Choose your recovery source
Enter a 24-word seed, open a wallet file, or paste a standalone spending key. Wallet files are read-only and sensitive data stays local.
Legacy Zcash Recovery
Argos Rescue Wallet
A careful desktop recovery workspace for ZecWallet Lite seeds, legacy wallet files, and standalone Sapling or Sprout spending keys. Inspect everything locally, scan the historical chain, then sweep recoverable funds to a modern Zcash address.
- Seeds, wallet files, and keys
- Local Rust backend
- Independently audited
- Mainnet and testnet support
Server
lightwalletd
Progress
63%
Accounts
20
| Acct | Sapling | Orchard | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0.4821 | 0.0000 | 0.4821 ZEC |
| 1 | 0.0000 | 0.1260 | 0.1260 ZEC |
| 2 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | Scanning |
Important
This website is not a wallet
This is a download page — there is nowhere to enter a seed here, and there never will be. Argos is a desktop app; everything sensitive (seed handling, key derivation, scanning, signing) happens locally on your machine. If any website ever asks for your ZecWallet Lite seed, leave.
Update required
Older builds can no longer sweep
Zcash activated the Ironwood network upgrade (NU6.3) at block 3,428,143. Argos 1.1.0 and later handle it. Earlier builds still scan correctly and still show your balance, but the network now rejects the sweep they build, so recovery cannot finish. Nothing is lost and no funds move if this happens — you just need the current version, below.
See it in action
Recover a wallet in about a minute
A silent, captioned walkthrough of the seed flow — paste your seed, scan every account, review, and sweep. Wallet-file and standalone-key recoveries use the same scan and review safeguards.
Recovery Flow
Made for legacy Zcash recovery material
Argos reads ZecWallet Lite seeds and wallet files, zcashd wallet.dat, and
standalone Sapling or Sprout spending keys. It shows what each source contains and
walks you through moving recoverable funds with every step visible.
Tell Argos how far back to scan
Pick a starting date or block height. Earlier means a more thorough scan; later means a faster one.
Find your funds across all addresses
Ordinary recovery covers transparent, Sapling, and Orchard funds. Sprout uses its own complete scan-and-sweep path when those older keys are present.
Review and send to your new wallet
Check the destination address, fees, and memo before broadcasting. Nothing leaves your control until you confirm.
Who It Helps
For owners of old Zcash wallets and backups
A seed phrase is enough for ordinary ZecWallet Lite recovery. If you still have a ZecWallet Lite or zcashd wallet file, Argos can read it directly, including encrypted files. Standalone Sapling and Sprout spending keys are supported too.
What you'll need
- Your seed phrase, original wallet file, or standalone spending-key backup
- A modern Zcash wallet to receive your recovered funds — we recommend ZODL (iOS / Android, by Electric Coin Co.), which generates a Unified Address out of the box
- Time for the scan to finish — ordinary scans can take hours; a bare-key Sprout scan also transfers roughly 26 GB on mainnet
Support our work
We built this because it needed to exist
Argos was not on our roadmap. We built it after watching Zcash users lose access to funds with no clear recovery path — because ZecWallet Lite had stopped being maintained and no easy alternative existed. When we couldn't find a tool that handled it cleanly, we made one.
Recovery is free, and always will be. If you'd like to support continued work on Argos and future Zcash tools, the sweep flow includes an optional donation step — you can contribute a small percentage of whatever you recover. No accounts, no subscriptions, no pressure. Your contribution helps us keep building tools that serve the Zcash community.
How it works
- During the sweep review step, enter an optional donation percentage — the default is 10%
- The app calculates a split: your funds go to your destination, the donated share goes to Sovright
- Both outputs are shown before you confirm — you see exactly what leaves and where it goes
- A memo is attached so you can match the on-chain transaction to your session
Safety
Pick a machine that matches what's at stake
Entering a seed or spending key, or opening a wallet file, is inherently risky. Match your precautions to the value you're recovering — and after the sweep finishes, retire the legacy recovery material.
Large amounts
Use a brand-new computer for the recovery — ideally one bought with cash and set up from a verified OS installer. A factory reset is not enough at this tier, because it does not remove firmware-level malware that may already be present on a long-used machine.
Smaller amounts
On the recovery machine, run nothing except Argos and the operating system during the session. No browsing, no email login, no password manager you don't strictly need, no other apps open. Make sure full-disk encryption is on, the OS is up to date, and no one else is using the machine.
Internet required
Argos reads Zcash blocks from public servers, so an air-gapped machine won't work. Ordinary scans use lightwalletd; Sprout scans read historical full blocks from Zcash P2P peers. Your seed and spending keys never leave your computer — only public block data comes in, and only final sweep transactions go out.
If you tested with ZODL first
The diagnostic step on the FAQ asks you to try your seed in ZODL. After you've confirmed Argos is the right tool, delete that ZODL wallet from your phone — its only job was to tell you whether the funds were elsewhere. Otherwise the seed now lives in a second place you'll need to track.
Retire legacy secrets afterward
Any malware that touched the recovery machine may now know the seed, wallet-file passphrase, or standalone key. The secret is the lasting compromise, not the machine. Sweep to a fresh wallet, confirm the transactions, then retire the old backup. Keep the original wallet file until every applicable pool has moved.
Download
Install Argos on a trusted desktop
Pick the build for your operating system below, or grab any release from the project release page on GitHub. Verify checksums or signatures when they are published alongside a release.
Argos has been independently audited by Least Authority — every issue and suggestion in the final report is marked resolved. Read the audit report (PDF).
Get help
Questions, or stuck mid-recovery?
Recovery is stressful when your funds are on the line. Reach us through whichever channel fits — each one is read by the people who build Argos.
GitHub Discussions
Public Q&A for setup questions, error messages, and anything where the answer helps the next person too. Searchable and indexed — best for non-sensitive, technical questions.
Open Discussions →Signal group
End-to-end encrypted, real-time help. Scan the code with your phone, or use the invite link on desktop. Your phone number stays private — other members see only your Signal username.
Join the Signal group →
Prefer one-to-one help, or not comfortable with a group chat? Email us directly. Best for anyone who wants a private, async channel.
support@sovright.comArgos support will never ask for your seed phrase, wallet file, passphrase, or spending key. Anyone who does — on Signal, by email, or anywhere else — is a scammer. Enter recovery secrets only in the signed Argos desktop app.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if Argos can help me?
A good first test: enter your ZecWallet Lite seed into ZODL. ZODL derives only one address per seed, so if you remember having funds in ZecWallet Lite but ZODL shows none, those funds are almost certainly sitting at other addresses ZecWallet Lite generated — and Argos is built to find them.
Which kinds of Zcash funds can Argos recover?
Argos recovers transparent, Sapling, and Orchard funds from ZecWallet Lite seeds and
supported wallet files. It also recovers Sprout end to end from a zcashd
wallet.dat or a standalone SK…/ST… spending
key. A ZecWallet Lite seed alone cannot reconstruct Sprout keys because the wallet
generated them independently.
Why is a Sprout scan so much slower?
Lightwalletd compact blocks omit the encrypted data needed to find Sprout notes. When a wallet file has no cached note witness, Argos must trial-decrypt every historical JoinSplit by reading full blocks from genesis to Canopy. On mainnet that means 1,046,400 blocks and roughly 26 GB of transfer. Progress is saved, blocks are discarded after processing, and the scan can resume later.
Do I need to update Argos before I recover?
Yes, if you have an older copy. Zcash activated the Ironwood network upgrade (NU6.3) at mainnet block 3,428,143. Argos 1.1.0 and later handle it; earlier builds can still scan and show your balance, but the network rejects the sweep they build, so the recovery cannot finish. Nothing is lost and no funds move — you simply need the current build. The download links on this page always point at the newest release.
What happens if my computer crashes or I close the app mid-scan?
Nothing is lost. Argos saves its progress to a local workspace as it goes, so you can relaunch the app and pick up where you left off instead of re-scanning the chain from scratch.
Where do I get a destination Unified Address?
We recommend ZODL (formerly Zashi), a free mobile wallet from Electric Coin Co. for iOS and Android. Open ZODL, tap Receive, and copy the Unified Address it shows you. To get that address onto your laptop without typos, send it to yourself via Signal's Note to Self or a notes app that syncs across your devices — the destination UA is public, so this is just a copy-without-mistakes step, not a security one. Any other modern Zcash wallet that supports Unified Addresses will also work; just make sure you control its seed.
