Redditor's hacked Bitcoin is a lesson on the hidden dangers of paper wallets

A Reddit user has become the latest example of why crypto users should be more careful when using wallet generators — after the user lost a few thousand dollars worth of Bitcoin (

The Redditor was baffled as to why the exploiter waited over 12 months to exploit the funds, prompting another to offer a possible explanation.

“[The hackers] wait for enough noobs to think they generated secure private keys, wait for them to deposit significant amounts, and then, one day, swipe all the funds, so there is no time to react to reports of the site being compromised.”

With a sudden increase in long-dormant Bitcoin wallets waking up — many with funds in the millions — some pundits think it’s due to wallet generators being hacked.

Unpopular crypto opinion: the fact that wallet generators can be cracked and people can lose their funds with no recourse is terrifying. I’m going to tell you what I believe to be the answer, and I know the “make everything decentralized” crew will hate it

— Jesse Hynes (@jesse_hynes) April 25, 2023