Diagnosis · Your file
The parameters in your file that decide whether your case is workable
When someone writes to me, I don’t start by asking about the password. I start with the file, because it has written inside how much each attempt costs, and that sets the ceiling on what can be done. It is an objective figure that doesn’t depend on anyone’s opinion.
The only number that really matters
All wallets protect the password the same way: by repeating a calculation many times. How many times is a number stored in your own file. Testing a password means repeating that whole calculation, so that number is, literally, the price of each attempt.
| Where it lives | What it is called in your file |
|---|---|
| Bitcoin Core (wallet.dat) | The number of rounds your computer measured when you set the password |
| Ethereum keystore | The word scrypt or pbkdf2 and the numbers beside it |
| MetaMask | The calculation rounds, much higher in recent wallets |
| Old wallets in general | Low values: good news for you |
With Bitcoin Core there is a surprising detail: that number wasn’t chosen by the program, it was measured by your own computer. If you set the password on a slow 2012 laptop, a low number was recorded. If you did it on a recent, powerful machine, a high one. Two files that look identical from the outside can differ a hundredfold in difficulty.
The second factor: your memory
The file’s number tells you how many passwords can be tested. Your memory tells you how many need testing. The case is workable when the second number fits inside the first, and isn’t when it doesn’t. That simple, and that little open to opinion.
How to look yourself
- Make a copy of the file and work on the copy.
- If it is a keystore, open it in a text editor and look for the word scrypt or pbkdf2 and the numbers beside it.
- If it is a wallet.dat, don’t open it in an editor: the value is binary and only a proper tool reads it.
- Write down the approximate year you created the wallet and with which program. Often that alone is enough to orient the case.