...

[ekiro]

...

[Taras]

If you know all of the characters, and the exact length of the password, then you really only have to try permutations of those characters until you get it. That sounds doable. If you're not certain of anything, though, it may take much, much longer, maybe even warranting going through wallet recovery services.

[kahc]

I have a wallet holding 23BTC but I can't remember my password. I know all the characters I might of used in it, but I can't remember how I concatenated them. How would I go about brute forcing it?

I thought about using https://walletrecoveryservices.com/ but am not comfortable giving them my wallet file and the 20% fee seems a little high at todays bitcoin prices.

Also if I posted this in the wrong section please move it to the correct sub forum.

I assume you have the encrypted wallet.dat and you know every characters
If you computer may be able to check 10 phrases/sec .

Password length : permutations
1 : 1
2 : 2
3 : 6
4 : 24
5 : 120
6 : 720
7 : 5040
8 : 40320
9 : 362880
10 : 3628800

So with a password length of 10 and if you are unlucky(checking every permutations) it will take a little over 4 days.
I'll definitely use https://walletrecoveryservices.com/  if you password length is 11 or greater.

[kahc]

Cracked it! HOLY FUCK!

Congrats....wait, your wallet is empty? How many characters were there?

[wilhb81]

I moved the funds to an exchange.

The password was very complicated. I wrote a list of 86 passwords and variations of them and tried each one. I can't describe how great it felt when I got the right one. Part of me is greatfull for using a memory password as it kept the coins untouched for 2-3 years and i just made $250k. But I never recommend it to anyone. I was stressing out like crazy over this! Thought I lost $250k worth of coins forever.

First of all, congratulation for being able to unlock your wallet. You must've through a very stressful situation and the feeling is absolutely not good at all  

From now on, just hold your 22.5 Bitcoins and let's them go to the moon in the next few years  

PS: It would be better, if you covered your transaction address, rather show it to the public...

[Taras]

Dude, congratulations! I cannot imagine the emotional rollercoaster you must have just gone through!

That said, please be careful! This is $250,000 so any mistakes are unacceptable! I hope you put those coins on the exchange to sell them and not to store them, because exchanges are notoriously bad for long term storage!

[eyekantbeme]

DO NOT put 350 thousand dollars on an exchange, period.  Keep it either on a hardware wallet or a paper wallet.  Anywhere else isn't going to be secure enough for $350K.  When I say hardware wallet, I generally suggest NOT using a phone for obvious reasons, but your hard drive trezor or ledger or....

BASICALLY just MAKE SURE you don't have a single point of failure, as loss can happen and likely will. For large amounts like this,  multi sig or 2FA in general for enhanced security where the keys are generated offline.  Good luck.  Gj cracking that old wallet.  350K damn, maybe you should have waited til BTC hit 100K b4 cracking it O_O haha

[oblivi]

Cracked it! HOLY FUCK!

This reminds me of what people used to do in 2011 (or was it 2012) during the $30 dollar bubble when they found out their old wallet.dat files, and the first thing they did was to send them to Mt Gox and sell them for fiat.. needless to say how much everyone that did that regrets now. Even the ones that sold at $1k regret now.

You will regret selling your tickets to richland (since 21 BTC puts you into the elite group of less than 1 million people to ever hold that amount) in a couple of years... but if you really needed the money, I guess good for you.

[abbv21b]

Cracked it! HOLY FUCK!

That is great, congrats! 

[hopeAo]

Cracked it! HOLY FUCK!

you were lucky. congrats on your wallet recovery

[paul39]

danger 

[aplistir]

it kept the coins untouched for 2-3 years and i just made $250k. But I never recommend it to anyone. I was stressing out like crazy over this! Thought I lost $250k worth of coins forever.

Hmmm. 23BTC=$250k ? With that price I will gladly buy them from you 

One of those Bitcoins is now (17.12) worth:
1 BTC = $19566    
+1 bitcoincash = $1844    
+1 bitcoingold = $292

total=$21702

23*21702=$499k

Edit: Noticed that the original post was 10 days old. Bitcoin was valued a little less then, but still you forgot the bitcoin cash and bitcoin gold and whatever new coins you can claim..

[Spendulus]

Cracked it! HOLY FUCK!

Don't leave this kind of money on an exchange. Immediately move it to a safe place. That could be Electrum, Mycelium - these are software wallets that don't require you to download and maintain the whole blockchain. Or make paper wallets, or get a Trezor.

Exchanges are not safe harbors, even for a short period of time.

In fact, it was safe in Core (except that you forgot something) why not move it back to Core except for the 2.5?

Lots of options, but you need a high level of continual security.

[dietmarfritz59]

Cracked it! HOLY FUCK!

I'm glad you cracked it! That would have been awful to lose that much money. Write your password down on a piece of paper and don't lose it again. 

[jhdscript]

Do you use the recovery services ?

[J. Cooper]

Cracked it! HOLY FUCK!
.

Don't leave this kind of money on an exchange. Immediately move it to a safe place. That could be Electrum, Mycelium - these are software wallets that don't require you to download and maintain the whole blockchain. Or make paper wallets, or get a Trezor.

Exchanges are not safe harbors, even for a short period of time.

In fact, it was safe in Core (except that you forgot something) why not move it back to Core except for the 2.5?

Lots of options, but you need a high level of continual security.

I second that. You were probably better off storing them on the core wallet rather than on an exchange, at least the 20 bitcoin you are planning on holding until $40K. You really don't want to trust an exchengable with nearly 400 grand. Especially since you just got them back. Why risk losing them again?

[fusepay]

Congrats on the recovery, was a nice read too, but yes as suggested by others, do not leave the coin on exchange - this is real money, and a good chunk of it so people will always targets the wallets where these, and others are stored, even just storing on an offline paper wallet to a hardware or you computer, anything but leaving long term (or even short) on an exchange.