Urgent Help Needed for BRD Wallet Bitcoin Recovery

[SimonsLu]

Hello everyone,

I've been involved with Bitcoin since around 2017, initially buying Bitcoin on exchanges. As my understanding deepened, and I learned about the principle of "not your keys, not your coins," I started looking for a wallet to securely store my Bitcoin. I chose BRD from the bitcoin.org official website due to its simplicity and clarity, making it an ideal choice for my cold wallet. Around 2018, I installed BRD on my old iPhone 6 and generated a 12-word recovery phrase, which I diligently wrote down and kept on paper. Subsequently, I gradually transferred my Bitcoin to this wallet, never spending any of it. During this time, I occasionally logged into the wallet, reassuringly seeing my coins and transaction records.

I can guarantee that my recovery phrase is correct, as I successfully imported it and recovered my Bitcoin on my other old iPhone X using the BRD wallet. Additionally, I have recommended this wallet to numerous friends.

Last year, I heard about BRD being acquired by Coinbase, but I didn't pay much attention, thinking that I could restore my funds anywhere with the 12-word recovery phrase. However, just last week, a friend mentioned that he was unsuccessful in restoring his funds using the BRD recovery phrase in another wallet. This caught my attention, and when I tried to log into the BRD wallet, I encountered a login failure, prompting a mandatory upgrade.

I started using other wallets such as Bither, Coinbase, Unstoppable, Coinomi, Coin Wallet, Electrum, etc., to recover my Bitcoin, but all attempts were unsuccessful. I realized the gravity of the situation.

I have explored almost all the methods mentioned online, indicating that BRD uses the BIP032 m/0H derivation path to generate addresses. I even used wallets supporting modification of the derivation path, but to no avail. I can confirm that my wallet addresses are legacy addresses. I checked the most recent two transactions on the exchange, and I can see my coins associated with the addresses on Blockchair (I can provide details if needed). Unfortunately, I have been unable to recover my addresses using the recovery phrase, and my friend is facing the same issue.

I attempted different derivation paths such as m/0H/1, m/0H/0/, m/0H/0H/, m/44H/0H/0H, etc. I even examined BRD's source code and found that the code also uses m/0H as the derivation path, but all efforts to recover were unsuccessful.

I am under immense stress, and my mental state is deteriorating. My entire wealth is in there. As a HODLer, I have always held onto my Bitcoin, never spending any. However, now it seems that it has all vanished into thin air. Even as a cryptocurrency enthusiast preaching the virtues of decentralization, my faith is shaken. I used to evangelize Bitcoin to others, and now I find myself in this unfortunate situation.
I am reaching out to all of you for help. Please, if there's any method or suggestion to recover my Bitcoin, I would be extremely grateful. Thank you all in advance for your assistance.

[OmegaStarScream]

It seems like you've tried pretty much everything I can think of.

But when you say it didn't work, specifically with Electrum. How does that work? did you get different legacy addresses than the ones you were expecting to have? and did you make sure to select BIP39 in "Options"?

This article should explain the process: https://bitcoinelectrum.com/restoring-your-multibithd-wallet-in-electrum/

Make sure you followed everything as described here.

[NotATether]

First of all, relax! BRD Wallet is non-custodial, so the wallet devs or Coinbase cannot move your funds anywhere or change your seed phrase.

Someone else had this problem as you, so first I recommend you read this topic: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5391541

This should help you check if you're getting the right addresses, assuming that you have a few addresses generated by BRD wallet to check against: https://blockpath.com/wallets/local/101?action=appxpub

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/tu6nmj/brd_wallet_closed_12_word_seed_phrase_does_not/

BRD wallet uses the same seed phrase as Electrum - m/0'. Make sure your wallet software is not using m/44'/0'/0' or similar paths! (common error.)

[SimonsLu]

It seems like you've tried pretty much everything I can think of.

But when you say it didn't work, specifically with Electrum. How does that work? did you get different legacy addresses than the ones you were expecting to have? and did you make sure to select BIP39 in "Options"?

This article should explain the process: https://bitcoinelectrum.com/restoring-your-multibithd-wallet-in-electrum/

Make sure you followed everything as described here.

Yes, I have tried this method.

I choose the BIP39 method, and check the legacy address box, and fill the derivation path: m/0', m/0'/0, m/0'/1 and so on

First of all, relax! BRD Wallet is non-custodial, so the wallet devs or Coinbase cannot move your funds anywhere or change your seed phrase.
Someone else had this problem as you, so first I recommend you read this topic: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5391541

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/tu6nmj/brd_wallet_closed_12_word_seed_phrase_does_not/

I have read those two post, I tried the method described there, but it did not work for me.  

[NotATether]

I have read those two post, I tried the method described there, but it did not work for me. 

Do you have any old addresses generated by BRD wallet that you can examine inside the xpub checker site?

[SimonsLu]

I have read those two post, I tried the method described there, but it did not work for me. 

Do you have any old addresses generated by BRD wallet that you can examine inside the xpub checker site?

I have an old addresses, which used in 2018, but it starts with 1xxxx, how can I transfer it to format like this "xpubXXXXX"

[NotATether]

I have read those two post, I tried the method described there, but it did not work for me.  

Do you have any old addresses generated by BRD wallet that you can examine inside the xpub checker site?

I have an old addresses, which used in 2018, but it starts with 1xxxx, how can I transfer it to format like this "xpubXXXXX"

The xpub is generated from your seed phrase.

Download the iancoleman page https://github.com/iancoleman/bip39, disconnect your internet connection and paste the seed phrase inside.

Then go to "Derivation Path" and type in some derivation paths such as m/0', m/0'/0, m/0'/0/0, etc. Repeat until you see your address displayed in the "Derived Addresses" area.

Also maybe you can try importing the seed in bluewallet, some comments on Reddit say it imports better than Coinbase wallet and Electrum.

[SimonsLu]

I have read those two post, I tried the method described there, but it did not work for me.  

Do you have any old addresses generated by BRD wallet that you can examine inside the xpub checker site?

I have an old addresses, which used in 2018, but it starts with 1xxxx, how can I transfer it to format like this "xpubXXXXX"

The xpub is generated from your seed phrase.

Download the iancoleman page https://github.com/iancoleman/bip39, disconnect your internet connection and paste the seed phrase inside.

Then go to "Derivation Path" and type in some derivation paths such as m/0', m/0'/0, m/0'/0/0, etc. Repeat until you see your address displayed in the "Derived Addresses" area.

Also maybe you can try importing the seed in bluewallet, some comments on Reddit say it imports better than Coinbase wallet and Electrum.

I have tried this https://github.com/iancoleman/bip39 tool, and path m/0', m/0'/0', m/0'/0'/0, m/0'/0'/1, m/0'/1/0, m/0'/1/0, etc, non of my address displayer.

That's the things weird, I'm absolutely sure I got the mnemonic right, and my brd wallet can export the same mnemonic on my old phone.

[DaveF]

I have read those two post, I tried the method described there, but it did not work for me. 

Do you have any old addresses generated by BRD wallet that you can examine inside the xpub checker site?

I have an old addresses, which used in 2018, but it starts with 1xxxx, how can I transfer it to format like this "xpubXXXXX"

The xpub is generated from your seed. Use the iancoleman tool as recommended by others to get it.
Unless you changed something the m/0' is the derivation path used by BRD for legacy addresses.

-Dave

[SimonsLu]

I have read those two post, I tried the method described there, but it did not work for me. 

Do you have any old addresses generated by BRD wallet that you can examine inside the xpub checker site?

I have an old addresses, which used in 2018, but it starts with 1xxxx, how can I transfer it to format like this "xpubXXXXX"

The xpub is generated from your seed. Use the iancoleman tool as recommended by others to get it.
Unless you changed something the m/0' is the derivation path used by BRD for legacy addresses.

-Dave

I create this wallet between 2017 later and 2018 middle, I remember BRD wallet did not support custom derivation path.
I and my friend have not recover our bitcoin yet... we have tried every method, I don't konw anybody else have encounter the same problem.

[o_e_l_e_o]

First of all, I would be very cautious importing your seed phrase in to so many different wallets and websites. You are at high risk of it being stolen unless you are doing this all on an airgapped computer.

Secondly, have you tried using the "Detect existing accounts" button on Electrum? If I remember correctly, that worked for another user and it found his BRD wallet account.

I've also read reports of people having success importing BRD seed phrases in to Blue Wallet. You could try that as another option.

[SimonsLu]

First of all, I would be very cautious importing your seed phrase in to so many different wallets and websites. You are st high risk of it being stolen unless you are doing this all on an airgapped computer.

Thank you for your kind reminder.
I know I should not importing seed phrase in so many different wallet, But anyway, I have to try different wallets to recover my bitcoins, and as soon as I find a way to recover, I will transfer them out immediately.

Secondly, have you tried using the "Detect existing accounts" button on Electrum? If I remember correctly, that worked for another user and it found his BRD wallet account.

Every time I tried a different derivative path of BIP039 with Electrum Wallet, I clicked the "Detect existing account" button, but it didn't work.

[NotATether]

I have tried this https://github.com/iancoleman/bip39 tool, and path m/0', m/0'/0', m/0'/0'/0, m/0'/0'/1, m/0'/1/0, m/0'/1/0, etc, non of my address displayer.

That's the things weird, I'm absolutely sure I got the mnemonic right, and my brd wallet can export the same mnemonic on my old phone.

Can you try the following path (exactly as it is):

m/0 (hardened)/ 0 (NOT hardened)/0 (NOT hardened)?

I saw it in an old reddit post that this used to be the old derivation path: https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/9yibc4/whats_the_brd_wallet_derivation_path/

[SimonsLu]

I have tried this https://github.com/iancoleman/bip39 tool, and path m/0', m/0'/0', m/0'/0'/0, m/0'/0'/1, m/0'/1/0, m/0'/1/0, etc, non of my address displayer.

That's the things weird, I'm absolutely sure I got the mnemonic right, and my brd wallet can export the same mnemonic on my old phone.

Can you try the following path (exactly as it is):

m/0 (hardened)/ 0 (NOT hardened)/0 (NOT hardened)?

I saw it in an old reddit post that this used to be the old derivation path: https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/9yibc4/whats_the_brd_wallet_derivation_path/

Just checked again, and it's still not working

[NotATether]

Just checked again, and it's still not working

Do you still have the old (not updated) BRD Wallet app installed on your phones?

[o_e_l_e_o]

Every time I tried a different derivative path of BIP039 with Electrum Wallet, I clicked the "Detect existing account" button, but it didn't work.

You don't need to enter different paths prior to using "Detect existing accounts" - Electrum will scan the common ones automatically. Was Electrum definitely synced when you did this (green circle in the bottom right)?

BRD wallet uses m/0' for both legacy and sewgit addresses. Import your seed to Electrum, select BIP39, choose legacy, and enter m/0' as the derivation path. In the wallet it creates for you, make sure it is synced as above.

If the wallet is empty, go to the console and enter the following two commands separately:

Code:

wallet.create_new_address(False) for i in range(200)
wallet.create_new_address(True) for i in range(200)

This will generate more receiving and change addresses. Let those sync too. If still empty, check the wallet for any historical transactions.

[SimonsLu]

Just checked again, and it's still not working

Do you still have the old (not updated) BRD Wallet app installed on your phones?

Yes, I have one.

[NotATether]

Just checked again, and it's still not working

Do you still have the old (not updated) BRD Wallet app installed on your phones?

Yes, I have one.

Ok, what happens when you try to open it? Since you didn't update the app to the latest version, it should not be bricked. Are you still able to see your addresses and balances? Or is it completely obscured by some network error?

[SimonsLu]

Thank goodness! After several days of effort, researching, studying documentation, and reading code, I finally managed to recover all of my bitcoins. The core issue was indeed related to the mnemonic phrase. Let me recap the key points.

Mnemonic phrases in different languages cannot be directly converted. I had mistakenly believed that I could convert mnemonic phrases between different languages using the word list index provided by https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/b1791c24aa163eb6578d0bfaadcf44997484eeaf/bip-0039/bip-0039-wordlists.md.

This turned out to be the crux of the matter. Since most wallets only support English mnemonic phrases, and mine was in Chinese, my attempts to replace it with English words using the index and trying different derivation paths were unsuccessful. Upon revisiting the https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/b1791c24aa163eb6578d0bfaadcf44997484eeaf/bip-0039.mediawiki mnemonic specification, I realized that the index was only meant for checksum verification. The actual seed calculation involves treating the original mnemonic phrase as a string. Identifying this core issue, I used the https://github.com/iancoleman/bip39 (offline) tool to convert my Chinese mnemonic phrase into the BIP032 standard with a custom derivation path (m/0'/0). I saw my addresses were there, and I knew success was just one step away.

Using the Electrum wallet, I imported the master public key address generated by https://github.com/iancoleman/bip39. However, I still couldn't see the balance, which was puzzling. After examining Electrum's source code (https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/586d3a4361f5dbb9ce9ffdfdfeb276664b5bbfaa/electrum/bip39_recovery.py#L51), I discovered that it automatically adds /0 to the derivation path. Understanding this, all I needed to do was fill in the derivation path as m/0' in https://github.com/iancoleman/bip39, enter the corresponding public key (xpubxxx) into Electrum, and finally, I could see the transaction history. With this, I've successfully recovered the bitcoins I lost.

I believe there are probably many others like me who think that mnemonic phrases in different languages can be converted. Moreover, most wallets on the market only support English mnemonic phrases, and this is the core issue.

Here, I express my gratitude for all the help provided. By sharing my experience, I hope to assist more people who might encounter similar challenges.

[NotATether]

Very good! I suspected that the derivation path would be something like that, but I never knew that BRD Wallet let you write mnemonic phrases in different languages.

Mnemonic phrases in different languages cannot be directly converted. I had mistakenly believed that I could convert mnemonic phrases between different languages using the word list index provided by https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/b1791c24aa163eb6578d0bfaadcf44997484eeaf/bip-0039/bip-0039-wordlists.md.

That is a bit strange. So at first you replaced each Chinese word with the english word, line by line?

I'll probably have to re-visit the BIP39 spec to see how exactly it handles different language wordlists.

I am quite surprised in particular at how the Chinese mnemonic only converted correctly to english after using the m/0'/0 path, I mean before using it as an Electrum mnemonic.