Password without privatekey

Tech Support
#1

Hello. I have a friend who is newbie in NEM. Today I sent to his account NBRSBF-P4ZEUW-KBJGVH-6TYEXQ-KTFWHR-HOSHO5-DP4J exactly 299 891 XEM from my account.

But after he has made his account had some problems with NIS and NCC. So he deleted all files in users directory (and he also empty recycle bin and tried many programs to restore deleted files without success) in windows and also in program files related to nem and reinstall the software.

And that is the problem! Now he does not have wallet files and also he does not know private key and he is not able to log in to his wallet. He is newbie and made such a mistake because he thought that account number and password is all information he will need in future to log in to his account :-(.

So he has number of his nem account and also password but he does not have privatekey.

I want to ask you. Is there a way how he can again access his 299 891 NEM account?
I hope there is some solution because it will be really sad for him.

Also I think it will be nice when after the first time user create new wallet it will show some notice/warning that user should also save his privatekey and also export his wallet.

Thank you very much for your help.

#2

I am sorry to say but your friend did everything to burn the coins.
Without private key and without wallet no one will be able to access the xem :frowning:

#3

Hi. Thank you for your response which is not good for him :(.

Only solution is to restore deleted files, right? But he have tried 10 softwares for restore deleted files without any success.

So I think it will be really nice if after creating wallet there will be some notice or warning that user need to backup also his private key and export wallet files.

#4

We will abondom the current client at some point. The new client will be better.

#5

I hope this notice should be added also to actual client. It should not be such a problem. Because I think it should make some newbies to hate NEM coin only for that (which is actually his mistake but as you know newbies are newbies).

#6

that’s not the problem of #nem only, if he’ll remove his wallet, he will have problems with ANY coin…
Without either {wallet + password} OR {private key}, there’s no chance to access that funds in any way, that’s basically elementary principle of any crypto-currency…

Sorry to say this, but I think it was repeated numerous times to create copy of a private key…

#7

Yes, you are right it is sad information for him. But as you wrote we cannot do anything. I only think that NEM should be different and I still think it should not be a big deal do show some notice after you create new account what should you backup. It will be really helpful information for all newbies.

#8

You can’t expect non technical users to know beforehand the intricacies of the system.
That’s the point of doing UX design, you approach to the user’s needs, instead of hoping that every user will approach the technology.
The user friendliness is a must if you want XEM to be widely adopted, and you can’t penalize people for not being technically competent, you have to anticipate to their ignorance and assist them, if you expect a modicum of success.

It is PERFECTLY sensible to have a minitutorial dialog when a NEW account is created, with warnings about NOT backuping the private key.

#9

this is what welcomes you right after entering the wallet:

#10

The recovery method will be different depending if it is a standard HDD or an SSD.
First of all, you can’t attempt to recover files if you are using it as a primary hard drive.
The more time it is on, the less likely your file will be recovered.

You must disconnect it and place it as a slave.
Try with this http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
Or http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/free-data-recovery-software.htm

Search for *.wlt and *.adb files.
First try to find them at %userprofile%\nem\ncc

#11

Would you trust your grandmother to understand what it means and the significance of not doing it?
That’s the grandma test.

#12

Anyone who thinks grandma should have crypto coins must be crazy :smiley:

#13

Do you think that grandmas shouldn’t open a checking account?
Well, not that crazy, right?
Do you know why it is not crazy? Because nobody in the bank requested her to learn COBOL to operate her debit card.

What is your target demographics for this New Economy Movement? IT technicians or every single one?

#14

What i am saying is that very old people should handle money as they did the rest of their life. They do not want big changes. My father for example listens to my crypto stories but certainly is not interested to open a nem account.

#15

It is not the point, my point was that there are people who really are as clueless as old people, the grandmother reference is not literal, but allegorical.
Being tecnically clueless is not restricted to old people only.
In short, the user friendliness should be oriented for people who are truly technologically illiterate.
Making things fool proof might be a challenge, but surely you will be grateful for the ATMs to beep like crazy when you forget to take out your card or the car to not allow you to close the door if you forgot the keys inside.

Really, is it really that hard to understand the concept of UX?

#16

Though i agree that we should make the user interface more user friendly and as fool proof as possible, the concept of crypto currencies goes side by side with more responsibility on the user side. This fact alone means that it is probably not recommendable for more than 50% of the people. Average Joe needs something where he can throw away everything and still can recover his money.

#17

Responsability doesn’t mean that they must be tecnologically competent.
The dialogs can be boiled down to the following:

Right after creating a new account:

Dialog 1: Hello there! Congrats on your new account! Please don’t forget the password, as it is not recoverable if you forget it! Now lets create a security copy, shall we? [YES] [NO]

Dialog 2 for Yes: Wonderful, if you would like to save the backup on a pendrive, plug it now. Otherwise select a drive [OPEN FILE].

Dialog 2 for No: Are you sure you don’t want to create a backup? IF YOUR COMPUTER DIES YOU WILL LOSE ALL YOUR FUNDS, AND IT WON’T BE RECOVERABLE. WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND TO CREATE AN EXTERNAL BACKUP. [OK, LETS CREATE A BACKUP] [I DON’T WANT AN BACKUP, I KNOW WHAT I AM DOING]

That’s it. Although a minitutorial pointing to the tabs and options like a game would be also ideal for newbies.

#18

sandokan - you are right as me :). I like your version of notification/dialogs.
Also thank you for your opinion about how to recover deleted files, I will send it to my friend.

#19

Those kinds of warnings are there in lightwallet and first thing nanowallet does is a backup.

None of that will be added to ncc… NCC will go away, hopefully VERY soon.

#20

testdisk is definitely worth trying, great software.