Without endorsing his service, I will accept as plausible the notion that you can extract just enough information out of a wallet file that would allow cracking the password but not accessing the funds. The method of making sure only the correct portion of the wallet file gets extracted is the part that deserves good peer review, but I think the idea (possibility) itself is legit.
Basically a wallet is protected with a random number key, and then this random number key is encrypted in a special master password record that is encrypted with the password itself. The random number key is generated when the wallet is created and isn't useful by itself for accessing coins without the actual encrypted Bitcoin private key records to go with it. If you can rip that master record out of the wallet, you can crack at the password with no possibility of access to funds.
so the next trick is getting at that 'master record';
above my pay grade.
i would keep the files saved, just in case, likely solution would be to buy a password cracking program, that you tune to what you think your password might be, also in the future some simplified recovery might be possible (trust wise) granted a nonsecure password.
currently SOoL
unless you've jotted down the privkey somewhere?
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http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/cryptsy-founder-paul-vernon-disappeared-along-with-millions-of-his-customers-cash-8557571But trying to get hold of the company's financials and other relevant paperwork has been tougher. "Typically in a financial institution, you have books and records about who your depositors are," Sallah says. "It was at least not that."
Sallah says he's now come to the same conclusion Silver has reached about Big Vern's story.
"You do the math," Sallah says. "If you think someone hacked in, why would he have written that kind of confessional letter, posted it, and moved to China?... If it's not corporate looting, it's at least extreme corporate malfeasance."