Bitcoin recovery got me banned on reddit?

[FastWalletRecovery]

I've spent the last 4-5 months working on some software to recover a bitcoin wallet I lost the password to many years ago.  It is more advanced than anything I've seen available on the public internet.  It uses hashcat on the backend, and I've currently tested about 20 billion passwords.

Since I've spent so much time setting it up, I figured why not offer to help others in my situation?  My offer was going to be send me your hash, and I'll try to crack it for free. To gain some trust, anyone could send me an empty wallet hash with less than 50 million or so possible combinations, and I'd send them the password back. If it was a 'real' wallet, I wouldn't have it anyway.

I realize there are probably a lot of scams out there, and I would be getting password information that might be related to other accounts they have. Before sending a hash, anyone should make sure all their other account passwords have been changed to something completely unrelated.

My reddit account got banned as soon as I posted a guide to my own user account page.

Is there any way I could gain trust around this? I wouldn't be able to run it for free forever as GPU time isn't cheap, but I thought asking for whatever donation the user wanted after a successful recovery could offset the costs.

Any thoughts on this?  I created a domain specific language for specifying password combinations that took months to get right.  I feel like it could be more useful than just being used for my wallet.

Anyway, I hope I'm not breaking any rules here.  Just looking for feedback.

[cryptoaddictchie]

Is there any way I could gain trust around this? I wouldn't be able to run it for free forever as GPU time isn't cheap, but I thought asking for whatever donation the user wanted after a successful recovery could offset the costs.

Since you posted here the only way users will trust you is to gain reputation here. You dont just run a business ( micro sideline) involving funds without trust rating here.

Any thoughts on this?  I created a domain specific language for specifying password combinations that took months to get right.  I feel like it could be more useful than just being used for my wallet.

Anyway, I hope I'm not breaking any rules here.  Just looking for feedback.

This is useful and could help a lot of users provided you could clear the first issue which is hard to obtain (trust).

[FastWalletRecovery]

That's the real trick isn't it. How do you gain trust without being a regular member of a forum? I don't have a lot of involvement with bitcoin these days, but I was a major enthusiast back in 2011-2012.

My hope is that by offering a free service that doesn't require any trust (get a password back from a wallet hash) I could build some.

Obviously in this case the possible passwords would need to be far removed from anything still used for active accounts, but in that case I don't see much risk?

Like I said, I've put a lot of time into it so I'd like to use it for more than my own wallet, but I'm very aware that there are many scammers so it's not even easy to give something away for free.

[nc50lc]

My hope is that by offering a free service that doesn't require any trust (get a password back from a wallet hash) I could build some.

That's a good start; not requiring the actual wallet file and a free service.
But make sure that most conversations are public except from messages containing the hash and partial possible passwords.

A sudden reply that says "Thank you for your help" wont gain you any reputation but doubts specially if it's from a newbie.

Also, make sure to post it in the correct board so it wont be deleted.
If it's about Bitcoin, post it in "Services" board: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=52.0
BTW, scammers aren't being banned here, they are "tagged" with negative trust rating and/or their service topics flagged with a warning.

[Upgrade00]

I've spent the last 4-5 months working on some software to recover a bitcoin wallet I lost the password to many years ago. 
<snip>
Since I've spent so much time setting it up, I figured why not offer to help others in my situation?

And you were able to recover the lost wallet from several years with the software you developed and access to just the hash?

That's the real trick isn't it. How do you gain trust without being a regular member of a forum? I don't have a lot of involvement with bitcoin these days, but I was a major enthusiast back in 2011-2012.

To run that service you will need to be somewhat active here and get involved with the community. That's how you build reputation, contribute regularly, offer value and keep your end of every bargain you get into.

[Learn Bitcoin]

Since I've spent so much time setting it up, I figured why not offer to help others in my situation?

I have the same question as Upgrade00,
Were you able to recover your wallet or others' wallets so far? Would you like to test this with others' wallets?
I know there is nothing you can do to prove your claims, but you can tell us if you are successful or not. I am unsure if many people come to this forum to look for this kind of help. Even if someone looks for your help, I doubt they would believe you. Did you think anything to prove your claims that you are trustworthy and you can help?

You could start a paid service thread with some funds in escrow so members can trust you. For example, you would escrow 0.01 BTC and start recovering a wallet with around the same balance; once you complete the recovery and send the funds to the account owner, you will get your service fee and your escrowed fund. I can think of that when dealing with a newbie forum member. BTW, there are a couple of trusted members who provide escrow services.

[Crypt0Gore]

You guys won't probably like what I am about to say.

If all it requires to get a lost bitcoin wallet is the hash then you won't be here, by saying hash do you mean the transaction hash or what? Hash function?

This is very hard to believe.

Hash isn't private key and if you can break into a bitcoin wallet using the hash then we are all in trouble, meaning no bitcoin wallet is safe.

Hash and Private key should have been what users are supposed to held tight and never let go.

[ABCbits]

--snip--
My reddit account got banned as soon as I posted a guide to my own user account page.

Is there any way I could gain trust around this? I wouldn't be able to run it for free forever as GPU time isn't cheap, but I thought asking for whatever donation the user wanted after a successful recovery could offset the costs.

Any thoughts on this?  I created a domain specific language for specifying password combinations that took months to get right.  I feel like it could be more useful than just being used for my wallet.
--snip--

I've seen people getting banned from specific subreddit, but it's rare to see someone banned from reddit altogether. But looking at https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360045734511-My-account-was-banned-for-violating-Reddit-s-rules, you could try ban appeal. Although it's weird you're only allowed to make an appeal 6 months after being banned.

As for getting trust, i think you could only try sharing your program on different community. Just make sure you explain it clearly. Making it open-source (with open source license) probably can help getting trust faster.

You guys won't probably like what I am about to say.

If all it requires to get a lost bitcoin wallet is the hash then you won't be here, by saying hash do you mean the transaction hash or what? Hash function?

This is very hard to believe.

Hash isn't private key and if you can break into a bitcoin wallet using the hash then we are all in trouble, meaning no bitcoin wallet is safe.

Hash and Private key should have been what users are supposed to held tight and never let go.

Sorry, but it means you're not very familiar with brute-forcing wallet file. In this context, hash represent hashed password used to encrypt/decrypt the wallet file. Here's an example guide which extract hash from wallet file and use it to brute-force wallet, https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5309200.msg56090168#msg56090168.

[Pmalek]

No one here can help you with unbanning your reddit account or gaining trust on reddit and other social media. But you could try and build trust on Bitcointalk.
It has already been proposed to you to create a thread in the Services board and explain exactly what you can do, how it works, and what you need to get successful results. After that, request that people create new and empty wallets and give you the hash. Don't ask for wallets with bitcoin in them. You are brand-new and people won't be pleased reading that. If you are successful in brute forcing the passwords, I am sure that members we trust will post about it in your thread. You could then create your own website and offer your services, buy advertising, etc.

[Cricktor]

Is this some closed-source project of OP? It sounds like you invested quite some time to develop your tools.

As I understand it, mainly for your personal recovery project, which doesn't seem to be recovered yet. You would've told us to emphasize the quality of your toolset over publicly available tools, wouldn't you?

Gaining trust won't be easy, especially when your account is pretty new.

I'm curious, what makes your toolset superior over known public tools? What exactly do we compare here?

[Mr.right85]

When it comes to wallets and those having some value in it, it’s with extreme caution but yeah, there are those that are in this situation for real and also, there are those that would want to take advantage of this to hack the wallet of other genuine users out there.
That’s what makes this some worth challenging and probably the reason why you got your account banned on Reddit.

Is there any way I could gain trust around this? I wouldn't be able to run it for free forever as GPU time isn't cheap, but I thought asking for whatever donation the user wanted after a successful recovery could offset the costs.

Since you posted here the only way users will trust you is to gain reputation here. You dont just run a business ( micro sideline) involving funds without trust rating here.

Gaining trust here is the first step towards any form of positive development that might emanate from OP as, everyone is obviously under a watchful eye for some maliciousness until proven otherwise.

[FastWalletRecovery]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm not too worried about my reddit account. I was just surprised that it was banned as soon as I posted *on my own account page* about bitcoin recovery services.

To answer some questions:
- No, I have not cracked my own password yet. I've tested the software, and it's generating passwords the way I intend it to. I'm doing small runs of 5-10 billion passwords, and modifying the parameters after each run.  The password is 20-30 characters long, so doing a straight brute force is impossible.  I'm afraid I might not ever find it, but it isn't because my software isn't working.

- The way my password recovery tool works depends on knowing pieces of the password and possible variations. It's probably not any better than other proprietary services, but it's better than anything I've found on the public internet. I'm a programmer, and trying to explain how the pieces of my password fit together felt like writing a program. So I did that instead of using a wallet recovery service. In the process I created a language/format for specifying pieces of a password with varying probabilities, and generating the ones with the highest probabilities first.

- This is currently a closed source tool for a few reasons. Without documentation, it would be completely unusable to anyone else. The translation of a password guess description into the domain specific language that the tool uses would take a bit of work and deep knowledge of how the tool works. The infrastructure to set up the password cracking would be expensive and complex. It's not just a program running on one machine. Also, I've put a lot of work into it, and I don't feel like just giving it away at the moment. Yes, I have contributed to other open source projects.

- Regarding the password hash, ABCbits is correct. The password is stored as a hash, and if you know the algorithm to generate the hash, you run as many passwords as you want through that algorithm to see if you get a match.  It's a completely different thing than the private keys. I made a guide for extracting the hash on windows without having to deal with installing anything. I'll probably post that when I find the appropriate place on the board.

I'm planning on making a post to the services board with a better write-up. Thanks for the advice and feedback. I probably need to make it clear that it's not a service to brute-force an unknown password, but a specialized algorithm for testing the best passwords based on some known information. In the meantime, if anyone wants to send me an empty wallet hash, feel free.

[Saint-loup]

It's interesting but which wallet are you talking about precisely? Any Bitcoin wallet? You mean you are able to extract password hashcodes of any Bitcoin wallet software? On which operating systems precisely? Windows, Linux and MacOS? Are you able to do it for smartphone wallets on Android devices and Iphones?  Are you using rainbow tables to crack more efficiently those hashcodes precisely or you are using another method for that?

[FastWalletRecovery]

So far I've only tested it on password protected bitcoin core wallets, but in theory it would work on other wallets if a password hash can be extracted. The script to extract the hash is https://github.com/openwall/john/blob/bleeding-jumbo/run/bitcoin2john.py which I did not create. In the same repository it looks like there are scripts that can extract electrum, cardano, ethereum, and other non wallet hashes like apple notes. If there is interest, I could very easily support these other wallets. However, I haven't even gotten interest in bitcoin wallets so far, so it's not a high priority.

These scripts are written in python, and should be able to run on any system with python installed (Windows, Linux, or MacOS). I've also found a self-contained python executable for windows that doesn't require installation: https[Suspicious link removed]/releases. I would not be the one extracting the hash, that would be up to the person in posession of the wallet file.  If the wallet could be extracted from a phone, and there is a script to support it, that would work too.

My software has been tested on Windows and Linux. In theory it should run on MacOS too. I'm not using rainbow tables, I'm using GPU's to generate the hashes. Every hashing algorithm is different, and takes varying amounts of processing power. On bitcoin core wallets I can test several thousand hashes a second. This can be scaled up, but I'm paying for cloud GPU time by the hour.

Edit: it looks like it removed my link, "github.com / manthey / pyexe / releases". I'm not sure why it got flagged as suspicious.

[examplens]

..

I'm a little surprised that you're surprised because you were banned from Reddit (or even the link removed) when you offered password-hacking services. Even if you presented it as some kind of white hack.
What if there was a wallet with 1000 BTC in it, would you just pass on the password or would you think "Why not solve my life"... Of course, you can make all kinds of promises now, but only if the situation really happened, then they would know what your intentions are.

[FastWalletRecovery]

..

I'm a little surprised that you're surprised because you were banned from Reddit (or even the link removed) when you offered password-hacking services. Even if you presented it as some kind of white hack.
What if there was a wallet with 1000 BTC in it, would you just pass on the password or would you think "Why not solve my life"... Of course, you can make all kinds of promises now, but only if the situation really happened, then they would know what your intentions are.

I wouldn't be able to accesss the bitcoins if I found the password. I would only have access to the hash, with which I can't do anything other than verify that the password I found hashes to the same value.

I wouldn't even be able to tell how many bitcoins were in the wallet or anything else about it.

[BitMaxz]

Have you ever tried to check the private message from Reddit to know the cause of why your account was banned?

Most recovery services that are posted on Reddit are a scams maybe someone reported you or maybe you got automatically banned? Reddit has an automated tool to ban users if detects that you posted something that is against the rules you will be automatically suspended.

If I were you try to open an appeal and request for a manual review of what you posted.

I think the reason why you banned it is because of the keyword "Bitcoin recovery service". There are lots of scammers posting the same service if you use the same keyword you might be automatically suspended Requesting for appeal and manual review help you to unban your account and tell them that you are not promoting something that can harm people and tell them it's free service and then let the modsupport review your post.

[Kakmakr]

I think your service are automatically raising suspicion with the moderators, because there are so many of these services that are a scam. They promise to "brute force" the password and they ask for some "startup" fee to do this and then you never hear from them again.

Most of the "legit" operators have built a reputation over many years, by charging ZERO fees at the start of their business and then gaining a good reputation and some valid reviews from the people they helped.

Good luck, you are entering a scene with a very bad reputation.... and you will have to piss against a rock for years to get through to people.