The success of the Ethereum blockchain has brought immense wealth to many early investors — but several massive events have shaped the coin’s development. One of the most significant was the DAO hack that led directly to a hard fork, which split the currency into two separate coins).

The DAO hack left many investors without access to their funds, and years later, many of those users have not regained their Ether tokens. Few up-to-date resources are currently available for Ether fund recovery, but the experts at Datarecovery.com have found effective methods for restoring these tokens, and our methods remain effective in 2021.

If you lost access to Ether tokens due to the DAO hack, call us now at 1-800-237-4200 or read on for more information.

A Brief Overview of the DAO Hack and Ethereum Hard Fork

The Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) was an early attempt to create a decentralized business model on the Ethereum blockchain. Established through a massive crowdfunding campaign, The Dao raised more than $34 million by May 10, 2016, eventually amassing an ether value of more than $150 million.

Unfortunately, The DAO’s code had serious security issues. The organization was vulnerable to numerous attack vectors, which have been thoroughly detailed by the B9lab blog.

In early 2016, The DAO was attacked. A hacker drained 3.6 million ether from The DAO, but white hat hackers responded quickly, creating a plan to protect the remaining 70% of The DAO’s funds. Those methods were only partially successful, and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin presented several options to the blockchain’s community to find a resolution.

The DAO hack was ultimately resolved on July 20, 2016, via a hard fork, which essentially erased the hack from the blockchain’s history. The hard fork was controversial, and many Ethereum advocates remained on the original blockchain, which is now generally referred to as Ethereum Classic. However, it allowed DAO victims to recover their funds via the new blockchain.

Many victims of the DAO hack have not recovered their ether.

In the months after the Ethereum hard fork, DAO contract holders were able to use several widely publicized methods to withdraw their ether. These methods built-in time limits to protect the integrity of the blockchain; however, many contract holders faced challenges that prevented them from restoring their funds within the first months following the hack.

Major issues included:

• Many Ethereum users did not save key information about their DAO contracts, which made token tracking difficult.

• Recovery required an active Ethereum wallet. Some users received error messages because their accounts did not have ether (and couldn’t pay for transaction processing). Users may have errantly determined that recovery was impossible.

• Over time, some recovery methods have become obsolete. The WithdrawDAO contract expired in 2017, and confusion regarding the implications of the contract expiration led many users to assume that their DAO accounts were permanently lost.

DAO can still be converted to ETH. Datarecovery.com can help. As experts in cryptocurrency recovery, we can restore access to lost ether tokens in the vast majority of situations. Our no data, no charge policy gives you peace of mind as your case progresses; if your wallet remains inaccessible, you will not pay for the failed recovery attempts.If you’ve lost access to funds due to the DAO hack — or if you’re unable to access your Ethereum wallet for any other reason — call us today at 1-800-237-4200 to speak with a cryptocurrency recovery expert or fill out our online case form.

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While Bitcoin began as a very niche, very esoteric cryptocurrency, it has since grown into something much more mainstream in the past decade. With the price of Bitcoin topping 61 thousand dollars in mid-March and hovering around the 55 thousand dollar mark as April approaches, it’s well worth taking the time to ask yourself if you might have a Bitcoin wallet stored somewhere. That’s more than 20 thousand dollars higher than it was when we wrote our previous Bitcoin-related article in January. Considering the fact that the ever-popular cryptocurrency has been around for over a decade now, it’s very possible — and actually quite a common occurrence — to see someone who invested or experimented with the cryptocurrency when it first began to catch on around 2010 and completely forgot about it until now. Naturally, the hunt for a lost Bitcoin wallet is easier said than done.

What Is a Bitcoin Wallet?

Before getting into the places your Bitcoin wallet might be hiding, it’s worth defining what exactly a Bitcoin wallet actually is. (Believe it or not, a better understanding of what Bitcoin wallets are might actually help you to uncover your own missing wallet.)

On the most basic level, a Bitcoin wallet is not a tangible thing. It’s not the same as the object you keep in your back pocket or your bag — it’s a program, a digital thing instead of a physical one. However, the purpose remains more or less the same: to protect your currency. Instead of cash and cards, though, the Bitcoin wallet protects the secure, private key (or keys) that are then used to access your Bitcoin addresses and make transactions.

Bitcoin wallets, most frequently, are stored on a desktop computer, on a mobile app, in the cloud, or on a piece of hardware. They don’t actually store Bitcoins themselves, but rather the keys that link you to the address of your cryptocurrency. Without that key, which is actually a secret number and not a tiny piece of metal, you won’t be able to access your Bitcoins.

Where Is Your Bitcoin Wallet Hiding?

It might seem counterintuitive to have to jump through so many hoops in order to access your Bitcoin keys, but the rigamarole is well worth it — especially when you take into consideration the sheer amount of hackers and cybercriminals who would love to get their hands on some long-untouched Bitcoin. When you can’t locate your Bitcoin wallet, it’s natural to feel sort of panicked. However, there’s no need to worry: If your Bitcoin wallet is out there, then it’s almost definitely capable of being located. You just have to know where to look.

Old Tape Drives

If you’ve ever utilized tape drive storage in the past, then it’s worth pulling those old tape drives out and checking them for your missing or forgotten Bitcoin wallet. Being a form of cold storage, meaning that tape drives store information without the use of the internet, tape drives are a sensible and very possible location for Bitcoin wallets.

Former Hard Drives

As time goes on, it’s only natural that we will upgrade our computers again and again. With technological advances coinciding with the incessant crawl of obsolescence, getting a new computer or a new hard drive is just a part of life. With this upgrade comes the possibility that old and important files and programs might be left behind on the former hard drives. Considering Bitcoin originated all the way back in 2009, there are a lot of potential hard drive upgrades that could have happened between then and now. As such, looking back through old hard drives might uncover your missing Bitcoin wallet. Not to mention, sometimes drives simply break down and need to be replaced — If you’ve held onto those broken drives, you might as well check them for any Bitcoin keys.

Bitcoin Exchanges

While there’s no one set way to buy and trade Bitcoin, Bitcoin exchanges continue to be one of the most popular ways to do so. By buying a set number of Bitcoin and trading it for the equivalency in other currencies, many see a way to increase their total investment through a version of forex trading. However, if you’ve lost your password to your Bitcoin exchange, then it would not be possible for you to do any buying and selling at all. If you suspect this may be the case, then it’s worth your while to recover your password as soon as you can.

Portable USB Drives

Also known as flash drives or external hard drives, portable USB drives make for a convenient and easy way to save your important documents and files on one device and transfer them to another. However, with recent updates to modern laptops, some have found these flash drives to be outdated and useless now — especially on computers that don’t even have a compatible slot for them, like the current Macbook design. However, it’s very possible that your Bitcoin wallet could be stored on an old portable USB drive that you no longer use. Through the use of an adapter if necessary, consider plugging the drive into your computer and searching through the drive for your Bitcoin wallet.

Writable CD/DVD-ROMs

Similar to portable USB drives, CD and DVD-ROM discs were quite useful for a while — That is, until laptops began phasing out disc drives in favor of other (more modern) technology. Unfortunately, this means that many documents, files, photos, and videos stored on these discs are no longer as easily accessible as they once were. If your laptop or desktop no longer has a disc drive, consider investing in an external disc drive to search through for your Bitcoin wallet.

Misunderstood Bitcoin Wallets

Occasionally, a missing Bitcoin wallet isn’t even missing at all — It’s just misunderstood. This is no fault of your own, of course. Cryptocurrency is still a very new, very innovative thing and it’s okay to feel a little lost by it. As it turns out, feeling lost can also result in actually losing things (in this instance, Bitcoin wallets). No matter if your Bitcoin wallet is in the form of a BIP39 mnemonic phrase, a BIP38 paper wallet, or some other unfamiliar form, consider reaching out to a Bitcoin expert for further help understanding.

What if I Can’t Find My Bitcoin Wallet?

At the end of the day, some of these places are just too tricky (and too pricey) for you to be able to search through them yourself. From tape drives to USB drives and everything in between, consider sending your old devices to the experts at Datarecovery.com. We take pride in our ability to locate whatever you might have lost, whether it be something as urgent as a Bitcoin wallet or something as casual as an old digital photo album. Contact us today to get started.

The post The 6 Most Common Places Your Lost Bitcoin Wallet Is Hiding (and How to Recover It) appeared first on Datarecovery.com.

What Is an NFT?

In March of this year, digital artist Mike Winkelmann (more commonly known as Beeple) sold a JPG for 69.3 million dollars. Not only is this one of the highest price tags for a piece of art ever sold, but the enormous 21,069 pixel x 21,069 pixel collage — titled EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS — is also the most expensive NFT in the very brief history of the digital asset. But… what exactly is an NFT?

The short answer is that NFT stands for non-fungible token. This doesn’t make it any clearer why someone would pay almost 70 million dollars for what is essentially a digital file when a person could seemingly just save the image to their computer for free, though. You see, the key to understanding NFTs lies in those first two letters: NF. Non-fungible. This means that the token (the T of NFT) cannot be replaced. It’s one of a kind. Compare this to currency in general terms (either dollars or cryptocurrency like Bitcoin). Currency is fungible. There is effectively no difference in regard to value between one dollar and another dollar, or between one Bitcoin and another Bitcoin. They are interchangeable in their use.

This still leaves the question of ownership, though. How can a person truly own an image when anyone could come along and simply save the image to their computer and say they own it? It’s a valid question, and the answer still might not satisfy you: Think of the Mona Lisa. Anyone can print out a picture of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous work, but it doesn’t change the fact that the one and only original remains on the wall at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. The same goes for NFTs. Every printed or forged copy of the Mona Lisa will have distinctions in comparison to the original, but an NFT has a digital makeup that identities it as one of a kind. It’s all about trying to bring verifiable ownership to crypto, in other words — but it’s more akin to a Certificate of Authenticity, really.

Why Are NFTs So Popular?

While NFTs have had the most success in the art world, they can really be any digital thing, from social media posts to albums to sketches to documents and anything in between. For this reason, notable figures from all corners of the pop culture pantheon have come out of the woodworks to dip their toes in NFTs. Actors like William Shatner, musicians like Weezer, plenty of social media influencers, and countless others — like the creator of ancient internet meme Nyan Cat — have done their part to wheel and deal NFTs. All of these big names have essentially worked in tandem with one another to make this novel crypto asset blow up.

Not to mention, NFTs have been making millions in the past month or so — and not just Beeple’s EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS. All sorts of other artists have made anywhere from one to ten million dollars on their own respective NFTs. Their success with NFTs combined with the almost meme-ification of the crypto asset by verified celebrities and other social media users has created an unprecedented amount of buzz.

Are NFTs Worth It?

To answer the question of whether or not NFTs are worth it, let’s get into how they actually work on a technical level. See, the majority of NFTs are a part of the Ethereum blockchain. While Ethereum itself is a cryptocurrency, it’s the cryptocurrency’s blockchain that holds the large chunk of the world’s NFTs. For this reason, other blockchains are free to implement their own version of NFTs if they pleased — Which potentially raises a red flag for the future of NFTs themselves, should another blockchain choose to do their own take on them.

Beyond this, while NFTs promote ownership, the artist often still retains the copyright and reproduction rights — meaning that your one-of-a-kind non-fungible token might not be so non-fungible as you initially thought it was. If an artist’s NFT doesn’t sell for the high price they expected it to sell for, then there’s nothing stopping them from taking another crack at it and creating another token. For this reason, NFTs are less like proof of ownership and more like proof of commemoration.

While these two factors definitely make NFTs sound riskier for buyers, they’re big positives for sellers. Not only do they give artists the opportunity to sell their work for much more than they ever would have had the chance to otherwise, NFTs optionally come equipped with a feature that pays the artist a percentage every time the token is sold or traded.

The Future of NFTs

Wherever you fall in the great NFT debate, the future of NFTs remains pretty murky. Five, ten, 100 years from now, who’s to say how much these non-fungible tokens will be worth? Not to mention, there’s always the possibility that the NFT owner’s crypto wallet could be lost or stolen, that the image quality could decline, that the artist could create ten more copies that devalue your token, and countless other risks that make these crypto assets far more risky than, say, Bitcoin.

If anything, the popularity of NFTs doesn’t suggest that they will become the future of cryptocurrency, but that many other kinds of crypto assets are sure to emerge in the coming years to compete with their success. Given Bitcoin’s immense and ever-increasing price tag, it’s clear that cryptocurrency isn’t going anywhere. Whether or not NFTs will blow up in a good way or in a bad way remains to be seen, but this much is clear: they surely won’t be the last of their kind.

The post NFTs Explained: What Are They, and How Might They Shape the Future of Cryptocurrency? appeared first on Datarecovery.com.

Bitcoin used to be the preferred payment method of cybercriminals. Last year, we reported that the hackers behind the WannaCry ransomware infected PCs worldwide, and demanded payment in the form of Bitcoin from their victims. Hackers asked for Bitcoin because the cryptocurrency’s transactions are harder to trace to individuals compared to traditional bank transfers.

Some European businesses started to purchase Bitcoin in 2017 in order to prepare themselves for future ransomware demands. Cyber criminals, meanwhile, saw the value of Bitcoin skyrocket, which made the cryptocurrency a target for high-profile cyber theft.

Despite Bitcoin’s continuing popularity and expensive value, several news reports are stating that ransomware criminals are now asking for a different payment method.

While Bitcoin remains a highly popular cryptocurrency among people who deal in the dark web, its high-profile status is giving criminals some problems. ZDnet puts the blame on the asset’s hyper volatility that sometimes jeopardizes criminal operations. A crash doesn’t only affect investors who have diversified their portfolio with cryptocurrencies, but also criminals who need to keep adjusting their ransom based on the current prices of Bitcoin.

Before 2017 ended, Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $20,000. However, it slid sharply at the start of 2018, and settled at 50% of its December 2017 prices. In June, Nadex reported that cryptocurrency markets are being rocked by volatility almost every day. Bitcoin moved 13% lower, and even experienced a $1,000 drop in one trading day. Like any other asset, Bitcoin’s prices are affected by fundamental factors that affect the economy as a whole. Hacked online exchanges, the strengthening of regulated currencies, and current investor sentiment towards cryptocurrency markets are just some examples of what can affect the price of Bitcoin.

In the same article by ZDNet, it was mentioned that criminals are moving towards more stable forms of cryptocurrency like Monero, Zcash, and Ethereum. With the aforementioned 3 cryptocurrencies, criminals won’t have to keep adjusting their ransom every time Bitcoin’s prices crash.

Bad news for altcoins

The shift to other cryptocurrencies is gaining traction within the dark web. If more cybercriminals move towards other forms of digital funds, it will create problems for investors who have decided to stay away from Bitcoin because of its volatility. Hackers who switch to other cryptocurrencies will disrupt the trust of investors, and make altcoins more volatile. Apart from that, the mass switch by ransomware criminals to other cryptocurrencies will also make it harder for authorities to catch criminals, because they will be investigating multiple cryptocurrencies instead of just Bitcoin. Some new cryptocurrencies are designed to provide almost absolute anonymity to the integrity of the transactions and users, making investigations into cyber-crime money laundering next to impossible.

“We’ll see a progressive shift in 2018 towards criminal use of cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin, making it generally more challenging for law enforcement to counter,” warned the Executive Director of Europol Rob Wainwright in a Tweet.

Despite the switch to other cryptocurrencies, many criminals will also continue to use Bitcoin due to its popularity. With more people and companies using it for everyday transactions, there is a higher chance of receiving the ransom.

“We must remember that when forcing ransom payment, Bitcoin is still the cryptocurrency of choice given its wide availability and use” said Thycotic’s Chief Security Scientist Joseph Carson. “It is when cyber-criminals are moving money around to pay other cyber-criminals or to purchase new toys they will use an alternative cryptocurrency to keep a low profile.”

Did you have your data stolen by ransomware criminals? Here on Datarecovery.com we provide fast and affordable solutions to your stolen files. Call us at 800-237-4200 so we can help retrieve what’s yours.

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Enter Sia, a decentralized cloud storage platform that hopes to leverage the power of the blockchain to rival mainstream services like Amazon Web Services, Dropbox, and Google Drive. It’s one of the most exciting uses of the technology, and it has the potential to change the way that we store and access data.

In simple terms, here’s how Sia (and Siacoin) works.

A renter purchases Siacoin, then exchanges them to buy a certain amount of storage space on the blockchain.

The renter uploads files, which the service divides into 30 segments using Reed-Solomon erasure coding. The files are stored with a high level of redundancy, and can be reconstructed with any 10 segments. In other words, if 20 of the host computers go down, the files are still accessible.

Sia encrypts each file segment with the Twofish cipher (an important point of differentiation, since many major cloud services don’t encrypt files by default). The renter and the hosts enter into a smart contract, enforced by the Sia network; renters purchase storage with Siacoin, while hosts deposit Siacoin as collateral for renting out unused space on their storage media (typically hard drives). That ensures that hosts don’t set up contracts and immediately drop offline — they’d lose currency by attempting to game the network.

The host only receives payment after submitting storage proofs, which Sia stores permanently on the blockchain. The contracts typically last for 90 days. When hosts drop off the network, Sia performs file repairs, ensuring that 30 hosts are storing the file segments at most times.

Interestingly, payment transactions don’t occur on the blockchain; they occur through specialized payment channels, which help to keep Sia’s storage tech efficient.  

The advantage of Sia: True decentralization.

Currently, Sia is geared towards developers, enterprise-level businesses, and other users that require a need to maintain a large amount of reliable storage at a low cost. It’s not geared towards personal computer users — yet. In our opinion, Sia will need to drastically improve its core client (SiaUI) in order to appeal to typical consumers.

However, it’s difficult to overstate the technology’s potential. Sia could change data storage forever by providing true decentralization, eliminating the points of failure that can cause serious issues for mission-critical applications. One example: In 2017, Amazon Web Services encountered temporary issues with its eastern U.S. servers, leading to outages for thousands of customers. A well-implemented technology like Sia could avoid these types of errors by moving data off of proprietary servers and into the blockchain.

That’s not to say that Sia, in its current form, is a competitor to Amazon, but the technology could certainly get there. The blockchain has a myriad of exciting applications, but in our field, Sia is one of the best demonstrations of the tech’s potential.

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Because mining can be done when someone is asleep or otherwise not using their computer, it sounds like a great deal. However, dwindling returns and high electricity costs have made it increasingly hard to turn a profit through mining… unless you’re using someone else’s computer.

A recent MalwareBytes report revealed that drive-by cryptomining has surged in the last year.

Drive-by cryptomining occurs when someone uses an unsuspecting person’s computing power for mining. The first instances of this occurred when websites used Javascript to turn visitors into miners (for the website’s profit).

The ethics of this has been debated, as websites like Pirate Bay used the method to reduce ads — something that website visitors benefitted from. However, cybercriminals have now adopted the tactic and can run cryptomining code on unsuspecting websites which confer no benefit on visitors.

MalwareBytes reported that these types of attacks rose dramatically in the final quarter of 2017. The methods of attack also proliferated as hackers scrambled to take advantage of the rise in value of the cryptocurrency market.

For instance, security firm SonicWall recently discovered a Linux cryptominer trojan hidden in an image file. When a user clicks on the supposed PNG file, an image of a woman pops up. However, behind the scenes, an executable file begins to run at the same time the image opens. The malware is a Monero cryptocurrency miner that runs undetected to the casual user.

Monero is the most popular cryptocurrency targeted by drive-by miners because of its high transaction speeds and anonymity. Monero is also the chosen currency of Coinhive, the company that created the original JavaScript miner for websites.

To avoid cryptominers, use good internet hygiene.

Running background cryptominers slows down your computer and can lead to overheating. Therefore, it’s important to prevent them from running on your computer (unless you’re mining intentionally). Luckily, using the same good habits to prevent other types of malware will protect you from cryptominers.

For instance, always update software. This is important not just for desktop computers, but for smart phones and watches. Internet of Things devices are particularly vulnerable to secret cryptominers. Changing default passwords to strengthen them is crucial to prevent unauthorized access. Enabling a device’s firewall is also highly recommended.

In addition to standard good habits, there are specific ways to block cryptominers from sapping your computing power. Chrome offers a variety of extensions to block coin-mining websites: No Coin, minerBlock, and Anti Miner. You can also specifically block Coin Hive from running by adding its URL — https://coin-hive.com/lib/coinhive.min.js — to your ad blocker.

Drive-by cryptomining is just the latest way for hackers to take advantage of vulnerable computers. Common sense and a healthy dose of caution can protect you from it and most other threats.

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