Fun

How a Presale Ethereum Wallet Containing 1000 ETH Was Recovered by KeychainX

News Feed - 2022-07-12 02:07:58

How a Presale Ethereum Wallet Containing 1000 ETH Was Recovered by KeychainX sponsored


An Ethereum enthusiast contacted KeychainX a few months ago with a unique story.


He was a part of the Ethereum pre-sale in 2014 and amassed a fantastic 1000ETH today worth about 4 million USD for a mere 300USD – an astonishing 13000x increase in value.


The story began when Alex sent the KeychainX team a question about whether if the team dealt with damaged wallets. Alex suspected the wallet to be corrupt or the encryption to be wrong, as he had the password saved in Splash ID together with other passwords and used to copy-paste it into the pre-sale webpage to join in the Ethereum token sale.


He was worried that using multiple systems like iPad, mac and phone and various language setups (Alex was half French), there might be some hiccup or language character decryption errors.


Since the password was pretty long (99 characters) and contained several special or non-ASCII characters, it was a devious task. However, inserting a random character at an arbitrary position is doable for shorter passwords. For an almost 100-character-long password, it was impossible.


But Alex was pretty sure of the password, so KeychainX “just” had to look up what was wrong. Of course, the password was also sexual, so writing the various password deviations using sexually explicit language was hilarious.


Although the words did not use S/M code words like one of KeychainX’s Hong Kong clients, they contained the words p*ssy and c*ck. Little did the team know how close to the problem and far away it was.


Being stubborn, the KeychainX team started by adding random characters at the positions the team suspected were those with possible problems. For example, sometimes, if a character were non-English, the code would translate it to a double character, which ultimately would cause the search space to increase dramatically. So doing that produced no result.


So the team went back to look at the Splash ID source code and tried to reverse engineer it to reproduce the problem. There were many versions of Splash ID, and their page did not offer it to be open source. No luck.


Then a few weeks later, a Russian client contacted KeychainX with a completely different wallet using Cyrillic characters. Most of KeychainX’s custom-written tools were written for English or Latin passwords, so the team had to look into an old tool’s source code and look how to translate those to fit into the system.


It gave an idea for Alex’s wallet.


What if the tools used, and the unique characters that encrypted his wallet, were translated through the encryption software just like Cyrillic characters.


Going back to the Presale wallet, the team attacked those special characters positions using the same approach as if they were Cyrillic. Boom! the team found the password; however, there was an issue.


Most wallet software that would generally import the wallet and display the private key did not work, and the password was not getting accepted since the special characters were outside the boundaries of their respective code or character set. Instead, the team had to manually decrypt the wallet to export the private key using the foreign character set.


After moving out the funds, KeychainX tried to call Alex multiple times, but it kept going to his answering machine. So the team mailed Alex, and yet still no answer.


It took almost three days before he got back to KeychainX, which was a little nerve-wracking sitting on someone’s 4 million USD without knowing where the person was. Ethereum price also swung a lot, so the value moved hundreds of thousands daily in both directions.


So the team transferred Alex his share of the funds, said good luck and stay safe, and then never heard from him any more. KeychainX hopes he has fun with his newly recovered, long-lost fortune!


Disclaimer! This article was written by Robert Rhodin, CEO of KeychainX Crypto Recovery Service. To read more about our company, please visit https://keychainx.io or email the team at keychainx@protonmail.com if you need to talk about password recovery.


  Tags in this story Ethereum, Pretty Little Katie


This is a sponsored post. Learn how to reach our audience here. Read disclaimer below. Bitcoin.com Media


Bitcoin.com is the premier source for everything crypto-related. Contact ads@bitcoin.com to talk about press releases, sponsored posts, podcasts and other options. Sentient AI Does Not Equal Intelligent AI - Tau Uses Logic to Make Machines Truly Understand People SPONSORED | 5 days ago Legends of Bezogia Reveals Sustainable Play2Earn Mechanics By Publishing Breakthrough Whitepaper SPONSORED | 6 days ago


Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons Previous articleRebase Token Economy Dropped From $8 Billion to $577 Million in 7 Months Next articleChina Frozen Bank Account Controversy: Affected Clients Injured During Protests, Nearly $6 Billion Missing Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article. Read disclaimer More Popular NewsIn Case You Missed ItFollowing a Brief Fee Spike, Gas Prices to Move Ethereum Drop 76% in 12 Days


Transaction fees on the Ethereum network are dropping again after average fees saw a brief spike on April 5 jumping to $43 per transfer. 12 days later, average ether fees are close to dropping below $10 per transaction and median-sized ... read more.Goldman Predicts US Recession Odds at 35% in 2 Years, John Mauldin Wouldn"t Be Surprised if Stocks Fell 40% Interest in Real Estate Investments in Spain Grew 400%, With Some Using Crypto and Stocks as Payment Method Economist Predicts the Fed"s Response to Inflation Will Push Crypto Higher Ethereum Foundation"s Financial Report Discloses It Holds $1.6 Billion in Assets, 80.5% Held in Ether

News Feed

Second Largest Israeli Bank Leumi Launching Cryptocurrency Trading
Second Largest Israeli Bank Leumi Launching Cryptocurrency Trading Israel’s second-largest bank, Leumi, is launching a cryptocurrency trading service to allow customers of i
Jack Dorsey Resigning as CEO of Twitter Is Bullish for Crypto, Says Fundstrat
Jack Dorsey Resigning as CEO of Twitter Is Bullish for Crypto, Says Fundstrat Twitter now has a new chief executive officer after Jack Dorsey resigned Monday. Dorsey, who is still
Egyptian Currency Plunges 15% After Cairo Accedes to Key IMF Exchange Rate Condition
Egyptian Currency Plunges 15% After Cairo Accedes to Key IMF Exchange Rate Condition After authorities in Egypt announced the adoption of a more flexible exchange rate regime, the
Marcel Pechman4 hours agoCould a Bitcoin bull run be triggered by Fitch’s US credit rating downgrade?Fitch downgraded the U.S. credit rating due to its government debt and potential challenges in handling its fiscal re
Crypto Exchange Binance Joins Expert Center at Russian Banks Association
Crypto Exchange Binance Joins Expert Center at Russian Banks Association Digital asset exchange Binance has become the first crypto company to support the Association of Banks of R
How and when to sell your crypto: A simple guide
Marco Castrovilli7 hours agoHow and when to sell your crypto: A simple guideThe latest Cointelegraph video explains how to set up a successful exit strategy in crypto using a few simple steps.857 Total views13 Total shar
Blackrock Launches Blockchain ETF Offering Investors Exposure to Crypto Sector
Blackrock Launches Blockchain ETF Offering Investors Exposure to Crypto Sector The world’s largest asset manager, Blackrock, has launched a blockchain exchange-traded fund (
Bitrace warns of new crypto scam using QR codes
Alex O’Donnell4 hours agoBitrace warns of new crypto scam using QR codesThe scam starts with a small payment of USDT to the user.569 Total views1 Total sharesListen to article 0:00NewsOwn this piece of crypto historyCo
Bitcoin, Ethereum Technical Analysis: BTC Falls, as Tesla Sells 75% of Its Holdings
Bitcoin, Ethereum Technical Analysis: BTC Falls, as Tesla Sells 75% of Its Holdings Bitcoin was trading lower in today’s session, as it was revealed that Tesla had sold 75%
FX Strategists From Citi Say Euro Could Sink to $0.86 if Macro Turmoil Continues
FX Strategists From Citi Say Euro Could Sink to $0.86 if Macro Turmoil Continues While the euro has found support between 0.96 to 0.97 nominal U.S. dollars per unit, foreign exchan
Mobius Capital Founder Says Crypto Is Not an Investment but ‘a Means to Speculate and Have Fun’
Mobius Capital Founder Says Crypto Is Not an Investment but "a Means to Speculate and Have Fun" Mobius Capital Partners founder Mark Mobius says that cryptocurrency is not an inves
US Government Fines Bitgo for Allowing Users to Bypass Sanctions With Cryptocurrency
US Government Fines Bitgo for Allowing Users to Bypass Sanctions With Cryptocurrency The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control has fined Bitgo for failing to pre