Bitcoin Forum

Other => Beginners & Help => Topic started by: obitori on September 18, 2014, 04:35:41 AM



Title: Tool to analyze Bitcoin Chainblock offline
Post by: obitori on September 18, 2014, 04:35:41 AM
I have been tasked by my employer with taking wallets held by a customer and figuring out what bitcoins are associated with each.  We downloaded a copy of the block chain and I need to use the downloaded copy.  Can anyone suggest a good analytical tool that can take the wallet and determine what bitcoins it owns? 

I prefer a tool for GNU/Linux, but Windows is fine.

On a side note, I have read up on Bitcoin but never owned one.   I was thinking of buying $100 worth of bitcoins but I am more comfortable using Pay Pal to buy the coins than associating my bank account with a bitcoin trader.  Any recommendations?

Thanks!


Title: Re: Tool to analyze Bitcoin Chainblock offline
Post by: BurtW on September 18, 2014, 04:42:28 AM
Paypal (reversible fiat) and BTC (irreversible money) do not mix.

Cash (irreversible fiat) and BTC (irreversible money) works.

Go to localbitcoins.com, find a reputable member near you, initiate a $100 contract, meet them in person at a local coffee shop for a face to face cash for BTC exchange.  Easy and safe.


Title: Re: Tool to analyze Bitcoin Chainblock offline
Post by: torusJKL on September 18, 2014, 06:01:15 AM
Why don't you just use the software that created the wallet to see how many bitcoins are still associated with it?


Title: Re: Tool to analyze Bitcoin Chainblock offline
Post by: cryptozio on September 18, 2014, 06:41:37 AM
Downloading the blockchain is useless in my opinion, you can analyze the transactions with blockchain.info block explorer:

https://blockchain.info/


Title: Re: Tool to analyze Bitcoin Chainblock offline
Post by: obitori on September 18, 2014, 07:44:23 AM
Thank you for the replies.  I am being told to use the downloaded copy of the block chain, so no control over that.  We have the wallets but cannot run the software used to make them.  My teammate can extract the keys from the wallets, so this is what we have to work with.


Title: Re: Tool to analyze Bitcoin Chainblock offline
Post by: deepceleron on September 18, 2014, 08:51:29 AM
If the copy of the blockchain you have is too old, it may not show the correct balance of these wallets. It would be best to do the analysis with Bitcoin Core and get the blockchain caught up with the latest block for accurate information.

The most straightforward way would be to make a new Bitcoin Core wallet.dat for each of the "employer's" wallets. You don't say what format the wallet is in, but if you can turn them into lists of private keys, that here's what to do:

1. Install Bitcoin Core on a system with no previous wallet and get it up to date by downloading all the blocks (using your "downloaded blockchain", torrent, or just letting the client download blocks for a day).
2. Make a configuration file that enables server=1
3. Start bitcoin-qt
4. create and run a batch file that imports all your private keys at once, with lines like these for every key:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Bitcoin\daemon\bitcoind importprivkey L3GMeSqH3HTcqLBsYtQtJQhLQ2iaFMq8FBHga9gek2hGXMQbskjY addr1 false
C:\Program Files (x86)\Bitcoin\daemon\bitcoind importprivkey KxFFdK2xG9kJDXC5yQ3Ck6SFodsR1y97bNBz9tNu5uzkxzMchiG1 addr2 false


The "false" option at the end of a line prevents a re-scan for balances. Only the last line should be changed to "true", after which the blockchain will be re-scanned for balances for all the addresses you added.
You can run the batch file to import all the keys, or manually run each "importprivkey" command in the bitcoin-qt console.

5. After the scan is complete, you will have a normal bitcoin wallet.dat in the data directory that will show the spendable balance for all the addresses.
6. Close bitcoin. Rename the wallet.dat to wallet.dat.customer1, and then open bitcoin again. It will create a new blank wallet and you can repeat for remaining address lists.