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Bitcoin => Bitcoin Technical Support => Topic started by: Tonyfromthebarn on March 30, 2022, 08:40:15 AM



Title: Found private keys and weird thing in mail 2013
Post by: Tonyfromthebarn on March 30, 2022, 08:40:15 AM
Hey all,

Found a few mails I sent to myself in 2013.
They contain a 64 hex characters string
And a weird 40 character string with full Alfabet used and separated into 5 blocks of 8 characters with dashes.

Fake example: WMB365YW-KV177RT7-25402OBV-5S8L0UI8-W23O0WSB



Just making a WIF from the 64 character strings shows only empty wallets for btc/ltc/BTg and whatever was available in 2013.

I think that weird 40character thing has something of value but can’t get any clues.

Any ideas ? Thanks a lot


Title: Re: Found private keys and weird thing in mail 2013
Post by: mocacinno on March 30, 2022, 08:46:56 AM
It makes me think of an old blockchain.com wallet identifier... Not sure if the format is 100% correct tough, but those groupings with dashes in between bring back those memorys...


Title: Re: Found private keys and weird thing in mail 2013
Post by: Tonyfromthebarn on March 30, 2022, 08:49:15 AM
I used to have a blockchain.info account but it was with an old email address that doesn’t exist anymore. And when trying to log in it immediately asks me to verify email so I can’t check that



It makes me think of an old blockchain.com wallet identifier... Not sure if the format is 100% correct tough, but those groupings with dashes in between bring back those memorys...

Also if I copy this thing it says invalid wallet id , so it's probably not from blockchain.info




Title: Re: Found private keys and weird thing in mail 2013
Post by: nc50lc on March 30, 2022, 08:57:54 AM
Fake example: WMB365YW-KV177RT7-25402OBV-5S8L0UI8-W23O0WSB
Try to turn this into a WIF private key through brainwallet, you might have used it: https://brainwalletx.github.io/ (https://brainwalletx.github.io/)
I'd recommend to use it offline.

Just making a WIF from the 64 character strings shows only empty wallets for btc/ltc/BTg and whatever was available in 2013.
Which address (script) types have you tested so far?
Have you already tried both compressed and uncompressed WIF?


Title: Re: Found private keys and weird thing in mail 2013
Post by: Tonyfromthebarn on March 30, 2022, 09:02:27 AM
Fake example: WMB365YW-KV177RT7-25402OBV-5S8L0UI8-W23O0WSB
Try to turn this into a WIF private key through brainwallet, you might have used it: https://brainwalletx.github.io/ (https://brainwalletx.github.io/)
I'd recommend to use it offline.

Just making a WIF from the 64 character strings shows only empty wallets for btc/ltc/BTg and whatever was available in 2013.
Which address (script) types have you tested so far?
Have you already tried both compressed and uncompressed WIF?


I've used iancolemans offline and tried to use it on the most common coins back in those days, compressed/uncompressed.
all empty addresses come from it.

I've got a mail or 2-3 like this  each with a pair of the weird thing and the 64hex string. so they must be related somehow I think.


Title: Re: Found private keys and weird thing in mail 2013
Post by: LoyceV on March 30, 2022, 09:31:08 AM
It makes me think of an old blockchain.com wallet identifier... Not sure if the format is 100% correct tough, but those groupings with dashes in between bring back those memorys...
Back then, it was blockchain.info. I have a wallet identifier like this: 12345678-1234-1234-1234-1234567890ab (I've only counted the characters between the dashes, it has both numbers and lower-case characters (hex). OP's string looks different.

Just in case: I used to access the wallet through this URL: https://blockchain.info/wallet/12345678-1234-1234-1234-1234567890ab, which doesn't exist anymore. But with this wallet identifier and my password I can still login to blockchain.com. I've never used the wallet to receive anything, so I can't verify if it's really still the same.


Title: Re: Found private keys and weird thing in mail 2013
Post by: Tonyfromthebarn on March 30, 2022, 09:32:44 AM
It makes me think of an old blockchain.com wallet identifier... Not sure if the format is 100% correct tough, but those groupings with dashes in between bring back those memorys...
Back then, it was blockchain.info. I have a wallet identifier like this: 12345678-1234-1234-1234-1234567890ab (I've only counted the characters between the dashes, it has both numbers and lower-case characters (hex). OP's string looks different.

Just in case: I used to access the wallet through this URL: https://blockchain.info/wallet/12345678-1234-1234-1234-1234567890ab, which doesn't exist anymore. But with this wallet identifier and my password I can still login to blockchain.com. I've never used the wallet to receive anything, so I can't verify if it's really still the same.

Yes, with my strings it says invalid wallet identifier.

Any other ideas / sites from back in 2013 or earlier ?


Title: Re: Found private keys and weird thing in mail 2013
Post by: LoyceV on March 30, 2022, 09:34:11 AM
Any other ideas / sites from back in 2013 or earlier ?
Sorry, I wasn't around in Bitcoin at that time. If you figure it out, I'd love to add it to my [overview] Recover Bitcoin from any old storage format (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4959742.0).


Title: Re: Found private keys and weird thing in mail 2013
Post by: nc50lc on March 30, 2022, 10:15:20 AM
I've got a mail or 2-3 like this  each with a pair of the weird thing and the 64hex string. so they must be related somehow I think.
Perhaps the 64-character hex string is the SHA256 sum of the "weird" alpha-numerical string, used as a checksum.
That wont tell what the weird string is, however, if it's true, then you can deduce that the 64-character string isn't a private key.


Title: Re: Found private keys and weird thing in mail 2013
Post by: Tonyfromthebarn on March 30, 2022, 10:51:04 AM
Any other ideas / sites from back in 2013 or earlier ?
Sorry, I wasn't around in Bitcoin at that time. If you figure it out, I'd love to add it to my [overview] Recover Bitcoin from any old storage format (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4959742.0).

When it's figured out you may definitely add it to you thread. I went through it and it's very comprehensive.


Title: Re: Found private keys and weird thing in mail 2013
Post by: Tonyfromthebarn on March 30, 2022, 10:59:40 AM
I've got a mail or 2-3 like this  each with a pair of the weird thing and the 64hex string. so they must be related somehow I think.
Perhaps the 64-character hex string is the SHA256 sum of the "weird" alpha-numerical string, used as a checksum.
That wont tell what the weird string is, however, if it's true, then you can deduce that the 64-character string isn't a private key.

I was thinking something down that trend as well at one point, but more the other way. That i need to do something with the "weird" string to the 64 character to reveal the true private key or something.

It's also possible this was from Litecoin or so and not bitcoin. so maybe another website/wallet service used. But it's too long ago. and don't remember. Would've had some importance I think, otherwise wouldn't have mailed it.


Title: Re: Found private keys and weird thing in mail 2013
Post by: HCP on April 01, 2022, 10:59:54 AM
Certainly not any sort of wallet or key identifier that I have ever seen before... ??? :-\

It's possible that the website or service you used for generating them was using them as some sort of extra encryption or recovery mechanism or custom transaction identifier... but without knowing what the website/service actually was, it's going to be mighty difficult figuring out the process required.

And your mails didn't include anything like addresses or transaction IDs? Just the 64 char hex string and the 40(5x8) char string? ???


Title: Re: Found private keys and weird thing in mail 2013
Post by: Tonyfromthebarn on April 02, 2022, 07:41:56 AM
Certainly not any sort of wallet or key identifier that I have ever seen before... ??? :-\

It's possible that the website or service you used for generating them was using them as some sort of extra encryption or recovery mechanism or custom transaction identifier... but without knowing what the website/service actually was, it's going to be mighty difficult figuring out the process required.

And your mails didn't include anything like addresses or transaction IDs? Just the 64 char hex string and the 40(5x8) char string? ???

indeed. it's a mystery at this point :/ :)

if anyone could recognize that 40 char thing might get a new lead on something.


Title: Re: Found private keys and weird thing in mail 2013
Post by: litecoin_messiah on April 02, 2022, 10:08:11 PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/40-bit_encryption


Title: Re: Found private keys and weird thing in mail 2013
Post by: alexeyneu on April 12, 2022, 04:40:34 PM
are you sure you'd made wif from 64 in a right way? or it goes as a alfanum string seed?