Bitcoin Forum

Hello to all !

I am taking the liberty of telling you my problem because I am definitely looking for help.

I found my first computer at my parents' house on which I played online games. These online games offered players to pay in Bitcoins. I played a lot of these games as a pay to win, I skip the details.

This weekend I searched the hard drive of this old computer and I found the wallet.dat file. So I downloaded the entire blockchain via Bitcoin Core.

And to my great surprise I loaded the wallet and found 22 of my old Bitcoins! I almost fainted when I saw this because it means a lot to me despite my current financial worries.

The big problem, I've been there for hours. I can't find the password, I've tried every possible combination... I even tried via Hashcat a dictionary file but I have a small graphics card and I can't afford to invest (GT 520...).

So it is impossible for me to get the password via hashcat. I managed to extract the hash from my wallet if someone would like to help me. It would help me a lot if I could get a big reward for it.

Thank you very much for your time and help.

Ted.

Try to contact walletrecoveryservices, aka Dave (bitcointalk profile (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=130960)).
You should at least have a 'guess' on your possible passwords or it will be impossible, even for him.

Beware that there's no other "Dave" and some scammers with same name may try to PM you or reply to this thread (the usual).
You can check the user's "Trust Ratings" first to be sure.

Thanks for the help.
But i can't pay actually.

But i can share my wallet with helpful people :)

Can't pay to get 22 Bitcoin back? If it were me, I'd borrow money if I had to (depending on the amount and the expectation of recovering the money if I pay).

Have you tried contacting Dave to see if he will agree to give it a try for a fee only if you get your money back?

Either way, I find it difficult. You see stories like yours from time to time, but for 22 BTC it's worth a try.

AFAIK, Dave will only take 20% of the balance as the payment and wont take 'down payments'.
Their pricing: https://www.walletrecoveryservices.com/pricing/ (https://www.walletrecoveryservices.com/pricing/)
So basically, zero for the first (few) failed attempts.

Do not share your wallet.dat file to random "helpers", that's the very first thing you should be aware of.
If you really want to, send it to people with positive ratings (click "Trust" in their profile page) and ask others if they can trust that person.

Thats a great help and can be considered as a fortune if you managed to open that wallet. 22 bitcoin is really huge and definitely will help you financially.

Why cant pay? Even if you spend like 20% payment on that is still gonna give you a good deal.

Try to contact @nc50lc suggestion if he agreed to pay dafter it being cracked then your good to go.

Almost the same as my previous case unable to recover 19 BTC (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5356917.0) due to loss (Prahse Secret Privatkey Recovery) in paragraph 12.
OP, your can open my thread. there are lots of users providing important information for your case and maybe it can help you to recover 22 BTC. good luck mate

Unfortunately, not all who have positive ratings can be trusted especially to someone who doesn't have technical knowledge about this. So I only recommend dave (profile linked above) to do such task coz he knew all this stuff.
And OP, paying 20% of the funds is quite lesser than other service recovery offerings, and doing it with a trusted guy is a win-win for you, besides you still get >17 BTC if successfully recovered.

Thanks i will contact him.
I don't to share my wallet.dat file.

---

In both cases, the two people must trust each other. I am not a thief, far from it. I have contacted a few people but I will contact Dave too or if other people want to join no problem.

I can give the evidence in private message with the hash I extracted :)

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

In this case, you need to trust someone that they won't steal 22 BTCs that are currently worth almost $1.4 million - and if I were you, I would think twice and try my best to solve the problem on my own.


The more people you involve in this, the greater the chances that the worst will happen to you, just one bad person is enough to leave you without everything. All these years on the forum, only Dave has gained a reputation as a person with honorable intentions, and if he can't help you, then one day you may remember the password yourself, or you'll have to wait for quantum computers - although I'm not sure if they can help you with complex password.

Yea, most probably he could help IMO. You may trust him since he has a good reputation on the forum.

Primarily you may contact @LoyceV (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=459836), not sure if he can help you but he has few knowledge about that. But you have to trust him and he has a very good reputation on the forum. Since you have to trust someone then @LoyceV is perfect IMO.

Technically once Dave cracks the wallet open, he gets access to the funds. That's how he gets his cut so no need for any advanced payment :)

Also IIRC, he runs on a "no fix, no fee" biz model.

Like what others are suggesting. There's no other way to retrieve it but with someone who's experienced and doing a service of recovery which has been said.

Also, with such amount of bitcoin that you've found. There might be some strangers that will message you that are not reputable and will ask to help you but they'll ask for the dat.file.

Don't be too confident with them.

Damn, 22 BTC, it's huge amount of money. I hope you will be able to recover it. It's actually life-changing money. It's always sad to read about lost forever BTC, especially when amount is so big. I hope your story won't be that case.
IMO, 20% isn't big price to get your money back. Especially when you basically don't have other choice. Yeah, it's question of trust, but Dave have good reputation and you'll have to pay only if he will be able to access BTC if I'm not mistaken.

As Lucius posted I also suggest trying again all your possible passwords, no need to
rush, I would start with pen and paper, write down all the possible passwords, this way you
can cross them off the list. It is easy to get caught up in the process and start inputting passwords,
maybe putting them in twice and
forgetting to input others.

We have all heard the OP's story before, and will continue to hear them in the near future.
Back when Bitcoin was buttons very few had the foresight to stick with it.

The OP is lucky at least to have the original HD,  onsidering  how many have
already gone to landfill.

We often get to see and read this type of OP's sob stories whenever Bitcoin is in a rally and that's why I always take them with a pinch of salt. Most often they end as trolling. What makes us not think that OP could be trolling and fishing for unnecessary sympathy and merit? I checked their profile and it seems they just woke from slumbers after several months of absence, February to be precise. OP has opened three threads with their mere six posts since registering here and often abandoned them. It's the same way they're likely going to abandon this too without putting out any feed back here. So, just don't bother your heads much about this case. It could be the typical trolling too.

One can understand the OP's enthusiasm and the speed with which he is trying to solve his problem. But there are fears that he created a similar topic not only on our forum, it can also be assumed that even if the story is not fictional, the OP also risks losing his bitcoins.
Too wide dissemination of such information will arouse interest only among those people who do not want to "help" the OP at all, but have a desire for profit.
OP, there is a good rule: "Money loves silence"  :)