A Bitcoin critic and a gold bug lost the ability to access a wallet holding his , and it has once again raised a discussion on the oft-repeated adage: not your keys, not your coins.
Peter Schiff, a prominent gold investor, CEO and chief global strategist of Euro Pacific Capital Inc., tweeted yesterday that he can't access his Blockchain wallet and that he's lost all his bitcoin, which "proves" that owning this cryptocurrency was a bad idea, he says.
I just lost all the #Bitcoin I have ever owned. My wallet got corrupted somehow and my password is no longer valid. So now not only is my Bitcoin intrinsically worthless; it has no market value either. I knew owning Bitcoin was a bad idea, I just never realized it was this bad! pic.twitter.com/6SJvDJOZU6
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) 19 January 2020
This comes less than three weeks since we celebrated the Proof of Keys day, and numerous people in the comments believe that Schiff lost his password. However, he insisted that he did not forget the password, but that the wallet doesn't recognize the correct one.
On their side, Blockchain replied to the gold bug, assuring him that the funds are secure and that they'd contact him through a private message.
In either case, crypto twitter exploded following Schiff tweet. CEO of major crypto exchange, , Changpeng Zhao, commented on Schiff's statement in which he claims he always uses a simple numeric password, and Zhao said that that he's not sure even a centralized exchange can help Schiff secure his coins, adding "I can’t believe I am about to say this, but maybe “stay in fiat”?"
However, Zhao also said that while many "hardcore" crypto advocate storing one's own keys, "most people are not able to secure a key even from themselves (losing it)," adding that a trusted centralized exchange is SAFUer for most people. Many did not appreciate this statement, reminding Zhao that even BINANCE got hacked. Even if the exchange covered the loss, the threat remains, they find. ""Your private keys are safe with me!"- Owner of centralized exchange that lost USD 40,000,000 worth of bitcoin last year to a hacker," commented Jameson Lopp, Chief Technology Officer of Casa.
There's little doubt that a team of specialists will be better at securing sensitive data than your average individual. However, only comparing the common risks of loss is shortsighted because it overlooks the systemic risks created by concentrating funds at a few custodians.
— Jameson Lopp (@lopp) 20 January 2020
Justin Sun also joined the debate, saying that crypto is "like freedom" and that with that freedom comes the responsibility to remember one's private key.
And while some, like SetProtocol product marketing manager Anthony Sassano, believes Schiff is the champion of outrage marketing, others find the situation even worse, since Schiff manages other's money (which may cause his marketing plan, if true, to backfire), and there are those who said that this event prompted them to be more involved in holding their own keys.
Meanwhile, while there are those who think that if people can't write down the 12 words of the phrase, they're not ready to own BTC, others are suggesting that when crypto is given as a gift, that the giver should keep a copy of the seed phrase, among them Justin Sun and ConsenSys' Christian Lundkvist.
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Here are some more reactions and jokes:
The Schiffening: boomer loses coins because he can't keep track of passwords.
Not priced in! Bullish. https://t.co/2sMI6Ycd9p
— Luke Martin (@VentureCoinist) 19 January 2020
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I locked my gold in a safe. Then I forgot the password. Gold is worthless. Why did they invent some stupid rock as money. #crypto #gold $gld
— Ross Gerber (@GerberKawasaki) 19 January 2020
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I just lost all the documents I've ever owned. My hard drive got corrupted somehow and my password is no longer valid. So now not only is my computer worthless to me; it's got no value to anyone else either. I knew technology was a bad idea, I just never realized it was this bad!
— Josh Cincinnati (@acityinohio) 19 January 2020
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FFS. You guys sent Peter over $10,000 worth of bitcoin! I told you to send it to @bitcoinlady if you were so eager to donate bitcoin!!! She is doing good work for bitcoin in Botswana with it. https://t.co/WgK6Z0CV3U
— Stacy Herbert (@stacyherbert) 19 January 2020