash and spent around 5 hours trying to place the barely legible scraps in in order to read and access my wallet with.

I knew the risks but I was still careless to record my keys properly and had I burned the paper I would have lost all my bitcoin forever. Please don't make the mistakes I made and be extra careful with self custody.

submitted by /u/CapitalAgile
[link] [comments]