Hi James,

Could you please advise if you are still the owner of flexcoin? If so, is there any cold storage wallets that remain unclaimed? I’m trying to track down an old wallet of mine with unspent BTC and flexcoin is one of the username/passwords on my list from 2011.

Thank you. 

Thanks guys.  Appreciated.

I suspected "names" might include sent to addresses but had hoped otherwise..

In Oct 2011 I sent some BTC to an address in my bitcoin core address book.  They remain unspent today however I can't recall what kind of wallet the address belonged to (software, exchange, online).

So far I have eliminated:

- Bitcoin QT - address only shows in sent to
- Electrum - can't find any evidence that I ever used this wallet on my old PC
- Virwox - confirmed all btc were withdrawn
- Found account login details for Tradehill and Flexcoin - neither appear to exist anymore

Is there any other common wallets or exchanges that were around in  October 2011 and are still active today?

Thanks again.

Hi all,

Would it be possible to please advise if the  "mkey" and "names" data in the pywallet key dump file are linked to each other?  As in, is this the master key for all addresses listed under "names"?


"mkey": {
        "encrypted_key": "F******************"8,
        "nDerivationIterations": 1***6,
        "nDerivationMethod": 0,
        "nID": 1,
        "otherParams": "",
        "salt": "5*********2"
    },
    "names": {
        "1*****************w": "",
        "1*****************h": "",
 

The reason I ask is that I have a bunch of addresses showing under "names".  Most of the addresses also appear in the key dump file with their "sec" and "secret" keys listed however there is a couple of addresses that only appear in "names" section - Can I get the private keys for these using the mkey encrypted key and if so, how would I do this?

Thank you!

 
       

Hello,

I am currently trying to recover possible lost keys using pywallet. I apologize in advance if this is a very basic question but does anyone know if it’s a 100% requirement to have pycrypto and the other python package (can’t recall the name) installed in order for pywallet to correctly work? I’m not very familiar with python and I can’t seem to get them working for Windows Vista so pywallet works but the end result seems to just show encrypted keys?

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the info! That is the only site that I came up with as well. I definitely didn’t have an account though, unfortunately.

- Located external HDD - will run a data recovery on it
- Running deep scan data recovery in PC C:/ how basic scan picked up nothing of interest (from what I could tell anyway)
- Interestingly I found an old WinZip file with a data recovery program in it when I was looking into what files I had downloaded around the time of the transaction. I couldn’t see the program had been installed but makes me wonder more about a possible deleted wallet or account related to the transaction.

One other thing I noticed was some Poker desktop apps. One had been used around this time however I can’t find any info that says they accepted Bitcoin. Does anyone know of any mainstream Poker sites that accepted Bitcoin in 2011?

Thanks.

Thank you for the advice. Your comment about the cloning just jogged my memory that I used two external HDD’s during this time and I’m sure I have them stored somewhere. Maybe they will provide some of the answers.

Yes I made a second transaction from the exchange into the same wallet. It worked and the coins remained there for some time. I thought it was straight after the first however after checking again it was approx. 20 days after.

I can’t work out why I moved the transaction in question from one address/wallet to another after receiving.. All I can put it down to is possibly inexperience and lack of understanding the transaction process but I really am guessing at this point.

It looks like I don’t have enough info to work with as it stands so I’ll try a data recovery program to see if I can find any deleted files that might help.

I can’t recall why I originally moved the coins unfortunately. It is just a hunch that I moved them to another wallet because I have eliminated the exchange that I recall using at the time. So based on the exchange confirming my account was a zero balance and providing withdrawal history + the fact the coins haven’t been touched since the day they were send I assume it was another wallet of mine.

I did find some references in my paper password list to tradehill and flexcoin accounts but I understand they no longer exist so assume they wouldn’t have left the coins untouched if they had the keys or were hacked.

No I don’t think I ever had a casino account.

I also understand Silk Road was popular at the time but I didn’t use this site and from my research it looks like user funds were seized by the FBI at some stage anyway.

So all of the above is why I am leaning towards the second wallet theory. I wish I had more info to confirm though.

That is correct. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to recall or find details of other wallet software I was using during this time (yet).

Thanks for the info

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Yes I believe that is correct and no it had not received any funds prior to my transaction. It has received a small dust transaction a couple of years ago but no funds prior to mine and no outgoing transactions ever.

---

If they were sent to another address of mine that was in different  wallet, is there any info on what other wallets were popular back in 2011 besides Bitcoin core (if any?)

Thanks

Thanks for the info. Appreciated

I definitely understand there is no such thing currently but wondered if that reference could be in regards to possible recovery of funds once confirmed, in the event of an error.  Like RBF transactions but after being confirmed (also understand this is very wishful thinking given the issue I have  )

And just to confirm, I have the wallet.dat and passphrase for the wallet I sent the funds from however the receive address has no private key stored within that file. Are you saying it’s possible the wallet.dat could have old or deleted private key info that might be able to be recovered?

Hi all,

I have done enough research to accept that it’s currently extremely unlikely I will be able to access my old address containing 30+ BTC without locating the private key details or wallet passphrase.

What I was hoping for was some insight into Bitcoin future-state and possible technology advancements  that might make recovery possible in the future based on what details I can currently provide:

- 30+ BTC transferred from my exchange to my Bitcoin core wallet in 2011 (I have full access to this wallet on my old PC and have stored the wallet.dat elsewhere now also)

- A day later I transferred the same amount minus the transaction fee to what I believe was another address of mine (address was listed in my wallet contacts)

- I don’t recall what the issue was but I was unable to access the receive address after sending. The coins remain unspent to this day.  As the value of Bitcoin was extremely low in 2011 I quickly gave up and moved on to another transaction for roughly the same amount.

- I have a list of passwords and pass phrases I used during this time.

This was my first transaction using the bitcoin wallet which is likely the reason for making the error.

What is the likely hood of either;

1. Bitcoin introducing some kind of recovery option for unspent transactions sent in error where proof of sending is available? I understand this is a controversial subject for some given Bitcoin transactions were designed to be irreversible once confirmed on the ledger but refer to Bitcoin.org ‘Some things you should know’ page:

“A Bitcoin transaction cannot be reversed, it can only be refunded by the person receiving the funds. This means you should take care to do business with people and organizations you know and trust, or who have an established reputation. For their part, businesses need to keep track of the payment requests they are displaying to their customers. Bitcoin can detect typos and usually won't let you send money to an invalid address by mistake, but it's best to have controls in place for additional safety and redundancy. Additional services might exist in the future to provide more choice and protection for both businesses and consumers.
. I would be happy to donate a percentage of the coins to charity if this were an option.

2. Technology advancements make is possible to Brute Force crack the passphrase for the wallet (given I have a list of passwords I was using at the time). This is assuming it was another wallet of mine and not a custodial wallet.

Lastly, does anyone think it would be worthwhile having the PC examined to look for possible deleted wallet files or data that could help locate the required info now?

Thanks 🙏