16.5 BTC Lost Wallet Challenge – Help Recover 2013 Bitcoin Wallet & Earn 0.5 BTC

[shahzadafzal]

I'm sure some of you have already seen this story on X, Reddit, or Telegram, but I haven't seen a dedicated discussion thread here on Bitcointalk.

Back in 2013, a user created a Bitcoin Core (Bitcoin-Qt v0.7.2) wallet and chose to encrypt it with a passphrase. Years later, after accumulating BTC over time, he discovered that he had completely forgotten the passphrase.

Today, that wallet contains approximately 16.5 BTC.

Wallet address:
189JveWz2WP79oYU9Gq4NUfiurbiuNPUhn

Interestingly people managed to identify the wallet owner and discovered that he was actually a Bitcointalk member from the early days: arielram

I couldn't find any posts from the account, but the profile appears to belong to the same person who is currently trying to recover the wallet.

Now the owner is actively trying to recover access and has publicly shared numerous clues, personal details, password habits, and someone helping him have even created a web-based offline verifier so that anyone can help test password guesses.

According to posts circulating online, the owner has offered a 0.5 BTC reward to whoever helps discover the correct passphrase.

Background:
The wallet was created using Bitcoin-Qt v0.7.2 around 2013.

The owner remembers:

• Password length likely between 7 and 15 characters
• Usually used uppercase letters
• Often used numbers such as 5, 6, 7 and 8
• Rarely used symbols or special characters
• Sometimes used Spanish words
• Sometimes used English words
• Usually capitalized words
• Occasionally replaced z → s and s → z

Possible words he remembers using:

Code:

pera
durazno
durasno
luz
lus
asadera
asaderas
colimba
wallet
billetera

Personal details that may or may not be relevant:

Code:

Guillermo Ariel Ramirez
Born: November 21, 1969

guillermo
ariel
ramirez
1969
21
noviembre
november

Try Your Own Guesses
There's an offline verifier that allows anyone to test password candidates safely.
Offline Wallet Password Verifier

You can also download it and run it locally if you prefer.

The verifier only checks whether a password decrypts the wallet. It does not require access to any coins and does not expose private keys.

Public References
X / Twitter:
https://x.com/marcebit/status/2066185663582482539
https://x.com/marcebit/status/2063643404240646522

Many people have already tried:

• Dictionary attacks
• Leaked password collections
• Old forum credentials
• Adobe breach passwords
• Trello passwords
• Bitcointalk passwords
• Hundreds of thousands of generated candidates

Personally I've already tested around 500,000 password guesses without success.

Maybe someone here notices a pattern everyone else has missed.


Reward:
According to public posts, the owner is offering 0.5 BTC to the person who helps recover the correct passphrase.

So if you enjoy password forensics, old-school Bitcoin mysteries, or simply want to take a shot at solving a million-dollar puzzle, this might be one of the most interesting wallet recovery cases currently being discussed.

Good luck, detectives.


Below are the actual posts and references:

Reward of 0.5 BTC (~31k USD) for whoever discovers the password

In 2013 someone created a wallet with Bitcoin Core and encrypted it without giving it much thought.

Throughout the year, they deposited small amounts, and when they wanted to cash out, they didn't remember in the slightest that they had even encrypted it...

In an attempt to recover it at that time, they filled out the following form: (see image)

The version of Bitcoin Core from that era said the following when encrypting the wallet: Use a password of ten or more random characters, or eight or more words.. This was just a suggestion; the real requirement was that it have more than one character.

Nowadays, the person believes the password might contain the word "wallet" or "billetera"

Offline page for manual testing: https://mrbianchi.github.io/decrypter16btc-web/

Hashcat hash for those who want to use brute force: $bitcoin$96$1bbd24dc0f23175483d619a24e15f4a06e7e1d3d8b13d9a979b7f4223792836f50520c27c698fa9468ff95f481b888f0$16$65e1017f33467568$63533$2$00$2$00

In 2018 I made a similar post in the Bitcoin Argentina Facebook group https://facebook.com/groups/351870631591732/?multi_permalinks=1569987566446693
For those who don't know me, in this group I have carried out numerous jobs related to wallet recovery and balances

Some additional info posted on telegram

Code:

# Ariel - Consolidated Additional Information 

## Personal Background
- From Argentina.
- Native language: Spanish.
- Very basic English.
- Tech enthusiast since childhood.
- Studied Systems Engineering.
- Worked for a chemical company.
- No interest in politics.
- Was involved in scouting groups.
- Does not enjoy video games.
- Favorite music: 80s rock.

## Dates
- Legal DOB (commonly used): 21 Dec 1969.
- Actual DOB: 21 Nov 1969.
- Frequently used the legal birth date.

## Bitcoin Background
- Learned about Bitcoin through Google+ groups.
- Bought BTC from a Google+ contact.
- Created the wallet following a Google+ guide.
- Knew other wallets existed but only created one wallet himself.
- First five incoming transactions came from a faucet called something like "50bit".
- Wallet appears to have been created with Bitcoin-Qt 0.7.2.
- At the time he was experimenting and learning about Bitcoin wallets.

## Password Information

### What he remembers
- Does NOT remember any exact password.
- Only password-related clues are those listed in the Excel sheet.
- Different periods of his life used different passwords.
- Passwords were often inspired by things around him or by topics that were important at the time.

### Habits
- The wallet password was also used for other services during that period.
- Did not use a password manager.
- A previous statement about copying the password from an old dial-up ISP was a typo and should be ignored.
- He cannot rule out password reuse but does not specifically remember it.

## Possible Password Inspiration

### Physical surroundings when creating the wallet
- Bedroom.
- Bed.
- Nightstand.
- Notebook/laptop.
- Possibly a drinking glass.

### Speculative words (NOT actual memories)
- billetera
- monedero
- bitcoin
- santa
- rosa
- mi
- wallet

## Family Situation (around 2013)
- No wife.
- No children.
- No pets.

## Sports Teams
- River Plate.
- Godoy Cruz.
- Gutiérrez Sport Club.

## Known Email Addresses
- arielram69@hotmail.com
- ariel.ram@gmail.com
- arielram@gmail.com

## Additional Notes
- More than 10 years have passed, so he remembers very little from that period.
- Learned Bitcoin through online guides and Google+ communities.
- He believes there were periods where he consistently used one password and later switched to another, often based on his surroundings or current interests.
- While creating the wallet, he was testing multiple wallet options and exploring the ecosystem.

X Post: https://x.com/marcebit/status/2063643404240646522
Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1u53hci/05_btc_reward_usd_31000_for_recovering_the/

[Lucius]

0.5 BTC is not a small amount, but in most civilized countries of the world there is a rule that whoever finds the lost money has the right to 10% of the total amount. Maybe such rules are not present for a person who has lost his password, but whoever manages to find the password definitely deserves a slightly bigger reward.

Anyway, good luck to all the treasure hunters and I hope someone gets lucky.

[Hashura]

I'm not an expert when it comes to recovering passwords and stuff, but is it really necessary to expose his identity and this much personal data? Surely this will have implications for his security and privacy, no? I mean, he just made himself publicly known to be holding six figures worth of bitcoin (at the current price). It would've been better if he kept himself anonymous.

[mrb000]

I'm not an expert when it comes to recovering passwords and stuff, but is it really necessary to expose his identity and this much personal data? Surely this will have implications for his security and privacy, no? I mean, he just made himself publicly known to be holding six figures worth of bitcoin (at the current price). It would've been better if he kept himself anonymous.

He is protected, nothing to loose, a lot for win

[Oasisman]

Not sure if you guys have read about this guy who recovered his 5 BTC after losing access to his wallet years ago.

https://mb.com.ph/2026/05/20/bitcoin-owner-who-lost-access-to-his-wallet-found-a-way-in-after-a-decade-with-claude-ai

I believe this guy also brute forced it countless of times, and used traditional recovery methods but all exhausted after failing many many times.
Until he used Claude to assist him to analyze his password habits, personal info, and other stuff that can be helpful to find the right password combination.

This guy, Ariel, should try this method as well, given that he already have tons of information that can be used for the AI to analyze his data. I think AI is capable of generating thousands of possible combinations. Well, that's a good start, efficient and fast.

[BIT-BENDER]

0.5 BTC is not a small amount, but in most civilized countries of the world there is a rule that whoever finds the lost money has the right to 10% of the total amount. Maybe such rules are not present for a person who has lost his password, but whoever manages to find the password definitely deserves a slightly bigger reward.

Anyway, good luck to all the treasure hunters and I hope someone gets lucky.

Yes in many countries if you find something that was lost and return it especially to the authorities you are entitled to ten percent of that which was loss but this is a cry for help from someone who needs it.
Personally 0.5 Bitcoin is not small that's half a bitcoin and at Bitcoin's highest it has reached over fifty thousand dollars so that's a real potential funds to be given.
I still have a feeling it's not about the money because there are chances that the person who finds it may not need it.

[TypoTonic]

Update: The lost 16.5 BTC has now been successfully recovered by the owner.
https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/addresses/btc/189JveWz2WP79oYU9Gq4NUfiurbiuNPUhn

Someone who goes by the username @usermain01 on Telegram managed to find Ariel's password: pera5durasnopera5lus
Here's the official post on X:



https://x.com/marcebit/status/2067019456425988286

Not sure if you guys have read about this guy who recovered his 5 BTC after losing access to his wallet years ago.

https://mb.com.ph/2026/05/20/bitcoin-owner-who-lost-access-to-his-wallet-found-a-way-in-after-a-decade-with-claude-ai

Someone also made a thread about this before: Can AI Profile Our Personalities to Guess Passwords? The @cprkrn 5 BTC Recovery
So far, the person who found Ariel's password hasn't shared yet how he managed to do it, so I guess it's possible that he also used the assistance of AI.

[nc50lc]

Someone who goes by the username @usermain01 on Telegram managed to find Ariel's password: pera5durasnopera5lus

That was fast, merely 10 days since the original untranslated Twitter post.

So far, the person who found Ariel's password hasn't shared yet how he managed to do it, so I guess it's possible that he also used the assistance of AI.

Doesn't look like it, his "possible words" list and "often used numbers" already pretty much covered it.
Didn't need profiling and other stuffs.

It appears like "pera" appearing twice is what actually made it hard.
Given that there's only a few tokens there, it shouldn't be as hard as it appears to be, only if we think outside the box like usermain01.

[shahzadafzal]

Update: The lost 16.5 BTC has now been successfully recovered by the owner.
https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/addresses/btc/189JveWz2WP79oYU9Gq4NUfiurbiuNPUhn

Someone who goes by the username @usermain01 on Telegram managed to find Ariel's password: pera5durasnopera5lus
Here's the official post on X:



https://x.com/marcebit/status/2067019456425988286

Yes, the contest is over, guys, but it was fun for everyone who participated.

Within just 5 days, someone managed to find the passphrase:

Code:

pera5durasnopera5lus

My script had already tried various 2-word and 3-word combinations, including:

Code:

pera5durasno
pera5durasnolus
durasnopera5
peradurasnopera

I was actually quite close, but the owner had used four words in the passphrase.

I had assumed that if he used multiple words, it would most likely be a combination of two or three words. It never occurred to me that he might have repeated words and ended up using a four-word passphrase.

Congratulations to the person who solved it.
 

[Bastketsrus]

Update: The lost 16.5 BTC has now been successfully recovered by the owner.
https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/addresses/btc/189JveWz2WP79oYU9Gq4NUfiurbiuNPUhn

Someone who goes by the username @usermain01 on Telegram managed to find Ariel's password: pera5durasnopera5lus
Here's the official post on X:



https://x.com/marcebit/status/2067019456425988286

Yes, the contest is over, guys, but it was fun for everyone who participated.

Within just 5 days, someone managed to find the passphrase:

Code:

pera5durasnopera5lus

My script had already tried various 2-word and 3-word combinations, including:

Code:

pera5durasno
pera5durasnolus
durasnopera5
peradurasnopera

I was actually quite close, but the owner had used four words in the passphrase.

I had assumed that if he used multiple words, it would most likely be a combination of two or three words. It never occurred to me that he might have repeated words and ended up using a four-word passphrase.

Congratulations to the person who solved it.
 

You were actually very close. The repeated words were the tricky part that most people probably wouldn't have considered. Congrats to the winner.

[Somegory]

I'm not an expert when it comes to recovering passwords and stuff, but is it really necessary to expose his identity and this much personal data? Surely this will have implications for his security and privacy, no? I mean, he just made himself publicly known to be holding six figures worth of bitcoin (at the current price). It would've been better if he kept himself anonymous.

Right now he has nothing, because the bitcoin is lost, I don't see any threat here, as you can see many people have tried to help recover this bitcoin with no success so far, it's not going to be easy.

I would worry right after he recovers this Bitcoin, not now that it seems like he is never going to recover it, giving up his name is a must because it's going to help in the research to recover the lost bitcoin.

There is obviously nothing left for his to lose here, not until what's lost is recovered, OP, I personally recommend ZachXBT, he should get in touch with Zach, that guy is on a whole new level when it comes to recovering lost Bitcoin, he his very good at it.

[mrb000]

16.5 BTC are now recovered, thanks for sharing it, participating and trust on me, I really appreciate.

Invite to everyone to follow me on X: marcebit , I will be posting soon more open calls.