Electrum 2.x · BTC

Recover a Electrum 2.x wallet.

Electrum 2.x is the current line of the widely used lightweight Bitcoin wallet, with a password-encrypted wallet file.

Why people get locked out

For a forgotten Electrum password when you still have the wallet file.

Can we recover it?

Yes. Electrum 2.x is one of the formats that reduces to a check-only extract, so the fleet can test passwords against it safely — finding the password never exposes a key that holds funds. GPU-friendly. You pay 15% only if we recover it, and nothing if we don't.

Under the hood

The Electrum 2.x extract, in detail.

Exactly what the fleet receives for this format — and why finding the password still can't move the funds.

Anatomy of the extract

What leaves your machine — and what never does

For a Electrum 2.x wallet, this is the entire check-only extract the fleet receives. It can test a password, but it can never be turned back into a key that spends.

GPU electrum2:
in the extract
  • the IV for an encrypted master private key (xprv/zprv), or the IV for an imported loose key
  • one 16-byte encrypted block from that xprv or key record
stays on your device
  • the rest of the encrypted xprv, seed, or private-key material — never sent
  • your addresses and balances
how a guess is checked

The right password decrypts the xprv block to a Base58 extended-private-key prefix such as xprv or zprv, or decrypts a loose-key tail to valid Base58 plus padding.

verifier xprv/zprv or valid Base58 key text
example extract
illustrative · synthetic
electrum2:<iv-hex>:<encrypted-xprv-or-key-block-hex>

Illustrative and synthetic — placeholder bytes.

on the wire

Around 32 bytes for the legacy 2.x xprv or key extract — an IV plus one encrypted key block.

password math (KDF)
Double SHA-256 + AES-256-CBC

Extractable Electrum 2.x JSON wallets hash the password twice with SHA-256 to form the AES key for encrypted xprv or loose-key material. Fully encrypted Electrum 2.8+ files use a separate PBKDF2-SHA512 plus ECIES/MAC path.

how a guess is recognized
xprv/zprv or valid Base58 key text

The right password decrypts the xprv block to a Base58 extended-private-key prefix such as xprv or zprv, or decrypts a loose-key tail to valid Base58 plus padding.

extract format
electrum2:

An open, published format. The agent checks every job matches it before running — so a real wallet can't be disguised as an extract.

See the full security model, or how a recovery works end to end.