Early Bitcoin Wallet - Help Needed - Advice Appreciated

[Mushai]

https://web.archive.org/web/20110926000124/http://www.strongcoin.com:80/blog/using_a_book_cipher_to_generate_bitcoin_addresses

Just another approach to creating a brain wallet. Take some words, sha256 them, get a private key.

(edit: alright then. back on the handle i was flying off)

[theunionjack]

Nah not referring to you bro just Breva223 & his Potato mate. Relax.

Till I was sent that link yesterday didn't feel I had seen the right information to warrant making an attempt on the 2010 wallet. As you are probably aware bitcoin cracked 150k AUD today so I've changed it up a bit & going to look at the 2013 wallet first.

Last couple of days I've spent getting the Alienware laptop to where it needs to be to run Armoury along side Bitcoin Core in an offline environment. There's been a few hiccups along the way but I'm working on it as best I can.

I'm sure it must be frustrating how slow I am to progress but imagine for a second you were in my position first you havent turned on a computer in 10 years, you've forgotten everything you knew about BTC & working off vague memories from something that happened 14 years ago.

Quick search of "book ciphers" lead to the "cypherpunk" term which is definitely something I remember. It's taken awhile but fairly confident I'm on the right track & going about this the right way.

[breva223]

PGP keys bitcoin addresses same shit different day. There a private & public component to both. Don't really plan on trying much till I'm confident I understand what I'm doing & I am comfortable with every step of the process just incase heaven forbid I prove you wrong & manage to regenerate a wallet from 2010 (- to who really cares).

First bitcoin that got mined made the news. The following year first bitcoin transaction. If you are under the impression that the major news organisation in Australia with a brand spanking new subscription based digital website isn't dragging whatever content they can from other news based websites around the world you are sadly mistaken.

In relation to darknet markets i used Agora & some other one i forget. Dream was another one that was around at the time or not long after. For the wallet side of things just MtGox via international bank transfer. Got all the PGP keys still plus the Amoury wallet from March 2013. Ive shown two people on here already. Didnt even know it existed till about a month ago. Had completely forgetten it but thats beside the point.

Usually I wouldn't bother trying to justify myself to clowns like you but after today's events just I can't resist. Have a quick read of the following link. My guess is you will probably disappear never to be heard of again but could be wrong.

https://web.archive.org/web/20110926000124/http://www.strongcoin.com:80/blog/using_a_book_cipher_to_generate_bitcoin_addresses

I find it mildly amusing you got "merit" from your little side kick for your special comments. Would love to hear from you two again. Least you could do is wish me luck. 😘

oh jesus christ, Book ciphers came out later for btc and its not what this is.  That site you were sent was dated 23 September 11, so again, you can not have created a wallet in 2010 with 8 words and password.  As Ive said, you didnt create a wallet the way YOU think you did, dont care what you believe, it never happened the way you think it did. So we can move on with this garbage cos it never happened.   LOL first btc made news did it ? lolol just stop it, it didnt. 

Do you know the btc address you think is yours ? post it up, so we can have a look.  Any transactions going out ?  if no transactions have gone out, then you never used it.  What did you use for the dark net markets that came out from 2011 ? dream came out late 2013 btw lmao.  Bit weird

You wont prove me wrong.  Laughable statement from a computer illiterate. You are still getting confused with btc and pgp keys ffs.   Thats why I got merit little man. Knowing my shit. You are going around in circles convincing yourself and others of shit that isnt true, suppose its what happens when you are blinded by greed and think you are a crypto millionaire.  Good luck for what exactly ?

[theunionjack]

Early wallets were brainwallets & paperwallets. Not much difference between a brainwallet & book cipher wallet. What interesting is SHA256 & Base16/58 were used to create a private key & 64 hexidecial which I guess proves you wrong.

I created the wallet using 8 words & a password. The site I was sent may have been sent in 2011 but it closely resembles what I described in the very first post. It just doesnt factor in the password unless that is a 9th word. GPG is also mention in that link so really it ticks almost all the boxes.

Bitcoin made the news within a couple of weeks after the pizzas were purchased. Transaction probably took place within 4 - 8 mounths max after reading the story. Why you would bother arguing those points is beyond me. Sounds to me like you don't know shit about much ya potato.

My guess is I got a BTC guide for creaing private keys from a document download on either The Pirate Bay or Kickass Torrents. From there just followed the instructions.

The coins in the first wallet in question were never touched after the purchase. Coins went in & never went out. My best guess after checking the dormant wallet list is this wallet...

https://bitinfocharts.com/bitcoin/address/19DdkMxutkLGY67REFPLu51imfxG9CUJLD?__cf_chl_tk=5bHtsgueoVwxh.xwncpMeg7IdlDgeN.FOkc.stXyo98-1729040590-1.0.1.1-mc9Y9DU9BCxIix_OdpTca20a36vf7sqz5.8TjTqwxio

Probably best you jog on. Evidently you are no expert on early wallets but I'm sure there are plenty of places to talk smack for know it all sad kunts like you. Its just not needed here.

Do you think you can dig up some of the stuff you're talking about from some of your storage media and/or storage devices? Like the guide you remember to have read?

This may lead you to more or other clues or to some sort of source of what was used in the past.

It could also be that there's some description in this forum. It's just buried somewhere. Clever use of search keywords can do magic... (try ninjastic.space, it's friendlier to search the forum there than with the forum's own search).

Your coins don't run away, you have all the time nature grants you.

Done some thinking about this & i'm sure the guide was downloaded off one of the torrent sites in the documents section. Was able to do a search on "Bitcoin" then download the reading material. This was about the only way to find information at the time.

[Cricktor]

~~~

I re-read your initial post as I poorly remembered the premisses. Whatever you did, if you can't find your private key(s) creation recipe or wallet storing your keys, I don't know how to proceed without it.

https://bitinfocharts.com/bitcoin/address/19DdkMxutkLGY67REFPLu51imfxG9CUJLD?__cf_chl_tk=5bHtsgueoVwxh.xwncpMeg7IdlDgeN.FOkc.stXyo98-1729040590-1.0.1.1-mc9Y9DU9BCxIix_OdpTca20a36vf7sqz5.8TjTqwxio

What's the purpose of this? Looks to me like you're just guessing some random dormant public address from 2010 with a conveniently high amount of coins. The history of the initial funding of this address doesn't look much like what you're talking about all the time.

I would summarize the situation like this:

• you barely have any useful documentation or simply can't find it about what you did in 2010
• it seems you don't even know the public address(es) where your coins sit, if they exist
• no backups, no computer from that time anymore, just vague memories
• if you had Bitcoins, maybe even a substantial number, you certainly didn't treat them "well" because: where's your wallet, your public addresses at least? Where are all details to recover it or pull it from reasonable backups? You seem to have nothing.

I might've missed something, but that's not a promissing starting point. And even if you find this USB thumbdrive, it could be difficult to read something off it, when it hasn't been used for more than a decade. The cheap USB shit doesn't get the premium flash chips, though my assumption may just be a bit biased that you used cheap USB thumbdrives. Apparently it wasn't stored in a way to reliably retrieve it. Flash storage isn't made to reliably hold its data for decades.

... & i'm sure the guide was downloaded off one of the torrent sites in the documents section.

Why a "torrent" for a rather short document? This doesn't make much sense to me. Which "documents section" are you talking about?

[theunionjack]

Found this last night. Its the closet ive come to being able to generate keys the way i've described but it uses an email address instead of a password.

https://keybase.io/warp/warp_1.0.9_SHA256_a2067491ab582bde779f4505055807c2479354633a2216b22cf1e92d1a6e4a87.html

There used to be different tabs you could select, if you want movies could search for movies, if you want games, search for games, if you wanted documents serach for documents etc. I'll have a quick look now & see if its still possible.

So to do it I connected to a VPN in Japan, got to the The Pirate Bay home screen. Selected "other" rather than "audio, video, applications, games & porn". Then typed bitcoin into the sereach field then a series of ebooks show up including A Beginners Guide to Bitcoin by Matthew R Kratter & Bitcoin For Dummies ebook further down the page. 😂😂😂

Don't even think books were a thing at the time. Was just PDF of alsorts of random stuff ie, Anarchist Handbook another handbook that probably doesnt need to be mention Uncle Festers guide to whatever it was & much much more.

Had a quick look at The Dummies Guide. Copyrighted in 2016 so the guide I used is years before. Also the guide was super basic nothing like an actual book.

[ABCbits]

Found this last night. Its the closet ive come to being able to generate keys the way i've described but it uses an email address instead of a password.

https://keybase.io/warp/warp_1.0.9_SHA256_a2067491ab582bde779f4505055807c2479354633a2216b22cf1e92d1a6e4a87.html

Looking at WarpWallet GitHub repository[1], the first commit happened on late 2013. But if you're looking for something like that which use password, check bitaddress.org[2].

[1] https://github.com/keybase/warpwallet
[2] https://github.com/pointbiz/bitaddress.org

[theunionjack]

Looking at WarpWallet GitHub repository[1], the first commit happened on late 2013. But if you're looking for something like that which use password, check bitaddress.org[2].

[1] https://github.com/keybase/warpwallet
[2] https://github.com/pointbiz/bitaddress.org
[/quote]

Thanks for that information. I'll have a look & see what I find. 😎

it's fascinating that you might have a dormant wallet address. If you're confident it's yours, tracking that address on the blockchain could help confirm your suspicious. It might even guide you toward tools or services that specialize in recovering old wallets.

Learn more about BTC recover and tools that might help: Bitcoin Recovery Guide

I'll check it out. My sentiments exactly re. "fascinating"... used that exact word when describing the quest to a mate just a couple of days ago. Worth looking into a bit more that's for sure. 🍻

[theunionjack]

it's fascinating that you might have a dormant wallet address. If you're confident it's yours, tracking that address on the blockchain could help confirm your suspicious. It might even guide you toward tools or services that specialize in recovering old wallets.

Learn more about BTC recover and tools that might help: Bitcoin Recovery Guide

I'm still confused but I do know there are multiple P2PKH, PDKDF1 & PDKDF2 options to consider. Just need everyone to agree on the right option then send me a link or program so i can try it & see what happens when attempting to get to the address above starting with a 1. 😂😂😂

This is the latest advice from a mate but  ot so sure it want to use some dodgy internet program. 🫤

________________________________________

https://www.freecodeformat.com/pbkdf2.php

I had a look at the forum  when I got some time.  Got side tracked when my kid smashed a window when I was typing this. Anyway...open up Firefox and open a new tab so you have two open. Open one up to https://www.freecodeformat.com/pbkdf2.php

And the other one bitaddress.org
In this tab
Click on wallet and now go offline.  

Go back to the first tab
 
Put in your words. Set it to 256. Your password as salt and set iterations to 1(doesn’t matter) that should generate the master key hex thing.  This will generate one either way. So will have to check it.  With bitaddress The site will try and generate a new account so just go through it until it’s done. But on the wallet screen you’ve got a spot to put the private key.  Put the hex you got from the other site and paste it in.    This should create the public and private keys for that hex.  Then check the btc address if it is the same as the one you think is yours.

Its a easy process so it sounds more complicated than it is.

_________________________________________

🫤🫤🫤

[bulleteyedk]

I've been chatting with OP via mail from time to time since he posted this thread.

I did mention early on in this thread that I would make sure the harddrives was secured forensic correct into images to work from.
Also doing this would make it much easier to search through both images with forensic tools, both in the logical area, but also in unallocated areas.

It should be possible to find missing pieces of information, if this is done correct with the right tools.

Since i've been working with IT forensics for 10+ years, I reached out to OP via mail, as I really wanted to make sure OP would'nt neglect the importance of doing the forensic process correct, also I've offered to help him with parsing and searching the harddrives once secured into images.

I know this is a matter of trust, and I've provided OP with some personal and job information from my side, as a proof of being real with no bad intentions.

We have had some chats via mail for some time, about the situation, and what steps to do and so on, but since OP have several other private mail chats going on, he really wants to move it all into the thread for transparency and for others to also comment on.

For now OP really want's to try some of the solutions others have come up with, having help with forensic tools will be a "last resort" thing, as i've understand.

[theunionjack]

OP's trying to live his best life & trying to solve this riddle sametime.

Got another programmer mate helping me out now & making some progress. Anywhoo special thanks to those who have been putting up with my nonsense. I'm a man of my word & you will be compensated.

Now for the latest new folks. Has to go on the forum...

What you're doing is using a password-based KDF (key derivation function) to generate a 256-bit number (which is ultimately all a Bitcoin private key really is: just a 256-bit number [1]), and then
using that number to generate a Bitcoin address.

The thing to be aware of with a process like this is that there are lots of degrees of freedom:

(*) The capitalization and spacing of your 8 words (and, obviously, the spelling and the order).

(*) The choice of KDF algorithm (PBKDF2, scrypt, etc.)

(*) The KDF's iteration count.

(*) The KDF's salt (which you're using for your password).

(*) The KDF's other parameters (PBKDF2's PRF choice, scrypt's "cost factor", etc.)

If any of the above is slightly off, even in some small way that you wouldn't be able to tell just from looking at the user interface (like whether or not the salt is being used directly, or is being hashed before use), then you'll land on the wrong private key.

For example, using Python interactively:

Code:
>>> import hashlib
>>> hashlib.pbkdf2_hmac('sha256', b'word1 word2 word3 word4 word5 word6 word7 word8', salt=b'password', iterations=10000).hex()
'fbd68e537134cf6c5010bdb735b47f5c225691b2edeb60a429187863268b3959'


But, maybe the tool you used back in ~2010 had an iteration count of 20000 instead of 10000, leading to a completely different private key:

Code:
>>> import hashlib
>>> hashlib.pbkdf2_hmac('sha256', b'word1 word2 word3 word4 word5 word6 word7 word8', salt=b'password', iterations=20000).hex()
'1a119eddcf2cdb9e436e52610b0d9859f883fd8868300d1653063b6e34a66820'


Or maybe it used an iteration count of 10000 but with HMAC-SHA-512 instead of HMAC-SHA-256 as its PRF:

Code:
>>> import hashlib
>>> hashlib.pbkdf2_hmac('sha512', b'word1 word2 word3 word4 word5 word6 word7 word8', salt=b'password', iterations=10000)[:32].hex()
'd20930a0feccd38b09899706017f08e3d2b651156a0f7c75b3dd05204f3648f0'


Actually, working through these examples, maybe the tool you used wasn't making use of any KDF at all, and instead just used HMAC-SHA-256 directly (eliminating the need to have to specify an iteration count):

Code:
>>> import hmac
>>> hmac.digest(b'password', b'word1 word2 word3 word4 word5 word6 word7 word8', 'sha256').hex()
'9f8d5306645d444619ec124f89c2b34c8596b21614c18b3fac72362687fbe0d0'


Anyway, you get the idea.

And, even if you do manage to find the set of choices that lands you on the right private key, if you then mess up the Bitcoin address derivation part, like by generating the wrong kind of Bitcoin address, you'll incorrectly conclude that the private key leads to no balance.

So, your best bet, IMO, is to either find exactly the same tool that you originally used (even if it's now defunct, I can probably reconstruct it for you if there are enough surviving details on the Internet archive), or to follow my advice and set up Tails so that you're in a position to safely execute any scripts that I send you (for example, I could write you a script that would do basically what you're trying to do on your own, but in a more exhaustive/reliable way: take your 8 words + password and then try multiple derivation techniques to produce a set of Bitcoin addresses that you could then check for balance).

[1] More or less, anyway. Technically, it should be an integer greater than 0 and smaller than 115792089237316195423570985008687907852837564279074904382605163141518161494337 (which means that there are 256-bit numbers which don't make valid Bitcoin private keys, but that's not a detail worth worrying about: the chance of a random 256-bit integer not being within that range is something like 1 in ~2.7e+38).

---‐‐----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unfortunately I don't have the knowledge to smash that out but my "quest buddie" does & I couldn't have said it better myself. If i could explain it that way i would but i cant so i didnt but it fits the key information given in the first post perfectly.

GPG4WIN/Kleopatra/PGP(otato) keys exempt. 😂😂😂

Finally Breva & Potato mate i'd love to hear your thoughts on this if you don't mind.

[alexeyneu]

do not use python for this so you'll not have now defunct smth

[Mushai]

Seems overly complicated.  Your key could be as simple as:

Code:

echo hash_hmac('sha256', 'Your 8 words here.', 'your password');

[theunionjack]

Can someone tell me how to post a screenshot. 🤦

[LoyceV]

Can someone tell me how to post a screenshot. 🤦

Just post a link, Newbies can't embed images.

[Mushai]

Upload it to a service like https://imgbb.com/  and you will get a link to post here.

[theunionjack]

Gave the whole wallet/btc quest a rest for a few months. Its back on the news again here in Australia so which is annoying.

Found this post the other day which describes the process I used to generate the wallet. Definitley skipped a "randomness generator" but no recollection of using a / then password. No mention of 8 words either (which may have just been the minimum in the guide I was following).

My guess is the bitcoinbrainwallet website that was shutdown may have been used.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1719563.0

Will post more of what I found when I get sometime.

---------- EDIT ----------

Used the two programs that were sent to me using 8 words & a password. Tried multiple configurations of the 8 words & also the password then checked address on q blockchain explorer but the whole time something just didn't seem right.

https://ibb.co/kVMcHG5h

https://ibb.co/7JqsGx6n


Investigated brainwallets further till I came across this site. Decided to test a random series of 8 words plus password in the two programs & the website to see if I could get an address match which was a fail.

For the test I used...

Password - Password12345???
Passphrase - the long lost quest for bitcoin continues fml

https://brainwallet.io/

https://ibb.co/cST4kjxv


That particular website generated a "private address" & more importantly a "secret key" which to me seems very interesting. That might be the 64 bit hexidecimal I was banging on about in my orginal post.


I decided to go deeper down the orginal post rabbit focusung on "base58" & sure enough found evidence that brainwallets were created early on using base58 & sort sort of checksum. Also found an old guide to creating bitcoin addresses (will post that when I find it again).

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=258678.0


Also another post where someone successfully regenerated a BIP38 brainwallet using similar methodology.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5497667.0;all


Longstory short BTC has doubled, tax on BTC in Australia may change very soon & I still have no fucking idea what im doing. 😂😂😂

[LoyceV]

My guess is the bitcoinbrainwallet website that was shutdown may have been used.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1719563.0

The site linked there turned into a scam after it was sold. Just use bitaddress.org (offline of course) if you want to try brainwallets. Note that brainwallets are NOT recommended and many have been compromised.

[takuma sato]

Indeed brainwallets were replaced by Electrum basically. The advantage vs having a full-node generated wallet.dat was that you could "spawn" the wallet but with Electrum this was perfected. In any case I never trusted these wallets, it's probably safer to have your own wallet.dat stored encrypted somewhere than have these "spawnable wallets" that would be the first casualties if QC got good enough due key derivation attacks.

[theunionjack]

1. I've added further detail to my last post. The whole point of a brainwallet is so you dont have to worry about saving the wallet.dat file so lets move on.

2. When the wallet was created there was no reason not to use the brainwallet method.

3. Appears the orginal paperwallet & brainwallet websites that may have been used are no longer active.

4. My understanding is there were only 4 orginal wallet genteration sites with the other two being warpwallet & bitaddress.org.