Private key of BTC wallet

[Z1pp4]

Hi guys,

A friend of mine just popped into my house yesterday and gave me a piece of paper with a privkey of BTC wallet. The thing is that it is old-washed paper and I can read only the first 9 symbols of this string. Is it possible to retrieve his Bitcoin with only that fraction of a private key (the balance is 1.09BTC)? How long would it take to brute force the rest of the private key?

[mocacinno]

Hi guys,

A friend of mine just popped into my house yesterday and gave me a piece of paper with a privkey of BTC wallet. The thing is that it is old-washed paper and I can read only the first 9 symbols of this string. Is it possible to retrieve his Bitcoin with only that fraction of a private key (the balance is 1.09BTC)? How long would it take to brute force the rest of the private key?

In which format is said private key?
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Private_key

But, truth be told, unless it's in mini private key format, your odds are allmost 0 when you can only read 9 characters... (and even if it's in mini private key format, it'll probably take more time and effort than it's worth... I didn't do the math, but my gut tells me that even in this case, it's allmost impossible)

[LoyceV]

But, truth be told, unless it's in mini private key format, your odds are allmost 0 when you can only read 9 characters... (and even if it's in mini private key format, it'll probably take more time and effort than it's worth... I didn't do the math, but my gut tells me that even in this case, it's allmost impossible)

Even if it's a mini-private-key, it's impossible to brute-force from 9 characters.

The thing is that it is old-washed paper and I can read only the first 9 symbols of this string.

You'll need to find a way to read the other characters. Try bright light, adjust the contrast on pictures, or get a microscope to look for damaged paper fibers. Okay, I admit, I made up that last one, I have no idea if that's possible, but it's more likely than brute-forcing the private key.

Is it possible to retrieve his Bitcoin with only that fraction of a private key (the balance is 1.09BTC)? How long would it take to brute force the rest of the private key?

Without doing the math, it's safe to say it will take forever and cost much more energy than 1.09BTC is worth.

[mendace]

Well in the meantime we should understand if the seed is 12 or 24. If it were 12 it could take a long time but maybe with a bit of luck it would be plausible if it were 24... well if it were 24 you could try praying.  However, if the other characters were present but not readable, perhaps with some tests such as those of TV series such as CSI it would be possible to recover the sentence.  Try posting a picture of just one damaged font, so maybe we can gauge how bad it is.  Only one character not the whole sheet.

[hosemary]

Well in the meantime we should understand if the seed is 12 or 24.

OP is talking about a private key and that's different from a seed phrase.
Th most common format of a private key is WIF and that includes 51 or 52 characters. Even if the private key OP is trying to find is a mini-private key, it would include 22 or 30 characters and as mentioned by mocacinno and LoyceV, that can't be brute-forced.

please contact me

OP, anyone sending you a personal message to help you find your private key or asking you to send/him a personal message is a scammer.

[nc50lc]

The thing is that it is old-washed paper and I can read only the first 9 symbols of this string.

But since it's not torn, the rest are still barely visible, yes?

If so, you may be able to lower the characters to bruteforce by guessing the possible washed-out characters.
Depending on the condition, you may be able to minimize it to a doable difficulty.

For example: a small circular washed-out character could be an 'a', 'o' or 'c'.
Then when bruteforcing the private key, input those as the possible characters of that specific place.
The issue is, I don't know any private key bruteforcing tool that does that so you might have to search for one yourself of find someone to code it for you.

If it's totally unrecognizable, then there's no chance to bruteforce it.

[mendace]

Well in the meantime we should understand if the seed is 12 or 24.

OP is talking about a private key and that's different from a seed phrase.
Th most common format of a private key is WIF and that includes 51 or 52 characters. Even if the private key OP is trying to find is a mini-private key, it would include 22 or 30 characters and as mentioned by mocacinno and LoyceV, that can't be brute-forced.

oh fuck...i didn't read private key and my mind automatically deduced that it was a pass phrase...you're damn right.  So here things change a bit and only prayer remains as an option.

[Coding Enthusiast]

The issue is, I don't know any private key bruteforcing tool that does that so you might have to search for one yourself of find someone to code it for you.

The feature to limit search space when recovering Base58 inputs was added to FinderOuter in version 0.15.0.

[digaran]

Take a picture from only the half of the paper and post it here, no one can help you based on speculations, we need to see what you are up against.

I said we, not that I am an expert or anything, figure speech.

[Stalker22]

How long would it take to brute force the rest of the private key?

Unfortunately, recovering the full private key with just the first 9 symbols is highly unlikely. Since the amount is not negligible, It would be a good idea to look for a paper and document restoration or forensic laboratory in your local area that specializes in handling situations like this. They might have the expertise and tools to assist with reading the other characters from the damaged paper. Reading other characters from paper might be easier than attempting to brute force the missing characters of the private key. Good luck!

[nc50lc]

The issue is, I don't know any private key bruteforcing tool that does that so you might have to search for one yourself of find someone to code it for you.

The feature to limit search space when recovering Base58 inputs was added to FinderOuter in version 0.15.0.

That's great news for OP.
However, I can't seem to find an option limit the search space of each specific position; the feature seem to affect all of the MissingChar symbol.

[Cricktor]

The thing is that it is old-washed paper and I can read only the first 9 symbols of this string.

You'll need to find a way to read the other characters. Try bright light, adjust the contrast on pictures, or get a microscope to look for damaged paper fibers. Okay, I admit, I made up that last one, I have no idea if that's possible, but it's more likely than brute-forcing the private key.

It's actually what I would try to do: use a microscope and inspect the washed out area very carefully. You don't need a lot of magnification, the ability to look at different angles on the inspection area is sometimes more important that magnification. What kind of forces did the writing tip excert to the paper, are traces of that still visible on the paper fibers. That's a reasonable approach in my opinion.

In the end it comes down to what treatment of the paper caused the wash-out. Was it unstable colors, sunlight exposure? Did some sort of friction on the paper make any color deposit be rubbed away?

Trying to get as much of details off the paper is still a better route than trying to bruteforce into the unknown.

[Lucius]

If OP fails in any of the proposed ways to get the private key, there are also companies that deal with it professionally, and as far as I have seen, they achieve very good results even with documents that are quite damaged or the ink has faded to make it look to the human eye that there is almost nothing on paper.

Of course, such a procedure has a price, but considering that it is 1.09 BTC which today is worth $33k+, here we are talking about something that can easily be worth five times more in the next few years.

[Z1pp4]

Take a picture from only the half of the paper and post it here, no one can help you based on speculations, we need to see what you are up against.

I said we, not that I am an expert or anything, figure speech.

Sorry, but for security reasons I will not post any images. I have tried a mini microscope, increasing resolution, sharpness, and all the other stuff and I can't see anything. I know for sure that this is a WIF prvkey with 51 symbols as it starts with 5.

The issue is, I don't know any private key bruteforcing tool that does that so you might have to search for one yourself of find someone to code it for you.

The feature to limit search space when recovering Base58 inputs was added to FinderOuter in version 0.15.0.

Could you please tell me more about it? I am not a computer geek.

Mod note: consecutive posts merged

[nc50lc]

The issue is, I don't know any private key bruteforcing tool that does that so you might have to search for one yourself of find someone to code it for you.

The feature to limit search space when recovering Base58 inputs was added to FinderOuter in version 0.15.0.

Could you please tell me more about it? I am not a computer geek.

Coding Enthusiast's reply is based from my suggestion to limit the search space of each position;
however, given your reply above that you can't see anything, my suggestion won't be feasible anymore.

Moreover, the current version of finder-outer do not have that specific option as you can see in my reply to that post (#13).

[Zoomic]

Take a picture from only the half of the paper and post it here, no one can help you based on speculations, we need to see what you are up against.

I said we, not that I am an expert or anything, figure speech.

Sorry, but for security reasons I will not post any images. I have tried a mini microscope, increasing resolution, sharpness, and all the other stuff and I can't see anything. I know for sure that this is a WIF prvkey with 51 symbols as it starts with 5.

It is all your choice, if actually you tried mini microscope and you could not discover anything, what other privacy issues are we talking about in an issue that cannot be viewed. Even if it could be readable, the pixels will reduce when captured with a camera.
Meanwhile, many people here think it's a seed phrase not knowing it's a long string of alphabets and numbers.

[Coding Enthusiast]

The issue is, I don't know any private key bruteforcing tool that does that so you might have to search for one yourself of find someone to code it for you.

The feature to limit search space when recovering Base58 inputs was added to FinderOuter in version 0.15.0.

That's great news for OP.
However, I can't seem to find an option limit the search space of each specific position; the feature seem to affect all of the MissingChar symbol.

Sorry for the late reply.
When you want to modify the search space you have to set the whole space for each missing position but it is easy to set the other positions to "All" by only pressing a button and only limit what you want by manually adding characters or removing the extra ones.

For example lets say we want to recover these two missing characters in "L53fCHmQhbNp1B4JipfBtfeHZH7cAibzG9oK*9Xf*FzxHgAkz6JK" and you know the first one looks like "1" but you have no idea what the second one is. After clicking "Start" (to process the key and initiate the arrays) you enter "1" in the textbox and press "Similar letter" button so the list can be populated with "1" and "L", then you can continue modifying this list by adding or removing characters if you don't like the suggestions.
Then you move to the next position by pressing the ">" button and repeat the same thing. Here you simply click the "Add all" button to populate the list with all 58 characters.
When you are done setting the search space you finally click Find.

[nc50lc]

-snip-

Okay, so that how it works.
Honestly, the GUI for the "limit search space" is hard to navigate and understand compared to using commands.

Although it can't be used by OP due to his recent reply,
I'd keep a bookmark of this in case I need to recommend your tool to other users with the same problems.

[PawGo]

If you have 9 characters only, we may say it is undoable.
 If it was a paper wallet, chances could be increased by (even partial) QR code etc, but knowing only 1/5 of the private key makes problem unsolvable.

[ripemdhash]

If you have 9 characters only -> we can make a lot.

publish the address first then we can talk. I can help