Help needed to access my 15 year old bitcoin discontinued wallet

[Ice22]

I am seeking advice on whether KYC regulations or Blockchain.com are preventing access to my assets in both their passive reward program and custodial service.

I contacted the exchange and informed them that I have the private key and should be able to access my account using only my ID, as this was what I was told when I signed up. However, they requested a list of information such as ID, which I had already provided during registration. There were two additional pieces of information required were missing : the account creation date and the email address used to create the account.

In their next response, Blockchain.com stated that my account could not be accessed without the creation date and the verified email address. The problem is that I was advised to create a new email address when I registered, and I have since forgotten it as it has not been used for anything else.

Blockchain.com also informed me that the wallet has been discontinued and that I would need to import the key to access it. The issue is that I do not know anyone who is both capable and trustworthy to perform this task for me.

Recently, I was able to get my bank to search their archives for the transaction,which provided the creation date, so now the only missing information is the email address.
The Asset:
* Passive Reward: 1,000 bitcoins
* Custodial Service: 2,000 bitcoins

Where I First Learned About Bitcoin:
In May 2009, a few newspapers were discussing the world’s first virtual currency, Bitcoin. At first, the name meant nothing to me. I browsed through 5-6 newspapers daily to learn how I could start investing. Around June 2009, I found an article titled register your interest to join Bitcoin. I visited the website, which only had a form asking for your name, contact information, and country. I was contacted the next day by a person who introduced himself as an agent promoting Bitcoin. When I asked which country they were based in, I was told either Switzerland or Sweden.

I received the white paper via email and was encouraged to read it. However, after the agent explained the concept, I was confident I wanted to proceed. An appointment was made, and the agent guided me through the entire setup process, staying on the line for over 1.5 hours until the setup was complete.

About the Key:
I have a mini private key consisting of 22 characters. It’s Base58 in uncompressed format. The mini key was generated from a long private key, which I no longer have. The long key came from a file that was downloaded to my desktop. Another thing I did was create the QR code manually.

Seeking Legal Representation:
I am currently based in the UK, and there seem to be very few law firms that handle crypto disputes. Most firms I contacted said they only deal with corporate clients or government cases, or they stated that the amount involved is below the threshold for cases they would represent.

Has anyone on this forum bought bitcoins in the way I described above or heard of someone that did? If so, I would appreciate any advice on finding the right legal representation for this case.

What is the most secure wallet software you would recommend for importing the private key? I understand I may be overly cautious, but it is frustrating to see how the system is being exploited in so many ways by scammers it scares me.

I believe that accessing my wallet would really test the integrity of Blockchain.com because the wallet was last accessed in November of 2009.

Surely I will reward generously all assistance that helps with accessing my discontinued wallet.

[delfastTions]

I have been corresponding with Blockchain.com support for over 8 months about restoring access to my wallet (I created it in Blockchain.info service in 2013). The correspondence already consists of about 15 letters from my side and about the same number of responses from support. Almost all of them are completely formal and do not solve these problems. At the same time, I have the exact email address that I used when registering the wallet, the wallet number and the password phrase invented by Blockchain.info service itself and consisting of 17 words. My requests to send me the Wallet.aes.json archive file of my wallet, for which I know the password, are completely ignored by support. And accordingly, I cannot find out the private key of my old wallet in any way. The only good thing is that there are only $2-3 left on it, since I do not trust Blockchain.com and have long ago withdrawn all the bitcoins from this wallet.  But for me the wallet still has "historical value". However, I think that their support will never solve such an elementary problem.

Your problem is much more complex and I'm not sure that support will help you at all. Most likely, all your contacts with them will be reduced to stupid, formal and senseless correspondence if you continue to communicate with them

[nc50lc]

About the Key:
I have a mini private key consisting of 22 characters. It’s Base58 in uncompressed format. The mini key was generated from a long private key, which I no longer have. The long key came from a file that was downloaded to my desktop. Another thing I did was create the QR code manually.

It's the other way around actually.
Your Mini Private Key is created from an entropy, to get the ECDSA Private key, you just need to get its SHA256 hash: SHA256(Mini_prvKey)
And to be able to import that to wallets, encode the ECDSA private key (usually in hex) into base58check a.k.a "WIF" (Wallet Import Format).

But I doubt that it has something to do with the majority of your bitcoins since blockchain isn't using static address and didn't issued mini private key.
Perhaps you've imported the prvKey to Blockchain before?
Anyways, there are wallets that still support Mini Private key like Electrum.
However, the default method requires internet which isn't recommended for high-value recovery jobs like yours.

You should procure a dedicated "Air-Gap" machine (WiKi: Air-Gap) where you can safely import your mini private key:

• Download from https://electrum.org/#download and transfer the binary to your offline machine. (I recommend you to read "How to verify GPG signatures" below)
• In your AirGap machine; install Electrum and create a wallet via: "Import bitcoin addresses or private keys" option in 'Create/Restore Wallet' window.
• Type your mini Private key and finish the wallet creation. (the wallet is offline so you wont be able to sync it to see the balance)
• Enable the 'Addresses tab' via "View->Show Addresses" and open it to see your address and copy it.

In an online PC:

• Install Electrum and select the same option when creating a wallet, but instead of the mini private key, type the address there instead.
• Since it's online, the balance should show after syncing to the server.
• If there's a balance, you can spend it by creating a transaction on that online Electrum, export the transaction to the offline Electrum to sign it, then export the signed transaction to the online Electrum to broadcast.
• There are screenshots of the steps here: https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/coldstorage.html#create-an-unsigned-transaction, it's just for an older version,
  In the latest, use "Share" instead of "Save" to export the transaction.

[Ice22]

@belfastTion the lack of support from blockchain.com is really concerning when we are trying to recover what is rightfully ours. It’s disappointing that even with all the correct details, you still haven’t been able to access the necessary files to access your wallet.

I guess this is what you’re looking for https://login.blockchain.com/wallet/import-wallet , they sent me this link when I started my initial enquiry. Hope this helps.

[Potato Chips]

About your custodial account.

I vaguely remember someone being able to recover theirs by making a new account and reverifying with the same personal information-- emphasis on vaguely since it's been a long time. Because AFAIK custodial accounts are tied to your identity and not by private keys or recovery phrase.

BTW, were you also originally trying to recover access to your old private key wallet or blockchain.com support just told you it was also needed?

[Ice22]

]@nc50lc
Thank you for your detailed explanation and guidance. I appreciate you sharing your expertise on how to safely recover my Bitcoin using an air-gapped machine and Electrum. The step-by-step breakdown you provided is very helpful, especially the caution about verifying downloads and avoiding online methods for a high-value recovery like this. Your advice can attest to the depth of your technical knowledge and understanding of Bitcoin's intricacies.

[It's the other way around actually.
Your Mini Private Key is created from an entropy, to get the ECDSA Private key]

I can recall doing this entropy thing where I had to click on different areas of the screen with the mouse, I really don’t remember what it was for, but I definitely had to generate something from the private key which would then likely be the seed phrase. The seed phrase I had consisted of 12 words all with 5 letters.

It is the view in another forum that seed phrases were not available in the early days, this is not true. Another popular statement were that no hardware devices for self custody. Three types of Trezor devices were available, priced at $50, $75, $150, Ledger Live, Paper wallets and the seed plates. What’s the main view about this on this platform?

I asked the person that I was communicating with which of the self custody method they would recommend. His response was ‘ I shouldn’t be saying this but for the value of your wallet the Paper wallet is the safest to use at the time. I asked about the others and he explained that they are still in their early stages of development and that something of the sort about due to updates, the devices are likely to have bugs and malwares on them at anytime that can access the wallet and steal my bitcoins. I was reassured that there would be much more secure ways developed to store the bitcoins in the future.

Another thing which is not known were that there between 7 or 8 decentralised exchanges that were listed at the time including Mt Gox and it seemed blockchain.info was the main one.

There is something called Master Key, I don’t know important this is but I was told to note this down.

[But I doubt that it has something to do with the majority of your bitcoins since blockchain isn't using static address and didn't issued mini private key.]

I believe the person that I was communicating with was one of the core developers and had the capability to work on both bitcoin core and blockchain.info guaranteed. I remember an instance the person I was speaking with had difficulty in getting something done, there were people whom he interacted and he was advised to try doing it with bitcoin core.’ This is what the agent/developer repeated back to me when he rejoined the call.

At the time of my transaction things were still being done manually. The launch date for the ledger live was delayed by about 2 days. It went live I believe on it around August 5 2009.

I will stand to be corrected on anything technical but not on any of the statements I’ve made above about the methods for self custody, the number of DEXs that I saw listed and that using the Trezor devices at the time makes your wallet constantly vulnerable to attack attacks similarly to the ledger live software.

I know my statements above are bold, but this is all I will divulge for now so I’m curious about the reaction from stating what I know to be a fact.

I’ll definitely follow your advice on setting up a secure offline environment and using the recommended tools to import my mini private key safely. Thanks again for taking the time to assist—I truly value your knowledge and support in navigating this complex process.

Are you on GitHub? I would definitely hire you to assist me. Or I’m willing to meet up with someone with the skills to do this task in or around the London area, of course after we’d agreed on some T&Cs.

As I stated earlier, in the original post that the name Bitcoin meant nothing to me at the time, what interested me was that it was the ‘worlds first virtual currency’ I first read about this possibility in the year 1995.

[delfastTions]

@belfastTion the lack of support from blockchain.com is really concerning when we are trying to recover what is rightfully ours. It’s disappointing that even with all the correct details, you still haven’t been able to access the necessary files to access your wallet.

I guess this is what you’re looking for https://login.blockchain.com/wallet/import-wallet , they sent me this link when I started my initial enquiry. Hope this helps.

In the 8 months that I have been corresponding with Blockchain.com support, I have already tried this tool for restoring old wallets (from the Bitcointalk.info era).
And several other options that they offered. In one of these 15 responses to my letters, support also sent me this link. However, this is in fact one of the options for their formal replies. And it still does not help. At the moment, I am waiting for an answer from them to my specific question, which worries many users of old wallets: this is the question of whether they can duplicate me the sending of an archive backup copy of the Wallet.aes.json file (this is a file that can, in principle, help extract the private key of your wallet from it, if you remember the original password of this wallet, and I do remember it), created directly using email confirmation. At the same time, the email address itself has not changed in my case since 2013 and it was the one I used when registering the wallet.
So far, I have a formal answer that "they can't help me in any way." 
I wrote that I would publish this information and even possibly in the media specialized in cryptocurrency issues. I sent a request to them in early August, there is still no answer.
My question is related to the fact that Blockchain.com's public documents indicate that they store backup archive files Wallet.aes.json. So I am checking how much this corresponds to their promises and their public documents.
And then I will write here in some topic.

[nc50lc]

It is the view in another forum that seed phrases were not available in the early days, this is not true. -snip- What’s the main view about this on this platform?

I'm not aware of any year-2009 client that exported a form of seed phrase before BIP39 is drafted (the standard seed phrase we use now),
The earliest I know is late 2011 Electrum's old seed phrase consisting of 1626 possible words but isn't limited to 5 letters.

Blockchain may had used a different backup phrase but that was a backup of the account's WalletID and Password, not something to restore the private keys.

There is something called Master Key, I don’t know important this is but I was told to note this down.

It's important if it's a "Master Private Key".
If so, it can be used to derive all of the private keys of the wallet where you exported it.

However, "HD" wallets (Hierarchical Deterministic) aren't available in the very old clients and the standard was to generate individual private keys randomly.
If the backups that you have aren't all from 15 years ago, then those may be from early HD wallet implementations before BIP32.

I can recall doing this entropy thing where I had to click on different areas of the screen with the mouse, I really don’t remember what it was for, but I definitely had to generate something from the private key which would then likely be the seed phrase. The seed phrase I had consisted of 12 words all with 5 letters.

The first part sounds like a popular paper wallet generator.
The second part is highly unlikely since tools rarely use private keys as entropy to create a seed phrase.
It's usually: "Entropy->Seed Phrase->HDSeed->Master prvKey->Private keys(and addresses)"

Are you on GitHub? I would definitely hire you to assist me. Or I’m willing to meet up with someone with the skills to do this task in or around the London area, of course after we’d agreed on some T&Cs.

You'll have better chance if you collaborate with reputable old-timers who actually used the very old versions.
But no matter how reputable they are, do not send your private key, master private key or seed phrase to them.

I know my statements above are bold, but this is all I will divulge for now so I’m curious about the reaction from stating what I know to be a fact.

Based from the provided info, it seems like this isn't limited to old Blockchain(dot)info.
And to be honest, I see this topic is burdened with vague information you recalled from different wallets and tools from different timeframes.

If you're looking for the other clients that you may have used, you can post a separate topic in "Bitcoin Technical Support" board (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=4.0) to see other members' ideas.
Include the description and examples (same format, different characters) of your backups.

[Ice22]

@ Potato Chips

The name of the wallet I had was the QT Client which is self custody, for which I had the private key. After the wallet was created and after the blockchain ledger was launched, I received a phone call telling me about the reward about passive rewards services. After hearing the rewards, pros and cons I opted to have some of the assets transferred to the passive reward account.

Yes I’ve heard of success stories sweeping the key to a different wallet, but I only trust myself with the key but not on the technical part. Blockchain.com advised was to do the same.
With all that is happening in the crypto space I would rather not touching the key as rightfully give me access with just my I.D.

[were you also originally trying to recover access to your old private key wallet or blockchain.com support just told you it was also needed?]

That’s correct, I submitted all the information they requested, except the creation date and the email address and their response was that the account cannot be accessed without the creation date and the verified email address.
It took over 7 months to get the bank I was with to access their Archieves. I was able to find the transaction that also includes the account’s creation date, which means am only missing the email address.

[Potato Chips]

@ Potato Chips

The name of the wallet I had was the QT Client which is self custody, for which I had the private key. After the wallet was created and after the blockchain ledger was launched, I received a phone call telling me about the reward about passive rewards services. After hearing the rewards, pros and cons I opted to have some of the assets transferred to the passive reward account.

Yes I’ve heard of success stories sweeping the key to a different wallet, but I only trust myself with the key but not on the technical part. Blockchain.com advised was to do the same.
With all that is happening in the crypto space I would rather not touching the key as rightfully give me access with just my I.D.

I see. the timeline is clearer now op. I think some stuff are mixed in though? for instance, you key to QT wallet shouldn't be related to blockchain.com unless you imported it to your blockchain.com account thus you may be able to access it from there.

About your passive rewards account in blockchain.com aka custodial account, any recovery phrase or private key generated by blockchain.com shouldn't be necessary to recover such accounts.

Pulling up this help article from blockchain.com:

Your Passive Rewards Account is custodial (unlike the funds you store in your DeFi Wallet, which is non-custodial), so it is not backed up by your wallet's Recovery phrase.

However, your Passive Rewards Account is associated with your identity profile. Thus, if you have lost your password, you can recover your wallet here using your recovery phrase and proceed with account verification again in order to access your custodial funds, including funds in your Passive Rewards Account.

If you have lost your password and your recovery phrase, you will still be able to recover your custodial funds, including funds in your Passive Rewards Account, however, the funds held in your DeFi Wallet will be lost. For more information about account recovery, please check this support article.

Try to inquire about the bolded part to support. It does sound you can go ahead and make a new acc then reverify but try to still ask just to be sure.

That’s correct, I submitted all the information they requested, except the creation date and the email address and their response was that the account cannot be accessed without the creation date and the verified email address.
It took over 7 months to get the bank I was with to access their Archieves. I was able to find the transaction that also includes the account’s creation date, which means am only missing the email address.

If they are fixating on your email..

Perhaps it's possible to negotiate with a more rigorous identity verification? I understand that it could be privacy invasive, but then again, we're talking about a life changing amounts. TBH, if we're talking about identity profiles, your personal document plus liveness check should be more important. AFAIK, blockchain.com offers manual verification as well where a staff will personally review it.

[Btcspot]

 If you havent already i would try the strongcoin wallet it accepts mini keys and will let you import them. The wallet has been in service since 2011 and is legitimate. Here is the site www.strongcoin.com
If blockchain isnt working out try there.

[Ice22]

[I think some stuff are mixed in though? for instance, you key to QT wallet shouldn't be related to blockchain.com unless you imported it to your blockchain.com account thus you may be able to access it from there.]

Yes I do agree that reconstruction errors do happen trying to recall events from 15 years ago. I was most definitely guided to import it into blockchain.com.

[If you have lost your password and your recovery phrase, you will still be able to recover your custodial funds, including funds in your Passive Rewards Account, however, the funds held in your DeFi Wallet will be lost. For more information about account recovery, please check this support article.]

Exactly this,  it should be like using your ID to gain access to your bank account, I was advised. The account  is also completely set up with even my beneficiary information. The next time that I will attempt their verification again is only with help of a legal representation.  Will make updates here again soon. Thanks for your outlook on this issue, I appreciate it so much.

[Potato Chips]

Yes I do agree that reconstruction errors do happen trying to recall events from 15 years ago. I was most definitely guided to import it into blockchain.com.

But is there any chance you've backed up your recovery phrase--12 word seed-- ? because I don't think passive rewards was introduced during the legacy wallet period. It probably came during HD wallet period which means your private key account have a 12 word seed. Then again, I remember reading a complaint years ago that Blockchain.com doesn't force their users to backup their seed..

If you have logged in using their app before though, cloud backups are enabled by default AFAIK. But it's likely you'd still need to decrypt it.

This 12 word seed may restore your custodial accounts as well:

The most effective method for account recovery is by using your Private Key (Recovery Phrase), which will restore both your DeFi Wallet and your custodial holdings in your Blockchain.com Account.

[Btcspot]

 Have you tried Strongcoin site, I would recommend import for your private key you stated, I see you say you will reward those who help you.

[BitMaxz]

But is there any chance you've backed up your recovery phrase--12 word seed-- ? because I don't think passive rewards was introduced during the legacy wallet period. It probably came during HD wallet period which means your private key account have a 12 word seed. Then again, I remember reading a complaint years ago that Blockchain.com doesn't force their users to backup their seed..

If you have logged in using their app before though, cloud backups are enabled by default AFAIK. But it's likely you'd still need to decrypt it.

This 12 word seed may restore your custodial accounts as well:

The most effective method for account recovery is by using your Private Key (Recovery Phrase), which will restore both your DeFi Wallet and your custodial holdings in your Blockchain.com Account.

I have the same experience with the OP the 12 words when you are trying to recover your wallet from blockchain.com it also asks for the creation date and email you use if you put the wrong creation date as in my experience it leads to a different wallet.

The method I used is the old method for my old wallets and also tried that method from the quoted link but in the end, it didn't work or it led to different wallets with no funds.
I was thinking about trying to recover the funds from the backup seedphrase maybe it's just on a different derivation path I tried it but I can't exactly point it to the right derivation path.

I have wallet.aes.json for that wallet but it's already long gone the HDD formatted and sold until I realize it can able to brute-force.

[Potato Chips]

I have the same experience with the OP the 12 words when you are trying to recover your wallet from blockchain.com it also asks for the creation date and email you use if you put the wrong creation date as in my experience it leads to a different wallet.

The method I used is the old method for my old wallets and also tried that method from the quoted link but in the end, it didn't work or it led to different wallets with no funds.
I was thinking about trying to recover the funds from the backup seedphrase maybe it's just on a different derivation path I tried it but I can't exactly point it to the right derivation path.

I have wallet.aes.json for that wallet but it's already long gone the HDD formatted and sold until I realize it can able to brute-force.

From my experience recovering using the 12 words backup phrase, I don't remember being asked for such things. However, when I tried the same process today-- using the old interface--, this popped out after successfully getting into my account


Perhaps, this may be related to why some folks are being asked for such things during recovery. 🤔

For reference, do you also have funds in your custodial accounts or have KYC'd in blockchain.com?

[BitMaxz]

For reference, do you also have funds in your custodial accounts or have KYC'd in blockchain.com?

I have but if I remember correctly it detects 3 accounts on my backup phase it let me choose on 3 accounts which any of them asks for creation date but only one works with the date that I know.

Maybe it only asks for the creation date if there are multiple accounts in your seed phrase.

[Potato Chips]

I have but if I remember correctly it detects 3 accounts on my backup phase it let me choose on 3 accounts which any of them asks for creation date but only one works with the date that I know.

Maybe it only asks for the creation date if there are multiple accounts in your seed phrase.

My HD wallet with blockchain.com has multiple accounts including imported address but I was never asked for creation date. I only key in my backup phrase + set a new password to recover said wallet/accounts. Must be something else, I assume.

But creation date for all of them? sounds impossible for the succeeding accounts as you don't get email notification when you made new additions and I doubt anyone keeps track when they made new ones.