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  • How Do Hardware Wallets Work?

    How Do Hardware Wallets Work?

    Introduction If you’re on the fence about moving your cryptocurrency to a hardware wallet or have already taken the plunge but want to deepen your understanding of safe usage, this is for you.  Understanding what hardware wallets protect against is the first step toward intuitive and safe usage. Ground rules like “never enter your seed…


  • How Hardware Wallet Users Lose Their Bitcoin

    How Hardware Wallet Users Lose Their Bitcoin

    Drawing from my experience assisting thousands of customers through WalletRecovery.info, I’ve identified the most frequent scenarios under which individuals lose their crypto stored in hardware wallets. Here’s a rundown of these scenarios, ranked by commonality: Notably Absent Risks: Some risks that users might expect to see are notably absent from this list, underscoring their rarity or…


  • How to Save on Bitcoin Transactions

    How to Save on Bitcoin Transactions

    Looking to reduce fees on your upcoming Bitcoin transaction? Consider these strategies: Timing is Key: Bitcoin fees are notoriously variable, ranging from $1 in October 2023 to a high of $38 in December 2023, and back down to $5 as of January 2024. Unlike Ethereum, which has a strong daily and weekly gas fee cycle,…


  • Bitcoin is NOT “backed by nothing”

    Bitcoin is NOT “backed by nothing”

    Bitcoin is NOT “backed by nothing.” The value of Bitcoin is supported by the utility of the Bitcoin network. Here’s how: What gives gold its value? Let’s compare Bitcoin to gold as a form of money. Gold was (theoretically) redeemable 1:1 by metal. It became a medium of exchange because it has non-monetary value—it’s shiny…


  • How I Recover Stolen NFTs from Crypto Scammers 🥷🏼

    Since I started helping people recover their crypto wallets in 2017, my most common reply has been “if your crypto is stolen, there is nothing I can do.” Well, not anymore. I can now help theft victims who have assets “stuck” in compromised Ethereum wallets. But how can your crypto get stuck in a wallet?  When…


  • How I Brute Force Blockchain.info Wallets

    How I Brute Force Blockchain.info Wallets

    Here is the actual command I used to recover a recent wallet. The recovery took about a week on an Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics card. This is a batch of 300 million passwords, but it took over 1 billion total passwords to crack this wallet because my process involves ever-larger password sets. Pro Tip: Blockchain.info/Blockchain.com…


  • How to Extract a Crypto Wallet Seed from an iPhone

    How to Extract a Crypto Wallet Seed from an iPhone

    1: Jailbreak the iPhone A “jailbreak” (or “root” for Android devices) means gaining super-user permissions on your iPhone. These permissions allow apps to escape the “sandbox” that limits what apps can normally do on IOS. There have been dozens of different jailbreaks, but they all work the same way: a jailbreak finds a vulnerability (“exploit”)…


  • How To Tell If A Cryptocurrency Or DeFi Platform Is A Scam

    How To Tell If A Cryptocurrency Or DeFi Platform Is A Scam

    (If you’re a victim of a crypto scam, read this first.) My survey of 2500+ crypto scam victims identified some key signs that a crypto project is a scam. Whether it’s a scam from the start, or just doomed to fail and waste all your money, here are six ways to tell if a crypto…


  • Survey of Crypto and Defi Scams 2021 Whitepaper

    Survey of Crypto and Defi Scams 2021 Whitepaper

    2021 has been another bull market for cryptocurrencies. Unsurprisingly, billions of dollars flowing into an unregulated market have attracted plenty of scammers too. Besides the risks of theft from platforms and crypto wallets, 2021 has seen a rise in DeFi scams and theft events. While DeFi (theoretically) provides protection against some risks, it also introduces…


  • Inflation Is Here Today. Five Ways To Protect Your Wealth

    Inflation Is Here Today.  Five Ways To Protect Your Wealth

    Are you sitting on cash because it is “safe?” It isn’t. Your USD savings are losing 7 to 15% in value every year. That isn’t “safe.” It’s stupid. The official rate is 6.8%, but that excludes real estate and investments, which are up over 20% YTD. The M2 money supply is up 40% since the…


  • How to Protect Yourself From DeFi Platform Hacks

    How to Protect Yourself From DeFi Platform Hacks

    Yesterday, BadgerDAO users had $120 million stolen because the platform was hacked. The current theory is that the hackers injected malicious scripts using Cloudflare. These scripts modified the transactions made by the website to redirect funds to the hacker’s wallet. Here are some tips for avoiding these hacks: Always Review The Transaction Details Below, you…


  • Common types of scams in crypto and DeFi

    Common types of scams in crypto and DeFi

    Sometimes it’s obvious that a scheme is a scam. In other cases, it’s a grey area. For example, are copycat coins, pyramid schemes, and vaporware coins necessarily scams? In crypto, it could be argued that there is a spectrum from obviously legitimate to obviously scam schemes, with the exact divide being a gray area. Common…


  • How to transfer Bitcoin from a Multibit Classic or Multibit HD wallet into Electrum

    How to transfer Bitcoin from a Multibit Classic or Multibit HD wallet into Electrum

    Multibit was one of the better Bitcoin wallets between 2011-2016. However, in 2019, both Multibit Classic and Multibit HD have been abandoned by its owner Keepkey and are no longer supported. If you still have Bitcoin in your Multibit wallet and need to get it out, read on. You can still try to send Bitcoin out…


  • How to Avoid Buying Trash Crypto That Wastes Your Money

    How to Avoid Buying Trash Crypto That Wastes Your Money

    Original posted at The Bitcoin Consultancy Buy And Hold Your Entire Crypto Portfolio In Bitcoin The only guaranteed way to avoid falling for a crypto scam is to keep 100% of your crypto portfolio in Bitcoin. Investors fall for crypto scams when they try to beat the returns of Bitcoin through a variety of other coins…


  • Why are there so many scams in crypto?

    Why are there so many scams in crypto?

    Original posted at The Bitcoin Consultancy If you can imagine a way to lose money in crypto, I’ve heard it. Since 2017, I’ve heard from thousands of victims of every crypto scam imaginable.   But for every crypto scheme which is outright theft, there are ten trash crypto-assets created mainly to take your money and run. Each project…


  • Bitcoin has already advanced global privacy and financial autonomy

    Bitcoin has already advanced global privacy and financial autonomy

    If Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were to disappear tomorrow, what legacy would they leave behind? I can think of three main impacts: First, Bitcoin raised awareness of the flaws in fiat money, the superiority of sound money, and the potential of people to trade with each other without third-party intermediaries. Second, Bitcoin has provided a…


  • How to repair a Trezor Model T with a touchscreen swap

    How to repair a Trezor Model T with a touchscreen swap

    I needed to perform this operation because I had a Trezor Model T with a lost recovery seed and a bad display.  When I plugged it in, I saw the LCD backlight lit up, but nothing showed on the screen. I decided to fix this Trezor wallet with a component swap of the touchscreen. Note:…


  • Stop buying fake Bitcoin wallets!

    Stop buying fake Bitcoin wallets!

    Every day, I get 10+ Bitcoin wallets that someone “forgot” the password to. Some are worth a few Bitcoin while some have 100,000 (or more!) Bitcoin. They all have three things in common: There haven’t been any transactions in a long time, like 10+ years. The password ideas are non-existent or very vague (“something with…


  • Don’t panic: why Tether won’t destroy crypto

    Don’t panic: why Tether won’t destroy crypto

     This article by “Crypto Anonymous” claims that Tether will bring a crypto “doomsday.” The author makes many good points in building his case, yet the overall conclusion is less than the sum of its parts. Here’s the short version of why he’s wrong: Yes, Tether creates systemic risk for Bitcoin. But the key claim that…


  • Help! My Bitcoin was stolen! Can you help?

    Help!  My Bitcoin was stolen!  Can you help?

    Billions of dollars in Bitcoin are stolen every year.  If you’re a victim of Bitcoin theft or a scam, read this article first. I will tell you why all “stolen Bitcoin recovery” services are scams, and what you should actually do. Can a Bitcoin recovery service help get my stolen Bitcoin/Ethereum/etc back? The first and…


  • How to safely store Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies

    How to safely store Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies

    I’ve seen people lose their Bitcoin in every way imaginable, and I want to help you avoid the most common mistakes. Are you thinking long-term? Will your storage medium last 10 years? Will your family be able to access it in the event of your death? Have you considered that the same events that will…


  • How to fix “The transaction was rejected because it is too large” rejected transaction error in Electrum & Electron Cash

    How to fix “The transaction was rejected because it is too large”  rejected transaction error in Electrum & Electron Cash

    Rejected transactions are disappointing, but it’s better than the alternative: having your transactions in limbo for weeks, or thinking that your transaction was accepted when it was not.  A “the transaction was rejected because it is too large (in bytes).” error usually happens when are probably trying to spend coins from a mining wallet or a…


  • Don’t dismiss Bitcoin just because of its wild price swings

    Don’t dismiss Bitcoin just because of its wild price swings

    There are valid reasons to criticize Bitcoin, but price volatility is not one of them.  Why does the price of Bitcoin change so much from day to day? The answer is simple: the value of Bitcoin derives almost entirely from speculation on future adoption of Bitcoin rather than practical use. Bitcoin speculators are betting on the likelihood…


  • Watch out for these five common Bitcoin/cryptocurrency scams

    Watch out for these five common Bitcoin/cryptocurrency scams

    Here are the five most common cryptocurrency scams my customers ask my help with: 1: Fake trading services: cryptocurrency trading services that promise quick returns.  Usually, a “trader” on Telegram will direct you to a website with testimonials and impressive performance numbers.  If you look up their name, you will often find a real, licensed…


  • How does a Bitcoin wallet recovery service work?

    How does a Bitcoin wallet recovery service work?

    Here is how our Bitcoin wallet recovery process works: The process we follow depends on which of the below scenarios describes your situation: Forgotten password Corrupt wallet Lost wallet Broken computer/phone Payment sent to the wrong currency type Step 1: Understand your situation First, we’ll ask you to describe your situation and agree to our…


  • You’ve bought your first Bitcoin. Now what?

    You’ve bought your first Bitcoin.  Now what?

    Here is a quick guide to storing, transporting, and spending your Bitcoin: Keep It Safe There are many ways to lose your Bitcoin, but the most common one is failing to properly backup your recovery seed.   Use a wallet which allows you to write down your recovery words on a piece of paper, and keep…


  • How to recover your corrupt or deleted Bitcoin Core wallet

    How to recover your corrupt or deleted Bitcoin Core wallet

    This post discusses the methods for recovering a deleted or corrupt Bitcoin Core Wallet. Many other currencies, such as Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Dogecoins and more share Bitcoin Core’s wallet format and can be recovered using the same techniques and tools. I assume that you have the wallet password, or there is no password. (I’ll post…


  • Customer Support Links for Popular Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency  Wallets

    Customer Support Links for Popular Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency  Wallets

    The following links may help you solve problems with popular wallets on your own: Desktop Wallets JAXX: https://decentral.zendesk.com/hc/en-us KeepKey: https://support.keepkey.com/support/solutions Ledger Nano S: https://ledger.zendesk.com/hc/en-us Multibit: https://multibit.org/help/hd0.4/contents.html Trezor: https://trezor.io/support/ Bitcoin Core Official Help Pages: https://bitcoin.org/en/bitcoin-core/help Community Help Pages https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/ Electrum http://docs.electrum.org/en/latest/faq.html# Electron Cash: https://github.com/fyookball/electrum/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Aissue Daedalus Wallet: https://daedaluswallet.io/faq/#support Exchanges Coinbase Support Site https://support.coinbase.com/ Poloniex https://poloniex.com/support/ Online Wallets BitGo: https://bitgo.freshdesk.com/support/home Blockchain.info:  https://blockchain.info/tr/support-desk Help Pages: https://support.blockchain.com/hc/en-us BTC Wallet: https://walletsupport.bitcoin.com/ Coinapult: https://support.coinapult.com/support/home Coin.Space: https://coinspace.zendesk.com/hc/en-us Cryptonator: https://cryptonator.zendesk.com/hc/en-us GreenAddress: https://greenaddress.it/en/support.html DigitalBitbox: [email protected]


  • Testimonial: Jeffrey Tucker

    Testimonial: Jeffrey Tucker

    Jeffrey Tucker is Director of Content for the Foundation for Economic Education. He is a managing partner of Vellum Capital, the founder of Liberty.me, Distinguished Honorary Member of Mises Brazil, economics adviser to FreeSociety.com, research fellow at the Acton Institute, policy adviser of the Heartland Institute, founder of the CryptoCurrency Conference, member of the editorial board of the Molinari Review, an advisor to…


  • Essential Security Practices to Keep Your Bitcoin Secure from Hackers and Thieves

    Essential Security Practices to Keep Your Bitcoin Secure from Hackers and Thieves

    Your security practices should be both comprehensive enough to keep you safe without being so complicated that you will be locked out or be tempted to disable security altogether: 1: Store your wallet seed somewhere safe. People come to me when they lose their Bitcoins any number of ways, but the one common element in…


  • Customer Testimonial – Forrest

    “David Veksler is a real hero in my life.  A few years ago I bought a few bitcoin, just for fun.  At the time I knew that it was important to keep passwords and private keys protected to avoid loss or theft.  I did that part well.  But I did not do a good job…


  • Get your crypto wallet back ASAP!

    Get your crypto wallet back ASAP!  Content coming soon! Contact me to get your wallet back!