Bitcoin Forum

I have an old bitcoin wallet from 2011ish that I'm running right now with bitcoin core. It seems to be working so far but I still have about 4 years to go. Unfortunately, I probably only have about $100 USD on it. I have a bitcoin app wallet that I'm using. I'm wondering if I should just send the funds to the address on this app or just keep the old wallet how it is and pray I can open it in 10 years. Who knows, maybe it will be $1000 for my tiny amount. Thanks.

I'm confused, you still have about four years to go for what? To update the whole blockchain? That will cost you extra money for data, it's better to import your private key into Electrum wallet and see if it shows up, it should though since Electrum don't need to update any blockchain data, it's always up to date

Yes, to update the whole blockchain. I don't have the receive numbers written down and I was never given a private key. I remember at one time Bitcoin Core asked me to create a private key but it was not a 12 word key and I created it, it was not given to me. This was 10 years ago. Maybe the core wallet was different back then.

So if this doesn't work, I can enter the receive numbers into my new wallet? Because I can see them on the Core wallet as the years go by. I'm not really worried about data or diskspace on that machine. Sorry, this is all new to me. I have to go back to a point in time where I left off and learn what has happened since I stopped using it I suppose. Thank you :)

Why not try to export the private key? You can follow a guide such as https://chainquery.com/bitcoin-cli/dumpprivkey. If you import the address without the private key you'll end up with a watch-only wallet, which means you can't really make a transaction with it. I don't really see a downside with sending your coins to a new wallet though, as long as it is a secure wallet for long-term storage.

If you have to recover 4 years of blockchain data, keep in mind that by default that data is stored on your computer's HDD and the total size would be around 300GB.
So you should consider at least pruning, but even better would be to find out which addresses have funds (https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/96529/bitcoin-cli-how-to-verify-balance) and then dump (i.e. show in order to save them somewhere else) the keys as @joniboini said.

The address coins' worth can be seen on any block explorer if you know the address.
And the private key you can import in simpler wallet either now, either sometime in the future.

As suggested above you can export your private keys. And importing your private key to another wallet will enable you to access your bitcoin again, I suggest you use electrum (https://electrum.org/#download) instead of core to avoid redownloading the whole blockchain. Here's a guide (https://bitcoinelectrum.com/importing-your-private-keys-into-electrum/) to do that

You guys are all awesome. Thanks for the responses. :)

I was all excited because Electrum showed me I had 4.77... bitcoin and then I realized it displays mBTC and not BTC. *cries* My $100K turned into $100. I could have paid so many bills.
This worked rather well although importing the addresses only creates a read-only wallet. I was hoping to get a tree cutdown today ($2500.) It doesn't matter. The value of my wallet is only $100.

Thanks for the help.

Electrum uses mBTC as base unit by default. You can change it to BTC from "Preferences".
Importing the address into Electrum will create a watch-only wallet and it will not be possible to move your coins.
To be able to sign transactions, you have to dump the addresse's private key from bitcoin core and import it into Electrum.

Old bitcoin wallet is safer than new bitcoin wallet. But both are safe. You can transfer your funds to the new app if it will be easier for you to access. So far your Passphrase and private key is safe. Your coins are safe.

You can keep the old address so long as you are sure that it's private key has not been compromised. That aside, if you really want to enjoy the benefits of bitcoin profits, you can always try to buy small amounts of Bitcoins and send them to the address whenever the Bitcoin price is low e.g. in March this year Bitcoin dropped to ~$4,000. If you had bought any amount of Bitcoin at that time, you would be more than 5 times rich right now  :)

That's okay, I assume most of the new users like I was before shocked after importing my keys on electrum at first and then I realized that unit lol.

Anyway, your $100 will grow just hodl like what usually did and it surely it will pay off.

What you should do now is to make your device/computer safe from malware and avoid updating your electrum from the in-app notification like what other users did and got hacked/scammed though it's fixed now but I still suggest avoiding it. Always download in the official website https://electrum.org/#download and verifiy its signature (https://bitcoinelectrum.com/how-to-verify-your-electrum-download/) to avoid such incidents.