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WalletRecovery.info

Blockchain.com Wallet Recovery

Blockchain.info and Blockchain.com wallets are one of the largest pools of old, recoverable Bitcoin still in existence. People created web wallets between 2012 and 2017, saved a wallet.aes.json backup or an old recovery phrase, then lost access when a password, a second password, an email account, or a laptop disappeared.

If you still have the wallet backup, or enough account material to identify the wallet, recovery is often possible without guessing blindly.

Situations I recover from

Forgotten main password. Blockchain.info wallets can be attacked offline from an encrypted backup. The hard part is not the hardware, it is building a realistic password search out of your memory: words you used in that era, substitutions, endings, dates, keyboard patterns, and fragments you reused elsewhere.

"Decrypt failed" on a file you know is yours. A wrong password and a corrupt file produce the same message. So does the wrong format version. Sorting those apart is the first hour of the job, and it is the difference between a viable case and wasted GPU time.

Second-password lockout. If you can log in, see a balance, and cannot send, the outer wallet decrypted and the keys did not. That is a separate password and a separate problem.

A backup file that will not open at all. Files named wallet.aes.json, exported backups, and old email attachments are usually enough to begin. Do not upload the file to anything. Make a copy and ask first.

Legacy mnemonic confusion. Some old Blockchain.info recovery phrases are not BIP-39 seed phrases and will never restore in a modern wallet. A phrase that "does not work" is not proof the coins are gone; frequently it is proof the phrase was never the way in.

A phrase that restores the wrong wallet. Right words, wrong account index or address type. The balance you are looking for may be one derivation path away.

What to do right now

  1. Make a copy of the backup file and put the copy somewhere safe. Work only from the copy from here on.
  2. Stop running tools against it. Repeated failed attempts teach you nothing new and some tools rewrite the file.
  3. Do not upload it anywhere. The file plus a password is total control of the coins.
  4. Write down the password material while you still remember it: the era, the length, themes, substitutions, endings, and anything reused from other accounts of that time.
  5. Note whether there was a second password, and treat it as a separate memory exercise.
  6. Find any receiving address you know belonged to the wallet, so candidate keys can be checked against the right target.
  7. Ask for a free assessment before sending secret material to anyone, including me.
  8. Check whether the file is even intact, free and without a password, using the Blockchain.com backup file checker. It runs in your browser, uploads nothing, and tells you whether "decrypt failed" is about your password or about a truncated file. Worth doing before step 7, because it changes what there is to assess.

The technical background, free

Two guides cover this ground in full and neither requires hiring anyone:

Blockchain.com backup file won't decrypt? wallet.aes.json, "decrypt failed", and legacy phrase fixes walks the diagnostic in order: identifying what you actually have, what wallet.aes.json contains, the common causes of "decrypt failed" ranked by frequency, the second-password trap, and what to do when a legacy phrase restores an empty or wrong wallet.

How I brute force Blockchain.info wallets is the working detail: the v1, v2, and v3 backup formats, PBKDF2 iteration counts and what they mean for time-to-crack, why a well-built token list matters far more than raw hashing speed, and a real run with real numbers.

How the recovery works

The process is the same five steps I use for every recovery: an honest assessment, a written contract, secure transfer of the backup file if the case is viable, the recovery work itself, and return of your coins to an address you control. You pay nothing unless I succeed. The fee is published openly: 15% of the recovered amount for wallets under 100 BTC. Before you send anything, read what happens to your wallet file once you send it, from transfer through to destruction.

This page is the service path. You will know exactly who is responsible for the job: David Veksler, working through a Colorado-registered LLC with a physical address, a written contract, and a published PGP key. If your password memory is too thin to build a real search from, I will say so rather than bill you to find out.

Get your free assessment →

Blockchain.com recovery questions

My blockchain.info backup file won't decrypt. What does that mean?

Almost always one of five things, in rough order of frequency: the password is close but not exact; the file is a wallet.aes.json from a different format version than the tool assumes; the backup is truncated or was saved incompletely; the file is not actually a wallet backup; or the outer decrypt is working and a second password is keeping the keys locked.

A wrong password and a corrupt file produce the identical error message, which is why "decrypt failed" tells you almost nothing on its own. You can separate those two for free in a few seconds: the backup file checker reads the file in your browser, without your password and without uploading anything, and reports whether the encrypted payload is complete or truncated. The full diagnostic order is in the wallet.aes.json guide.

What is the difference between v1, v2, and v3 backups?

Blockchain's backup format went through three broad versions. The practical difference is the PBKDF2 iteration count and some structural details. v2 and v3 backups default to 5,000 PBKDF2-SHA1 iterations; older v1 backups used a different, often lower count and a slightly different layout.

This matters because a tool that assumes the wrong version will fail to decrypt a perfectly good file. If you know roughly what year you created the wallet, that alone narrows the version. The version breakdown and what each one means for time-to-crack is in how I brute force Blockchain.info wallets.

I can log in and see my balance, but I cannot send. Why?

You are looking at the second-password trap. Older Blockchain.info wallets offered an optional "second password" that separately encrypts the private keys inside the already-decrypted wallet. The wallet opens, the balance displays, and the keys stay locked.

This is a second, independent password-recovery problem. Write down everything you remember about that second password separately from the main one; they were often set years apart and follow different habits.

My blockchain.info legacy mnemonic restores an empty or wrong wallet.

Two different causes, and they need different fixes. The oldest Blockchain.info wallets predate BIP-39 entirely, so a phrase from that era will not validate in a modern wallet at all. Do not force it into a BIP-39 field. In that case the real keys live in the backup file, not in the phrase.

If the phrase does validate but restores empty, that is a derivation-path or account problem. Blockchain.com wallets can hold several accounts, and funds may sit on an account index or address type (legacy versus SegWit) that the restoring app never scanned. An empty-but-should-be-full restore is a derivation problem until proven otherwise.

Is a wallet identifier enough to recover an account?

On its own, no. A wallet identifier tells us which wallet you mean; it does not unlock anything. What makes a case workable is an encrypted backup file you still hold, plus real memory of the password. Blockchain.com's own account-recovery process is a separate path and is worth exhausting first if you still have the registered email.

Should I upload my wallet.aes.json to an online recovery tool?

No. That file plus your password is complete control of the coins, and pasting it into a website hands both halves of the problem to a stranger. Any legitimate service will tell you what it actually needs before you send anything, and the first assessment should never require the file itself.

Copy the file, store the copy offline, and stop running tools against the original. Then describe what you have in words.

What does Blockchain.com wallet recovery cost?

The assessment is free and there is no fee unless the recovery succeeds. When it does, the published rate is 15% of the recovered amount under 100 BTC, and 10% above that. Full pricing is on the homepage, and the terms are in a written contract before any work starts.

Locked out of your wallet?

Describe your situation and I'll tell you — for free — whether recovery is realistic. No fee until your coins are back.

Get a free assessment →
☎ +1 214-659-1775 · [email protected] · Mon–Fri 9:00–18:30 MT · Denver, Colorado