I bet this has been talked about before, but here I am...
Here’s what I remember...
Back in 2010, I created two PGP keys. I definitely had GPG4win on my computer at that time. For some reason, names like Kleopatra and PGPtools stick in my head.
I also remember messing around on another computer with a program that could download the blockchain. Honestly, I was just goofing off, so I can’t recall if that download ever wrapped up.
On my original comp, I managed to download a wallet program and got it running. I imported the PGP keys and created a wallet that had addresses generated from these keys (both private and public). I'm almost positive that program was the Bitcoin Client.
I bought some BTC with a bit of cash from a bank account on a site that’s slipped my mind and sent it to the wallet. This all went down just a few months after that famous pizza story hit the news, so yeah, it was definitely in 2010.
At some point, I had to come up with a password. I remember it was important to have a long one using letters, numbers, and special characters, which I nailed down 13+ characters, which was considered a solid password back then.
I still know that password, so that’s not my main concern.
Now here’s where it gets tricky. At some point, I was asked to use a set of words... I think it was at least 8. I can’t say for sure if it was during the PGP key setup instead of an email address or if those words were for some kind of encryption.
Yes, countless times.
I have reported the post to be moved to a technical board where they can help you better but from what you tell and a 2010 wallet I think the chances of recovering anything are pretty close to 0.
What amount are we talking about?
Bitcoin core (bitcoin QT at the time) did not use recovery words.
Private keys are contained in the file wallet.dat, and this encrypted file is located in a separate directory from the bitcoin client.
The only chance left is hardware recovery data of hard drive. If you still have it, write me in PM your contact
Imho you should think it over again and find better clues about the year, since I don't think that you'll find any wallet in 2010 that was handling words (no matter if seed or brain wallet). All that came later.
And if your story is inaccurate you will get answers on BIP39 and such.
Also, after clearing up what year was it, maybe you remember what wallet you've used; it could be of real help. If it's indeed words-based and local (so I'll cross out blockchain.info), Multibit and Electrum would be the main options, but both came at the end of 2011. I think that only Bitcoin Core was there in 2010 and it had no seed words.
Without better info, the answer to your BIG question is "you don't". Sorry.
The human brain can play tricks on us sometimes, especially when it comes to memories from a decade ago. How can you be absolutely sure that it happened EXACTLY as you described when you yourself admit that you can't remember some key details? It's possible that your recollection of events is slightly off. For example, it would help a lot if you knew exactly which software you used to create your Bitcoin wallet or which website you used to buy coins. Do you have any concrete evidence (other than your memory) to corroborate any part of your story? What if it wasn't Bitcoin at all?
My understanding is Bitcoin Client changed to Bitcoin QT further down the track. The Bitcoin QT interface doesn't look right to me. Wasn't till I found Bitcoin Client interface did the penny drop.
The wallet program that was used MAY have issued some words after creating the wallet as a recovery for password only feature.
My other theory is the 8 words hashed with the password to generate the PGP keys to add "entropy". From what I've read the same keys may be able to be regenerated to give the same PGP's back. Once complete another algorithms can spit out the public & private address for the wallet.
It's was bitcoin. There was nothing else in 2010 that any coverage whatsoever ever on mainstream media. I read the story on the pizza saga on the Heraldsun website & bought coins months later. All happened prior to Silkroad. Agora may have been the only darknet markets at the time. I never took a look at any of those sites till atleast a couple of years later when BTC went from $30 - $200.
In 2010 they went from 0.003c to 0.03c & then 0.9c by the end of the year. The were no exchanges so I didn't even bother to check the price after I bought them for that particuler year till recently. I just set up the wallet, made the purchase, thought that was fun & left it.
Definitely happened in 2010 when they were worth peanuts. I was 30 years old at the time. Had just bought a 20k car. Had under 10k in the bank & blazed away on a small bitcoin transaction thinking it was no different than blowing it at the pokies.
I've had a quick look into BIP39. Words don't match the list. If we are talking algorithms SHA256 HASH & maybe secp256k were mentioned. May have everything to do with the blockchain & have nothing to do with anything wallet related.
The whole brainwallet concept may have been used but finding information on the programs from that time is tricky. I'm almost certain it was Bitcoin Client. There is the paperwallet option as well but moving the mouse around didn't tickle my fancy so I did it another way.
I'm finding this forum tough to navigate. It's the first time I've used a forum. I'll get it right eventually. It's my first time on here. Localcoins may have been used to make the purchase. If it wasn't that it's beats me. We are talking 1000+ coins that cost me next to nothing. Prepared to dish out coins like they are candy if I can just get some help.
What time of year approximately did you use the client?
You can check older versions here (source code, requires compiling):
https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/tags?after=v0.3.6
Tried that. One of the word doesn't compute. Doubt it's was a legacy wallet based error message.
I tried that & thank you for your reply. My guess is the 8 words I selected were used as "salt" to create orginal PGP keys.
Possible that the wallet I then used spat out a different set of words as a recover/change password feature.
A reasonably uneducated guess would be from August - November 2010. Cheers for the information not exactly sure what to do with it but rest assured I will definitely explore this avenue. Plan on getting a new computer for everything Github related. That can be done pretty quick once I figure out whats possible with the "older version". Could it be possible that password is enough to recover wallet or am I missing something?
Right now I'm of the belief that regenerating PGP keys using the 8 words I know & password then running algorithms on them to give me private/public addresses which were then somehow encrypted is one plausible way to do it. Could be wrong.
Public address then gives wallet address. Private address gives 64 bit hexadecimal somehow but lets face it I don't really know what I'm talking about just working from what I've read.
Did that picking random words & using a couple of my words. It hated one of my words. Took it no further.
Thanks for taking your time post. Its really is appreciated. Nice to talk to people that I can bounce off. Limited to how quick I respond. Tried smashing out replies but have to wait 360 seconds.
Confident words I choose were PGP key related. Done a bit more reading today & now Gnupgp is dinging bells. Problem is I looked at everything at the time. Found the whole principal of digital currency fascinating & had more time than you can poke a stick at to dive down the rabbit hole.
Big bucks. Think of a massive piggie bank full of $1 coins filled to the brim but in bitcoin. Enough to go around that's for sure. One for you, one for you & more for you. Lol.
Hyperthectically speaking if it was a brainwallet for arguments sake why would I need a wallet.dat. That gives another chance.
You should know that you are breaking a forum rule by posting multiple posts in a row, I have reported them to be merged, and rest assured that it is not a serious breach but in future occasions edit the post and write below instead of writing multiple posts.
And after all this time, what made you want to try to recover the coins now?
As I told you, you are not the first, far from it, many people who lost their coins one day when they realize that if they had not lost them they would be multimillionaires they start trying to recover them however they can but 2010 coins in 2024 seems a little late to worry about them.
How about 1626 words on very old version of Electrum which can be seen on https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/5883aaf8ca2f79bf694d11ac6b63f5defd2a2c38/client/mnemonic.py?
Was remembering possible location of USB after watching Tiktok videos. One particular of an old dude finding his drive in a roof space. I did the same but either moved it or it was found. USB had a password protect vault all the files were in that. The 3 weeks of XRP trolling on Tiktok didn't help the situation. Couldn't pick up my phone without seeing a crypto vid. Literally every third video was crypto related.
Longstory short couldn't find it USB. Then not long after a came across someone on this forum that mentioned a series of words that's you could choose yourself & boom those 8 words hit me. Always had the password but nothing else to work with till roughly 6 weeks ago when the USB debarcle started. Thought I'd give I a red hot crack now with what I do have.
I apologise for the multiple posts. Not actually sure how to reply properly but I'll try figure it out. What im doing now is obviously wrong. Never used a forum before. Had to do lots of edits to try make it all read easy.
Look pretty stupid as it is without adding more stupidity to the mix. 😞
Words were a variation of "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog". I just changed it up a bit cause using those exact words seemed a bit silly at the time. Wasn't to difficult to switch most of the words to my own & take out a word to give me 8 instead of 9 & still have a sentence that made enough sense to "remember".
Also I don't think the "f" bomb is on any of the word lists.
If we are talking about the original Bitcoin wallet, then no.
The wallet.dat file contains private keys and is encrypted with a password. Without the file, the password is useless.
It seems that at that time there were no other alternatives, including a brain wallet.
Perhaps you are confusing the year, or used something very specific.
I suggest you recover hdd data, if it's worth it.
When you say specific what would my options have been at the time for "cold storage" on USB. I checked the brainwallet list with weak passphases list but a. Not enough coins in the wallets b. Words don't match.
Let's say it was a paper wallet or just program that holds the keys...is there a list of those somewhere. I just need to see the right word most of the time to click ie. Kleopatra.
Private & public addresses were definitely encrypted & I wrote either one of both down on a piece of paper. That piece of paper went in a folder with my name on it. There is a possibility it's still around.
Off topic but is the whole PGP key regeneration possible using 8 words & a password. Base56 is the next thing to pop up on my radar couldnt tell you why but im sure it was used somewhere along the line in whatever process was used.
My understanding is you could get from private & public PGP keys to whats needed using a series of algorithms. Basically starting from scratch to rebuild the wallet.
Slowly starting to explore that avenue & "apparently" it's technically possible.
Was $200 AUD at the time. If you were to do the math then check the dormant wallet list there's only one possibility. One in & zero outs. There's small "dust attacks" but when the coins hit the wallet they never moved.
Trying my very best to give you everything I've got. I know it's a complete mess but it's going to annoy me if I don't give this my best shot.
It's not ALL about the money. It's a little niggle I've had for years. Bitcoin goes down I forget about it. Bitcoin goes up & it's worth rethinking. Will be 4 more years before I worry about it again if I don't say anything now.
Unfortunately those two options arent ringing any bells...
Keypass is a form of identification in Australia. Nothing to do with anything other than its similar & it came to mind straight away.
Keybase was around at the time as far as I know.
Keystone set a light bulb off. Quick google of that word & its a hardware wallet. Probs read that recently unless they had an old program for USB's...can definietly explore that further.
After hitting the "key" button in my brain for a coupe of hours that's about as far as it goes.
Going down the "specific" road even further Multibit appears to have the similar interface to the classic Bitcoin Client. Armoury & Electrum just don't look right.
Fairly certain Windows 7 was running on the work computers in 2010. Laptop downloading blockchain Vista. The blue from Window 7 in the "classic" wallets is very similar to how I remember it.
Thank you for your replies John. Been good to have someone to bounce off. 🍻
Do you have the harddrive ?
I did read the whole thread, but all i remember you stating that the harddrive was toast
Getting any data secured forensicly sound from that particular harddrive could be worthwhile, as it might reveal some of the missing puzzles about what really happened on that PC back in 2010.
I've been working with IT forensics for nearly 14 years, would for sure try and help you in any way possible, the first step would be to secure any data from that harddrive if you still have it.
Would love to help with whatever i can.
You could also reach out to this australien dude who might be able to help you further, he runs a YT channel (https://www.youtube.com/@CryptoGuide) and has a company that has a wallet recovery service with private sessions.
https://cryptoguide.tips/recovery-services-consultations/
Not 100% sure about the harddrive that corrupted location. I will try find it but won't get that opportunity for another couple of months. Was an external hard drive with its own plug in power supply with USB attached. Should have really put it back together but I just threw it into a box. It looked like a broken completely trashed piece of junk so fair chance someone binned it during a move without my knowledge.
Got it from a mate at the local football club with movies, music & alsorts of dumb stuff on it. Was pretty much an entire library of good movies & full music albums of every band you could ask for at the time. Always thought I had a copy of that drive on a 2TB Seagate drive. That power supply failed but i pulled that apart myself & bought a SATA cable/power supply & was able to boot it but filing system was different. Turns out one of his mates got me a new drive then copied everything back on there & more. Wasn't that long ago that the Tiktok video I watched reminded me of hiding a small Scandisk drive but couldn't find it when I went looking a few weeks ago. Was actually pretty devastating cause I was so sure it would still be there.
Anywhoo not even sure why the computer dude pulled the "external" drive apart in the first place. I sat with him & he plugged it into his computer & was able to see all the damaged/fragmentment/corrupted files in little blocks on the screen. If he could have fixed it he would have done it for me for nothing. We were basically "neighbours".
Bit of a crazy story really from start to finish though the entire 14 years. Literally thought I'd finally put all the pieces of the puzzle together but in the end it was an EPIC fail. Been smashing forums for the last two weeks reading other people's story's to make me feel a bit better about the situation. Was hoping password plus wallet address might be enough when i started looking & only then did the 8 words come to mind.
I do have one question you may be able to answer. If I boot the Seagate drive again & I've "hidden" the files someone where ridiculous what command would unhide the file & find the wallet.dat. I just tried searching for that & a text file. Neither showed up in a quick search. Still got that drive here with me. Haven't tried finding hidden files yet but it's definitely a different filing system which threw me off straight away. I'll send a pic when I figure out how to do that. Just says [IMG] twice when I press the picture icon.
Once smart phones came out, pokerroom shut down & then pokerstars got banned in Australia I had no reason to really touch a computer again. Could do pretty much everything I need on a phone. Don't get me wrong either I still have a computer here just don't use it.
Wallet recovery is an option I guess but right know trying to relearn everything & catching up with actual computer related things is pretty interesting.
Bitcoin wallets, cryptology, hardware, terms used etc. etc. etc. has all changed. Even finding a situation identical to mine has been a task. I've pretty much given up looking so decided to post.
Was hoping I could just figure it out myself to be honest with no hardrive & some common sense just rebuilding the wallet to get back what i need to load into Bitcoin Core then use the password.
Back then it all seemed pretty basic so why it can't be redone again beats me. Now it's a cookery...I can find clues here & there that suggest it is possible but just haven't put all the pieces together yet.
Gives me something to do regardless & until I've explored all avenues I'm not going to be happy. Got atleast a year till bitcoin crashes again as far as I understand it so plenty of time before I can just forget it again.
Pokermate above said pretty much zero % chance which isn't zero. 1% chance is enough for me to give it a crack. Got nothing else to do plus anything over a couple of million bucks on a $200 purchase is pretty funny stuff if you ask me. If you do the math it's a bit more than that. 😂😂😂
As I wrote earlier, hard drive recovery remains your first option.
You need to use this hard drive for reading only and make a full copy of it (dump).
The best way to do this is with dd Linux.
In the future, you need to work only with the copy of the disk.
The dump may contain certain bytes that relate to private keys, including deleted data.
I tried to PM you today. Got error saying can't message newbie. Got the messaged saved. Will send it when I figure out how to fix the problem. Anything Linux related is above my head but do have someone that can help me. Ps. Think you have to message me first.