I still have partial access to my wallet, who can look at it with me?

By R.T. (Tyler) Dijst, blockchain investigator at Paucitas

What Paucitas does

We begin with an inventory: which type of wallet, which software or hardware, which data you still have and what exactly happened. Partial access covers very different situations, from a working address without a signing key to a device that starts but no longer confirms.

From that inventory we read the balance and the movements on the address, so you know first of all whether the funds are still there. That answer often changes the urgency in both directions.

Partial access to my wallet covers very different situations, from a working address without a signing key to a device that starts but no longer confirms. The inventory separates them, because each one opens or closes a different set of technical routes and the wrong assumption wastes weeks.

What you supply

You supply the wallet address or the extended public key, the type of wallet and the version, the data you still do have such as part of the recovery words or an old backup, and documents showing that the wallet is yours.

An extended public key is often enough and is safer to share than anything else you hold. It lets us read the balance and the movements without giving us any ability to spend.

Documents showing that the wallet is yours matter as much as the technical data. An old exchange confirmation, a bank statement of the deposit that funded it, or an email with the purchase all serve. Without something of that kind we cannot look, and that restraint is deliberate.

What you receive

You receive a record of the inventory with the state of the wallet, the movements established and a description of the remaining technical options. For a single wallet with the usual data that inventory is normally ready within one working day, so you quickly know where you stand.

Each remaining option is written with its condition attached. That prevents a possibility on paper from being read as a plan.

For readers outside the Netherlands the practical value is the speed of the first answer. Within about one working day you know whether the funds are still on the address and which routes remain open, which is usually enough to decide whether to spend anything further at all.

How to get started

You describe in a few lines which data you still have and what happened. We will tell you whether looking further is worthwhile. The contact page is enough, and please do not include your recovery words in that first message.

Please leave your recovery words out of the first message. A description of the device, the software and what happened is enough for us to say whether looking further is worthwhile.

There is no charge for the first exchange of messages, and you are not committing to anything by writing. Many people simply want to know whether the funds are still there, and that part we can usually answer quickly.

What is technically possible depends on the data that exist. Access to a wallet can never be promised in advance.