Mid 2010s (2013-17ish) Wallet Recovery

[snowhalp]

Pretty experienced in crypto so don't need the usual disclaimers about not sharing phrases, etc.

Over the holidays, an old friend of mine told me that he had a "12 word phrase" from the 2010s and had no idea what to do with it. He's very non-technical, and a friend of his had him experiment with Bitcoin in the early days. I have a copy of the passphrase, it's BIP-39. Restoring on Electrum produces 0 balance/0 transactions with all of the common derivation paths. He was "pretty sure" that he had at least acquired a couple bitcoin back in the day so I expect to see some balance or history of transactions.

Are there other wallets from the 2010s that used BIP-39 seed phrases but a different derivation function than Electrum supports? Any ideas on other wallets I should try here?

If it helps, he had written down the seed phrase with the odd numbered words first, even numbered words second. He said that was how it displayed in the wallet he used (perhaps odd on the left, even on the right).

BIP-39 checksum shows that it's a valid seed phrase, just trying to figure out the derivation.

I'd like to pretty exhaustively try the possibilities.

[1715492886]

1715492886

[1715492886]

1715492886

[1715492886]

1715492886

[BitMaxz]

Is your friend sure that the BIP39 seed phrase he had was generated year 2010?

BIP39 seed phrase was introduced year 2013 so how did he generate his seed phrase before?

Have you tried to use the function called "detect existing account" on Electrum?
It should be able to detect and point you to the right wallet with used addresses but if not the seed phrase he had is not generated from any BIP39 wallets.

[snowhalp]

Is your friend sure that the BIP39 seed phrase he had was generated year 2010?

BIP39 seed phrase was introduced year 2013 so how did he generate his seed phrase before?

Apologies, I mean that as the decade 2010-2019. I would guess 2013-2017 is a more accurate time range, but he didn't remember the specific year. Only that this was around the time Bitcoin's price was 2-4 figures.

Have you tried to use the function called "detect existing account" on Electrum?
It should be able to detect and point you to the right wallet with used addresses but if not the seed phrase he had is not generated from any BIP39 wallets.

I've tried it with Electrum - no accounts found. It does confirm the BIP 39 checksum though.

[BitMaxz]

Ok, the other wallet I could suggest is Multibit HD, he might be generated the seed phrase from that wallet software but this wallet is long gone you can maybe try to use the BIP39 tool check the link below.

- https://iancoleman.io/bip39/

Paste the seed phrase he had and then go to the derivation path then client and put it to Multibit HD.
Copy the xPub or extended public key and paste it to this link below repeat the process to other clients until you find used addresses on the xPub scanner below.

- https://blockpath.com/wallets/local/101?action=appxpub

Once the tool found some used addresses focus on that client for the recovery process.

For safety purposes, you can run the BIP39 tool offline if you don't want to expose the seed phrase online.

[o_e_l_e_o]

If it helps, he had written down the seed phrase with the odd numbered words first, even numbered words second. He said that was how it displayed in the wallet he used (perhaps odd on the left, even on the right).

If it's a 12 word seed phrase, there is a 1/16 chance (i.e. not that unlikely) that the wrong order of words produced a valid checksum. Try other orders of the words to see if they are also valid too (i.e. left to right, top to bottom, first column/second column, etc.)

I've tried it with Electrum - no accounts found.

Did you use the "Detect existing accounts" button? If so, it will check the paths listed here: https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/88058df409ae67584b9ecfc40adec6909c03ae63/electrum/bip39_wallet_formats.json

Have you tried not checking the "BIP39" button on Electrum? There is a small chance that an old seed phrase could be both a valid BIP39 phrase and a valid Electrum phrase.

I assume your friend doesn't know what the address you are looking for is? Given that you say this is from 2013-2017, then we are likely looking for a legacy address rather than a segwit one, since segwit was activated midway through 2017.

Copy the xPub or extended public key and paste it to this link below repeat the process to other clients until you find used addresses on the xPub scanner below.

That tool can only derive unhardened paths, which is next to useless for blindly searching for an address from a seed phrase. It is only useful when searching for an address when you already know an extended parent xpub.

[apogio]

I have a copy of the passphrase, it's BIP-39.

You must mean seed phrase. But perhaps he used a passphrase as well. Did you ask him?

[DaveF]

Ok, the other wallet I could suggest is Multibit HD, he might be generated the seed phrase from that wallet software but this wallet is long gone you can maybe try to use the BIP39 tool check the link below.

- https://iancoleman.io/bip39/

Paste the seed phrase he had and then go to the derivation path then client and put it to Multibit HD.
Copy the xPub or extended public key and paste it to this link below repeat the process to other clients until you find used addresses on the xPub scanner below.

- https://blockpath.com/wallets/local/101?action=appxpub

Once the tool found some used addresses focus on that client for the recovery process.

For safety purposes, you can run the BIP39 tool offline if you don't want to expose the seed phrase online.

You can still get the compiled binaries and source for mulibit here: https://github.com/Multibit-Legacy/multibit-hd/releases
And then see if you can import the seed and what addresses it gives you and work from there.

The other possibility is that it was not BTC but some alt.

-Dave