Atlas Phoenix BTC @AtlasPhoenixBTC

There are many lessons here my friend, but I’m not sure the one you’ve drawn is correct or relevant at all. Hacks and bugs could happen to anyone, anytime - even more so if you’re involved in the world of shitcoins, with plenty more evidence of exploits happening over there. Self-custody, and being your own bank carry great responsibility and as a wise man once said “trusted third parties are security holes”. I only wish we all took that to heart years ago.

Cold Card Hack Update - One Month Later… Hello again, I just wanted to share a few thoughts for those that are interested, but in particular for the other victims. While I can’t offer you brevity with this post - in an age of AI slop, fakeness and grift, I hope you can appreciate something very real. First of all, I am genuinely happy for all of you who are now enjoying what appears to be the end of this cycle’s bear market. You all deserve this for your conviction, and even though many of us are forced to sit this one out for now, I am still cheering you on from the sidelines. Don't feel bad about celebrating - just try to remain humble as your entire life can change in an instant in so many unpredictable ways. NEVER take for granted the freedom and security that your bitcoin will provide to you now, and in the future. Ultimately, the bitcoin journey will teach you life’s not about the money anyways so be a good person and take care of those around you. Safeguard your bitcoin appropriately, keep learning, never let your guard down even for a moment, and don’t make my mistake of becoming complacent and trusting others with something so critical. It should be obvious by now that the scammers will become more relentless, the capabilities of the black hats will increase dramatically, and the number of real world physical attacks will rise - everyone wants your bitcoin! To the other cold card victims: It has given me a great sense of solidarity connecting with many of you, hearing your stories and reading messages of support. It should be very clear by now that no one is coming to save us. Not your favourite influencers, not other OGs, not the bitcoin billionaires, no personal/corporate/government bailouts, and as it seems: certainly not NVK and Coinkite. We must save ourselves, and bitcoin remains hope. Our only, albeit unlikely, path to recovery is now ironically in the hands of the state (law enforcement) and chain analysis firms, which as bitcoiners we can only find some humour in. Now, I want to make a promise to you all: should the Wave 1 hacker get caught, and all the stolen funds be returned to victims - I pledge 20 BTC of my returned coins to be split between the people who directly helped find and bring the attacker to justice, and also the victims of the later waves who were unable to get their funds back. I have great empathy for you all, who did everything you were told was correct. We are all in this together, and I believe it’s the moral thing to do. Let this gesture be a reminder to the larpers in this space, that honourable bitcoiners do exist, and this journey we are all on together isn’t just about watching your own portfolio grow. Over the coming years as the price of bitcoin continues to rise, so too does the USD value of this pledge. And if there is no recovery: as the days turn to months and years while people move on - we can take solace in the fact that our sacrifice will help hundreds of millions of people in the future on their bitcoin journey towards SAFE self-custody. Contrary to some of the narratives floating around: self-custody and “bitcoin maximalism” are NOT dead. Never forget that holding your own keys is one of the cornerstones of bitcoin, a right and great responsibility to uphold, always be wary of those who tell you otherwise. As I’ve told some of you privately, our energy is best spent focusing on what we can control: ourselves, accepting this lesson, and building back stronger for us and our families. We will all survive this while we, dare I say, *acknowledge* how much of a catastrophic and monumental fuckup this was on Coinkite’s part. This story is far from over, and we all deserve the full truth, accountability, and justice. On that front however, it's looking less likely that any meaningful lawsuits against them will materialize, simply because all the lawyers want money upfront which many of us don’t have now. Due to the nature of the situation it’s unlikely to resolve positively for anyone but the lawyers themselves. For that reason and others I, and several of the other large loss victims I’ve spoken with are likely to bow out. Don’t mistake this as a psyop, or a coordinated submission among us: it’s just the reality and realization we’ve come to independently. However, that doesn’t mean they are off the hook—the hacker(s) and the Coinkite team have to live with their decisions and conduct for the rest of their lives. With no signs thus far to even attempt to set this right - as each day passes, their respective roads to redemption (while still open) start to close. This is true whether bound by lawyers or not, as even the slightest show of goodwill is better than silence. Karma is indeed real - even if it doesn’t manifest immediately. Never forget that this disaster had nothing to do with bitcoin itself - it was the failure of one specific company, and exposed many unfortunate truths about our own shortcomings, the industry and its influencers. Though as true bitcoiners, our spirit remains unbreakable. We are anti-fragile, stay resilient and even in the wake of such injustice and adversity we maintain our integrity and dignity. Though our plans may have been derailed for years or even decades - when we build back this time no one will be able to say we simply got lucky! The fight for freedom money and self-sovereignty was never going to be easy, but the mission and need for bitcoin is clearer than ever: fiat is dying. This will be my last post until this situation is resolved. I’ve yet to stack any sats since the incident and need to focus on my own path forward in life. I remain open to all opportunities that help me get back on my feet again. Eventually the sun will rise for us all. Cheers to building back, and until then: tick tock, next block. -M

@BTCSchellingpt Hey, I'm not on there.

@agustin_kassis @americanhodl8 Let's worry about that luxury problem if/when the time comes. But I will say, many of us have already come forward to Alex Thorn and filed reports with authorities. For now, we must remain based in reality and let the professionals working on this do their jobs.

@colerictoshi 100%. It is out of our hands and up to fate now, so we must all move on and the professionals do their work. But just imagine in 10 years what that 20BTC will be worth for any motivated hacker (or anyone else for that matter) who helps crack the case. Karma is real.

@FfredJordan @SBRBitcoin @intangiblecoins Alex is amazing! Don't forget this is very much an ongoing situation, and I can tell you there are many others who have helped or are currently helping both directly or indirectly. Most notably the Blocks team that were the first to sound the alarm. Time should reveal all.

It’s all relative to how long we’ve been in the space. For the better part of a decade myself and many others used paper wallets generated by sites like bitaddress, so “upgrading” to the supposed “best in class” hardware wallet (signing device) seemed like a good option. As I’ve said many times before, complacency got the best of me. Shame on me, I should have known better - BUT there are thousands of others who are new to to bitcoin and had to start somewhere, the probably listened to the podcasts, watched the YouTube vids and all the influencers pushed the same thing. It’s THEM I feel for.

@TylerDurden No worries brother - let's let time do it's work here, as the full truth will come out eventually.

...you really want to be pedantic about this? I did not say "who did everything correct". I said: "told is correct", which implies trust. Something we all failed at and many of us have owned and accepted that. You have no idea about any of the victims situations or sources of information that were used to make the fateful decision, as there are thousands of us each with differing circumstances. What I can tell you is the ColdCard start guide and website didn't call for the need to use dice, and positioned passphrases as optional. Some of us even paid to go to workshops to set them up by trusted members of the community - and no dice were there. I appreciate you attempting to add to the discussion, but maybe sit this one out.

@intangiblecoins You’ve already done so much Alex, thanks for that. You will become instrumental in a recovery event to help coordinate with the victims in later attack waves.

I’m only human George - I clearly made many mistakes here, and of course have been punished for them more than you will ever know. My prior setup of paper wallets generated on an air gapped computer worked just fine for 8 years and would have saved me here but a combination of complacency, lack of technical understanding, and trust (not only in cold card, but leaders and friends in the space) all let to this outcome. Let our sacrifice be a lesson to all.

Re: Cold Card Hack Hello fellow Bitcoiners, It’s been nearly one week since my wallet was drained. I lost my entire bitcoin stack, presumably the most in the entire attack - an amount I’m more than embarrassed and ashamed to even admit publicly. This was not only my life savings but my time, energy, hardcore conviction and identity after 13 years in this space. I am posting pseudonymously as I’ve always preferred to stay out of the spotlight - and privacy (inspired by Satoshi) is something I value. I debated whether or not I should say anything at all, but after much deliberation I decided it may be beneficial for other victims who are struggling. While this incident certainly forced upon me the darkest days of my life so far - I have now accepted it and will slowly put together my life again. I came from nothing and did everything right (except rolling the damn dice apparently 😅). I stayed away from trading, exchanges, shitcoins, ICOs, NFTs, false prophets, etc and quietly and consistently built up over the years through all the ups and downs - never spending frivolously on material goods but instead using bitcoin as my sense of freedom and security - with the hopes to pass it on to my future children. Even though that peace, freedom and security is now gone - I am beyond grateful for the journey and life that bitcoin enabled me to have. To all the other victims, as cliche as it is to say “it’s only money” - true wealth, as I’ve learned over and over again is in health, family, and friendships. I’d be lying if I told you I’m not afraid of the uncertainty ahead, but I know by taking one step at a time it will be possible to rebuild. Trust me if I can come to these realizations, you can too! The hardest challenges in life make us stronger and turn us into the best versions of ourselves - don’t give in to the hopelessness. By being in this community you are apart of something special that the majority of the world still hasn’t realized yet. It’s still early! Thanks to all the wonderful people in the community I’ve been DMing over the past week - your kind words of support mean the world to me and helped me start to believe in myself again. To the hacker: you still can do the right thing here and come clean - you have prompted a serious wake-up call that has brought the community together which will bring more resilience for the future. Doing the noble thing now will prevent a lifelong hunt. To all the amazing bitcoiners who have jumped to action from the very beginning to support each other and mitigate further damage - it’s been a beautiful thing to watch. To the @blocks team and especially @intangiblecoins, your efforts are inspiring and provide me with hope. Believe me when I say that IF I ever get my coins back you will all be taken care of very well, along with massive donations to the open source community. For now I will withhold any judgement towards @nvk and the @Coinkite team - while I’m still processing this loss and dealing with the gravity of building my life up from the ruins - I have 0 anger or resentment. Bitcoin security is a tough job, mistakes are made, and lessons are learned by all. I made mistakes by trusting and not verifying as well as not having a more robust security solution so the responsibility must be shared, hindsight is 20/20 and even though it’s tough: I’m okay admitting that. Bitcoin humbles all. Having said all that… I’M NOT FUCKING LEAVING!!! I will start building a new stack from the ground up like all the other plebs as my conviction in Bitcoin is even stronger today then when I got my first coins in 2013. This was never about the money - it was always about the revolution, and that can’t be stopped. We will win. Let’s keep our heads high. The march continues. It’s time to rebuild. PS: Thanks for everything Satoshi ❤️ -M

@flyinktx 1) Don’t trust, (actually) verify. 2) Tick tick, next block. Bitcoin will win.

opensats.org/funds/red Together, we grow stronger!

DMs open especially for the other victims who need someone to talk to - let's get through this together!