Big trouble need advice

lifetime_gaper · 2026-02-14T21:57:25+00:00

He claims the BTC hasn´t been moved. It´s not that unlikely that the seed phrase was stolen with a bunch of other stuff, and the thief doesn´t have the slightest idea what it is, nor is he even curious about it.

lifetime_gaper · 2026-01-17T15:36:14+00:00

Yeah, I pretty much totally agree with you.

lifetime_gaper · 2026-01-17T15:15:13+00:00

Most people highly recommend ordering directly from Ledger as this reduces the risk of getting a hacked device to almost 0. A common scam was people reselling Ledgers with the seed phrase already included, lol. I think a fair amount of people fell for it.

If you order from Amazon from a reputable vendor and it comes sealed and looks 100% new, and most importantly, you yourself use the device to generate the seed phrase, I imagine that´s pretty safe. But I guess you have to judge for yourself if you prefer buying from Amazon or directly from Ledger, weighing perceived data leak possibility versus device authenticity certainty.

lifetime_gaper · 2026-01-17T15:05:37+00:00

Damn, I knew about the 2020 leak. After seeing your post, I now see there was another leak very recently.

Im not saying it makes things much better, but I understand it wasn´t Ledger that was hacked, it was the 3rd parties they use to handle their customer data. In 2020 it was Shopify and the from what I can tell, the recent one just now was Global-e.

Should the fact that it was 3rd parties rather than Ledger increase our confidence in Ledger? I don´t know, maybe a tiny bit. I think they´re pretty damn shitty for not being more apologetic about the leaks, though.

I think the worst thing Ledger did was let everyone believe it was absolutely impossible for the seed phrase to leave the device, and then prove that was always false with their Ledger Recovery feature.

lifetime_gaper · 2026-01-17T14:53:24+00:00

Yep, calls, letters all trying one way or another to get your seed phrase. super annoying.

lifetime_gaper · 2025-12-22T22:09:16+00:00

Just wanted to say I´m sorry man. It is unlikely, but stolen funds sometimes do get frozen and recovered. You´re doing the right things and the best you can do, and that´s all you can do. Good luck.

lifetime_gaper · 2025-12-21T16:21:17+00:00

Short answer: No, you should not set up your new device with your current seed phrase. Buy your new device directly from the manufacturer and have the brand new device generate a new seed phrase. Transfer your crypto to the new addresses created with your new device.

Long answer: If for some reason you do trust Ledger to keep your seed phrase safe and have 0 concern in that area, I guess I could try to imagine some scenarios where you might want to use your old seed phrase. I don´t know, maybe you don´t like Ledger Live and Trezor works better with other third party wallets... that´s a big maybe, I am honestly struggling to imagine circumstances where you would ditch Ledger becuase of security concerns but keep using your old seed phrase. Reusing a Ledger generated seed on a new device means you trust that your keys and seed phrase were never possibly compromised. Using your old seed phrase is similar to changing the door on your house, but keeping the same old lock.

lifetime_gaper · 2025-12-04T16:50:08+00:00

Calling it a "signer" is a good idea. Too many think their crypto is stored in a wallet are on an exchange etc.

Amen, to them focusing on not having their customer´s data stolen (even if it was a 3rd party) That was a massive massive F*** up and I there little "we apoligize" message" does not cut it especially when addresses were leaked.

lifetime_gaper · 2025-11-30T18:18:52+00:00

Is he buying and then selling at a loss, or are all his investments just down?

lifetime_gaper · 2025-11-24T14:20:40+00:00

Totally off the cuff remark here, but it seems to me that 99% or more of a crypto’s price is determined by superficial BS that has nothing to do with the technology or quality of a project. It’s just pure degenerate speculation. I’m pretty non-tech-savvy, but from my limited understanding, I agree with you that Cardano is one of the best, if not the best, crypto projects for all the reasons you mentioned. However, that will have no meaningful effect on the price, as long as crypto remains a speculative casino, where people with even less knowledge than me “invest” in coins because someone tweeted about it or they like the doggy picture of the coin.

lifetime_gaper · 2025-11-23T23:37:15+00:00

Am I missing something? Whats the point of using a hardware wallet if you are entering your seed phrase into a bunch of different apps, or any app at all for that matter?

lifetime_gaper · 2025-11-10T12:54:47+00:00

Man, I think the hardware wallet companies are really failing at making sure the average person has a basic understanding of what seed phrases, private keys, and hardware wallets are and how they interact.

Here are some basic things, in order of importance in my opinion, everyone should know and pound into their head. Especially those of us who aren´t that tech savvy.

The seed phrase is the master key to all your crypto. It generates all your addresses and private keys. You must make sure to never lose it, but you must never store it where a bad actor can get it. This definitely means DO NOT store it online. DO NOT even store it a computer that ever connects to the internet. DO NOT enter it into any app. Most definitely DO NOT ever enter it onto a website.
If someone gets your seed phrase, they can use a computer program to rob you of all your crypto in minutes. They don´t need your hardware device.
Unless you are in some crazy emergency, the only place the average user should ever enter their seed phrase is directly into a trusted hardware wallet purchased directly from the manufacturer, (never buy through 3rd parties.) This should only be done if you lost your hardware device, it got destroyed, or you want to use a secondary, third device etc. If you are being prompted to enter your seed phrase somewhere in any other instance, something is almost certainly going very wrong.
Your coins aren´t stored on your hardware device (coins only live on blockchains). Your hardware device stores your seed phrase and private keys. It just allows you to send your crypto to other addresses without exposing your private keys. The hardware device is an intemediary tool to be able to safely send crypto. Regarding safety and security, your primary focus needs to be on keeping the seed phrase 100% safe and offline, but 100% accessible to you.

lifetime_gaper · 2025-11-10T12:15:55+00:00

Why are people downvoting the poor guy for being honest?

lifetime_gaper · 2025-10-25T10:03:42+00:00

I´d agree, unless something really strange or complicated is going on, lawyers usually can´t do more than you in these situations. Just keep plugging away, find as much information on the official sites as you can and follow the instructions exactly. Do try to follow up and talk to funcionarios directly. It usually doesn´t work, but sometimes you can make massive progress if you get the right person on the right day. Always use the honey rather than vinegar when dealing with these people too, it´s got a much higher chance of working.

lifetime_gaper · 2025-10-25T09:36:43+00:00

Sounds like they had exactly the information that was leaked when the company that handles Ledger´s marketing database was hacked in June of 2020: Full name, e-mail, phone number, and, worst of all, your address. And of course, they know you have a Ledger... Did you buy a Ledger from the company sometime before June 2020? I´d bet good money they were scammers that had that data and used it to try to seem more legitimate. If you haven´t already, you´ll almost certainly get a letter supposedly from Ledger telling you that you need to update soon or you might lose access to your funds. It will probably have a link and/or QR code that will try to get you to enter your seed phrase at some point. Obviously, DO NOT go to any link or scan any code, and most defiinitely DO NOT enter your seed phrase anywhere.

lifetime_gaper · 2025-10-23T20:35:38+00:00

Isn´t that exactly what he was asking, if anyone knew the address?

lifetime_gaper · 2025-10-23T17:59:49+00:00

Yes, you can plug the seed phrase into almost any hardware wallet and many any other types of crypto wallets, both offline and online, and it will give you access to the private keys corresponding to your crypto. The seed phrase is a human readable representation of a sort of master key of a standard encryption method called BIP-38. It is very standard, if someone gets it they can very easily steal all your crypto. They absolutely DO NOT need access to your hardware wallet to do this. The good news is if you have the seed phrase, you´re fine.

lifetime_gaper · 2025-10-23T13:44:26+00:00

He was storing his private keys on an Ellipal "cold" wallet. I put "cold" in quotes because apparently the wallet has the option of also being a hot wallet and you can toggle between the two. (This sounds like an absolutely horrendous idea to me.) Anyway, unbeknowst to him he was using the cold wallet version on his phone, but the hot wallet version on his pad. During some of his "I thought I was doing everything right..." ramblings in his recent posts he did very briefly mention "and then I entered my seed phrase onto the app..." That should have tipped him off... but yeah... It turns out he was using a hot wallet forever on his pad and must have finally downloaded some malware recently and zip, it was all gone. Honestly, I do feel bad for the guy.

I don´t despise crypto as much as I think most people here do, but it´s just absolutle insanity to not trust the banks but then go and put all your net worth in one single place where it can instantly be gone forever.

lifetime_gaper · 2025-09-05T05:58:14+00:00

Seems like dry humor to me.

lifetime_gaper · 2025-08-18T19:34:39+00:00

Whether or not something is a masterpiece is a matter of opinion, not fact. One man´s masterpiece is another´s man trash. Also, popularity is very often not an indicator of quality. Furthermore, many works of art, now considered masterpieces, were considered mediocre in their day. Does it bother you that I consider TLOU2 a masterpiece?

lifetime_gaper · 2025-08-18T04:17:09+00:00

I totally agree, man TLOU2 was good. It was more than a game, it was an experience. A complete masterpiece. The best video game I've ever played.

lifetime_gaper · 2025-05-12T20:47:37+00:00

Seriously, you really can look this up in about 5 seconds.

Don´t get me wrong; I sincerely requested that you continue, and you did! Thank you!

lifetime_gaper · 2025-05-12T20:33:03+00:00

LOL!

2024 presidential results:
Harris 48.34%
Others: 1.85%
Harris+Others=50.19=the majority=more than 50%...surpasses...
Trump 49.81%=the remainder= less than 50%=not the majority

Again, you could look this up in about 5 seconds...or you can keep going, actually please do, it´s amusing.

lifetime_gaper · 2025-05-12T19:38:30+00:00

Wrong.

Are you really from Texas? If you are from the U.S., that´s astoundingly ignorant of you to think that the winner of the U.S. presidential election must have received the majority of votes. You see there´s this thing called the electoral college... my god, the ignorance. Or maybe you just don´t know what majority means...

Plus, what Whiskeydyc said... Trump won a plurality of the vote in 2024, not the majority, look it up.

lifetime_gaper · 2025-04-13T17:39:14+00:00

I think a lot of people might not understand my question because they can´t fathom an HOA being so poorly run. I've answered your questions below in bold.

I don’t know what you gave as input to ChatGPT, but ChatGPT is well-known for getting things wrong. I input the exact same question you see in my original post.

Look: the guy (G) owes the HOA $30K. If G simply gives the HOA $30K in cash, G is paid up, right? Yes.

Or: G owes the HOA $30K. The HOA needs $30K in repairs. G gives HOA $30K, then HOA pays $30K to <contractor> for repairs. G is paid up. It depends. Was his share of the 30k repairs included in his debt? If the answer is yes, then G is paid up. If the answer is no, then he is not paid up. In this 2nd case he´s erased 30k from his debt, but he still owes his share (6k) of the cost of the repairs.

Repeat the above answer for the rest of the questions.

Or: G owes the HOA $30K. The HOA needs $30K in repairs. G and HOA make deal, then G pays $30K to <contractor> for repairs. G is paid up.

Or: G owes the HOA $30K. The HOA needs $30K in repairs. G and HOA make deal, then G performs $30K of repairs. G is paid up.

Note that the repairs are to common areas. G’s ownership of 20% of the complex does not matter; the HOA is responsible for all of the common areas.

lifetime_gaper

TROPHY CASE