SEC-S10W5: My story of losing a precious thing

Hello Dear Steemians, I am glad to participate in the 5th week of the contest for the Steemit Engagement Challenge Season 10 for the Bangladesh community. I am sorry to say that I am not enjoying writing this story and when you hear my story you will also feel sorry for me.

  
However, I will request my friends, @senehasa, @josevas217 and @jyoti-thelight to come and show their sympathy to me and share their experiences if any by posting them here. Now I will tell you my story in the same order as you have asked me to do so.

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Have you ever lost something that was very important to you?(If you have a picture of the item please share it with us)

  
Yes, I have lost a costly item that was not important to me at the time when I received it and I didn't even know that I would miss it so dearly when I knew its real value.

Let me tell you the entire story, right from the beginning. I have been using the internet since 2001, but in the web world since 2006. I used to be on a couple of forum sites and attended them for interaction with various international users.

I had two emails, one for my personal and official use and the other one was for my online activities. It all started in 2011 when one of my online friends asked me to do a favor and join a cryptocurrency wallet. I had heard of Bitcoin but knew nothing about it, so I was least interested in signing up for a wallet. But as my friend said I would get INR 300 for joining the wallet, I joined it even if reluctantly.

I used my phone number and email, and I was informed with a congratulatory message that now I could buy and sell Bitcoin using this wallet, and they had deposited 0.3 Bitcoin (worth INR 300 at that time) in my wallet. They gave me a strange combination of alphanumeric characters and warned me to keep my wallet, password, and other details safe.

I had no intention to buy or sell any Bitcoin, so I paid little attention to this message. Later, my online friend thanked me and said he was giving me another 0.1 Bitcoin as a gift for being his referral. It meant I had 0.4 Bitcoin in my wallet at that time,

I soon forgot all about that wallet and Bitcoin as I left for Australia, and my online activities were a thing of the past. It was probably a friend of mine who said, "The price of Bitcoin has touched $14000 today."

My reaction was, "How much?"

He repeated the price, and I remembered that I had 0.4 Bitcoin, a handsome amount of around $4200. I tried to login to my wallet, and it asked for my email and password, I entered my email and password. It said "Wrong password or email address."

Then I remembered that I had deleted that email, which I used for online activities. I had a different phone number now, as I had no access to my Indian number anymore.

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I sent an email to support, but they were in no position to support me as I was not in India and that website was accessible only to Indians in India. They refused to do anything in that matter straight forward.

What emotions did you experience upon losing the item?

  
I came back to India in 2021, and the Bitcoin Price was almost $80,000, and at that rate, the value of my holding was $32000, which was enough to buy a 3BHK flat, but I had nothing that could help me log in to my wallet so that money was as good as if I never owned it.

Did you do anything to find it? What was the result?

  
I tried my best to convince the website's admin by talking to him on the phone, sending him emails, and doing whatever I could to convince him, but he was right as an admin that if you can't log in to your wallet, there is nothing he can do to help.

So the result was as it should have been, I lost that 0.4 Bitcoin because I had nothing to claim or any proof that I ever had any wallet on that website although I have a wallet on that website now with proper government proofs. Unfortunately, there was no need for any proof of ID when I joined that site in 2011.

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What steps do you follow to avoid losing such precious items in the future?

  
As I am now a Steemian and know the value of wallets, cryptocurrencies, and how to protect my wallet as a Task 5-1 qualified member of this site, I don't think I will make a similar mistake in the future.

Thank you all for reading my sad story.