<p>You can find source code (and sometimes pre-built executables for some platforms) for obsolete versions of Bitcoin core (previously just known as bitcoin-qt or bitcoin) at these locations:</p>
<div class="s-table-container"><table class="s-table">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>From version</th>
<th>To version</th>
<th>Repository</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>-</td>
<td>0.1.0</td>
<td><a href="http://www.zorinaq.com/pub/bitcoin-0.1.0.tgz" rel="nofollow noreferrer">zorinaq.com</a> currently has source for v0.1.0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>0.1.x</td>
<td>0.10.x</td>
<td><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140302031625/http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the Internet Archive</a>, also known as The Wayback Machine, has source code for many versions (e.g. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140214065548/http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/bitcoin-0.8.4/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">0.8.4</a>) that used to be stored at <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Sourceforge</a> but which are no longer available there.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>0.10.0</td>
<td>current</td>
<td><a href="https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/releases" rel="nofollow noreferrer">GitHub</a> has source code for releases from at least v0.10.0 to the current version (28.0 at time of writing)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table></div>
<p>As people have commented: if you want to open an ancient wallet file, you don't need an old version of Bitcoin, the current version should be able to open old wallets.</p>
<p>To compile older versions on modern operating systems requires extra work. This is at least partly due to changes in shared libraries etc. See AChow's notes on <a href="https://github.com/achow101/build-old-bitcoin" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Building Old Bitcoin Core Releases</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-08T22:08:14.727Z
Biggest question was to see how the entropy for the key was generated. The wallet is long gone afaik now. However I have the hard drive that it was on., I can recover some files but not the wallet.dat. If I could figure or how the entropy was generated maybe there are some temp files still available. I have they password the file was encrypted with and the address, then finally a hard drive that was likely formatted or had appdata cleared.
rollsch
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-10-08T14:29:01.590Z
2024-10-08T15:16:28.440Z
2024-10-08T15:16:28.440Z
RedGrittyBrick
<p>You can find the first release of bitcoin on this old bitcointalk thread offered by Hal Finney himself <a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=68121.0" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=68121.0</a></p>
<p>For the more recent version, circa 2009 you can dig the official github repo releases <a href="https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/releases" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/releases</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-11T01:59:46.957Z
The releases on github do not have binaries.
Claris
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-11T03:19:29.367Z
These must be compiled, compiling qt on windows is not trivial even for a developer unfamiliar with it.
rollsch
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-11T10:40:37.197Z
@rolls: Do you need to compile? Can't  source inspection be used to "see how the random seed was generated "?
RedGrittyBrick
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-11T13:20:08.557Z
The source code is happily all in the same source tree for every version since 0.1. None of the versions you're talking about used HD seeds though, they used raw private keys.
Claris
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-12T04:51:44.520Z
I want to see how the random seed was displayed, if there was a prompt to back it up and if so what the random data looked like, eg how many bytes, base64 etc. I remember being prompted to move a mouse around the screen to generate seed data.
rollsch
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-12T04:54:19.530Z
You say they used raw private keys, how were the private keys generated then? They must have had a random seed from somewhere, from memory you generated the seed data from moving your mouse around the screen.
rollsch
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-10-08T18:28:33.537Z
@rollsch Moving the mouse feeds entropy to the internal random number generator (which in very early Bitcoin versions used OpenSSL's code, which on itself gathers entropy from multiple sources, including hardware, OS, ...). Then that random number generator was used to generate private keys directly. There was no explicit "seed" involved.
Pieter Wuille
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-08T22:16:02.937Z
It woud be great to see the how this entropy looked so I could search memdumps etc for it as I have all the other information (pc, os, hard drive etc)
rollsch
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-11T01:58:56.353Z
2021-02-11T01:58:56.353Z
Saxtheowl
<p>I have a copy of the Windows 32-bit version 0.4.0 of the Bitcoin client (from 2011), install .exe file.  If you want a copy, let me know.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-08T22:11:20.923Z
Thanks but I would need to ensure I trust the source of the file.
rollsch
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-13T06:23:54.760Z
2021-03-13T06:23:54.760Z
John C.
<p>Where to find old versions of bitcoin-qt from 2011-2012 for download? I cannot find anything on the source code repository and all links I've found on forums are dead.</p>
<p>Is anyone able to assist finding the very old windows bitcoin-qt downloads?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-11T01:57:33.483Z
Preemptively, you don't need an old version of the software to open an old wallet; it would be unwise to use any of the extremely old Bitcoin versions.
Claris
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-11T03:18:37.083Z
I want to analyse see how the random seed was generated in old versions, mainly the UI part, I don't plan on opening any wallets or doing any transactions.
rollsch
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-12T04:15:33.537Z
@rolls Perhaps it is more interesting to ask directly how keys were generated in old versions of Bitcoin-Qt? A good answer would include references to source code to support its claims.
Pieter Wuille
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-12T04:51:06.197Z
I want the actual release so I can see the UI for generating and saving the random seed. So I can assist with the off chance it is recoverable. I can't find any examples of what the random seed data (from moving your mouse) looked like.
rollsch
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-02T17:33:59.167Z
Before Bitcoin Core 0.13 there was no concept of a "random seed", as wallets weren't deterministic. Keys were just generated randomly, each individually, and added to a keypool. In old versions, OpenSSL's random number generator was used. You need to look at the source code for this, I don't think you can easily derive this from looking at the binary.
Pieter Wuille
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-06-04T10:35:15.070Z
That is what I suspected. Thanks.
rollsch
<bitcoin-core>
Where to find old versions of bitcoin
rollsch
# Where to find old versions of bitcoin

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-02-11)

Where to find old versions of bitcoin-qt from 2011-2012 for download? I cannot find anything on the source code repository and all links I've found on forums are dead.

Is anyone able to assist finding the very old windows bitcoin-qt downloads?

**Tags:** bitcoin-core

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Preemptively, you don't need an old version of the software to open an old wallet; it would be unwise to use any of the extremely old Bitcoin versions.  
> **username_0**: I want to analyse see how the random seed was generated in old versions, mainly the UI part, I don't plan on opening any wallets or doing any transactions.  
> **username_2**: @rolls Perhaps it is more interesting to ask directly how keys were generated in old versions of Bitcoin-Qt? A good answer would include references to source code to support its claims.  
> **username_0**: I want the actual release so I can see the UI for generating and saving the random seed. So I can assist with the off chance it is recoverable. I can't find any examples of what the random seed data (from moving your mouse) looked like.  
> **username_2**: Before Bitcoin Core 0.13 there was no concept of a "random seed", as wallets weren't deterministic. Keys were just generated randomly, each individually, and added to a keypool. In old versions, OpenSSL's random number generator was used. You need to look at the source code for this, I don't think you can easily derive this from looking at the binary.  
> **username_0**: That is what I suspected. Thanks.  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2024-10-08. Score: 1

You can find source code (and sometimes pre-built executables for some platforms) for obsolete versions of Bitcoin core (previously just known as bitcoin-qt or bitcoin) at these locations:

| From version | To version | Repository |
| --- | --- | --- |
| - | 0.1.0 | [zorinaq.com](http://www.zorinaq.com/pub/bitcoin-0.1.0.tgz) currently has source for v0.1.0 |
| 0.1.x | 0.10.x | [the Internet Archive](https://web.archive.org/web/20140302031625/http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/), also known as The Wayback Machine, has source code for many versions (e.g. [0.8.4](https://web.archive.org/web/20140214065548/http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/bitcoin-0.8.4/)) that used to be stored at [Sourceforge](https://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/) but which are no longer available there. |
| 0.10.0 | current | [GitHub](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/releases) has source code for releases from at least v0.10.0 to the current version (28.0 at time of writing) |

As people have commented: if you want to open an ancient wallet file, you don't need an old version of Bitcoin, the current version should be able to open old wallets.

To compile older versions on modern operating systems requires extra work. This is at least partly due to changes in shared libraries etc. See AChow's notes on [Building Old Bitcoin Core Releases](https://github.com/achow101/build-old-bitcoin)

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Biggest question was to see how the entropy for the key was generated. The wallet is long gone afaik now. However I have the hard drive that it was on., I can recover some files but not the wallet.dat. If I could figure or how the entropy was generated maybe there are some temp files still available. I have they password the file was encrypted with and the address, then finally a hard drive that was likely formatted or had appdata cleared.  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2021-02-11. Score: 1

You can find the first release of bitcoin on this old bitcointalk thread offered by Hal Finney himself <https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=68121.0>

For the more recent version, circa 2009 you can dig the official github repo releases <https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/releases>

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: The releases on github do not have binaries.  
> **username_0**: These must be compiled, compiling qt on windows is not trivial even for a developer unfamiliar with it.  
> **username_3**: @rolls: Do you need to compile? Can't  source inspection be used to "see how the random seed was generated "?  
> **username_1**: The source code is happily all in the same source tree for every version since 0.1. None of the versions you're talking about used HD seeds though, they used raw private keys.  
> **username_0**: I want to see how the random seed was displayed, if there was a prompt to back it up and if so what the random data looked like, eg how many bytes, base64 etc. I remember being prompted to move a mouse around the screen to generate seed data.  
> **username_0**: You say they used raw private keys, how were the private keys generated then? They must have had a random seed from somewhere, from memory you generated the seed data from moving your mouse around the screen.  
> **username_2**: @username_0 Moving the mouse feeds entropy to the internal random number generator (which in very early Bitcoin versions used OpenSSL's code, which on itself gathers entropy from multiple sources, including hardware, OS, ...). Then that random number generator was used to generate private keys directly. There was no explicit "seed" involved.  
> **username_0**: It woud be great to see the how this entropy looked so I could search memdumps etc for it as I have all the other information (pc, os, hard drive etc)  

---

### Answer by username_5 on 2021-03-13. Score: 0

I have a copy of the Windows 32-bit version 0.4.0 of the Bitcoin client (from 2011), install .exe file. If you want a copy, let me know.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks but I would need to ensure I trust the source of the file.  

---

