<blockquote>
<p><strong>I found a wallet.dat file on my old computer ... I read in the forum that I read the Base64 code</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>&quot;wallet.dat&quot;  is the filename used by the wallet software named &quot;Bitcoin Core&quot;. Maybe some other types of wallet software also use this name but in this answer I will assume Bitcoin Core.</p>
<p>The current version of Bitcoin Core does not use Base64 to store the wallet data in the &quot;wallet.dat&quot; file. I don't know of any reasons why older versions would either.</p>
<p>The data shown in the question is not the sort of data I find in the &quot;wallet.dat&quot; created by a current version of Bitcoin Core.</p>
<hr />
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Shouldn't I see the password here</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>No, the password for a file is not stored in the file itself.</p>
<p>The password for a file is typically used to encrypt (when saving the file) or decrypt (when reading the file) some or all of the file contents. Storing the password in the file would defeat the purpose of having a password.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-12-29T10:10:12.307Z
2023-12-29T10:10:12.307Z
RedGrittyBrick
<p>Good day! I found a wallet.dat file on my old computer and no longer know the password, now I had the idea and what I read in the forum that I read the Base64 code and then convert this code.</p>
<p>Unfortunately my knowledge is limited and now I'm not sure if the file is corrupted.</p>
<p>This is what the Base64 code looks like (not complete!):
<code>wKOCZEPaRssAQAAAAAAAAQAAAAAAwtmcm9tYWNjb3VudAABbgM4MzkJdGltZXNtYXJ0CjEyOTkxMjQ5NTYAAAAAAAK998GAAAAAjAAECdHi6UcWqMkoj92i8H4xWg/AlJx55Qa0EIouIrCN5JjQvYgAA ......</code></p>
<p>The Base64 code consists of a total of 5,013,504 characters!?</p>
<p>When I convert it, my resulting text looks like this (not complete!):
<code> =T����|`-;:6F[*w)�����������fromaccount�n1034    timesmart 1300202056�����}`��#�tx�&amp;vQ,P$=/S~6d5ubGb~Y[���1[X1~0$v  fx)���G0D d[ꎹka|OvkӘǟXюz  ((I=QVP+o.ݑGAfQLMFjw)w]w aIO϶4}uwHX&gt;   !``L���vbܶ&quot;~`4gv)p@4����v.UN&lt;I3VL</code></p>
<p>Shouldn't I see the password here or is the file corrupted or what is it?</p>

<wallet.dat>
Decoding Base64 from an old wallet.dat
AndyKay
# Decoding Base64 from an old wallet.dat

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-12-29)

Good day! I found a wallet.dat file on my old computer and no longer know the password, now I had the idea and what I read in the forum that I read the Base64 code and then convert this code.

Unfortunately my knowledge is limited and now I'm not sure if the file is corrupted.

This is what the Base64 code looks like (not complete!):
`wKOCZEPaRssAQAAAAAAAAQAAAAAAwtmcm9tYWNjb3VudAABbgM4MzkJdGltZXNtYXJ0CjEyOTkxMjQ5NTYAAAAAAAK998GAAAAAjAAECdHi6UcWqMkoj92i8H4xWg/AlJx55Qa0EIouIrCN5JjQvYgAA ......`

The Base64 code consists of a total of 5,013,504 characters!?

When I convert it, my resulting text looks like this (not complete!):
 `=T����|`-;:6F[*w)�����������fromaccount�n1034 timesmart 1300202056�����}`��#�tx�&vQ,P$=/S~6d5ubGb~Y[���1[X1~0$v fx)���G0D d[ꎹka|OvkӘǟXюz ((I=QVP+o.ݑGAfQLMFjw)w]w aIO϶4}uwHX> !``L���vbܶ"~`4gv)p@4����v.UN<I3VL`

Shouldn't I see the password here or is the file corrupted or what is it?

**Tags:** wallet.dat


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2023-12-29. Score: 1

> **I found a wallet.dat file on my old computer ... I read in the forum that I read the Base64 code**

"wallet.dat" is the filename used by the wallet software named "Bitcoin Core". Maybe some other types of wallet software also use this name but in this answer I will assume Bitcoin Core.

The current version of Bitcoin Core does not use Base64 to store the wallet data in the "wallet.dat" file. I don't know of any reasons why older versions would either.

The data shown in the question is not the sort of data I find in the "wallet.dat" created by a current version of Bitcoin Core.

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> **Shouldn't I see the password here**

No, the password for a file is not stored in the file itself.

The password for a file is typically used to encrypt (when saving the file) or decrypt (when reading the file) some or all of the file contents. Storing the password in the file would defeat the purpose of having a password.


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