Recovering a 12 word phrase

[aquatic_]

Hello there! Asking on behalf of a friend here.
My friend had around 0.08 BTC sent to him half a year ago. He wrote down the 12 words of the wallet, but probably in the wrong order as the wallet cannot be imported (I checked and all the words exist in the possible list).
We sadly don't have the receiving address of the wallet, we only know how much BTC is in it, and have the 12 words in the wrong order.
What can be done to recover the BTC?
Thank you very much in advance!
Aquatic

[dkbit98]

Your friend needs to come to forum and write for himself, because it is not easy to answer this question.
What wallet he exactly used for generating 12 seed words, something like Electrum, some other software or hardware wallet, and what error he receives when he tries to import words?
Order of words is very important but maybe he used different standards that is not compatible with his wallet.

[aquatic_]

He's not very comfortable with the English language.
I found a receiving address of the wallet, and I have the 12 words, although not in the correct order.
He created it in Blue Wallet.

[LoyceMobile]

Common mistake:
Writing down like this:
1 7
2 8
3 9

Entering reading like this:
1 7 2 8 3 9

Or something similar.

[khaled0111]

He created it in Blue Wallet.

Are you sure he created that wallet with bluewallet?
Because, afaik, bluewallet generates 24 words seeds by default not 12 words!
Maybe the problem is in the derivation path not in the word order!

My old wallet has 24 words seed (doesn't allow me to take screenshots on mobile) and I also found this:

BlueWallet provides 24 word mnemonic seeds for onchain Segwit wallets. These are standard BIP44, BIP49 and BIP84 addresses...

Weird!

[dkbit98]

He's not very comfortable with the English language.
I found a receiving address of the wallet, and I have the 12 words, although not in the correct order.
He created it in Blue Wallet.

Blue wallet provides numbers in front of every word for a good reason, but he can try to follow instructions on their website for importing backup seed and check out list of words, because maybe he made some spelling mistake.
This is one example of how Blue wallet is generating mnemonic words for default bech32 option, it is six horizontally written words in two rows, so you can tell your friend to check his paper and compare it with that:


words shown here are just an example

Because, afaik, bluewallet generates 24 words seeds by default not 12 words!

I can confirm that Bluewallet does generate 12 seed words by default, and you can see that in example above.

Derivation paths:

BIP44

Code:

m/44'/0'/0'

BIP49

Code:

m/49'/0'/0'

BIP84

Code:

m/84'/0'/0'

https://bluewallet.io/docs/recover-wallet/

[aquatic_]

He's not very comfortable with the English language.
I found a receiving address of the wallet, and I have the 12 words, although not in the correct order.
He created it in Blue Wallet.

Blue wallet provides numbers in front of every word for a good reason, but he can try to follow instructions on their website for importing backup seed and check out list of words, because maybe he made some spelling mistake.
This is one example of how Blue wallet is generating mnemonic words for default bech32 option, it is six horizontally written words in two rows, so you can tell your friend to check his paper and compare it with that:

https://i.imgur.com/SSc4qO5.jpg
words shown here are just an example

Because, afaik, bluewallet generates 24 words seeds by default not 12 words!

I can confirm that Bluewallet does generate 12 seed words by default, and you can see that in example above.

Derivation paths:

BIP44

Code:

m/44'/0'/0'

BIP49

Code:

m/49'/0'/0'

BIP84

Code:

m/84'/0'/0'

https://bluewallet.io/docs/recover-wallet/

When trying to recover, I get "Checksum Failed".
The guy is sure these are the words, he has them printed. I have the wallet receiving address. I understand there's a BTC recovery tool but can't figure how to use it

[ranochigo]

When trying to recover, I get "Checksum Failed".
The guy is sure these are the words, he has them printed. I have the wallet receiving address. I understand there's a BTC recovery tool but can't figure how to use it

The only instance which the checksum will fail given a correct BIP39 seed is if it was generated with Electrum.

If not, here's a guide on BTCrecover and trying to unscramble the seed phrase: https://github.com/3rdIteration/btcrecover/blob/master/docs/BIP39_descrambling_seedlists.md.

[BitMaxz]

When trying to recover, I get "Checksum Failed".
The guy is sure these are the words, he has them printed. I have the wallet receiving address. I understand there's a BTC recovery tool but can't figure how to use it

Adding this from ranochigo post above.

If you don't know how to use BTCrecover I suggest, try to learn first from video tutorials on how to recover the backup seed.

Here are some videos

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp9n53XM3RI
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXw6dP7OPR4

And also check this BTCrecover documentation https://btcrecover.readthedocs.io/en/latest/Seedrecover_Quick_Start_Guide/

[nc50lc]

-snip-, afaik, bluewallet generates 24 words seeds by default not 12 words!
Maybe the problem is in the derivation path not in the word order!

I have a Bluewallet wallet and my recovery phrase also consists of 24 words, but that's from a version from about 1 or <2 years ago.
Newly created wallets by the updated version only contains 12 words.

If it's the derivation path, you'll be able to restore the wallet but the restored addresses will be different.

When trying to recover, I get "Checksum Failed".
The guy is sure these are the words, he has them printed. I have the wallet receiving address. I understand there's a BTC recovery tool but can't figure how to use it

To which wallet?
Because Bluewallet wont show a "Checksum Failed" when you paste a seed phrase with invalid checksum.
It will just fail to import the wallet with a different error.

If it's in Electrum with BIP39 seed option ticked, and if the next button isn't clickable while it's not ticked, then you may be correct that it's not in the correct order.

[o_e_l_e_o]

This is easily solved using btcrecover. Depending on your hardware and assuming all the words are indeed correct but just in the wrong order, you can descramble this in a matter of hours.

You will first need to download and install btcrecover by following the instructions here (and also download and install Python first if you don't already have it): https://btcrecover.readthedocs.io/en/latest/INSTALL/

Since you don't know the receiving address, you will need to use an address database by following the instructions here: https://btcrecover.readthedocs.io/en/latest/Creating_and_Using_AddressDB/. There is a link on that page to pre-made databases if you don't want to create your own. The most recent bitcoin one is from 13th March, so if the wallet received funds prior to this date, it will be fine to use. Download it.

You will then need to create a tokenlist and run the necessary command by following the instructions here: https://btcrecover.readthedocs.io/en/latest/Usage_Examples/2020-05-02_Descrambling_a_12_word_seed/Example_Descrambling_a_12_word_seed/

Your tokenlist will be a text file containing the 12 words from your seed phrase, one per line. Since it is a BIP39 seed phrase you are trying to recover, and you are using an address database, then your final command will look something like this:

Code:

python seedrecover.py --no-dupchecks --mnemonic-length 12 --language EN --dsw --wallet-type BIP39 --addr-limit 5 --addressdb ./btcrecover/PATHtoYOURdatabaseFILE.db --tokenlist ./btcrecover/PATHtoYOURtokensFILE.txt

You can narrow down your search and the time it takes if you or your friend can remember if the address was legacy, nested, or native segwit (began with a "1", "3", or "bc1"), and if you can be sure that the address you sent coins to was the first address generated by the wallet.

[PawGo]

Hey
I have already solver for the use case like yours: PERMUTATION on https://github.com/PawelGorny/lostword
I will print (save to file) all the possible seeds, you must import them into program.
There is also another solver (PERMUTATION_CHECK) if you know the address.
Let me know if you need any help with running it.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I will print (save to file) all the possible seeds, you must import them into program.

What is the format/layout of the file your program creates using PERMUTATION? To import such a file in to btcrecover for use against an address database, it needs to be in the format of a text file with one seed phrase per line.

I think just using btcrecover is going to be the better option in this case. He doesn't know the address, so PERMUTATION_CHECK is useless to him. If he uses PERMUTATION on a 12 word BIP39 seed phrase, he is going to be left with a text file with ~30 million seed phrase combinations in it. Surely simpler just to use btcrecover from the start, unless you know of another simpler program you can import 30 million seed phrases to and check against an address database?

[PawGo]

I will print (save to file) all the possible seeds, you must import them into program.

What is the format/layout of the file your program creates using PERMUTATION? To import such a file in to btcrecover for use against an address database, it needs to be in the format of a text file with one seed phrase per line.

I think just using btcrecover is going to be the better option in this case. He doesn't know the address, so PERMUTATION_CHECK is useless to him. If he uses PERMUTATION on a 12 word BIP39 seed phrase, he is going to be left with a text file with ~30 million seed phrase combinations in it. Surely simpler just to use btcrecover from the start, unless you know of another simpler program you can import 30 million seed phrases to and check against an address database?

Hm, so so say that I should add possibility to check agains a 'pool' of addresses? Hmm... doable.
If he knows how many BTC is locked, maybe he may narrow the list of addresses... in the best scenario to one Just download https://gz.blockchair.com/bitcoin/addresses/ and look for his amount.

[o_e_l_e_o]

If he knows how many BTC is locked, maybe he may narrow the list of addresses... in the best scenario to one Just download https://gz.blockchair.com/bitcoin/addresses/ and look for his amount.

It won't really make a difference.

If he can narrow the address type to either P2PKH, P2SH, or P2WPKH, that would help massively since for each valid seed btcrecover would only need to derive one derivation path instead of three. Further, if he can be sure it is the first address in the wallet, then that would also help massively since again he would only have to derive a single address rather than the five I have given in my example above (or even more if needed). Both of these together would mean deriving 1 address instead of 15 per each seed phrase.

However, in terms of checking against the actual database, it makes very little difference whether the database has ten addresses in it or a million addresses in it. The speed increase from narrowing down the address database will be negligible.

The main time cost in this process is in downloading the blockchain and generating the AddressDB, the actual checking part of the process runs at about the same speed regardless of whether it is being tested against a single address or an addressDB with 600,000 addresses in it.

[PawGo]

Let's wait for @aquatic_ to see if they may find a list of potential addresses.

[aquatic_]

Hello everyone, and thanks for your suggestions.
I have found out the receiving address of the wallet, there has only been one transaction to it - the 0.08 BTC I described.
I'm having some trouble using the tool, but I will update.
Considering I have the words, an address and knowing it's the only one, I should be able to recover it!

[o_e_l_e_o]

I have found out the receiving address of the wallet, there has only been one transaction to it - the 0.08 BTC I described.

This should make things much easier and quicker.

You can skip the address database part of my post above. Instead, you can simply search for an exact match with the address you have found. You will still need the tokenlist file containing the 12 words of your seed phrase. Your new command would look something like this:

Code:

python seedrecover.py --no-dupchecks --mnemonic-length 12 --language EN --dsw --wallet-type BIP39 --addr-limit 1 --address YOURaddressHERE --tokenlist ./btcrecover/PATHtoYOURtokensFILE.txt

Alternatively, since you now have an address you can now try PawGo's tool above.

[dkbit98]

Hey
I have already solver for the use case like yours: PERMUTATION on https://github.com/PawelGorny/lostword
I will print (save to file) all the possible seeds, you must import them into program.
There is also another solver (PERMUTATION_CHECK) if you know the address.
Let me know if you need any help with running it.

How is your tool any different from btcrecover tool, and can your tool also work with electrum type seed that is not exactly using BIP39 word list?
It does look more simple to use than btcrecover, but would also be nice to run your tool without java installation.

I'm having some trouble using the tool, but I will update.
Considering I have the words, an address and knowing it's the only one, I should be able to recover it!

If you used btcrecover tool then you should watch two good youtube video tutorials that @BitMaxz posted above, and just follow the steps.

[PawGo]

Hey
I have already solver for the use case like yours: PERMUTATION on https://github.com/PawelGorny/lostword
I will print (save to file) all the possible seeds, you must import them into program.
There is also another solver (PERMUTATION_CHECK) if you know the address.
Let me know if you need any help with running it.

How is your tolls different from btcrecover tool, and can your tool also work with electrum type seed that is not exactly using BIP39 word list?
It does look more simple to use than btcrecover, but would also be nice to run your tool without java installation.

Currently not, but I plan to add Electrum dictionary soon. If you really need it, it will be an extra motivation for me