So, here are the facts - In late 2011 to January 2012 I was running an offline version of Electrum using a thumbdrive with the blockchain on it. (Yeah, back then the blockchain was that small!)
-snip-
I know I have something, just gotta find the right way to get at it.
It checks-out since the old version had both client and server which can use a modified bitcoin node to connect to.
When I ran the wallet.dat data through it, Electrum generated a 12 word seed that uses the BIP 39 list. I also derived an xpub and verified funds. The xpub is on a disk as a string of text...somewhere.
In 2012 I confirmed the mnemonic phrase worked and could access them at least through Electrum as it would at the very least give me access to the keys.
Now, here's the uncertain parts.
Electrum in Dec2011~Jan 2012 didn't used BIP39 word list but an old_mnemonic (
until v2.0 - 4Q-2015), they still host it in their GitHub Repo,
here:
https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/master/electrum/old_mnemonic.pyAnd even though it's the newer versions to the latest that uses BIP39 word list by default,
It's not BIP39 standard compatible so bruteforce programs that specializes in BIP39 wont yield positive results.
Lastly, since you may have used the versions with "
key derivation bug" in 2011 (
namely 0.31 and 0.34), an program that's compatible with electrum's old seed may still get false-negative results.
You might have to audit those versions instead and build a bruteforce tool based from its code.
There are plenty of people that helped me before and others that inquired as to my progress. -snip-
Unfortunately, it's because of the premise that it's actually a BIP39 mnemonic despite BIP39 is created in 2013.