Bitcoin Forum

I have my seed from 2010
Could you advise how I have to input these into electrum
I only have limited computer knowledge
Do a step by step would be appreciated
Thanks
David

If you've got the 12-word seed phrase (which is what I'm assuming) and you've downloaded the latest version of Electrum (https://electrum.org/#download) and opened it, do:

File-->New/Restore-->(choose name of wallet)-->Standard Wallet-->I already have a seed-->enter your seed phrase, then encrypt it if you want.  After that your old wallet should load up.

I'm not too tech savvy either, so if I've made a blunder in my instructions, someone please correct me.

Edit:  You probably know this, but DO NOT share that seed phrase with anyone, not on this forum or anywhere online.  Since you've posted this request for help you might receive PMs phishing for it, so just be careful and don't fall for any scam attempts.

BIP39 seed phrase was implemented in 2013. How come your seed phrase was generated in 2010. Is the seed phrase starting from 12, 15, 18, 21 or 24 words?

If it is BIP39 seed phrase, follow what The Sceptical Chymist post, or you can follow this guide: https://bitcoinelectrum.com/restoring-your-standard-wallet-from-seed/

If it is BIP39 seed phrase, you have to click on 'options' and change it to BIP39.

I doubt that they was actually a seed phrase been generated then, maybe OP has actually got the year wrong. Because according to a thread here by stone man (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=782.msg8620#msg8620), all addresses were on wallet .dat which was a single file and after losing it he couldn’t recover because there wasn’t recovery phrases then.

If he had a seed phrase then it was from beyond that 2013 and the tips from The Sceptical Chymist should work, because someone had asked similar question (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5455709.msg62373288#msg62373288) and the same tip was used to recover it

Not trying to derail the thread here, but you and Charles-Tim taught me something new about private keys and history.  And man, how in the world did you find that particular thread from 2010 from Stone Man?  That's impressive, and after reading it, it makes me wonder just exactly how much bitcoin has been lost forever (I think there is data on that, but in any case I find it amazing that 9000BTC were apparently gone for good just in that thread alone).

Now thanks to you I'm probably going to get lost in a bitcointalk rabbit hole from the early days.  Great reading for anyone who hasn't delved deep into the ancient threads of the forum.

OP, if you find your solution can you update us and then perhaps lock the thread?  Good luck to you.

It’s always a great pleasure lending out a helping hand  ;D I hardly have any technical knowledge of bitcoin before coming into the forum so i use the search button regularly. It is easier if you follow the guide on this thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5276341.0%5Dhttps://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5276341.0)


Seriously a lot of bitcoin has been lost in the past a look around this thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7253.msg46447867#msg46447867) here alone where bitcoin lost by members and so where calculated (although I don’t know how accurate they were) was around 2759.42507135 BTC, just imagine the amount it’s worth now. But nothing to worry because satoshi himself said here (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=198.msg1647#msg1647) that all lost coins make it worth slightly more (that’s if they were not stolen and had been spent)

I've found this easy step by step to use solution https://coinguides.org/electrum-seed-restoring-wallet-finding-seed/

FWIW the Electrum project was released on 4 November 2011 and as far as I can tell the seed phrase algorithm was present from first releases (nothing in 2010 though).
Basically the first version seems to be using some sort of "brainwallet" using the password used as seed[1] to generate addresses (double SHA256 of index|pass). Then the mnemonic algorithm was introduced in later versions[2] (2012 I think) where random words were selected out of a 1626 word long word-list and improved in later versions[3] which is what we use today.

[1] https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/6db1a31e58ee15c448448139e7d3a9e72b14268f/client/electrum#L258
[2] https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/master/electrum/old_mnemonic.py
[3] https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/master/electrum/mnemonic.py

If it's actually from Electrum's old release (disregarding the date), then restoring the correct keys and addresses will be hard.
That's because clients before version 0.31 have different key derivation than the later versions due to a major bug.

One trick that might work is to restore it in version 0.3 and create a lot of receiving addresses (via "New address").
Then find the associated "electrum.dat" file (wallet file) in Electrum's old data directory and open it as text, the private keys should be in plain text.
Those can now be imported to the latest version or other clients.

ETFbitcoin managed to install it and provided a guide, link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5379817.msg58942538#msg58942538 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5379817.msg58942538#msg58942538)

If it truly is a BIP39 seed phrase then he can just use ZPyWallet in a Python console with a custom derivation path to access the private keys: https://github.com/ZenulAbidin/ZPyWallet

Electrum never adapted nor invented BIP39, so I doubt that it's a BIP39 seed phrase.
Depending on the actual date, it could be an actual old electrum seed format or the one described by pooya which was implemented hours/day after the first release.
Even though the former can be imported to the latest version, the keys will be different than what he can restore in the old versions due to the mentioned bug.

But seeing OP isn't interested in his thread, there's a fat chance that this is just one of those "usual" topics about recovering old bitcoins.

Or it could be yet another drive-by newbie who purchased "bitcoin" on some dark-web site and got scammed.  All he actually got in return was a tall-tale and 12 random words.  I've gotten to the point where whenever I see "wallet from 2010" in a subject line I'm convinced it's nothing but a waste of time.

You don't need computer knowledge or a step by step guideto realize thar you have been scammed. As other members have explained above, in 2010 people were using private keys. Seeds were invented much later.
Besides, at that time, Electrum didn't exist. Afaik, the first release of electrum was introduced two or three years later!

I have 12 word Seed, and I only remember 1, 11 and 12. is there possible for recovery it? please help me.
maybe anybody here have a research & developing??

No. If that was possible, the seed would not be secure.

--Knight Hider

Why you think the seed would not be secure? what is it the seed have been compromise by someone?
please explain with your information. because I want find my seed 9 word to recover it.
maybe if me not remember all word seed, I impossible to recover it. But I remember 3 word from 12 word seed.  >:( :D :)

2048^9 is too difficult: 6.3e+29 possibilities.

--Knight Hider

what do you thing about using some high GPU for find it?
is that can work using some software from someone?  ::)

No. Still no.

--Knight Hider