Sent BTC to my old wallet and now Google Auth is stopping me from sending it! Help please.

[benohanlon]

Hi,

I started using my wallet again after a long time. I have the mnemonic and encrypted one too. I can access my wallet fine and I've just sent more bitcoin to it as well.

When I've gone to send some bitcoin it's asking me for a google auth and I tried the one on my phone and it doesn't match. Because the wallet was created years ago I've no idea what to do.

Can you please help?

P.S. This wallet was created in 2014. I don't remember the other auth options being available? So only that is turned on is google auth. My email is attached to the wallet and I get emails from it... can this help?

[greenaddress]

Does you email have attachment (a zip file)?

Another thing you can try is see if together with the mnemonics (24 english words) you saved a qrcode or a string related to gauth.

For support you can contact info@greenaddress.it however as per our FAQ https://greenaddress.it/faq only authenticated users (i.e. with two factor authentication) can enable/change two factor authentication.

[benohanlon]

I have all mnemonics. The problem really is that when I came back to the wallet (it was created in 2014) I had no idea there was an auth attached. It seemed to be working fine and I had a little credit in it so logically I thought OK I can still use this wallet. If it had prompted me or warned me that a Google Auth was attached and to review my security settings before putting money in I might have avoided it.

Losing or changing phones must be a common occurrence. For me, it's been a tough lesson. I've lost all faith in Google Auth because there's no way past it and frankly I've so many services I can't keep backups for them all.

I got an email from you guys that say you're working on a solution in the longer term so one day I'll be able to get back this money. It's frustrating, however, I appreciate you have security concerns.

I am getting rid of Google Auth now because really it's a risk rather than a security enhancement.

[benohanlon]

And to be fair... it must be really common for people to lose their phones and not have the backup codes.

[greenaddress]

@benohanlon we feel the pain. More or less loss of two factor authentication is as common as losing mnemonics.

We do advise to back up mnemonics and two factor authentication as applicable (i.e. gauth) and to add multiple two factor authentication for recovery purposes. On top of that, we offer independent recovery if users (optionally, because of privacy and 2of3 availability) setup an email for recovery and all two factor options are optional - we advise users that do not wish to have the extra protection (as well as risk in case of loss of two factor authentication) to not enable two factor authentication.

[benohanlon]

@greenaddress I understand but honestly back in 2014, I was at a Bitcoin event and someone set this up. I would have happily added email or anything else. I've now moved all my auth code stuff to Authy.

Is there anything you can do? I have all of the mnemonics stuff saved.

If you can't do anything at all for me specifically, what kind of timeline might I expect before you've got a solution for people in my position? Very roughly would be OK so I can understand.

[greenaddress]

Can't provide anything binding.

Looking at the roadmap and dependencies to get anything like that operational we are looking at end of 2018/9 (including the time the wallet will be in 'reset 2FA locked mode' which as of right now is planned for 1 year or twice the nlocktime period whichever is longest) - but this requires us to build a lot of infrastructure first before a wallet can be in that mode and we have to implement CSV first too (as this solves the issue long term for new addresses, unfortunately is not going to help old wallets and it wasn't available when GreenAddress was created)

[benohanlon]

@greenaddress I don't understand all of that but does it mean that by 2020 I will probably be able to claim the bitcoins back? Can you confirm that they're not lost and at some point, I will be able to get back into my wallet?

[greenaddress]

We will do our best such that it is the case then or earlier. Hope you understand our precautions and security enforcement.

[benohanlon]

I understand however it is a frustrating and poor experience. I'm not going to throw my dummy out of the prams... it is what it is I guess and thankfully it's not a really big amount of money. I appreciate you guys working on the solution and I love your work. I really think this is an important thing to solve though because many, many people will lose their phone etc... I've followed you on Twitter.

Thank you for your time answering. Let's hope by the time I can reclaim my BTC it's worth lots! 💃

[benohanlon]

​​ I got an email saying that "some of your deposits will soon be recoverable without two factor. Please log in to resecure them." so I emailed you to ask how/when i can get my account back. Obv I don't have my old phone so can't use google auth. I think that ticket was [#145909]. I got a reply sending me to the FAQ for two factor - but we already know ive lost my phone and two factor. So when will i be able to recover my account? how? * Ben * +44 74949 74949

…

On 28 July 2017 at 16:03, GreenAddress ***@***.***> wrote: We will do our best such that it is the case then or earlier. Hope you understand our precautions and security enforcement. — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#37 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AdGK8QqLnukZOKJiXJU2E87CkmqgR1zFks5sSfhNgaJpZM4Ol0Yw> . {"api_version":"1.0","publisher":{"api_key":" 05dde50f1d1a384dd78767c55493e4bb","name":"GitHub"},"entity": {"external_key":"github/greenaddress/WalletCrx","title":"greenaddress/WalletCrx","subtitle":"GitHub repository","main_image_url":"https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/ 143418/17495839/a5054eac-5d88-11e6-95fc-7290892c7bb5.png"," avatar_image_url":"https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/ assets/143418/15842166/7c72db34-2c0b-11e6-9aed-b52498112777.png ","action":{"name":"Open in GitHub","url":"https://github. com/greenaddress/WalletCrx"}},"updates":{"snippets":[{"icon" ***@***.*** in #37: We will do our best such that it is the case then or earlier. Hope you understand our precautions and security enforcement."}],"action":{"name":"View Issue","url":" #37 (comment) "}}}

[benohanlon]

Hi @greenaddress. I hope you've had a good year.

Can I pick up on the google auth issue? As you'll see in this thread, I have an old wallet I sent btc to and forgot it had a google auth attached that was on an old phone.

Could you give me an update on when I might be able to disable my google auth please?