Early Bitcoin Wallet - Help Needed - Advice Appreciated

[theunionjack]

That was nice to read. I totally understand your skeptism re.AI. I was the same & still am but if used correctly it can be used as a digital detective for tasks like this. Plus if you really want you can cross check the results with different AI programs so you are getting multiple points of view. Legder vs Linux who really cares. This post is about recovering whats needed to access the wallet.

Finally we are able to talk to each other as if we are mates. The way I remember it was "us" against "them" not "us" against "each other". I may not have paid BTC much attention over the last 15 years & some of the things ive said sound a bit ridiculous but I am one of you & could say i've been HODL aswell.

The spirit of early crypto was rooted in decentralization, privacy, and rebellion against centralized control. It was about empowering individuals with trustless systems, cutting out middlemen, and creating a financial and technological paradigm where power was distributed, not hoarded. Think cypherpunks, Bitcoin's whitepaper, and the dream of a peer-to-peer world free from government overreach or corporate gatekeepers.

Assume you also read something along those lines & thought OMFG that sounds good. As you are probably aware my experience was slightly different. After some exhaustive research I believe it started with a download. Right now I can only assume it was something like "BTC Wallet Generator Toolbox 2010.zip" which has been hard to confirm.

Any additional merit would be appreciated along the way. Junior member just doesnt cut it for me.

This is where the story begins. 😁

[LoyceV]

Instead of creating the transaction yourself, transfer the private key to a text file on a  USB stick to place in your online machine. If you like you could turn off your WIFI at the wall to be extra sure. Then you can open Electrum and sweep that key directly into your Electrum wallet, reading from the usb (with wifi back on). Electrum only exposes your private key on your PC for a fraction of a second in order to sign the transaction for you, then broadcast it.

If there's malware waiting, the few seconds it takes you to broadcast the transaction is enough to steal your Bitcoin. And even if the malware is 2 seconds late, Full RBF means you'll still lose your coins. There's no need to risk it, so keep private keys offline.

[theunionjack]

Where's the malware coming from if the desktop PC is a new build with no online capabilities. Everything has been checked for malware before its been put on the machine. Then the broadcasted transaction is done on a new laptop using new phone, sim, internet & hotspot. Its a bit much really it blows my mind how extreme you have to be with safety. Neither machine is going to touch my home network either.

[theunionjack]

AES, SHA, zero bytes, padding, digests, HMAC, PBKDF2, sanity tests, endians & curves. I actually feel like im lost in the matrix. Just about ready to tap out. 🤯

[LoyceV]

the broadcasted transaction is done on a new laptop using new phone, sim, internet & hotspot.

None of this is needed. As long as the signing is secure on an air-gapped device so the keys can't touch the internet, it doesn't really matter what you do with the signed transaction. Copy it to an USB stick and broadcast it on your regular computer. Some people even post the raw transaction on Bitcointalk. That doesn't mean anyone can steal the funds.

Its a bit much really it blows my mind how extreme you have to be with safety.

There's no need to go extreme. I posted my basics, which hasn't been contested in years.

[theunionjack]

Have got that far yet. Still stuck grinding on AI the best I can...

Had to ditch my recon buddie Grok4.

Working with ChatGPT on special ops.

Turns out Pycryptodome (pypy) was the culprit. It was throwing us off Base64 in the Python3 hashlib.

Got a funny feeling Base64 has something to do with the 64 bit hex or whatever it was.

[LoyceV]

Still stuck grinding on AI the best I can...

I wouldn't expect much from a language model.

It's been almost a year since you started this topic. Can you post a summary of the current state, and why this isn't resolved yet?

[theunionjack]

Been a bit rough trying to recreate the old Hal Finney determenalist wallet key_gen.py blackbox.

You know the one where you picked 6 - 12 words for the mnemonic.

Had to press enter then choose a password.

AES-256 was used on the mnemonic to shrink it to 128 bits.

AES-128 was used on the password to shrink it to 128 bits well.

After that the runner combined both AES values with SHA-256 HMAC with mnemonic as salt for the sanity check that comes later.

Looks like everything from the 2010 - 2011 era was set on fire. I couldn't find it anywhere. Thats why it hasnt been solved yet. 🔥