Part of the CustodyStress archive of observed Bitcoin custody incidents
Passphrase unavailable
Cases in this category involve wallets protected by a passphrase that could not be recovered. Even where the seed phrase was available, passphrase unavailability blocked access.
Passphrase unavailability differs from seed unavailability in that it often arises years after setup, when memory of an infrequently used passphrase has faded. Cases in this category frequently involve users who understood the concept of a passphrase but underestimated the precision required to reproduce it exactly. Even small variations in capitalization, spacing, or punctuation produce a different wallet.
217 observed cases
Blocked
152 (70%)
Constrained
2 (1%)
Survives
51 (24%)
Indeterminate
12 (6%)
The repository had been on a private Git host that shut down in 2017.
Mobile or software wallet
A programmer who had used a hash of their own source code as a wallet passphrase in 2013 found in March 2020 that the original code no longer existed. The repos
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet (2020)
Mobile or software wallet
During COVID lockdown in April 2020 a user attempted to access a forgotten wallet to convert Bitcoin to cash for expenses. The passphrase had not been used sinc
The employer had been acquired, the building demolished, and the old employee IDs
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin holder's passphrase was based on a combination of their old employee ID and the name of a building they worked in. The employer had been acquired, the
By 2020 they remembered the PRNG function used but not the seed value.
Mobile or software wallet
A developer's 2013 wallet passphrase was derived from the output of a deterministic pseudo-random number generator seeded with a value they could only partially
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2020
Mobile or software wallet
A user found in June 2020 that their wallet passphrase had been stored in a notes app that was deleted when they switched phones. Cloud backup had been disabled
Web archive captures of the site for that date did not exist in the Wayback Machine.
Mobile or software wallet
A forum case from July 2020 describes a user who used a passphrase derived from a defunct website's front-page text on a specific date in 2013. Web archive capt
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet (2020)
Mobile or software wallet
An August 2020 forum post describes a user who created a wallet in 2014 with a passphrase that included a character from a keyboard layout they no longer used.
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet (2020)
Mobile or software wallet
An August 2020 case describes a user whose passphrase incorporated the daily closing price of a stock on a specific date in 2013. They remembered the stock but
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet (2020)
Mobile or software wallet
A September 2020 case describes a user who encrypted their wallet with a passphrase that included the exact time — to the second — at which they created the wal
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2020
Mobile or software wallet
A user who had created their passphrase based on a memorable sequence of transactions in a favourite video game found in November 2020 that the game's servers h
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2020
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin investor who had used a memorable phrase in a video game as their passphrase found in November 2020 that the game's servers had been permanently shut
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet (2020)
Mobile or software wallet
A December 2020 forum case describes a user whose wallet passphrase was the model and serial number of a component from a computer they had built in 2013. The c
Passphrase unavailable — exchange custody (2020)
Exchange custody
A December 2020 case describes an exchange account holder who had not logged in since 2016. The account's 2FA was linked to a phone number that had been reassig
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet (2020)
Mobile or software wallet
An October 2020 forum post describes a user who created their wallet passphrase by interleaving two separate phrases. They could recall both base phrases but no
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2020
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin holder who had used the latitude and longitude of their birthplace as their passphrase found in March 2020 that they had remembered the wrong precisio
By 2020 they had lost fluency in the language and could only partially reconstruct
Mobile or software wallet
A user's wallet passphrase was a phrase in a minority language that they had been studying in 2013. By 2020 they had lost fluency in the language and could only
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2020
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin holder who used a passphrase derived from their late grandmother's recipe — written in a dialect that has since changed significantly — found in July
The exchange's account recovery process required the 2FA device, creating a deadlock.
Exchange custody
A December 2019 case describes a user who had not logged into a Bitcoin exchange since 2015 and found the account's 2FA had been tied to a phone number that had
The wallet contained coins purchased during the 2016 price recovery.
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin investor who had not accessed their wallet since 2016 found in January 2019 that they could not recall their passphrase. The wallet contained coins pu
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2019
Mobile or software wallet
A user who had used a street name from their childhood city as their passphrase in 2013 found in 2019 that the city had undergone major redevelopment and the st
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2019
Mobile or software wallet
A forum case from February 2019 describes a user who had used the Wi-Fi password of a now-demolished building as their wallet passphrase. The property managemen
The physical coin was lost during a house move.
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin user's wallet passphrase was based on the serial number of a physical Bitcoin they had purchased in 2013. The physical coin was lost during a house mo
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet (2019)
Mobile or software wallet
A user who had set their passphrase as an inside joke phrase shared with a former business partner found in March 2019 that the partner had died and no one else
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2019
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin investor who had used a custom keyboard layout's key positions as a passphrase mnemonic in 2014 found in 2019 that they had switched keyboard layouts
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2019
Mobile or software wallet
A user documented in April 2019 that they had used a combination lock's opening sequence as their wallet passphrase. The combination lock had since been replace
Translate