Hi all!
I've dabbled in bitcoin as 'early' as 2013. I used the bitcoin-qt wallet on macos back then. Must've been mountain lion or mavericks.

in 2015 I apparently encrypted my wallet (which I remember doing, just not exactly when). I know for sure I used a particular passphrase. version 0.20.1 of the client doesn't accept this passphrase. I believe I also had this same issue in 2015, which made me give up on bitcoin at that time.

After using google and reading the forums I've found a few hints as to what might be going on. It seems however, that all the solutions use software that is no longer current or available, or (might) have been hacked to steal wallets.

As it currently stands:

• client 0.20.1 can read the wallet, and shows the original transaction of my coins being added. I don't suspect any corruption issues.
• but since older versions of the client only show squares instead of text characters on the splash before they crash, I think this topic contains a few hints to what might be going on: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=126791.0
• It could be that my passphrase was encoded incorrectly.
• Am I correct in assuming that extraction of the password hash would make it easier to brute force?
• What risk is involved with services that extract the hash for you? Can they steal my bitcoin? Can they crack the wallet themselves? Can it cause conflicts with transactions in the future?