recovering seed from address

[ereimas]

Trying to go from seed list -> address

Hi everyone, brand new to the bitcoin community.  I've been working nonstop for the past two weeks on learning all of this, so please bear with me if I'm abusing notation or something:

Situation:  My friend bought a nano ledger x a year or two ago and wrote down his 24 word bip39 word list.  He lost his seed and I am trying to recover his funds for him.  Only thing is that his handwriting is terrible and we're having a hard time figuring out the exact 24 word phrase.  Therefore, I have a list of about ~1000 mnemonics that pass checksum, one of which COULD be his.

Earlier, I was manually testing these seeds using the Electrum desktop client.  I did: Standard Wallet > I already had the seed> then entered the seed and checked Options/Bip 39 seed > native segwit > no password
and then I checked the balance.


I also have access to a transaction.  Here are some key points:

• Wallet Address is:  bc1qyw9dcldzl6jaam0rdz5  (in particular, it starts with bc1)
• On blockchain.com the address has format :  BECH32 (P2WPKH)
• It was on the receiving end of a transaction and currently >1 BTC

I have a python script to generate the mnemonic list, and have tried the following:

Code: ("Python")

from bit import Key, PrivateKey, PrivateKeyTestnet

for mn in checksum_candidates:
    my_key = Key(bip39(mn)['privatekey'])
    bal = my_key.get_balance('usd')
    if bal != '0':
        print(bal)

I'm looking for a better solution to this, or at least affirmation that my solution is correct.  My biggest concern is that I am only checking one wallet address, and if so, I don't know if i'm doing the right derivation path.

Any help is greatly appreciated -- if someone can lead me to recover funds, I will reward you handsomly if you send me your wallet address!!

[1713876592]

1713876592

[1713876592]

1713876592

[1713876592]

1713876592

[ereimas]

I used a paper like (below).  Originally my friend did NOT use electrum, he used his nano ledger X.

https://ucarecdn.com/92fe3548-d720-4529-b487-6531c7bb816b/-/format/auto/-/preview/3000x3000/-/quality/lighter/

[qwk]

You should have stored your Seed Wallet words as a picture like I did with mine here:
[ imgur ]
My question is, how do I use these to recover my BitCoins if I ever need them ?

You won't be able to recover them if you post that picture here
Whoever knows your seed will be able to recover your coins for themselves, thus stealing them from you.

[pooya87]

I'm looking for a better solution to this, or at least affirmation that my solution is correct.  My biggest concern is that I am only checking one wallet address, and if so, I don't know if i'm doing the right derivation path.

why are you checking the "balance" on each iteration? since you already have the address, then simply derive the child key and then create the address from it and compare the two.
you also didn't specify the derivation path in your code snippet. you have to do that, otherwise it won't work.
i believe that ledger nano is using m/84'/0'/0' for its derivation path and assuming the address you have is from the only account on the device and is the first address that was created then you can use that as the derivation point. if there were more accounts then you need to change the last 0' to 1',... according to how many accounts there were before it, and if the address is not the first then you need to derive more addresses and check against what you have.

[NeuroticFish]

As @pooya87 said, checking the balance is not useful. Keep in mind that the money is on the blockchain, not in the wallet.

What I suggest:
1. Move this thread to the tech area or some of it's subs: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=4.0
2. Learn from Ian Coleman site and code to generate addresses directly from seed (without using Electrum or whatever), addresses which you'll compare with the one you have.

[slaman29]

I know this is not related, or maybe it is, but is there a way to not only check the balance of your address but also to check when the address is being signed or accessed?

I just had a recent experience of my wallet being accessed. I lost a lot of my btc and I would probably have known earlier if I could see that my address was somehow being accessed or interacted with. Is there a way to monitor for this other than when it is too late?

[doomistake]

You should have stored your Seed Wallet words as a picture like I did with mine here:
[ imgur ]
My question is, how do I use these to recover my BitCoins if I ever need them ?

You won't be able to recover them if you post that picture here
Whoever knows your seed will be able to recover your coins for themselves, thus stealing them from you.

Probably OP's just trolling and this picture that he have shown to us maybe an old seed and he is just using this as an example to know what he'll do about it if he need to recover his bitcoins once he need it.

No one would ever dropped his wallet seed picture here in this forum unless he is a retard..

[Artemis3]

I know this is not related, or maybe it is, but is there a way to not only check the balance of your address but also to check when the address is being signed or accessed?

I just had a recent experience of my wallet being accessed. I lost a lot of my btc and I would probably have known earlier if I could see that my address was somehow being accessed or interacted with. Is there a way to monitor for this other than when it is too late?

There is no such thing as "accessing". If you have the key, you can perform broadcasts from anywhere at anytime. Someone just stole yours, probably accessing your insecure computer/os (maybe via malware or phishing).

If the thief uses a high enough fee, funds will be gone by the next block the transaction confirms, this would be under 10 minutes. This would be your only window of opportunity to hurry up and use an even higher fee to send the same funds elsewhere (a double spend), if you win the fee race his/hers will fail. I think its technically possible to monitor your wallet addresses against the blockchain in this way.

But, your problem was letting the thief get your wallet (privkey) in the first place. If you had a large amount, you should have sent that into a cold wallet. The seed words are the most important thing to protect.

[asus09]

You can recovery whit your blockchain email account possibility or not, I think you can request whit your password ID whit forget in your blockchain account but you must use correct email account, if not work you must forget how much your assets in blockhcain without getting back, next time just save your seed data whit google drive account for keeping in long term.

[HardFacts]

No one would ever dropped his wallet seed picture here in this forum unless he is a retard..

No, I am not stupid and it is much simpler than that,  I keep my Bitcoins in a place that you will never be able to hack or steal  



Hard Facts

[NeuroticFish]

No, I am not stupid and it is much simpler than that,  I keep my Bitcoins in a place that you will never be able to hack or steal  

https://imgur.com/RQn6rRc

Hard Facts

Wrong. The bitcoins are on the blockchain, not in the wallet. The bitcoins never leave the blockchain.
The wallet contains only(*) seed/key in order to let you prove the ownership so you can spend those bitcoins.
So.. what you keep on that USB stick? 

(*) Unless it's a watch only wallet.

[casperBGD]

No, I am not stupid and it is much simpler than that,  I keep my Bitcoins in a place that you will never be able to hack or steal  

https://imgur.com/RQn6rRc

Hard Facts

Wrong. The bitcoins are on the blockchain, not in the wallet. The bitcoins never leave the blockchain.
The wallet contains only(*) seed/key in order to let you prove the ownership so you can spend those bitcoins.
So.. what you keep on that USB stick? 

(*) Unless it's a watch only wallet.

i agree, and also i am interested in what is on the stick, since you are so sure that your BTC are on the stick...

[HardFacts]

No, I am not stupid and it is much simpler than that,  I keep my Bitcoins in a place that you will never be able to hack or steal  

https://imgur.com/RQn6rRc

Hard Facts

Wrong. The bitcoins are on the blockchain, not in the wallet. The bitcoins never leave the blockchain.
The wallet contains only(*) seed/key in order to let you prove the ownership so you can spend those bitcoins.
So.. what you keep on that USB stick? 

(*) Unless it's a watch only wallet.

i agree, and also i am interested in what is on the stick, since you are so sure that your BTC are on the stick...

I just checked, and my Bitcoins are still in my account.     This appears to me to be the most secure way to store them.

[o_e_l_e_o]

HardFacts is a known troll. Please don't feed him.

[ereimas]

As @pooya87 said, checking the balance is not useful. Keep in mind that the money is on the blockchain, not in the wallet.

What I suggest:
1. Move this thread to the tech area or some of it's subs: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=4.0
2. Learn from Ian Coleman site and code to generate addresses directly from seed (without using Electrum or whatever), addresses which you'll compare with the one you have.

Thank you for the suggestions. I'll take a crack at it and if i get stuck I"ll post there.

Just out of curiosity, when I check balance in my code, is that not checking the blockchain??

[outatime1]

If you have most of the words and parts of others, why can't you just keep trying different ones until you get it?  There are only so many different words available and if you can figure out most of them and gradually eliminate some, you will eventually figure it out.

[ereimas]

If you have most of the words and parts of others, why can't you just keep trying different ones until you get it?  There are only so many different words available and if you can figure out most of them and gradually eliminate some, you will eventually figure it out.

Yes, that is what I'm doing.  Did you see my post?  My question is on how to know for certain the point "until you get it".

So for each brute force case, how do I know if it's the right one?

[pooya87]

Just out of curiosity, when I check balance in my code, is that not checking the blockchain??

it is not possible to say, you have to check the source code of the library you are importing with the name "bit" and see what the function called "get_balance()" is doing in there. it has to be looking inside some sort of database or connect to a remote one. depending on that database it may or may not be able to fetch the balance from the blockchain.

[NeuroticFish]

Just out of curiosity, when I check balance in my code, is that not checking the blockchain??

I don't know the library you use, but I'd expect to get the bitcoin balance from the blockchain (maybe an Electrum server if you use some API provided by Electrum) and the bitcoin price in USD from an exchange.
All in all, slow operation.