After years..watching only wallet

[carajo66]

NO clue how it happened I used to use the wallet there where transactions made

So you can see the public keys of each address, but not the private keys? This means that when you created this specific wallet you imported a master public key such as:

Code:

xpub6EsWnECvubVW3GTtJNWRonWTykeKaFR3WhdoyPEm3Yf6rUcQ4DhbhpfbQnWzfR6YYkQvh1QRkti1nYYYPjRPRb9T6yCqppZtFhHZeqGYsAU

Does this xpub text remind you anything?

It could be that the php scrip for the shopping cart gave me a code like that ... to generate a wallet with that?

[BlackHatCoiner]

It could be that the php scrip for the shopping cart gave me a code like that ... to generate a wallet with that?

What kind of php scripts were these that they generated you a master public key to import it as a "wallet". I read about shopping cart and I understand that it'd most probably generate new addresses to give to the clients. Did you download these php scripts from github? Can you link us to the repository? You obviously didn't write those.

If inside any php script or any other script/file you find a text that starts with "xprv", then you'll be able to access the funds on the addresses shown on the watch-only wallet.

[o_e_l_e_o]

this wallet was part of a scrip on a site that was linked to a shopping cart and would automatically generate adresses to receive payment..

And did you actually use Electrum back in 2016 to make transactions, or did you make all your transaction via this shopping site and just use Electrum to keep an eye on your wallet?

NO clue how it happened I used to use the wallet there where transactions made

As above. Did you use Electrum to actually make transactions, or did you make transactions only on the shopping site? If you used Electrum to make transactions, was it on the same computer you are trying on now, and has this computer been formatted or had Electrum deleted/uninstalled/reinstalled since then?

We still haven't explored a passphrase in conjunction with the seed phrase you have yet. Do you remember setting anything along the lines of a password, passphrase, extension words, extra words, etc., when you generated this wallet? It would be worth trying to restore your seed phrase along with any passwords you were using in 2016 as additional words as I explained earlier in the thread.

[ranochigo]

If you've ensured that the addresses are legacy (begin with "1"), then you'll have to check BIP39 on the options. (I guess that back in 2016 you wouldn't have any other options like "3" or "bc1") (Extra parenthesis: I don't know if electrum used BIP39 in 2016, an electrum expert could only answer this)

Electrum actually never adopted BIP39 as their seed generation standards. They merely started support it in the more recent versions. BIP39 won't include any version byte at the start which allows the wallet to determine what addresses to generate so not really ideal for Electrum's usage.

[pooya87]

If you've ensured that the addresses are legacy (begin with "1"), then you'll have to check BIP39 on the options. (I guess that back in 2016 you wouldn't have any other options like "3" or "bc1") (Extra parenthesis: I don't know if electrum used BIP39 in 2016, an electrum expert could only answer this)

Electrum actually never adopted BIP39 as their seed generation standards. They merely started support it in the more recent versions. BIP39 won't include any version byte at the start which allows the wallet to determine what addresses to generate so not really ideal for Electrum's usage.

I wouldn't say "ideal" it is just harder from the user's standpoint because with BIP39 seed phrases the wallet now has to add a new step asking the user to enter the address/script type to derive the child keys and maybe even let them choose the derivation path too. In other words it is just not newbie friendly otherwise I think it is a pretty good flexibility to have in a wallet.

[o_e_l_e_o]

In other words it is just not newbie friendly otherwise I think it is a pretty good flexibility to have in a wallet.

They did introduce the "Detect Existing Accounts" button on the page you select your script type and derivation path for recovering BIP39 seed phrases. Hitting this button will search 13 commonly used derivation paths (listed here: https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/master/electrum/bip39_wallet_formats.json), as well as scan the next account up for any non-Samourai wallets in which it detects a used address. This makes it far more newbie friendly, while still allowing users who know what they are doing to specify their own script type and derivation path manually.

[ranochigo]

I wouldn't say "ideal" it is just harder from the user's standpoint because with BIP39 seed phrases the wallet now has to add a new step asking the user to enter the address/script type to derive the child keys and maybe even let them choose the derivation path too. In other words it is just not newbie friendly otherwise I think it is a pretty good flexibility to have in a wallet.

Electrum does have different types of wallet, 2FA and normal (segwit/legacy) for example. Having a method to identify the type of seed it is will reduce any confusion if the user forgets the type of seeds that it has. Using a seed created with TrustedCoin will result in Electrum automatically restore it as such with the 2 main keys needed for signing, detecting if the user used segwit or legacy, etc. Perhaps not ideal for but better[1].



[1] https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/seedphrase.html#motivation