The user had a shortlist of potential extensions from their 2018 password habits.

Survives

Case description

A user who had moved Bitcoin to an Electrum wallet in 2018 using a custom seed extension attempted to restore the wallet in September 2023 after a hard drive failure. The seed phrase had been correctly backed up, but the custom extension—an additional passphrase entered at wallet creation—had been recorded in a notes file that was lost in the same drive failure. The user had a shortlist of potential extensions from their 2018 password habits. A recovery service tested 340 candidate extensions and found the correct one after two days of computation.

Custody context

Stress condition	Passphrase unavailable
Custody system	Desktop Software Wallet
Outcome	Survives
Documentation	Unknown
Year observed	2023
Country	International

Structural dependencies observed

Technical specialist required

Outcome interpretation

Access remained possible under the reported conditions.

Source

Privately Reported

Evidence type

News article

Evidence link

https://rewallet.com/blog/bitcoin-core-forgotten-password/

Related cases involving passphrase unavailable

217 cases involve passphrase unavailable 25 cases involve desktop software wallet View archive statistics →

This archive documents observed custody survivability failures. It does not attempt to document all Bitcoin losses or security incidents. Submit a case

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Framework references

Where Bitcoin Custody Intersects Legal and Fiduciary Authority

Where custody creates gaps in estate planning, fiduciary duty, and professional responsibility.

Professional Scope Boundary Matrix

What each professional or product covers, what they do not, and where gaps form between them.

The Independent Assessment Layer in Bitcoin Custody

How independent diagnostic layers emerge when multiple parties depend on shared infrastructure.