Restoring OLD 2010 Wallet

[Laborers Reward]

So... In 2010 I bought some Bitcoin. Did an offline encrypted cold storage wallet. It was a, "It's my daughters birthday I'm going to buy this in case "number go up" and I can send her to college." I'm pretty sure my wallet has been passed around on hacker forums. This whole business with Craig Steven Wright claiming practically ALL OLD ADDRESSES that haven't moved got me very upset. Anyway, I did some digging and found my wallet. I'm very nervous posting because it makes you a target. I'm just not sure if I am using the wrong software. I'm pretty computer savy but it's been so long since I've done anything with bitcoin. I know it will take a lot longer to do this solo. So here it goes...

Bitcoin Client Software and Version Number:           Electrum 4.1.2
Operating System:                                                Windows 10 Home 64-bit
System Hardware Specs:                                       i7-5820K CPU @ 3.30GHz, RAM 32.0 GB, 500 GB SSD
Description of Problem:                                         Attempted restore fails. Error: Cannot load wallet(1): UnicodeDecodeError('UTF-8', )............    then a bunch of what looks like header information. \x00\x10\x80\
Any Related Addresses:                                         1PeizMg76Cf96nUQrYg8xuoZWLQozU5zGW
Any Related Transaction IDs:
Screenshot of the problem:
Log Files from the Bitcoin Client:

[1714093314]

1714093314

[1714093314]

1714093314

[1714093314]

1714093314

[NotATether]

Has the wallet ever left your computer, or has been uploaded on the internet by one of you? On a USB flash that was taken to a public place and forgotten there?

If the answer to these questions is no, then it is extremely unlikely anyone else has a copy of your wallet file.

You should definitely use pywallet (a github project) to extract the private keys from it, particularly if you remember the password. This command will do the trick. It requires Python 2 or 3 installed depending on the pywallet version used.

Code:

python pywallet.dat --dumpwallet --datadir=AppData/Roaming/Bitcoin/wallets --wallet=wallet.dat

[BitMaxz]

So this is the error "Error: Cannot load wallet(1): UnicodeDecodeError('UTF-8', )" that you get when trying to import the old 2010 wallet to Electrum 4.1.2?

I hope that the file is not corrupted and next time before you do anything about your backup wallet make sure to make a backup copy and keep your original to safe place and only use the backup when trying to restore your old wallet.

Can you try to open the old wallet file what it looks like?
Because before if the wallet is not encrypted you can able to read the wallet file so if your wallet file is not encrypted you can directly open it through notepad and you will see all used public and private keys. You can copy them and proceed with importing private keys to Electrum.


If it was encrypted and you forgot the password you might need to use BTCrecovery tool source can be found from this link below
- https://btcrecover.readthedocs.io/en/latest/INSTALL/


Also, check this post below for other solutions and it's a similar error as yours so you can use it as your reference.
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5215957.msg53578578#msg53578578

[Btcspot]

 I can help you further if you need more explanation and help for it. Send me a message to my email: Superbit1@protonmail.com and ill see what i can do.

[hosseinimr93]

I can help you further if you need more explanation and help for it. Send me a message to my email: [Email address was removed] and ill see what i can do.

OP, ignore anyone who ask you to send a message privately and anyone who send you a personal message. Most likely, they are scammers and will probably try to steal your money.
Anyone who has knowledge about your issue and really wants to help you will respond here in this thread.

[Chikito]

I'm pretty sure my wallet has been passed around on hacker forums.

Any Related Addresses:                                         1PeizMg76Cf96nUQrYg8xuoZWLQozU5zGW

If you think this is related to your address, of course, you are one of the richest people in the world targeting hackers (your PC uncompromised for a long time ago).  [1]

And as I know, in 2010 electrum didn't create yet. Thomas Voegtlin creates it in 2013. You have wrong imported it to electrum, you have to memories it again what wallet did you use for created offline.

[1]. https://ninjastic.space/addresses?address=1PeizMg76Cf96nUQrYg8xuoZWLQozU5zGW

[DireWolfM14]

In 2010
...
offline encrypted cold storage wallet
...
Bitcoin Client Software and Version Number:           Electrum 4.1.2
...
1PeizMg76Cf96nUQrYg8xuoZWLQozU5zGW

 

No one here is going to teach you how to hack a bitcoin address, if that were possible bitcoin would be worthless.  Nor will anyone help you crack a "wallet" file you downloaded on some "black-hat" site you accessed via clearnet.  The wallet file is a fake, and if you payed for it you got scammed.

[ranochigo]

And as I know, in 2010 electrum didn't create yet. Thomas Voegtlin creates it in 2013. You have wrong imported it to electrum, you have to memories it again what wallet did you use for created offline.

It was released in 2011, not 2013.

I'm almost certain that it is a wallet.dat. You have to import it into Bitcoin Core and see if it works. If there is any corruption, Core will attempt to salvage it. I believe Bitcoinqt was the only wallet at that point in time.

[pooya87]

I'm almost certain that it is a wallet.dat. You have to import it into Bitcoin Core and see if it works. If there is any corruption, Core will attempt to salvage it. I believe Bitcoinqt was the only wallet at that point in time.

Electrum versions before 1.9 were using .dat extension and the file is called electrum.dat (not wallet.dat) so it should be clear that the wallet belongs to Electrum.
But considering that the address OP mentions is a popular address used by scammers who sell fake wallet files, it is more likely that OP has actually bought this fake file.

[ranochigo]

Electrum versions before 1.9 were using .dat extension and the file is called electrum.dat (not wallet.dat) so it should be clear that the wallet belongs to Electrum.
But considering that the address OP mentions is a popular address used by scammers who sell fake wallet files, it is more likely that OP has actually bought this fake file.

Yeah I know. But OP didn't mention the file name and Electrum didn't exist in 2010 so I'm assuming that it can't be Electrum. Of course, you could've imported it there but then Electrum has always maintained backwards compatibility.

I agree, it might just be a fake wallet.dat or electrum.dat for that matter.

[Laborers Reward]

NOT a joke or anything. That's why I'm here... I'm purposefully NOT including the file name.

This is some of the contents of the file.


Created By Insun Kang, Young-Seok Kim, Kyoung-Gu Woo, Heegyu Jin, Kyung-Sub Min, Taewon Lee, Dongseop Kwon, KyungWha Hong, Shin HoChul, Ki Yong Lee, DongJin Choi, Ilhwan Choi, Dongjoon Hyun, Seokjin Hong, Ki Yong Lee, SangJung Woo, Hyoungmin Park, Chuho Chang


Maybe it will jog someone's mind

[Laborers Reward]

Oh, I'm not asking anyone to hack the file or help to hack it. I'm just trying to retrace my steps. I bought it, created a trouble ticket with the exchange (sadly don't remember which one.... really, I've slept since then.) that I bought it from, (to make sure there was more than just a purchase record. See what I did there....) made a backup, put some photos of my kids in the folder with it so that I wouldn't delete it, then made another backup... because hell, we all make mistakes and bloody forget crap. Then joined a mining group with my wife's computer. (this ended up being bad because it steadily got slower over the years and she hated the "fast computer" I bought her) Walked into the living room and announced, "I've taken care of college for our kids." Since then... life kicked me in the sweet spot and memories fade on some of the details. Because, the "devil is in the details." Right Craig Wright? Asshat. Oh, Bitcoin was around $.05 at the time (I put it on a credit card... another source of record) and it has crashed all the way to ~$64,800 since. I guess my kids are going to college.

I'm also pretty certain I know who wrote the bitcoin white paper... and it's not the Asshat CSW.

[CryptoSh1va]

This is some of the contents of the file.

Created By Insun Kang, Young-Seok Kim, Kyoung-Gu Woo, Heegyu Jin, Kyung-Sub Min, Taewon Lee, Dongseop Kwon, KyungWha Hong, Shin HoChul, Ki Yong Lee, DongJin Choi, Ilhwan Choi, Dongjoon Hyun, Seokjin Hong, Ki Yong Lee, SangJung Woo, Hyoungmin Park, Chuho Chang

This is not a wallet file.

[BitMaxz]

NOT a joke or anything. That's why I'm here... I'm purposefully NOT including the file name.

This is some of the contents of the file.


Created By Insun Kang, Young-Seok Kim, Kyoung-Gu Woo, Heegyu Jin, Kyung-Sub Min, Taewon Lee, Dongseop Kwon, KyungWha Hong, Shin HoChul, Ki Yong Lee, DongJin Choi, Ilhwan Choi, Dongjoon Hyun, Seokjin Hong, Ki Yong Lee, SangJung Woo, Hyoungmin Park, Chuho Chang


Maybe it will jog someone's mind

If that's the content of the wallet file you have like CryptoSh1va said it's not the wallet file for Electrum.

Look at this old decrypted wallet file I have generated from Electrum below.



This should be the Electrum wallet file and this must be the content including the public, master private keys, and seed phrases.

[HCP]

Description of Problem:                                         Attempted restore fails. Error: Cannot load wallet(1): UnicodeDecodeError('UTF-8', )............    then a bunch of what looks like header information. \x00\x10\x80\

This is generally a sign that the wallet you are attempting to open is not an Electrum wallet... or it is severely corrupted.

This is some of the contents of the file.


Created By Insun Kang, Young-Seok Kim, Kyoung-Gu Woo, Heegyu Jin, Kyung-Sub Min, Taewon Lee, Dongseop Kwon, KyungWha Hong, Shin HoChul, Ki Yong Lee, DongJin Choi, Ilhwan Choi, Dongjoon Hyun, Seokjin Hong, Ki Yong Lee, SangJung Woo, Hyoungmin Park, Chuho Chang

And this is 100% a sign that the file you are attempting to open is not an Electrum wallet file... or a Bitcoin Core wallet.dat file either.

As far as I can tell... you seem to have an "Ace.dat" file... which seems to be linked to Samsung Smart TVs, PVRs and Cameras... for example:

The "database" folder contains only 2 files: ace.dat and ace.log. The two files are binary. Ace.dat starts with:
AceDB Created By Insun Kang, Young-Seok Kim, Kyoung-Gu Woo, Heegyu Jin, Kyung-Sub Min, Taewon Lee, Dongseop Kwon, KyungWha Hong, Shin HoChul, Ki Yong Lee, DongJin Choi, Ilhwan Choi, Dongjoon Hyun, Seokjin Hong, Ki Yong Lee, SangJung Woo, Hyoungmin Park, Chuho Chang

I suspect it is part of a Samsung proprietary "video" encoder.


Where exactly did you get this ".dat" file from? Did you do some data recovery on an old USB stick or something?

[Laborers Reward]

HCP

  That is the same one that I found on the web... and NO! It is not he answer. I personally labeled it "ACE.dat" because it was the "ACE" up my sleeve. The post that you found is the same one I found. There is only ONE result with that SPECIFIC information on the ENTIRE WEB!!! So, HCP... you fail. But, thank you for taking any amount of time to try and help me. I know helping people try to recover from their own mistakes takes effort and I am grateful.


But, seriously... I KNOW my file is the right one. I know what, when, and where it was made, encrypted, and placed. I'm working more on this.

Thanks again HCP.

[Btcspot]

 You can email me if you want further help. My email is posted above in this thread. Ill try to see whats up and help. I wont ask for any files sent to me just details. Thanks.

[HCP]

That is the same one that I found on the web... and NO! It is not he answer. I personally labeled it "ACE.dat" because it was the "ACE" up my sleeve. The post that you found is the same one I found. There is only ONE result with that SPECIFIC information on the ENTIRE WEB!!! So, HCP... you fail. But, thank you for taking any amount of time to try and help me. I know helping people try to recover from their own mistakes takes effort and I am grateful.

Well, there is more than one: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22+acedb+Created+By+Insun+Kang%22

Like the TV one... and the one from the German Camera forum: https://www.dslr-forum.de/showpost.php?p=6142405&postcount=34


I honestly don't know what else to say, but if your ace.dat file starts with the information you posted, then it is 100% not a wallet.dat file.

You can see the Abstract for a research paper regarding "AceDB Flashlight" here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0164121209000491

You'll note a couple of the authors are included in that list of names from your ace.dat file: Ki Yong Lee and Kyoung-Gu Woo and that their Bio's indicate they worked for Samsung.

But, seriously... I KNOW my file is the right one. I know what, when, and where it was made, encrypted, and placed. I'm working more on this.

Ok, have fun. That ace.dat is not a wallet.dat file. I can guarantee that 100%. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯