Parity-ethereum: How can I use a Parity account recovery phrase from 2017?

[dani-jozsef]

Hi people. Sorry for the weird question, but it appears Parity v1.x versions aren't hosted any more, and I need to get my stuff out of this old recovery phrase... All I need is to convert the phrase into a keypair that I can then import to MEW or Metamask, and move all the assets out. So I thought I'd fire up a Parity v1.x Docker image, have it not connect to any blockchain, recover my account and export the keypair... Only Parity v1.x is no longer on Docker, nor do the download links work in Github releases.

Also, apparently Parity v1 did HD wallets differently from eg. Metamask, as all addresses start with 0x00... So it's not like I can use any other HD wallet either.

I believe as the maintainers of the Parity codebase, you guys have a huge responsibility to provide a recovery path, even it's decided to keep it an outside thing.

[adria0]

@daniel-jozsef, maybe parity tech - the original company that created the software - has a copy of the old version, https://www.parity.io/

[dvdplm]

I believe as the maintainers of the Parity codebase, you guys have a huge responsibility to provide a recovery path, even it's decided to keep it an outside thing.

parity-ethereum, like openethereum is OSS and free of use for you and everyone else in perpetuity. It is also provided without any guarantees of any kind, which reflects the amount of money you paid for it (zero). Lecturing others about what their responsibilities to you are is rude at best and does not lead to a constructive conversation. Please weigh your words carefully.

You can download the source code for any version from the releases page and build&run the binary yourself, e.g. 1.11.8-stable sources, zipped. Be advised that old releases may contain (known) security issues fixed in subsequent releases so be especially careful about accepting external network connections to your node, maybe using --mode offline and/or strict firewall rules. You also may need to use an old rust toolchain (and the same caveat apply: old compilers and libraries may have exploitable security issues).

Good luck!

[pheuberger]

Thanks for the pointer @dvdplm. I'm in the same boat and will try to get it to run 👍

Do you happen to know what Rust version was used to build it?

[pheuberger]

I was able to build it, but the problem is how do I export the key pair from it? I think I used the local web version back then, but I'm a bit lost how I would fire it up now. I managed to run some form of parity command line application, but no clue how to fire up the UI. Do you have any pointers for me?

[dvdplm]

Do you have any pointers for me?

TBH that was before my time. :(

Maybe @q9f remembers roughly how it was done?

[pheuberger]

Don't worry, I made it work! 🎉 I found an old Electron client to connect to the API and was able to export the json file.

I'll write up a little guide for the next poor soul that runs into this tomorrow.

[q9f]

This has a special release tagged parityenabled

https://github.com/MyEtherWallet/etherwallet/releases/tag/v3.9.0

See also this guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/bd5dys/restore_parity_wallet_from_mnemonic_option_not/

[rakita]

Seems resolved

[dani-jozsef]

Yes, thanks for everyone's help. In the end I followed @q9f's suggestion and succeeded in retrieving my keys.
@dvdplm, I'm sorry if I came off as attacking the maintainers of the project. :) I was pretty agitated as I could find no actively maintained location to download a compatible tool.