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%)
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet (2018)
Mobile or software wallet
A June 2018 forum case describes a user who had set their passphrase using a phrase from a foreign-language film they watched once in 2012. They could remember
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2018
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin holder who used a passphrase based on their favourite sports team's championship year found in July 2018 that they could not recall the exact format —
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2018
Mobile or software wallet
A forum case from July 2018 describes a user who had encrypted their wallet with a passphrase only they knew and then suffered a prolonged illness that impaired
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2018
Mobile or software wallet
A user who had used the name of a cryptocurrency exchange as part of their passphrase in 2014 found in August 2018 that the exchange had rebranded twice since t
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2018
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin investor who used the same passphrase for both their wallet and a now-deleted social media account found in August 2018 that the social media platform
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2018
Mobile or software wallet
An estate attorney documented a 2018 case where a living client had forgotten the passphrase to a wallet they had set up while recovering from surgery in 2014.
They could not recall the VIN and no documentation of the old car survived.
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin investor who had used their first car's VIN number as their wallet passphrase found in September 2018 that the car had been scrapped and the VIN was n
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2018
Mobile or software wallet
A user who had used a passphrase generator website to create their wallet passphrase in 2015 found in October 2018 that the website had been taken down. They ha
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet (2018)
Mobile or software wallet
An October 2018 case describes a user who had set a passphrase derived from their car registration plate combined with their garage door PIN. Both the car and t
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet (2018)
Mobile or software wallet
A November 2018 forum post describes a user who had used the final score of a specific sports match as their passphrase. They remembered the match and the appro
The friend had since lost touch with the user and could not be contacted.
Mobile or software wallet
A November 2018 forum post describes a user who had set their passphrase using a combination of two words from a secret language they invented with a childhood
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2018
Mobile or software wallet
A developer who set up a Bitcoin Core wallet in 2012 using an unusual passphrase scheme based on binary representations of ASCII characters found in December 20
The new phone did not carry over the old PIN.
Mobile or software wallet
A user who had used a phone unlock PIN as part of their wallet passphrase upgraded their phone in March 2017. The new phone did not carry over the old PIN. They
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2017
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin holder who had set their wallet passphrase using a method they had devised and documented in a private notebook found the notebook had been discarded
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2017
Mobile or software wallet
A user who had set their wallet passphrase to the registration plate of a vehicle they owned in 2012 found in January 2017 that the vehicle had been scrapped fi
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2017
Mobile or software wallet
A user who had set their wallet passphrase to the concatenation of two ticket stub numbers from a specific concert found in February 2017 that the stubs had bee
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2017
Mobile or software wallet
A forum post from March 2017 describes a user who created a wallet passphrase from the lyrics of an obscure song. By 2017 the song had been removed from all str
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2017
Mobile or software wallet
A user who had set their Armory wallet passphrase to the name of their first pet combined with a number found in April 2017 that they could not remember whether
By 2017 they could not fully reconstruct the algorithm from memory.
Mobile or software wallet
A software engineer used a self-written key-stretching algorithm to generate a wallet passphrase in 2013. By 2017 they could not fully reconstruct the algorithm
By 2017 they could recall only approximate phrasing.
Mobile or software wallet
A forum post from May 2017 describes a user who set their passphrase to a line of poetry they had written themselves in 2012. By 2017 they could recall only app
The service was acquired and shut down in early 2017, deleting all user data.
Mobile or software wallet
A forum case from June 2017 describes a user who had encrypted their wallet with a passphrase they stored only in an online note-taking service. The service was
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2017
Mobile or software wallet
A user whose wallet passphrase was based on their then-partner's name and a shared memorable date found in June 2017, following the end of the relationship, tha
They had used a TOTP code from the YubiKey as the suffix of their passphrase.
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin user who relied on a hardware security key (YubiKey) as part of a passphrase scheme lost the YubiKey in a move. They had used a TOTP code from the Yub
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2017
Mobile or software wallet
A forum post from July 2017 describes a user who had used a combination of their blood type and a childhood pet's name as a passphrase. Medical records were che
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2017
Mobile or software wallet
A user who had used a combination of two foreign language words as their passphrase found in August 2017 that they had forgotten which language or which words.
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