INDEPENDENT GUIDES BY KEYCHAINX
Understand it.
Test it.
BTCRecover.
Wallet recovery explained through practical guides, primary sources and reproducible experiments. Build a search you can understand—and check.
Need help? mail@keychainx.io · KeychainX
A small search.
A useful first step.
+ ^River
+ 2021 2022
+ !$# candidate preview
River2021!
River2022!
ORIGINAL EXERCISES · OPEN EVIDENCE
Don’t just copy a command.
Understand what it tries.
Make a suffix optional: 2 candidates become 4. Remove the ordering anchors: 2 become 12. See every input, expected result and the BTCRecover revision used.
Explore the candidate lab →LEARN BY DOING
Your recovery field guide.
Seven focused guides.
Read in order, or start where you are.
Find your starting point
Work out whether you need password, seed phrase, or BIP39 passphrase recovery before you run a search.
2 min readSetup02Install & test BTCRecover
Get the maintained Python project running in an isolated environment, then check it before using wallet data.
2 min readPassword recovery03Build your first tokenlist
Turn remembered password fragments into a controlled set of guesses. Preview every candidate before searching.
2 min readPassword recovery04Recover a wallet password
Choose between whole-password guesses and fragments, run a bounded search, and preserve its progress.
2 min readSeed recovery05Repair a seed phrase
Prepare a seed recovery with the right wallet type and a known address, without mixing it up with password recovery.
2 min readSeed recovery06Find a BIP39 passphrase
Learn why a correct seed can open a different wallet and what you need to test an additional passphrase.
2 min readTroubleshooting07Fix common recovery problems
Separate installation failures, candidate mistakes, wallet mismatches, and performance limits.
2 min readGO BEYOND THE FIRST COMMAND
Know why a search works.
What is BTCRecover? Creator, projects and recovery paths
Understand what BTCRecover can test, who originally created it, and how the original gurnec project relates to the maintained 3rdIteration fork.
DEEPER REFERENCEBTCRecover tokenlists vs passwordlists
Choose fragments or whole-password guesses, understand required lines and anchors, and compare tested candidate counts.
DEEPER REFERENCEBTCRecover wildcards and typos: control the candidate count
Use decimal and restricted wildcards deliberately, distinguish generation from typo expansion, and verify small examples before scaling.
DEEPER REFERENCESeed checksum vs wallet verification
Why a valid BIP39 checksum is only an early filter, and how passphrases, paths and known addresses affect verification.
DEEPER REFERENCEBTCRecover found no match: a diagnostic workflow
Separate missing candidates, wrong wallet inputs and incorrect verification settings before making a recovery search larger.
DEEPER REFERENCEEstimate recovery time without inventing a success rate
Separate candidate counts from wallet-checking speed, record a meaningful benchmark, and understand what an ETA cannot promise.
DEEPER REFERENCEBTCRecover glossary: passwords, seeds and search rules
Plain-language definitions of tokenlists, passwordlists, anchors, checksums, derivation paths, autosave and candidate verification.
Planning a bounded search? Try the search-space calculator →
GO TO THE SOURCE
The reference shelf.
Install & test BTCRecover ↗
Platform setup, Python versions, dependencies, and the test suite.
PasswordsTokenlist reference ↗
Required fragments, alternatives, anchors, token counts, and wildcard syntax.
SeedsBasic seed recovery examples ↗
Compare commands for supported seed formats and wallet types.
PerformanceGPU acceleration guide ↗
Supported recovery types, OpenCL setup, and device configuration.
Project & standardsMaintained source repository ↗
Read the current code and obtain BTCRecover from its project repository.
Project & standardsOriginal gurnec repository ↗
The original BTCRecover project. Useful history; its setup instructions are legacy.
Stuck? Talk to KeychainX.
Tell us the wallet application, the type of backup you have, and where you are stuck.
For the first message, leave out seed phrases, private keys and passwords.
BTCRecover began with Christopher Gurnee’s original BTCRecover project. These guides point to the maintained 3rdIteration project and its documentation. This is an independent KeychainX resource, not the project’s official website.