Split: How do I retrieve Bitcoin bought in 2010

[monkiest]

hi i bought bitcoin off a website in 2010. i paid using paypal, after payment the site gave me 3 things for custody of the bitcoins.

1. wallet file downloaded to my computer
2. list of words
3. long character string ( 64 characters)

1 and 2 are gone, and now I have the long character string.

anyone know what to do with the string in order to retrieve the coins ?

from what i remember about the website, it said that it was run by persons active within the bitcoin community

[sheenshane]

First I think you need to remember what wallet it is to simply export your wallet into other wallets that are compatible with your old wallet.

2. list of words

This must be a seed phrase that is very important, without this, I'm afraid that it will be lost forever.

3. long character string ( 64 characters)

A private key for sure.  If you know what wallet it is, you can simply choose the option button like "Restore private keys".
Password must be there so I think in this case, you need to have a brute force, and here's a video tutorial to do that.

1. wallet file downloaded to my computer

If your computer is still alive you can recover it, the file must be there.

[BitMaxz]

Does it seem that the 64 character is the hexadecimal private key?

I think you can convert it into the compressed and uncompressed private key by using https://www.bitaddress.org/
Just go to the wallet details then paste the 64 characters then view details it should show all of your keys including the public key, private key, and based 64 private key. Make sure to run it offline for safety purposes.

Copy the public key and check if it still has a balance you can use blockchair.com to check the wallet balance. If you are lucky then you are ready to sweep the private key to other wallets like Electrum.

[monkiest]

Hi,

The 64 characters are not in hexadecimal format.

I already tried decoding as a 384 bit string. I also converted the 64 characters to hex format as a 512 bit string.checked the string hashed it, 256 512 etc....

This transaction was in 2010 so the established protocols that we have now were not widely adopted or were still in the experimental phase. I was hoping someone familiar with the site that used paypal and credit card to receive payments could help.

[NeuroticFish]

2. list of words

This must be a seed phrase

I would be surprised to see that somebody has been using seed phrase in 2010. BIP39 seems to exist only since September 2013.

The 64 characters are not in hexadecimal format.

This could have been the private key. If it's not a hexadecimal string it's even more difficult to guess what could it be.
I've seen this YouTube movie about buying Bitcoin for PayPal from CoinPal and the long string was the transaction ID which doesn't help much in recovering your funds (you can only find from there your address and the content of it).
Maybe you have more information in your e-mail?

Since you said "custody", there may be that you've used some custodian web wallet. I've found on Reddit some names, maybe they'll help you remember something, but those are long gone, together with your money (since in a custodian system you have an account, they have your money)

Most, if not all, vanished along the way. There was MyBitcoin, Instawallet, Bitcoinica, MtGox, BitFloor, Cryptoxchange and at least a few others. Some were just wallets and some were exchanges as well that people often mistakenly used as wallets.

[monkiest]

I actually used the site about 3 or 4 times to purchase bitcoin. The number of coins were quite distinct and they are still in dormant addresses.

There was no email record of the transaction, the payment was transferred via paypal and then a wallet was created.

If you already had a wallet you had an option of having the bitcoins transferred to that wallet by inputting the word list or a private key, if not then it created the wallet and gave a list of words, a file download of the wallet and a string of characters as I mentioned in my first post.

The code that I have is for the first purchase that I made. The website created a wallet and then a few days later,  to test the whole thing, I made a smaller purchase and used the wordlist so that the coins would be in that wallet. At the time, I had no way of checking if it actually worked because i never downloaded the bitcoin program.

I made other purchases after and created new wallets,  but the records for those are long destroyed.

On the page that gave the wordlist and code string there was a thank you message and an explanation of what the to do with the wordlist and what the code was for but I did not take note of it.

[dkbit98]

hi i bought bitcoin off a website in 2010. i paid using paypal, after payment the site gave me 3 things for custody of the bitcoins.

We are not bunch of magicians here you know...
You didn't wrote the name of that website you used to purchase bitcoin, but I am sure that list of words was not provided to you back in 2010.
Coming back here after twelve years, asking for help without providing any proof that this actually happened, makes me think that everything you wrote is just a bs.
Prove me wrong.

[Potato Chips]

If you already had a wallet you had an option of having the bitcoins transferred to that wallet by inputting the word list or a private key, if not then it created the wallet and gave a list of words, a file download of the wallet and a string of characters as I mentioned in my first post.

Huh? why would they ask for your private key (AKA access to your btcs) instead of your address during withdrawal? Are we sure this isn't some scam exchange? were you able to actually confirm you own the bitcoins?

[Lucius]

I would be surprised to see that somebody has been using seed phrase in 2010. BIP39 seems to exist only since September 2013.

There is something strange in the whole story, unless some company had a very strange way of selling BTC, because how to explain that the OP got some words that we could interpret as seed today...?

The code that I have is for the first purchase that I made. The website created a wallet and then a few days later,  to test the whole thing, I made a smaller purchase and used the wordlist so that the coins would be in that wallet. At the time, I had no way of checking if it actually worked because i never downloaded the bitcoin program.

Someone corrects me if I'm wrong, but was there a custodial BTC wallet in 2010 besides Bitcoin-Qt/Core? Do you remember which Bitcoin program it was, or do you speak in general?

[NeuroticFish]

but was there a custodial BTC wallet in 2010 besides Bitcoin-Qt/Core?

You meant non-custodial, right?
If so, it's a very good (and tough) question, since even blockchain.info seems to be alive only since 2011...

[monkiest]

hi i bought bitcoin off a website in 2010. i paid using paypal, after payment the site gave me 3 things for custody of the bitcoins.

We are not bunch of magicians here you know...
You didn't wrote the name of that website you used to purchase bitcoin, but I am sure that list of words was not provided to you back in 2010.
Coming back here after twelve years, asking for help without providing any proof that this actually happened, makes me think that everything you wrote is just a bs.
Prove me wrong.

I do not have any urge to prove anyone wrong, as I mentioned before, I was merely hoping that someone familiar with what I described might be able to point me in the right direction. There were probably only a few hundred active members of this community back in 2010 that are still active now. I am no fraudster. You either know what I am talking about or you don't. Anyway I appreciate everyone's input.

[hugeblack]

hi i bought bitcoin off a website in 2010. i paid using paypal, after payment the site gave me 3 things for custody of the bitcoins.

I don't know, but if the site gave you the private key, a file or any means to "own bitcoin", you actually did not buy bitcoin because there is another party who knows your key and may have withdrawn those coins "if they exist" at some point.

the best what you can do if to search for bitcoin address which start with 1.

after that you can search for how to get those coins.

[Lucius]

You meant non-custodial, right?
If so, it's a very good (and tough) question, since even blockchain.info seems to be alive only since 2011...

Of course, I was thinking of non-custodial crypto wallets - and there seemed to be nothing but the Satoshi client at the time. Given the very early period and the fact that Bitcoin has existed for just over 1 year, I don't think anyone who wanted a non-custodial wallet had a problem downloading the Bitcoin core considering that the size of the blockchain was far smaller than it is today.

There were probably only a few hundred active members of this community back in 2010 that are still active now.

There are not many members who were here in 2010 and are still active today, and of those who are recognizable, I found 2-3 such profiles. You can look at BPIP and try to find someone from that time who is still active. Someone probably traded BTC in the way you described, but unfortunately most of those who answered you in this thread came to the forum much later and have nothing to do with that time.

A person who might know more about this is one of the founders of this forum, but has not been active for a long time - you can try to contact him via his Twitter - https://twitter.com/marttimalmi

[dkbit98]

I do not have any urge to prove anyone wrong, as I mentioned before, I was merely hoping that someone familiar with what I described might be able to point me in the right direction. There were probably only a few hundred active members of this community back in 2010 that are still active now. I am no fraudster. You either know what I am talking about or you don't. Anyway I appreciate everyone's input.

I will repeat again, why don't you answer a simple question, what was the NAME of that website you used?
I am not asking you about your blood type, phone number or any private information, so I see no reason why you would hide this from us.
btw I didn't say that you are a fraudster,  I just think that you are one more newbie who is starting a topic to earn some merits, but that is just my speculation.

[leea-1334]

So did people in 2010 when buying from a website actually sell wallets (or private keys) rather than sell Bitcoin that they would then transfer to the buyer?

Seems like a very weird way to overstep the technology, not to mention the person probably sent you all that information over insecure channel (assuming you told the truth).

Simplest way to get more info is to look up your Paypal information from 10 years ago,,, trust me they still have it.

[Potato Chips]

So did people in 2010 when buying from a website actually sell wallets (or private keys) rather than sell Bitcoin that they would then transfer to the buyer?

If that ever happened it would belong to the minority side but I can't imagine someone who ask for private key/s as a means of withdrawal had a clean intention... My guess is OP was scammed and/or is relying on some hazy memory.

[monkiest]

I imagine its hard for people today to grasp what the bitcoin experience was like 12 years ago, so i am not surprised with some of the feedback i have seen.  A majority of people involved with bitcoin in those days just wanted to foster and grow the thing. Yes, scammers were probably around but bitcoin was  almost worthless as well...  All the information i've given so far should be sufficient for anyone "in the know" and hopefully i can connect with some of those people.

God Bless you all.

[leea-1334]

So did people in 2010 when buying from a website actually sell wallets (or private keys) rather than sell Bitcoin that they would then transfer to the buyer?

If that ever happened it would belong to the minority side but I can't imagine someone who ask for private key/s as a means of withdrawal had a clean intention... My guess is OP was scammed and/or is relying on some hazy memory.

Yes,,, that was my thought exactly. I know I asked the question but I sort of knew the answer myself. My belief is anyone using Bitcoin in 2010 knew about private keys and self custody and all that since really there was even the only way to send things like that and using PGP and everything. People in those days the early adopters are not like us I always feel (or like me anyway).

[Potato Chips]

Yes, scammers were probably around but bitcoin was  almost worthless as well... 

Price doesn't matter when people are buying thousands of it. Even a $25 could feed a family from a 3rd world country for a day or two.

My belief is anyone using Bitcoin in 2010 knew about private keys and self custody and all that since really there was even the only way to send things like that

and the fact that you do not need a private key to send someone bitcoins is the the basic of the basics.