For all of my friends and family to whom I gifted some bitcoin back in the day, if you neglected to take control of it, this might be your lucky second chance. That few dollars’ worth I sent you back in 2013 or 2014 is probably worth 15-30 times as much now.
Here are two possibilities to reclaim it:
1) If I sent you coins through the QuickCoin service on Facebook, you can find them using this recovery tool:
https://quickcoin-recovery.binded.com/
This link mentions Electrum, which is a great choice. But any wallet that allows the import of private keys in WIF format will work. I find Mycelium to be a good choice on Android. Just don’t share those private keys with anyone!
2) The other service to check is ChangeTip. I know I used that one a lot on Twitter, but also Facebook, Reddit and other platforms. Here’s the place to start:
Again, this only works for coins I sent you using one of these two services. If I gave you a paper wallet, or helped you set up a wallet on your phone or computer and you lost it, I’m sorry. Being your own bank requires you to take responsibility for your own money.
If you need technical help with these tools, or want to exchange your newly-found coins for Federal Reserve Notes or pictures of dead leaders from other countries, I’m happy to help. Just understand it might take me a while.