pull down to refresh

I lost my wallet recently ( a friend confused mine with his, and he was boarding his plane ), so I was in a situation where I didn't have any cash or card with me. However, I had my phone on hand, guess what did I do? ๐Ÿ‘€
The first thing I did was calm down and think, and it turned out that I could get some cash with my phone at the airport. However, many things went through my mind that day: What if I lost everything? One thing that strikes me the most is that Bitcoin NEVER leaves you; I wasn't completely panic that day, knowing that I got seeds somewhere I could quickly assess to, and I've done quite some work up front, pilled some people and businesses around me, which means I can always ask for help and pay for things I need in sats.
One of the takeaways from that day was you might think that you are helping people when pilling them, but maybe you are also planting the seeds of helping your future self.

Closing up this post with a thought experience: what would you do if you lost everything in a foreign country?
what would you do if you lost everything in a foreign country?
Hard question. Everything you mean everything, like a disaster and lost all your luggage, wallets etc remained with nothing, empty pockets, including the phone?
  1. If I still do not lose the content of my pockets, I am always traveling with an encrypted USB, containing an encrypted TailsOS with basic urgent SHTF information:
  • some personal documents copies,
  • few wallets for emergencies,
  • some passwords in an encrypted password manager,
  • some contacts for SHTF)
  • some links to urgent pages, exchanges, bridges if are necessary, just to have it at hand. In a password manager you can store a lot of information needed.
With that TailsOS I can spin up a liveOS on any PC available and do my urgent steps necessary. No traces left, pretty good security over Tor. Encrypted data. I can access some BTC funds and if is necessary to swap them for some fiat if is really necessary. Prepare that TailsOS with all the information you think you will need it in case of emergency.
  1. If I lost everything, including my phone and the TailsOS USB then I would use my remote personal storage, located in 2-3 remote NAS / servers, that I can access them easily from any internet access and restore from there an urgent BTC wallet or even build a copy of my "emergency TailsOS" usb system. I keep a copy of that on my remote NAS.
Another option could be accessing one of my guides, where I store a secret wallet. Are 12 fucking words placed in a guide and I am the only one knowing where and which they are.
  1. You can keep an emergency information encrypted with https://publicnote.com/. Just have prepared a special text, that could be a special phrase or phrases or a paragraph from an article or book that you can retrieve it online and only you know which one. Paste that paragraph into PublicNote and it will reveal the decrypted text you need (wallet seed, or instructions how to retrieve that wallet, or any other information you need).
  2. If you do not have any access to internet, you are kind of fucked and any BTC wallet will not help you anyways.
Indeed, Bitcoin is everything you need. All the rest can be replaced (except human life).
reply
42 sats \ 0 replies \ @Aardvark 23h
Dude, you are insanely on top of your shit.
reply
Thatโ€™s the most badass thing Iโ€™ve read in quite a while.
reply
I agree!
reply
learning from the master ๐Ÿซก
If you do not have any access to internet, you are kind of fucked and any BTC wallet will not help you anyways.
not necessarily fucked, that's why doing good deeds is nice, you never know who would be giving you a hand one day.
reply
I mean if you are in the middle of a desert / jungle, drop from a plane or something catastrophic ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚. Then you have other priorities than finding your BTC wallet or money.
reply
that's a whole new level of preparation. ๐Ÿ‘€
reply
The Lord Master! ๐Ÿ’ช๐Ÿพ
reply
When you said your wallet on one of your guides, are you talking about the picture you hid your bitcoin in?
reply
No. That picture is using steganography, so you have to decode it first. I mean literally 12 words from a guide, in plain sight (but you don't know which one are). It can be any guide.
reply
10 sats \ 1 reply \ @Satosora 21h
I see. You have wallets hidden everywhere. Even that gps spot with the bitcoin sign.
reply
Pretty much everywhere, yes. Copies of copies or many wallets. And I am not worried at all.
reply
0 sats \ 9 replies \ @j7hB75 21h
That's one way to drive more people over to your guides! ๐Ÿ˜‰
reply
No, if they go to read my guides only with the hope that will find the words... that is stupid and will never learn anything nor finding anything. The guides are there to learn from them.
reply
10 sats \ 0 replies \ @j7hB75 21h
It was a joke, Darth. Of course your guides are great and a wealth of knowledge.
reply
You just put easter eggs in everything.
reply
That's why I do not have made any testament bullshit. If they want to get my sats will have to dig well into my words.
reply
Has anyone found one yet?
77 sats \ 1 reply \ @OT 11 Dec
Great little story! Bitcoin fixes this situation after all.
My Dad lost his wallet in Malaysia. They asked for my help to send them money through Western Union the next day. I said I'll send you some sats right now, but it was all a bit too much for them.
If they had accepted my offer I probably would have tried to find a p2p trade nearby. It would have been faster and cheaper using Bitcoin, but to be fair Western Union wasn't as expensive as I had thought. Maybe they have better rates between Australia and Malaysia
reply
This was definitely the moment when one realized that Bitcoin is always there to help.
reply
what would you do if you lost everything in a foreign country?
If I didn't know anyone in that country, I'd go to the nearest police station and then to the Portuguese consulate.
reply
But it takes time for them to help ๐Ÿค” what are you going to eat & where you are going to stay before they do anything?
reply
Until I could get someone to send me money, I think I stayed at the police station or the consulate. If that wasn't possible, I'd ask on the street, people don't usually refuse food.
reply
or the other direction is thinking about where you can pay for things in sats? ๐Ÿค” losing your wallet only means you lose the fiat things, and it takes time to get it back, but your stash is still there for you:)
reply
I was imagining a situation where I would lose everything. But yes, if it were possible to access my sats I wouldn't need to bother anyone!
reply
It seems only Bitcoin and real friends/family never leave you, everything else can be gone or taken away.
reply
๐Ÿ’ฏ
reply
Nice story
Good keeping your wits about you.
Me: probably panic, go hungry, find a way to transfer from elsewhere or, as you did, keep calm knowing that there's sats around -- capable of jumping into fiat in every which way
reply
I would be panic if I lost my phone as well that day, so I've been thinking about how to plan things if that situation happens.
reply
Very interesting story. If it were me, Iโ€™d definitely panic at first, then realize, "Yeah, itโ€™s happened to me," and try to look for solutions like you did. But trust me, if my phone also got lost that would really be a bad day in my life.
reply
That's why I got a backup phone!
But yeah, indeed it would be really bad; hence better to think ahead:)
reply
When I travel one of the things I do is check out any local businesses who accept Bitcoin. Love spending sats and meeting fellow Bitcoiners :) Solidarity.
reply
You may want to buy an opendime just for this occasion.
reply
I told my buddy I only have sats no usd and he was like Iโ€™ll just buy the pizza donโ€™t trip
reply
i think for most people, losing their phones would be worse, because a phone is the map, translator, cards linked to google pay, basically everything etc
if i lost my wallet, i would just block the cards via the apps in my phone and go through mild pain of restoring my res permit and driving licence when back and ordering a new physical bank card
i only keep sub 100 in a hot wallet on my phone so wouldn't worry about that
a phone and wallet loss abroad would be trickier, first thing would be get online and get a virtual debit card funded so i could not be homeless off the bat and then get a burner phone and get revolut going , then fix the rest from there
more than anything, it's a money issue, i don't travel with anything sensitive or my hardware wallet etc
reply
Isn't the new wallet for most people is their phone?
If you lose everything, only generous people, who are still abundant, gonna help you.
reply
This is what I use my Bitkey for. I got one on sale for $25 a few months ago, but didnt quite have a use for it. But since I can set a Spend w/o hardware limit I decided it would be a good travel/emergency wallet.
stackers have outlawed this. turn on wild west mode in your /settings to see outlawed content.