Mystery possible key

[wildsurmise]

I hope this is the right place to post. I apologies if not. A friend recalls buying a “crypto currency or something” some years ago. Not clear exactly when, but there would not have been many alt coins in existence then, if any.

He has finally unearthed the “code” he received on purchase by rooting around old drives etc. he found it on an old usb drive, recalling being told to store it offline. It is what appears to be a 26 digit string, numbers and uppercase letters, stored in a text file. For obvious reasons he isn’t telling me much more about it!

Anyone got any ideas how he might go about establishing what it is? Any thoughts appreciated

Wildsurmise

[madjpm]

If it's a bitcoin key it should be a 256-bit number :

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Private_key


You can check it by using your public key here : https://www.blockchain.com/explorer

[bob123]

A 26-char string (with numbers and letters) is too short to be a private key.
It might be an address. He should at least tell you the char(s) it starts with (e.g. 1, 3, K, L, xpriv, .. ).


But based on this fact:

He has finally unearthed the “code” he received on purchase by rooting around old drives etc.

I doubt it is what he is looking for.


You don't receive any 'codes', strings, etc.. when purchasing bitcoins.

The general procedure is the following: You create a wallet -> You buy BTC on an exchange -> You send these BTC to your address (created by yourself).
So, in case he has bought BTC and got an address/private key instead of an actual transaction to his self-generated address, it most probably was a scam.

[wildsurmise]

Thanks; it starts with “EE”. He can’t recall whether he created a wallet etc, he “dealt with a web page”...

Not promising I realize!

[bob123]

Thanks; it starts with “EE”.

Unfortunately, neither private keys, seeds, nor addresses (can) start with EE being 26 chars long.
Maybe it is a password for a web wallet (blockchain.info) ?

If its not a password, it is not related to bitcoin in any way.

He can’t recall whether he created a wallet etc, he “dealt with a web page”...

He might have created a web wallet then. Tell him to seach for 'bitcoin' in his emails.
If he finds something, try to recover the account using the email. If not, i guess there is no trace 

[Golubkov1988]

It does not look as private key. 26 digits it is not common length for public keys as well.