Lost 1 Bitcoin of my Digital Bitbox

Dear Steemers,

Just wanted to share a story about how I lost 1 Bitcoin which was stored on a hardware wallet (Digital Bitbox).

We all know how careful we have to be when it comes to cryptocurrency storage.
So I decided to be as safe as possible and bought a Digital Bitbox for my precious 1 Bitcoin that I hold.
New to the cryptocurrency market I saved my hard earned money to buy my first and only Bitcoin!
I transferred it to my Digital Bitbox, did a back up and once a while I logged in to see if there are any updates and checked my balance. So far so good :) HODL!!

But then for who knows what reason I could not log in anymore with the same password ( I used a 20 character password containing letters, digits and signs). I tried again...and again but with no succes. I only had 6 of the 15 attempts left before the device resets. At this point I contacted the developers of the Digital Bitbox since I am not a computer expert I wanted to be safe on the next steps to recover my wallet.

So now you can read the actual email conversation I had with the developers of the Digital Bitbox. Names have been changed.
My name is G.

Hi P,

Just tried to log in my digital bitbox but after many attempts
entering the correct password I get the message "json parse error"
everytime.
Only got 6 attempts left. What do you suggest I do?

Looking forward to your fast reply.

Kind regards,
G.

Hi G,

First, as long as you have the backup and the password, you do not
have to worry about your coins.

This error is caused by a USB communication error. This can
sometimes happen if the desktop app was closed or crashed while it was
communicating with the Digital Bitbox. It can also happen if the password
is wrong - double check that you are using the correct password and that
the caps lock key is not set, and so on.

Did you try re-plugging the device? Also close and restart the
desktop app.

If that does not work, it is OK if you run out of password attempts.
The device will reset, and you can reload the wallet from the backup on the
SD card. Note that the last 4 or 5 login attempts will require holding the
touch button (a safety feature to prevent someone with remote access from
erasing the wallet). Also note that if you recover from the backup,
entering the wrong password will produce a valid but different wallet (a
plausible deniability feature).

Hope this helps.

Best regards,
P.

Hi P,

The last 5 attempts I logged in holding the touch button but with no
succes. I get the message "touchbutton timed out".
The device did not let me see how much attempts are left.
Anyway...what next??

Hi G,

Sorry for the delay.

If you see "touchbutton timed out", then the touch was not registered
and the device returned without trying to log in - that is why there is no
message about the number of tries left.

I'll add some more details:

• After entering the password, the LED will turn on.
• At this point, put your finger on top of the LED and hold your
  finger there for at least 3 seconds.
• When you put your finger on the LED, the LED should turn off. If it
  does not, let me know.
• If you take your finger off too soon (before 3 seconds), the LED
  will flash quickly a couple times. If this happens, no login attempt will
  be made. (A short touch is 'abort' and a long touch is 'accept' or
  'continue'.)
• After 3 seconds, the LED will flash a single time. Even if your
  finger is on top of the LED, you can see some LED light through the sides
  of the device. At this point, a login attempt will be made.

Hi P,

Just did the last 5 log in attempts.
I closed and restart the app, did re-plugged the device with the
SD-card. It asked to give the wallet a name, which I did, and entered the
password.
Now I see a current balance of 0.00 BTC. What to do next? Should I go
to "options" and "reset device"?

You know that gut feelin'...now I was getting worried. Please, let this not happening to me. It took me a while to save money and buy my first Bitcoin. Should it be vanished within a couple of weeks??

Hi G,

Great! That is it.

Do you have coins on a backup wallet? If so, you can reload the wallet
by Options > Manage Backups. Note that entering the wrong backup password
will create a valid but different wallet, in case you see a zero balance.
This is a plausible deniability feature.

Otherwise, you have a new wallet, the backup for it is generated
automatically on the SD card, and you can begin. Be sure to remember the
password.

If you want to feel more comfortable with the device, you can practice
resetting the device and recovering the backup. Compare the addresses to
check if you loaded the same wallet. Note that the address in the Receive
tab may get updated automatically on recovery (one wallet holds many
addresses), but you can use the Options tab > List Addresses button to see
addresses at a fixed 'location'. Furthermore, you can use the Options tab >
Manage Backups > Verify to verify that the backup on the SD card matches
the wallet loaded into the device.

Hi P,

Just to let you know that I disconnect the bitbox and when re-plugged
it still was loading transaction history but I didn't wait to finish.
I will try later again. When doing so should I use the SD-card?

Dear G,

Sorry to keep you waiting while your coins are not accessible.

It sounds like you are using an incorrect password. Are you using the
same computer with the same keyboard layout as when you first created the
wallet? Is the password longer than 64 characters?

While we have not had a hardware problem reported yet, there is a
possibility that there could be problem with the device. This can be tested
by loading the backup instead into a different third party wallet. This is
explained in our Backup Center at digitalbitbox.com/backup, and
requires use of the Electrum software wallet:

• download the Electrum software wallet from https://electrum.org
• go to digitalbitbox.com/backup
• enter the wallet backup text in the corresponding box and the
  password in the 'passphrase' box (leave the top 'optional' box empty)
• click 'Generate'
• copy the 'Electrum recovery key' into the Electrum software -- Start
  Electrum > choose Standard Wallet > Use public or private keys > [enter the
  recovery key]

If Electrum also shows a zero balance, then the password is not
correct. If there is a balance, then there is a problem with the Digital
Bitbox.

Hi P,

I am using the same computer and keyboard. My backup password is 66
characters.

I entered the wallet backup text and password but with no succes. It
says "The backup text must be 64 characters long".
How come I have a 66 characters backup phrase which I got at the
configuration of the digital bitbox?
I cannot continue at this point. What's next??

Hi G,

I think we found the problem.

Try deleting the last 2 characters of the password, such that it is 64
characters long, and try to recover the backup with that.

Another user just asked us about the maximum length a password could be.
So I tested it to be sure and found a bug that only 64 characters can be
entered. This is a bug in the desktop app - the firmware can actually take
much longer passwords.

Hopefully that is the solution for you. I am very sorry you had to go
through all the frustration and worry about it.

Hi P,

Still the same problem!

I entered the password deleting the last 2 characters but I get the same
message.

Hi G,

Try to recover through the desktop app >
Options tab > Manage backups. When it asks for the password for the backup
file, enter the 64-character password. The SD card should be inserted of
course.

The web page is client-side javascript (meaning all computations are done
locally only on your computer - nothing gets transmitted out), which should
be fine today. In the future, it is possible that a malicious browser
extension could customize an attack against this page and scrape
information off of it.

To be safe, once you have access to the coins again, you can send them to
a newly created wallet (that has a password not longer than 64 characters).
I would wait to do that until our next desktop app release, which will have
a 'Send max' option to make it easier to send all coins.

Hi P,

I just insert the bitbox with SD card. The app wants me to give the
wallet a name and enter the password twice.
I already did that a 2 days ago so I cancelled and now it's loading
transaction history...for a while. The other tabs are blank and I cannot
click on any of them.
Should I wait until the transaction history is loaded? Or close the app
and create a name for the wallet and enter the password again?

Hi G,

Close the app and enter a new name and password - this will create a new
wallet. After that, you can enter into the desktop app and recover the
backup.

If you hit Cancel instead of entering the name/password, there is no
wallet inside the device, and that is why the desktop app tabs are blank.
Indeed, we should have a better message to indicate this, and not show the
'loading info...' message.

Hi P,

If I understand correctly I enter a new name different from the last one?
Should I enter my first password from the configuration or a totally
different one?

Hi G,

I recommend entering a different name. In this way, you can easily
distinguish the different wallet backups that are on the SD card. There
will be a backup for the new wallet automatically created with the new name.

You can enter the same password (truncated to 64 characters) or a different
password. The original backup will always be recovered using the same
original password, even if the device password is changed. (The backup for
the new wallet will always have the new password that you enter now.)

Hi P,

It seems I probably doing something wrong or something is really wrong.
At this point I still have no acces to my wallet.
I did as you told me but when I entered my backup phrase it doesn't match the wallet.
Then I went to Electrum and entered the backup phrase to seed address and it shows a zero balance.

I really don't know what to do! Can you assure me I still have my coins?
Need a solution. I have accessed the wallet maybe 10 days ago without any problem using the correct password.
What exactly could be the problem for it doesn't recognized the password?

See attachment for pictures

Hi G,

From the pictures, it looks like you pushed the 'Verify' button. That only checks if the backup matches the current (new) >wallet. It does not reload the old wallet.

Instead, use the 'Restore' button. You will see a popup box with a different message. First, try the 64-character password. If it >doesn't work, also try the original 66-character password (and let me know if that works).

Note that the coins cannot go anywhere. If they did go somewhere, and you loaded the same wallet into Electrum, you would >see the history of all transactions coming into and leaving the wallet. If there is no history, then it is a different and unused >wallet.

Hi P,

I tried both 64 and 66 characters. Unfortunately no succes either (invalid command).
Should I use a space between the words?

Hi P,

What was done that caused the invalid command error?

Is your password a list of words? Spaces in between words is OK. A space at the end is OK also. When I copy text on my >computer, sometimes it copies an extra space at the end, which may or may not have been entered in the password box >during wallet creation.

So you know, we are in meetings all day today and tomorrow and may not be able to reply quickly.

My partner is in charge of the desktop app. He offered to have a Skype call (or similar) with you in order to try to help solve the problem. Would this work?

As you can understand I had a very bad feeling' about the whole situation. I was hoping a Skype conversation with the developer would recover my Bitcoin.

The conversation didn't led to anything I already had tried before. It could be that someone knows my password, which is clearly not the case since no one knows about it. I kept my password safe and locked. At this point he could do nothing.
Last thing is scanning the SD-card trying to recover deleted files. Well, I already knew it was lost but nevertheless I did a deep scan...unfortunately without succes.

I LOST MY FIRST HARD EARNED BITCOIN! :(((

Hopefully one day I get in the position of buying another one or many more :))

Take care!