Trying to recover old wallet using what I hope are private keys - need help

[CatsPajamas]

I know I was trying to purchase bitcoin in the very early days 2009-2010. I moved across the country in late 2010 and left some belongings behind with family. As years have went by and bitcoin got valuable, I couldn't remember if I actually figured out how to buy from someone back then or where I had it stored if I did. But I have always felt like did purchase some.

I recently recovered those items I left behind and found an old external hard drive. The hard drive contains a folder named Crypto created in September 2009. Inside this folder is another folder named RSA, which I learned means Rivest-Shamir-Adleman, a public-key cryptography algorithm.

Inside that RSA folder is another folder named S-1-5-21-1234567890-0987654321-1122334455-9999 (edited for this post), which I have also learned indicates it's a Security Identifier (SID). Inside this folder are two Unix Executable Files and the files names are both in this format: 1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef_abcd1234-5678-90ab-cdef-1234567890ab

There are 64 characters in each file name (0-9 and a-f), same as private keys. Also, the first 32 characters in each file name are unique, but the last 32 characters in each file name are identical to the other file. As you can see there is an underscore after the first 32 characters in each file name and several dashes within the last 32 characters.

Are these bitcoin private keys? The parent folder was named Crypto and created in 2009 so I can't imagine what else they would be. I have tried to import each file name minus the underscore and dashes as private keys into a popular wallet platform and it says Invalid Keys for both. I then tried to combine the first 32 characters of each and import that as the key and again it's saying Invalid Keys.

I am stumped. Any advice?

[BitMaxz]

Since you said it's a private key to confirm it, why not import it to any wallet that supports it, like Electrum?

However, since you stated that it was a file name, I doubt it is not a private key.

How about wallet.dat file? I think the old Bitcoin core wallet generates a wallet.dat file; that is what you need to recover your old wallet.

[CatsPajamas]

I did try to import and it said Invalid Key.

I cannot locate a wallet.dat file

Oh well, it appears they are not that I hoped.

Thanks for the response.

[Cricktor]

What's the content of those files? Anything recognizable? Maybe check with file command available in Linux (not sure about appropriate Windows tools for that and I would be careful to use any website to analyse file content unless you are certain it's valueless).

But it doesn't ring a bell for me what you described.

I don't know if there was a possibility to buy Bitcoin in 2009. Didn't the Pizza Day define first "exchange rate" of Bitcoin? And that was on May 22^nd, 2010. Hm, bitcoinmarket.com as first public exchange was launched in March 2010, what rate did they set?

[apogio]

I recently recovered those items I left behind and found an old external hard drive. The hard drive contains a folder named Crypto created in September 2009. Inside this folder is another folder named RSA, which I learned means Rivest-Shamir-Adleman, a public-key cryptography algorithm.

Inside that RSA folder is another folder named S-1-5-21-1234567890-0987654321-1122334455-9999 (edited for this post), which I have also learned indicates it's a Security Identifier (SID). Inside this folder are two Unix Executable Files and the files names are both in this format: 1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef_abcd1234-5678-90ab-cdef-1234567890ab

There are 64 characters in each file name (0-9 and a-f), same as private keys. Also, the first 32 characters in each file name are unique, but the last 32 characters in each file name are identical to the other file. As you can see there is an underscore after the first 32 characters in each file name and several dashes within the last 32 characters.

So, essentially you have 2 files with the following name formats?
 
1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef_abcd1234-5678-90ab-cdef-1234567890ab
89ab12804fc3c42fbaa117c9aaa01d9d_abcd1234-5678-90ab-cdef-1234567890ab

Are the files definitely executables?

Did you try running cat in case the files include something in them?

I don't know if there was a possibility to buy Bitcoin in 2009. Didn't the Pizza Day define first "exchange rate" of Bitcoin? And that was on May 22^nd, 2010. Hm, bitcoinmarket.com as first public exchange was launched in March 2010, what rate did they set?

Perhaps OP meant that they tried to buy bitcoin P2P.
But, Mt. Gox also launched in 2010 and it was possible to buy bitcoin using paypal ^[1]


[1] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mt._Gox -> visit the History section

[khaled0111]

However, since you stated that it was a file name, I doubt it is not a private key.

Those are not bitcoin private keys, at least, they haven’t been generated by a bitcoin wallet.
The old "Crypto" folder he found has nothing to do with bitcoin. The word [crypto/i] here stands for cryptography not cryptocurrency.
You can find that folder on almost all devices that use windows as an operating system.

OP, read this, it matches your description:

Private keys for the Microsoft RSAbased CSPs, including the Base CSP and the Enhanced CSP, reside in the user profile under RootDirectory \Documents and Settings\< username >\Application Data\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA.

I found one too on my computer under this path: "RootDirectory\< username >\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Crypto\" although I have never used it for any cryptocurrencies’ related activity.

edit: link edited, thanks ABCbits!

[ABCbits]

However, since you stated that it was a file name, I doubt it is not a private key.

Those are not bitcoin private keys, at least, they haven’t been generated by a bitcoin wallet.
The old "Crypto" folder he found has nothing to do with bitcoin. The word [crypto/i] here stands for cryptography not cryptocurrency.
You can find that folder on almost all devices that use windows as an operating system.

OP, read this, it matches your description:

Private keys for the Microsoft RSAbased CSPs, including the Base CSP and the Enhanced CSP, reside in the user profile under RootDirectory \Documents and Settings\< username >\Application Data\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA.

I found one too on my computer under this path: "RootDirectory\< username >\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Crypto\" although I have never used it for any cryptocurrencies’ related activity.

Link you mentioned leads to "404 - Page not found". But i can confirm such folder actually created by Windows through checking my Windows VM and this documentation, https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/seccng/key-storage-and-retrieval.

[CatsPajamas]

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

[alexeyneu]

but private key can't be invalid if it contains 64 hex chars. convert it to wif then use electrum. Overall i think you'll see zero balance but who knows

to convert hex stuff to wif you can use my tool among others

Code:

decompressor.exe -hex32_24  hex_stuff

then save words to file
then

compressor.exe -wif24  file

you'll have compressed and uncompressed wifs

https://github.com/alexeyneu/base58_2048

[hugyour]

I don't know if there was a possibility to buy Bitcoin in 2009. Didn't the Pizza Day define first "exchange rate" of Bitcoin? And that was on May 22^nd, 2010. Hm, bitcoinmarket.com as first public exchange was launched in March 2010, what rate did they set?

I knew an anarchist on the west coast touting bitcoin in early 2009 and heard others talking about buying it before the year was up, though I never saw any evidence or understood how to do so myself. I wanted to share my experience on the topic.