I haven’t heard from him for nearly three months now, and cannot...

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ML173

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09/01/18

16:19

Post #: 30166382
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Originally posted by psi81 ↑

I don't trade or use bitcoin but I understand the mechanics of the encryption system. It's based on public key cryptography, which underpins the entire Internet these days.

I can't comment on whether he's telling the truth or not but AFAIK it is feasible to do what he says. To do it, you need to find the private key associated with the bitcoin wallet, which if somebody was foolish enough to save on their hard drive or a flash drive (in a text file), you could definitely recover. You don't even need the original wallet software, you can just download the same wallet program and use the private key to activate the bitcoins. Assuming the person who threw it away didn't have another copy of the key, nobody would have been able to use them in the meantime, so those bitcoins will be sitting there waiting to be activated.

In the early days of bitcoin when it was worth a fraction of a cent, it's likely people did store their private key on their hard drive, because you wouldn't be too worried about someone finding your private key and stealing your near-worthless bitcoins.

The bitcoin program does not store identifying details of previous owners - it's designed to be anonymous. But it would still technically be illegal to do what he's doing because he is accessing someone else's private data. If I were him I would be keeping a lid on what I found, lest an old client find out. They'd have good grounds to go to police about it and demand their data back, including their bitcoin key.

So it's certainly possible. Whether you believe it or not... I have to wonder why he'd go to the US to sell his bitcoins when he could do it just as easily from Australia. I also wonder how many old hard drives would contain a couple of hundred bitcoin - that would be from the early days of bitcoin when mining them was quick and easy, and almost nobody actually used bitcoin in those days except hardcore nerds - people who would have been pretty cluey about the need for security. The chance of finding even one, let alone more than one, old bitcoin wallets with unsecured keys seems pretty low - even in a shipping container full of old drives.

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I haven’t heard from him for nearly three months now, and cannot clarify the story from his wife atm ?

Anyway, I found a story sounds similar:
https://www.google.com.au/amp/www.i...bell-simpson-laszlo-hanyecz-a8091371.html?amp

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I haven’t heard from him for nearly three months now, and cannot...

BCI reaches close of funding facility for salt-first part of Mardie project

Solstice Minerals to ramp up drilling campaign at Yarri Gold Project

White Cliff jumps 24% on 'bonanza grade' copper rock chips at Rae project, Canada

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Cokal upgrades infrastructure for BBM ramp-up in Indonesia

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Week 40 Wrap: China's nonsensical stimmy hype wanes (shocking!); HotCopper's picks; oil & inflation

Coda Minerals (ASX:COD) enters rights issue to further exploration in South Australia

Recce eyes Indonesia for novel anti-infective as Indo-Aus ties grow stronger

Buxton projects new graphite province discovery at WA Narryer play

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I haven’t heard from him for nearly three months now, and cannot...

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BCI reaches close of funding facility for salt-first part of Mardie project

Solstice Minerals to ramp up drilling campaign at Yarri Gold Project

White Cliff jumps 24% on 'bonanza grade' copper rock chips at Rae project, Canada

Neurotech knocked back by FDA as agency declares target condition not rare enough for special status

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