Found a Private Key but the lenght dont looks right

[DannyHamilton]

I have a vague recollection of a web service back in 2012 or 2013 that allowed you to receive and send bitcoins without any userID or password.  Instead, they just used a long randomly generated URL. As long as you knew the URl, you had access to the bitcoins, but if you didn't know the URL, then it was effectively impossible to guess and get access to anyone else's bitcoins. Perhaps what is written down is the portion of the URL that you would need to know to access the bitcoins?

Unfortunately:

• 1. I don't remember the name of the service (perhaps another old-timer here might?).
• 2. I may be mistaken, and my memory of such things from so long ago might not be entirely accurate.
• 3. If my memory IS accurate, then I think the creator of the service eventually shut it down and disappeared with everyone's bitcoins.

[1714831494]

1714831494

[1714831494]

1714831494

[1714831494]

1714831494

[1714831494]

1714831494

[1714831494]

1714831494

[dadadum]

I have a vague recollection of a web service back in 2012 or 2013 that allowed you to receive and send bitoccins without any userID or password.  Instead, they just used a long randomly generated URL. As long as you knew the URl, you had access to the bitcoins, but if you didn't know the URL, then it was effectively impossible to guess and get access to anyone else's bitcoins. Perhaps what is written down is the portion of the URL that you would need to know to access the bitcoins?

Unfortunately:

• 1. I don't remember the name of the service (perhaps another old-timer here might?).
• 2. I may be mistaken, and my memory of such things from so long ago might not be entirely accurate.
• 3. If my memory IS accurate, then I think the creator of the service eventually shut it down and disappeared with everyone's bitcoins.

I think i am a step ahead, i ask gran and she say, she thinks that he become it from a good fam. friend, i know him he was working in a credit institute, i will try to contact him next days.

And let you know what this illuminati code has on it hahahahahha.

[escobol]

I have a vague recollection of a web service back in 2012 or 2013 that allowed you to receive and send bitcoins without any userID or password.  Instead, they just used a long randomly generated URL. As long as you knew the URl, you had access to the bitcoins, but if you didn't know the URL, then it was effectively impossible to guess and get access to anyone else's bitcoins. Perhaps what is written down is the portion of the URL that you would need to know to access the bitcoins?

Unfortunately:

• 1. I don't remember the name of the service (perhaps another old-timer here might?).
• 2. I may be mistaken, and my memory of such things from so long ago might not be entirely accurate.
• 3. If my memory IS accurate, then I think the creator of the service eventually shut it down and disappeared with everyone's bitcoins.

Instawallet / Easywallet.org ?

Looks thath insta url got ~31 charts

[LoyceV]

3. If my memory IS accurate, then I think the creator of the service eventually shut it down and disappeared with everyone's bitcoins.

Lol! Why would anyone trust a third party link when they can keep their own keys?
Anyway, that didn't happen in this case:

( When i put it on Blockchain it shows near 1 BTC and the second 1.4 BTC

[DannyHamilton]

Lol! Why would anyone trust a third party link when they can keep their own keys?

That's a good question.  The main answer is convenience.  The next best answer is lack of knowledge or understanding.

For easy examples, ask all the people that lost bitcoins to MtGox.

[dadadum]

UPDATE

I found the man and he gave me 5 more addresses with PK like the one in the txt file, all around 0.5-1.1 btc on it.
He has also about 10 of them, and tell me how pap and he get this from a other friend that was a computer programer (and dont ask, the man dies some years ago ).
And they have use 3 in 2015 or 2016 or 2017 to go on a fishing trip.

He is a bit dementia and cant remember how they make the bitcoins to money, but all happend on a pc with a Bitcoin Core software he had ( yes he "had" but his son put a new SSD in with windows 10, old was broken)

So when i told him about what i found and what bitcoin is gona be, he walk to a cabinet and gave me a paper and all the keys are on it written by hand.

The sad thing is he talks with me and stops and then ask, who are you ... all repeating, i was happy his son was with me and handle the situation real good.

At the end he gave his son the keys he forgot, he has, and now we both have this 53 char long PKs.

What i figure out with all the PK i saw is

53 Characters
hex format
no big I or big O letters

and thats it. Somebody a idea ??

[LoyceV]

I found the man and he gave me 5 more addresses with PK like the one in the txt file, all around 0.5-1.1 btc on it.
~
He is a bit dementia

I guess he didn't know he gave you a quarter million dollars?

cant remember how they make the bitcoins to money, but all happend on a pc with a Bitcoin Core software he had
~
What i figure out with all the PK i saw is

53 Characters
hex format
no big I or big O letters

Crazy idea: get Bitcoin Core, or even an older version that was around when those keys were created, install it on an offline system, and try to somehow import these keys.

And they have use 3 in 2015 or 2016 or 2017 to go on a fishing trip.

Do you (did he) still have the keys written down for the emptied addresses? If so, is that something you can share?

[dadadum]

at one
he told me after some repeats that he and pap get/buy this half half 2 have i 3 they spend he insist pap sold them hahahahah 5 he gave me
the other 10 he gave his son this day we have been there.

at two
did it Download Bitcoin Core from bitcoin.org Bitcoin Core version 0.13.0 thats the only that let me import keys i test it, but also say no valid PK.

at three
no he dont have the 3 used only the handwritten paper he made before the old hd was changed.

I ask his son where is the old hd ... guess what he did ... yep throw it away because every some minutes it restart and has bluescreens.

Belive me i had moments i wish never find this txt file last some days. Horrible but i dont give up, my main prob is i am not that pc guy or know much about PK Base 58 .. check...

I read and read and feel like a stranger in a foreign language. 

[dadadum]

at one
he told me after some repeats that he and pap get/buy this half half 2 have i 3 they spend he insist pap sold them hahahahah 5 he gave me

If you're looking for help, can you write complete clear sentences with interpunction and stuff? This is terrible to understand!

sry was in a hurry

[DannyHamilton]

What i figure out with all the PK i saw is

53 Characters
hex format
no big I or big O letters

and thats it. Somebody a idea ??

Hex uses ONLY the following letters and numbers:
0123456789ABCDEF

That's it, nothing more.  Hex doesn't care about capital letters or not, so A is the same as a, and B is the same as b, and so on.
If your key has any letters later in the alphabet than F, then it is NOT hex.

Bitcoin's Base58check encoding uses the following:
123456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz

Base58check DOES care about capital letters, so A is different than a, and B is different than b, and so on.

Notice that Base58check does NOT use the number 0 (zero) or the letters capital i (eye), capital o (oh), or lowercase l (elle). If your key has any of those 4 characters then it is NOT Base58check.

Base 64 encoding uses the following:
0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz+/=

If your key has any +, or /, or =, or the number 0 (zero) or the letters capital i (eye), capital o (oh), or lowercase l (elle), then there's a pretty good chance that it is Base 64.

If they were using Bitcoin Core when they successfully used the bitcoins, and then they wrote down what they thought was a private key and stopped using the bitcoins anymore after that... Then unfortunately, it is very possible that they didn't understand what they were doing and accidentally wrote something down that is NOT a private key.  If that happened, then you will never be able to access those bitcoins.

If they were writing down the keys in 2017 for a fishing trip, then the format for keys was pretty standard at that time, which means that either they made an expensive mistake and wrote down the wrong thing OR they invented their own process for converting a key into something unrecognizable and you'll need to learn what they did if you want to convert it back to a key.

[dadadum]

OK, i understand it, and i am so happy some try to help me.
I think i have no other chance, than post the PK here, so you can maybe figure out, what this all has to mean.

I got now 7 PKs from pap and Mister Kaparal, without help, i will have none, with help maybe i got some.

But i dont want to post it public, who wanna help PM me, i am willing to share the "Illuminati" BTC PKs.

I share 1, and who find maybe the solution, will get another one, as thank you ...

Is this a good offer ? Or did i break with this, one of the forum rules ??

[DannyHamilton]

OK, i understand it, and i am so happy some try to help me.
I think i have no other chance, than post the PK here, so you can maybe figure out, what this all has to mean.

I got now 7 PKs from pap and Mister Kaparal, without help, i will have none, with help maybe i got some.

But i dont want to post it public, who wanna help PM me, i am willing to share the "Illuminati" BTC PKs.

I share 1, and who find maybe the solution, will get another one, as thank you ...

Is this a good offer ? Or did i break with this, one of the forum rules ??

This does not break any forum rules.

However, if you truly feel that you have no other choice than to share the private key, then you should be VERY careful about who you share it with.  You will DEFINITELY be receiving PM from people that plan to just steal the bitcoin if they can figure it out.

There is no reason to rush into things.  The bitcoins aren't going anywhere.  You can spend months or even years figuring out what your pap and Mr. Kaparal might have done.  Perhaps you can talk to Mr. Kaparal many times and sometimes maybe he will get lucky and remember a small piece that helps you.  Perhaps you can talk to the son many times and eventually he will remember something about his father that helps both of you figure it out.  Perhaps you can find a close family friend that learns about and understands Bitcoin enough to be able to help you.

Better to wait, and learn, and talk to people in your life that can help, than to rush and lose maybe millions of dollars.

[dadadum]

Thank you, very wise advice !

Maybe i really try to talk, some more times, with Mr. Kaparal, but when i look his eyes, when he has a "out" like a reset, and look at me, like first time see me, i wanna keep stress away from him.

But shure, bit more looking around, will help !

Repeating, a BIG THANKs for all help, i follow all instructions, i can become here.

And maybe some more reading, and understanding of the material, will help also.

[LoyceV]

But i dont want to post it public, who wanna help PM me, i am willing to share the "Illuminati" BTC PKs.

I share 1, and who find maybe the solution, will get another one, as thank you ...

Is this a good offer ? Or did i break with this, one of the forum rules ??

I can take a look if you want, but make no promises about the likelyhood of me being able to recover anything.
What I can do upfront is make a deal on what percentage will be mine if I figure it out. If it's 0.5 BTC (or more), there's no need for 100% of that amount (let alone "another one as thank you").
If you're sharing the private key with multiple people, you'll never know who took it if anyone takes everything.

If you're going to share private keys, I suggest doing something like this:

Don't send private keys from a standard email that doesn't encrypt messages.
The easiest way to send private keys (or seed words, depending on your wallet) is if you create a Protonmail account. My email:

Code:

LoyceVswitzerland@protonmail.com

This way, the email has end-to-end encryption and should be secure. There's of course always the risk of your (or my) computer being compromised.
Alternatively, you can send half of each private key to my Protonmail email, and the other half by Bitcointalk PM. This way the parts don't end up on the same email account.

If it's hand-written on paper, a picture may be better to avoid making mistakes typing.

You may want to discuss this with whoever has the rights to his inheritance first.

[dadadum]

A short feedback, they have use like a split and combine system.

Split the PK and put 1-3 characters at the end.

After some visits to Mistr Kaparal, it looks like he can remember more, i think its also the situation his son is with us, so he feels good when we talk.

For all that wanna help, thank you all, i apriciate that so much.

But like DannyHamilton say i got real nice msg from ppl, they wanna help ... but also some more, that when you read the msg, its visible they wanna scam.

So i do it at the moment, like he say, waiting and learning.

[traderdyl]

Although he wrote them down, I would still suggest looking for the wallet.dat. I would also look at getting a tool to grab his Internet Browser saved passwords, most people use the same password for everything, Worth a try.

Good luck. hope you find what you are looking for.

[Pmalek]

but also some more, that when you read the msg, its visible they wanna scam.

Be very careful with those, especially messages that come from low ranked and unknown members. A high rank doesn't mean a user is automatically trustworthy, but it does mean that (most of the time) they worked hard to reach that rank and build a reputation. Always check the profile and trust score of the members who contact you and read what is written there.

If you take a look at LoyceV's ratings (the user who offered to help you), you will notice plenty of positive trust ratings. You can trust him. The same can be said for the other lads who merited DannyHamilton's post where he warns you about the dangers of sharing private info with others.

o_e_l_e_o
ETFbitcoin
DannyHamilton

Whether or not they can, have the time, or know how to help you, is a completely different matter.