Metamask Warnings: Total Loss Or Total Lesson? The Takeaway

So I lost my wallet access last night. It wasn't the first time. When I created my metamask for the first time, I backed up my passkey, private key and seed phrase. About two weeks ago for some reason my password didn't work. Initially I panicked as this was the first time this had ever happened to me. I restored the wallet with my seed phrase and all was well. Then last night happened.

My computer had some critical error and decided to shut down. My metamask wallet again signed me out and the password wasn't working. After trying several times, a recovery was obviously needed. I went ahead and used my seed phrase as I did before but to my horror, new addresses began to populate. Short story long, my private key file was in a batch of files that were corrupted. What are the odds this? This would be one of the newest and most rare errors affecting 1% of 1% metamask users. I followed every help guide until I stumbled on the solution that I feared most. Start over, it's a total loss without the private key.

I could cite every article and third party support article that came to the very same conclusion, but what purpose would that serve? I lost 2 ether. Nearly $1,500 worth of crypto gone.

Takeaways, a warning, and the lesson learned.

First rookie mistake I made was not making a backup of the backup private key. I followed good practices and stored my private key in a password protected file just in case I ever needed it. Unfortunately I didn't do something more intelligent or layered like save an extra copy offline. If you haven't done this yet, go do it now.

Second rookie mistake was trusting Metamask. Sure I read the warnings, but never the horror stories of Metamask's inability to solve the persistent bugs even they create with updates. Even more alarming is the fact that there is no recourse for lost funds due to errors they create. Inasmuch as this is my fault for not backing up my private key, the strong argument(however misplaced) that metamask continues to tell everyone all you need to restore wallets is the seed phrase is blatantly irresponsible when their own efforts to recreate this error have been successful with bounty campaigns. Although the error is confirmed, and totally their fault, there will be no compensation for the losses incurred.

So, are my 2 ether forever gone a loss? No. There were things I could have and should have done to layer my protection from such outcomes. I should have created backups of the backups. On and offline of the seed phrase, private keys, and password. I feel this was a valuable lesson. I needed to tighten up on my crypto security and take responsible for my own shortcomings instead of throwing shade on Metamask with some lengthy rage article( They get a bunch of them according to one tech and they go something like this, "You lost all my money, you cus!"). This could have been much worse, I could have been naive enough to have 10 or more ether in this wallet and lost an even greater sum of crypto. This was eye opening enough that I will lay out a simple checklist to ensure this doesn't happen to anyone else.

1. Backup everything

   • Wallet Password
   • Seed Phrase
   • Private Keys(FOR EACH ETHEREUM ADDRESS CREATED IN THAT METAMASK WALLET)

2. Back them up again, and again. At least 3 times, and for sure 1 or 2 offline. Offline either print or write them down, regardless of how many copies you have on your hardware or were silly enough to email to yourself..

3. Don't trust metamask or any other software wallet. If you haven't done so yet, or have been putting it off, repeat steps 1 and 2 for each and every wallet and 2fa application you use for crypto. Neglecting this can be very costly, as it was for me, but I think in the long run this lesson will have saved me a ton of money. Hopefully if this article reaches you, it won't happen to you, and a few minutes of your time reading will save you a ton of money.

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