Ok so technically speaking it may have been possible to base58 the passphrase get a result then sha256 that result with a password (or am I missing something).

Love to know where the guide I followed to get this done in the first place. Whoever wrote the guide factored in a "salt" which makes cracking a brainwallet alot more difficult.

If this wasn't possible on a classic wallet website then some program must have been used. Nothing epse makes much sense.

I get a "public bitcoin address" & a "private key WIF" using the 8 words. No text box for adding a salt which just doesnt seem right. Assuming a a space, then a backslash, then another space, then the password after the 8 words will give me a "salted passphase/password combination" but thats definitley not how remember it.

Highly likely this bitcoinpaperwallet.com site was used to make the printed copy of the wallet but fairly certain the original brainwallet site must have been used to generate the address. Not 100% certain but the way I remember it there was a text box for passphrase then in the next step a text box for password.

Is there a download on Github for the old brain wallet site. I'm trying to find it now.

Came across that generator yesterday. Downloaded it to my phone, unzipped & ran the program to see what happens. It seemed to load ok but couldn't find the fields to insert password & passphrase. Will try opening again on the offline computer tomorrow to see if I can get it to work.

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 Appears the orginal paperwallet & brainwallet websites that may have been used are no longer active.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

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 7 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

Can someone tell me how to post a screenshot. 🤦

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.

Hey Chonk. Welcome to the game & 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 smashed that out but my "quest buddie" does & couldn't have said it better myself.

This is the latest advice but 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. 😂😂😂

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.

I'll check it out. My sentiments exactly re. fascinating stuff. Worth looking into a bit more that's for sure. 🍻

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.

Done some think about this & i 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.

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 thos point is beyond me.

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

Didn't use darnet markets at all till early 2013. MtGox for all transactions using a completely different wallet. So this time period is completely irrelevent.

Not blinded by greed one bit. I've got plenty of cash mate & live pretty comfortably. Also I know how i created the wallet you clown.

Probably best you jog on. I'm sure there are plenty of places to talk smack for little punks like you. Its just not needed here.

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

Just got back from holiday. I'll try when the time is right.

This guy. Loooool.

Yep. Thats how i remember it. Now I need to get from a SHA256 hash to a WIF or a 64 bit hexadecimal password but could be wrong.

I actually don't think I need it bro. Was listening to the new Danny Jones podcast this morning on DNA The guy he's interviewing mentions turning information into a number sequence using a SHA256 hash of infomation that can then be put on the blockchain as a "timestamp" are the 41 minute mark.

My guess is the "timestamp" is irrelevant but how you would get that SHA256 hash to the next step I personally dont know right now. Might have already been mention on this thread. Cryptojohn has already mentioned SHA256 & so did I in the original post but I still had to get my head around it.

The guy then mentions if you were to change one of the letters in the sequence or even change one of the letters to a capital the end result changes & that is EXACTLY how I remember it.

Finally back from holiday. Took an extra few days to get back into the swing of things back here in Melbourne. Was nice to give the whole wallet thing a rest for a couple of weeks.

I've got a funny feeling there was some sort of brainwallet/paperwallet program that created the keys the way I've said numerous times. I say just keys cause I'm not 100% sure if they were PGP keys or just private/public addresses. Then keys could be loaded onto the Bitcoin Client plus you could also make a paper printed copy of the wallet once you were done.

Fairly certain whoever made the guide I was reading covered keeping the coins sagmfe from every possible angle. That's using the i words & password, it's also retaining a copy of the USB & printing out a copy of the wallet. Pretty crazy really that's there's very few people out there that had a similar experience.

Definitely an interesting subject.

8 words & a 13+ character password back in 2010. Show me how to regenerate the same wallet & as soon as I access it I'll transfer you a couple of million dollars worth of BTC quicker than you can blink. No joke I'm dead serious.

That is the crux of the situation & right now ive got nothing else to work with. It's doable as far as I know...how beats me. Could be nice & simple or it could take a lot of trial & error. I don't need the cash asap to be honest & money is not what this is about. Its a little niggle/riddle i've have bugging me for ⅓ of my life & i just would like to give it a go to try & solve it. Still got 10 - 20+ years worst case scenario to figure it out.

Not much else to say right now other than if you are ever at the Goldcoast with a pocket full of cash Little Truffle Dining & Bar is a great place to start for a nice dinner. 

I do appreciate your reply. Just got off on the wrong foot my friend & i apologise for the confusion.

So all that said could I have been givem 12 random words to open wallet in 2010. Pretty sure I was given the words & was there in 2010. Does that make me a historian.