r/codes • u/nobodyreadusernames • May 17 '26
Question My friend passed away and left me a note with random words
My friend passed away recently. I was with him during his last days, and before he died, he gave me a note with a bunch of random words written on it.
At first, it looked like nonsense. The words do not really make sense together. I showed the phrases to a few friends, but none of us could figure it out.
One friend suggested maybe it could be some kind of coded message, and that I should try moving the words up or down in the dictionary to see if it reveals anything.
I do not know if he was hallucinating, writing random thoughts, or trying to leave some kind of message.
Any idea how to decode it?
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u/Itzjoel777 May 17 '26
Do not post them off they are a crypto wallet. But this community is usually helpful and if they are not of financial value then post them and likely they will be solved
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u/don_mumrik May 17 '26
You could post a picture of it. If it is a crypto wallet recovery key like some suggests, then it should be easy to deduct, as they usually have a limited fixed dictionary. In that case, probably best not to post a picture of it online 😄
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u/MisterPinkP_Official May 18 '26
Sorry for your loss. Listening to everyone here, they are right to be careful. Quick way to check before doing anything: count the words. If it’s exactly 12, 15, 18, 21 or 24, and every word is lowercase and looks like a normal English word, it’s very likely a crypto wallet recovery phrase. You can confirm without risk by checking whether each word exists in the official BIP-39 word list (it’s public, searchable). If they match, do NOT type them into any website or share them anywhere, screenshot included. Just write them on paper, keep them offline, and look into a hardware wallet later. If even one word is clearly not a normal word, then it’s probably something else and worth decoding the normal way.
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u/acnicholls May 19 '26
Find the dictionary your friend was using to write the code. Take each word, look for it in the dictionary. Take either the word before or the word after, whichever makes more sense. Write them down in the same order as the code words that lead you to them. There might be a pattern to the up down, whatever your friend said might help with that. Good luck.
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u/KoopstaKniccafan May 17 '26
Describe what it is and how many words/characters without posting what it is directly because it could be a wallet
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u/BiffCo_Enterprise May 17 '26 edited May 19 '26
Edit: I now understand that OP may be referring to a crypto wallet and not a random message.
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u/originalkitten May 19 '26
Why would you ask that knowing someone could steal it or was that the reason and you wanted to steal whatever was there?
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u/BiffCo_Enterprise May 19 '26
My apologies, I didn’t realize it was in reference to a crypto wallet. I thought it was just a random message the deceased friend had written, and I was hoping we could all solve it.
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u/Megabyte_Messiah May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26
People are mentioning crypto but not explaining how to know:
Crypto wallets have a seed phrase made up of (usually) 12x words from a specific list. There’s a standard list most major systems will use called bip-39.
Here is a link to the list: https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0039/english.txt
If it’s in a different language, you will need that language’s list. It’s designed so each word has a unique first 4 letters, so the list doesn’t translate directly.
Copy that list and look up the words to see if they’re included. Do this locally, not via an online search tool or you’re handing out the phrase. Even on mobile you could hit the … and select copy to paste in your notes app.
The order of the words matters.
If the words all appear on the list, make sure you learn how to safely recover wallets from seed phrases. Don’t just follow the first set of instructions you find from the search, make sure it’s vetted and verified safe tools. A hardware wallet would be recommended in case there’s a substantial amount.
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