CustodyStress
Archive › Seed phrase unavailable
Part of the CustodyStress archive of observed Bitcoin custody incidents
CS-00003

A Bitcoin-Qt user made over 100 transactions without ever making a fresh wallet backup.

Blocked
Case description
A Bitcoin-Qt user made over 100 transactions without ever making a fresh wallet backup. The original wallet backup held only the first 100 pre-generated keys. Keys generated after the backup date were not saved. When the drive failed, transactions involving the newer keys were unrecoverable.
Custody context
Stress conditionSeed phrase unavailable
Custody systemMobile or software wallet
OutcomeBlocked
DocumentationUnknown
Year observed2012
CountryUnknown
Structural dependencies observed
Undocumented procedureSingle point of failure
What this illustrates
There was no documentation of how access worked. Without it, there was no path back in. Access was not recoverable.
Outcome interpretation
Access was not possible under the reported conditions.
Source
Publicly Reported
Evidence type
Forum post
Related cases involving seed phrase unavailable
146 cases involve seed phrase unavailable 569 cases involve mobile or software wallet View archive statistics →
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Framework references
Terms guide
Survives
Access remained possible under the reported conditions.
Constrained
Access remained possible, but only with delay, dependence, or significant difficulty.
Blocked
Access was not possible under the reported conditions.
Indeterminate
There was not enough information to determine the outcome.
Single-person knowledge
Recovery depended on information or capability held by one individual who was unavailable.
Institutional dependence
Recovery depended on a third-party institution or service that was inaccessible or uncooperative.
Documentation gap
Recovery depended on instructions that were missing, incomplete, or unclear.
Authority mismatch
The person with legal authority to act did not have operational access, or vice versa.
Original text
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