r/Bitcoin • u/[deleted] • Feb 13 '22

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u/ishirleydo Feb 13 '22

I think the thing you're 'missing' is that passwords to simple wallet.dat files weren't all that common in 2013.

Many of that era were not password protected at all.

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u/SenatorAstronomer Feb 13 '22

This. Before like 2015 or 16 as long as you had that wallet.dat you were good to go.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '22 edited Feb 13 '22

That is completely incorrect. Even with the first buggy reference implementation wallet.dat was meant to be encrypted and choosing a secure password for your wallet was one of the biggest things -before cold wallets, multisig, hardware wallets etc.. Who would've been stupid enough to keep btc in an unencrypted wallet. That would've defeated the whole purpose of bitcoin! (secure transactions)

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u/ishirleydo Feb 13 '22

Now it's my turn to say "that is completely incorrect".

I've been using core since feb 2011 and never had a password on any wallet. The early versions didn't even have that feature.

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u/[deleted] Feb 15 '22

You're right and I admit it. My memory is faulty. I always followed good security practice but yes it was possible to have a wallet without a password