5 Bitcoins Dormant for 10 Years, Claude Helped Him Retrieve Them for Just $15
- Key Takeaway: A Bitcoin holder used Anthropic's AI chatbot Claude, at a cost of just $15, to successfully recover 5 Bitcoins that had been dormant for over a decade, worth approximately $320,000. However, the community questions whether the AI was only responsible for file retrieval, not directly cracking the wallet.
- Key Elements:
- The person involved, Cprkrn, gave Claude all his college notes, old laptops, and other materials for analysis, ultimately recovering a forgotten old password and the critical wallet backup file.
- Claude analyzed over 1GB of data in total, including two Mac devices, an external hard drive, notes, emails, and chat records, taking eight weeks to complete the search.
- Before succeeding, Claude tested over 3.5 trillion passwords (including 34 billion BTCRecover attempts and 3.4 trillion Hashcat tests), all of which failed.
- On-chain records show the recovered wallet address had been dormant since early 2015, and on May 13th, approximately 5 Bitcoins were transferred out in 5 separate transactions.
- Industry reports indicate that due to reasons like forgotten seed phrases and lost private keys, approximately 2.3 to 4 million Bitcoins (11%–19% of the total Bitcoin supply) are currently in a permanently unrecoverable state.
Original author: Brayden Lindrea
Original compilation: Chopper, Foresight News
A Bitcoin holder sparked heated discussion after posting on X, claiming to have recovered approximately 5 BTC worth around $320,000 that had been dormant for over a decade, aided by Anthropic's AI chatbot Claude.
Recently, anonymous X user Cprkrn said in an interview with MTS that he had set an extremely complex multi-layered password on Blockchain.info in his early years. After several modifications over time, one of the passwords was completely forgotten.
Cprkrn revealed that over the past eight weeks, he tried to brute-force trillions of password combinations using AI, but made no progress.
Then, at the beginning of this week, as a last attempt, he compiled all his notes from his university days, old laptops, and other materials, submitting all of them to Claude for analysis and retrieval. Ultimately, the AI helped him recover a forgotten old password and a crucial wallet backup file, allowing him to successfully unlock the long-dormant Bitcoin wallet.
Industry reports statistically show that due to forgotten seed phrases, lost private keys, permanent asset destruction, and other reasons, approximately 2.3 million to 4 million BTC are currently permanently irretrievable, accounting for 11%–19% of Bitcoin's total supply. Commercial services have even emerged in the market specifically dedicated to helping users recover lost crypto assets.
So, how did Cprkrn recover his Bitcoin using Claude?
This seed phrase search spanned eight weeks. Throughout the process, Claude helped him retrieve and sift through a massive amount of data, including two Mac devices, two external hard drives, exported Apple Notes documents, iCloud emails, Gmail inbox, and X platform chat logs – analyzing over 1GB of data cumulatively.
One of the devices was his old university laptop, in which Claude found a crucial wallet backup file dated December 2019.
Subsequently, with Claude's help, Cprkrn deduced the password based on clues in his handwritten notes, successfully decrypting the backup file and ultimately uncovering the seed phrase for the dormant wallet, thereby unlocking a sum of Bitcoin.
Although Cprkrn did not directly present evidence of Claude's process of scanning the devices, he shared a Blockchain.com block explorer link: the wallet address 14VJy…ofuE6 transferred approximately 5 BTC out in 5 transactions on May 13th.
On-chain records show that this batch of Bitcoin had been dormant since early 2015, remaining untouched for over ten years.
The recovery process was not achieved overnight. Before success, Claude tested over 3.5 trillion passwords. Claude first utilized the open-source seed phrase recovery tool BTCRecover and Python programs to brute-force approximately 34 billion password combinations, which ended unsuccessfully.
Subsequently, using the password cracking tool Hashcat, it continued testing 3.4 trillion more password combinations, all of which failed.
The entire massive data retrieval and password trial process cost only $15 in AI computing power. Claude has already reviewed and compiled the complete recovery process.
Despite Cprkrn successfully recovering his Bitcoin, many netizens in the crypto community believe that the individual exaggerated Claude's actual role. Some pointed out that Claude was only responsible for file retrieval and organization, not directly cracking the wallet, which does not constitute a groundbreaking technological feat.
Reddit user MeteorSwarmGallifrey commented in the technology section: "Claude merely helped him search and organize files from start to finish; it didn't perform any groundbreaking cracking actions."
