Sure, I am not sure if JohnGalt deserves the forked coins that were taken outside of his permission, since he had compromised his private keys, even though sure, there could be some kind of a benevolent sharing of the value of the coins that were taken with JohnGalt if the person who had taken the forked coins were to choose such a sharing course of action...
So yeah... I actually showed the private key on purpose ‘cause I wanted to prove everything was real. I could’ve just signed a message with it or whatever, but this just felt quicker at the time—and honestly, my head wasn’t all the way clear. I figured once the coins were moved, it wouldn’t really matter anymore (which... turns out, not the smartest assumption).
Something kinda like this happened back in 2013. This dude, Matt Miller, showed a paper wallet on TV and revealed the private key—and boom, someone snatched the coins right away. The person who took the coins actually reached out to him, and Matt was just like, “You can keep it.” But this ain’t the same. He didn’t even realize what that key meant. I did. I knew exactly what I was showing.
Some people might say that by putting the key out there on purpose, I basically gave up any claim to it. And whether or not I understood what I was giving up? Doesn’t even matter.
I have no idea who took the coins. Probably never will. And I don’t know what kinda person they are. Like, if they were honest, they would’ve seen it, realized it was probably a mistake, maybe taken the forked coins, hit me up, and asked for a reward or something. That would’ve been fair. A selfish person would’ve just grabbed it and been like, “Wow, free money, lucky me!” But a shady person—the criminal type? They look for stuff like this. Waiting for someone to slip up so they can pounce.
Anyway... $45K is a lot, don’t get me wrong. But what can I do? And compared to 100 BTC? At the end of the day, I’m just gonna take it as a lesson learned.
Wow, first of all I want to congratulate you for not having weak hands. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I had a million dollars when BTC was at 10k — and now it's at 100k, incredible. That’s it, man, enjoy that money, you truly deserve it.
On another note, I’d love to make a video telling this story for my YouTube channel — what you shared is really interesting.
And about the 45k that was taken from you, it's okay, I hope that person makes good use of it and that it helps them a lot.