Topic: Need help identifying wallet file from 2010 MS DOS mining! (Read 447 times)

Eligius pool had a minimum payout and when that was reached and pool found a block you got your share automatically transfered. I don't remember all details, it may also be that you could set your personal payout threshold and/or schedule a payout request. But I kind of doubt the latter.

Don't know but how about searching in the documentation or Github of Pywallet. You could also search this forum for Pywallet related topics. Hint: it's maybe easier to find good search hits by searching via https://ninjastic.space/search


What kind of a strange backup do you have, why unnamed files? Shouldn't a proper backup restore the original content?

I have seen your screenshots and it isn't helping if an original wallet.dat would be disguised as f93877733.dat.

I don't understand this part.

I highly doubt that as mining difficulty adjusts in such a way that all miners should find a block on average after about 10min of mining. It's unlikely that you were the first to mine with a GPU and all others still mined with CPU. And in 2010 you weren't alone with mining.

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You might want to actually read what's been discussed in this thread because it's nowhere clear if OP has actually used an instance of Bitcoin-Qt / Bitcoin-GUI or what today's Bitcoin Core was called back in 2010.

As far as I remember when I used it back in 2011 its name was Bitcoin-GUI. It later changed to Bitcoin Core.

The original Bitcoin client encrypted private keys with a completely random master key using AES-256-CBC and this master key was encrypted using AES-256-CBC with a key derived from the wallet passphrase using SHA-512 and some other mangling rounds.
(Rephrased and heavily shortened from source: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Wallet_encryption -- for more details, read the source)

I'm not sure if the described encryption in cited source is still valid for Bitcoin Core. I doubt it was changed because when I read instructions to extract the encryption block for the wallet's master encryption key to crack the wallet's passphrase, I have the feeling that it's all the same as it has been earlier.

 There may be a way to do it if you know how to use hex editor. Ill give you instructions here.

You can go here download winhex: https://www.x-ways.net/winhex, then you will need to search your recover disk, goto tools and open your disk or go to search and search hex value 0201010420. If it finds a result the wallet key is (probably) after 0420 after the cursor. Write down the 64 digits following 0420 (including the letters) and keep this to yourself it is access to your wallet addresse. Keep searching down and see if you have any more of 0201010420. This mean you probably have funds. Now copy those digits and letters and save them. Then you will be able to have your key funds and can move them to a different wallet. If you need more help ask.

Finally..

You are 100% correct, finally found someone who knows what Im talking about.
When I say ms dos I mean cmd, I just basically call it ms dos.

This is exactly what I used like you said "bfgminer.exe or cgminer.exe", youve just reminded me. Not sure which one but one of the two, I think cgminer.
And I either mined through a pool which wasnt the one you mentioned "Eligius" it was something else but yea, if it was a pool it was one with "pool" in its name and one of the ones with the most users, if I remember correctly ping was also taken into account as well as language but I could be wrong.
I also remember there was a very simple page you could see all the pools available with a black background and each one of them add different background colors on that text line identifying them by type, rewards, etc.

OR I mined solo.. but like you said rewards were 50 btc each block,.. and all I add was on the cmd window saying "Mining.." and further down on that same window it would show: "1.. 2.. 3" and so on every few minutes until I stopped mining at about 30 minutes ish with like 8 or 12 btc (one of the two dont remember exactly, I remember seeing the number 8 for sure)

I also remember to see Bitcoin-GUI, but I dont know if I ever used it, if the image above is that then I problem never actually had an address of my own cause I dont remember anything like that image.

Would you know if you had to ask to transfer the bitcoin rewards after mining? Cause all I did was close the cmd window whilst it was mining and never opened it again.

I had/have a Bitcoin folder with all the files backed up into this hardrive btw and recovered all the data as RAW so files are all unamed too.

Thanks mate


This would be nuts.. can anyone confirm the numbers showing on the bottom are bitcoin or blocks on cgminer back in 2010?

Maybe I mined solo if that was possible cause I remember to look at the pools but I dont remember to choose or set one up, there was another option to set up your mining simpler than using pools (its so hard to remember every detail correctly what Ive done ONCE 14 years ago without paying attention or knowing anything about it even today)

But if you said pools then idk

I remember my league of legends would stutter as if the CPU was maxed out in use not exactly how maxed graphics behave usually but I could be wrong.
Also reading some old archived post from august 2010, was it even possible to find 8 or 12 blocks in 30-60 minutes?

If I had to set up bitcoin-GUI even solo mining, and had to properly stop the cgminer program rather than just close cmd window to get wallet updated with with the right amount of bitcoin rewarded?

2nd question was there a wallet file with cgminer? And was it located in the bitcoin folder? Or where was your wallet address using Bitcoin-GUI located?


I know what you mean it would be sad if I just mined on a pool without setting up a wallet, or closing the cmd window without doing anything else wouldnt grant me anything or update my wallet or whatever there was a that time, but Id really love to find a way to check my files and be sure about it giving up based on a guess isnt an option, Im sure many people know how to look for bitcoin files from data recoveries.

Does Pywallet searches for cgminer or bitcoin-gui wallet files from 2010?

One thing is trying to guess if I did this or that or have a wallet or not.. another thing is if I knew a way to look over 3k unamed files and find a wallet or whatever was there in 2010 that can be used to find my bitcoin I would just do that and stop guessing.

Thanks all btw

There were also some shady mining software packages out there that targeted people with little to no knowledge. Sort of zero configuration, nice looking and pretending it mines the hell out of your gear when in fact the miner stole your computing ressources and mined to addresses of the malicious creators.

Pywallet does that, but it's not clear whether in 2010 wallet.dat (created by Bitcoin Core) already use Berkeley DB format. I also mentioned pywallet earlier, but OP didn't respond to my suggestion.


It'd be great if you read whole thread. LoyceV already mention mining pool called Slush exist since 2010. And FYI, Gavin Andresen create faucet on 2010. Here's the proof, https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/get-5-free-bitcoins-from-freebitcoinsappspotcom-183.


It's certainly possible, since we don't know which mining software he used.

Do Pywallet do not.. (or there is not other tools) that scan the whole drive for all wallets, private keys ... Bitcoin related things ??
I am almont sure that there is been such tool existing !!


There wa no mining pools on 2010 I think !  Or there was ! ?? ??     Though I don't think there was command lines games that gives bitcoins or have ever existed  First faucet was created on 2011 !
Maybe he has mined 12 blocks and confuse that with (bitcoins) !
back to 2010 this is very possible!

Stop talking about msdos. You likely ran a CPU or a GPU miner executable file from the CMD window that's available from Windows XP or 7, popular at that time. That wasn't any msdos exe at all.

If this miner was connected to a mining pool, it is possible that you mined Bitcoins in single units for the shares you mined than a full block reward of 50BTC in that period. It's unlikely that you mined solo without a pool as that would've required a bitcoind node running. And I don't think you mined solo targeted at a solo mining pool like ckpool, which iirc didn't exist in 2010.

Assuming you mined to a pool, here's a problem when you're clueless as you state it. You would've had to setup your own receiving Bitcoin address to which the pool should've paid out your shares.

It wasn't uncommon that those miner packages (zip archives) had a working configuration with a receiving address of the miner.exe creator. The docs said that you would've to change that address with your own mining address. The miner software creator benefitted from those dummies who didn't change the address for whatever reason. During a short test of the miner exe it always worked fine, no-one wants to see error messages or burn coins for nothing.


This more or less tells me, that you very very likely don't have any coins from 2010 in your possession or any wallet file you now desperately try to find. I'm not 100% sure about that, but all what you have written so far is very much conclusive with my assumption.

How do I know? Well, in 2011 I mined with iirc bfgminer.exe or cgminer.exe (don't remember exactly which one) pointed at Eligius pool. But contrary to you, I had setup a Bitcoin-GUI wallet.dat and have taken a specific Bitcoin address from my personal wallet to mine on Eligius pool. Once I reached payout limit, I got Bitcoin crumbles transfered directly via coinbase transaction from Eligius pool into my wallet. Still fond of those incoming transactions with the mining icon attached to them.

I don't remember exactly since when GPU mining started to be a thing and bfgminer or cgminer or whatever was the hot shit.


I wish for you that I'm wrong and am a bit sorry to be a party crasher, but the evidence you presented isn't the best for your case.

I had a bit of free time today so I went ahead and did some scouting in the archived versions of the forum when it was still under bitcoin.org. The archived wiki page[1] written by theymos and Xunie (~2009-2010) has some information regarding how to mine with your computer at the time and, as you can see in section And now, the finale!, the block reward was 50 bitcoin and not 1,2 or even 3 bitcoin[2], like other have mentioned. The only way that you could have 12 bitcoin was to have received some during the period that you mention.

Besides, you wrote that you followed a guide somewhere in 2010 on the forum and since you mentioned that LoL froze during the program execution, I though that you could have followed this[3] guide to mine them but the screenshots[4] do not add up to your description:


If you are sure that you followed such a guide, you can visit the oldest archived page in 2010 and see if you are able to find anything that you memory may pick up as familiar.

EDIT: Added screenshot mentioned in [4] as the forum link is broken.

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[1]https://web.archive.org/web/20100907170948/http://www.bitcoin.org/wiki/doku.php?id=getting_started
[2]https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.7316
[3]https://web.archive.org/web/20101204064315/http://www.newslobster.com/random/how-to-get-started-using-your-gpu-to-mine-for-bitcoins-on-windows
[4]https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.22741

The forum has all the old posts. Just check satoshi's conversations back from 2009-2010. They are there. You have the posts that Hal Finney made. You can find legendary posts like the 10,000 BTCs for two pizzas or the Hodl post.

If the post with download links to the MS DOS software no longer exists, it could have been deleted because it was a scam or the software was infected with malware. Posts on Bitcointalk get deleted if they break one or more rules. Sorry to say, but I think you were scammed.

"Was there no setup of a wallet with the software you used back then?"

It was all done through cmd msdos, at that time I didnt know about any wallets, just followed a guide cluelessly from THIS VERY WEBSITE to set it all up and mine. Most of early posts on these forums dont exist anymore somewhow.
All files were in a folder called Bitcoin you downloaded from here as well. Not in the app folder like nowadays that you have to install bitcoin core.
Never got to know my bitcoin address either. Was clueless like most everyone else at that time, its easy to talk now.

"Do you know anyone else who mined using the same software like you did who actually got some bitcoins?"

No, and I WISH I knew.

"A quick google search found nothing about your mysterious DOS mining software."

Its just ms dos, you mined bitcoin windowed, and league of legends would stutter and become unplayable.
Said Mining...
Then the coin count on the bottom..

You're the one making extraordinary claims, so you should provide some evidence. I wasn't around in 2010, but you were for sure not one of the earliest miners. Read some of the old topics about mining to find what was used back then.

Was there no setup of a wallet with the software you used back then? Do you remember ever creating a wallet? Did you ever have a Bitcoin address that your mining rewards went to that you could check on a blockchain explorer to verify that there were real coins there? What about private keys, did you ever save them somewhere?

Do you know anyone else who mined using the same software like you did who actually got some bitcoins?

A quick google search found nothing about your mysterious DOS mining software. There are articles about some Russian who developed a DOS program for a 1980s computer, but that's new and different from what you claim to have used.

This is correct, early bitcoin was mined downloading a folder with the files and all set up through cmd ms dos. You mined in MS DOS.
Its actually crazy nobody knows this or even mentions it. I must have been one of the first ones int he world mining bitcoin lol

I forget to mention it earlier. But if you have access to the HDD or raw copy of the HDD, you could use tool called pywallet to scan it and automatically find bitcoin wallet files. You can obtain it from https://github.com/jackjack-jj/pywallet. I also provide a short example how to use it on https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.63097543.


OP's most recent reply (3 posts above yours) indicate he actually refer to Windows's Command Prompt (cmd).

So that is not you ! ??   

For mass check all you files you can use notepad++ for multiple search  keywords
Like on this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoaXMkD40VA&t=1s


You will need try find
worldkeys by turns: key! name  PiV




If there is an address next to it, this is probably your wallet file.

The version I mined was completely independent.
All I did was download a zip folder with the files, and set it all up through cmd ms dos.

There was also a website with a list of pools addresses and ports if you chose to mine thru a pool.
From what I recall it was all in these forums.

But my question remains if anyone can help me identifying a bitcoin wallet out of 3k random named files.

I can't tell you that. But it will make it easy to rule out most files.

OP's "backup" looks weird: random file names look as if it came from file recovery instead of a backup.

Do we know since when wallet file use Berkeley DB? I recall very early version of Bitcoin Core have almost no external dependency.

Probably wallet.dat. That's what bitcoin-qt used.

Try the file command on Linux: