Bitcoin Forum

Last night decided to upgrade the client. Saw reddit post about it. Linking directly to the bitcointalk.org thread.

    https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=799967.0

I grabbed bitcoin-0.9.3-win64-setup.exe 27-Sep-2014 07:33 12224864.

After it crashed during the install it decided to re-index the blocks. It finished this morning and now all my coins are gone. I am speechless. Not even sure where to start.

I was just about to get a Trezor today. Let this be a lesson to others never to procrastinate and take measure to secure your coins. I assume I have a malware on my PC. Game over.

Status: 193 confirmations Date: 9/27/2014 02:23 To: 17ns8ggpV2SrUXvZwVkCPcGTGNjPUPSjL Debit: -12.3380244 BTC Transaction fee: -0.0003 BTC Net amount: -12.3383244 BTC Transaction ID: f9b0e5f573b410225d3519759263c12e859d4728d9ebfda0edbe03b3dcd96c90

EDIT: I am not blaming the upgrade for the lost coins. Just trying to provide as much information as possible that lead to the coins disappearance.

EDIT2: Adding a bounty for anyone who can help me understand and recover the coins if they are truly due to some weird upgrade bug/crash. 1BTC as a reward.

What exactly happens to a wallet.dat during the upgrade?  Is that possible that my coins are stuck in limbo?

I have a backup wallet.dat going back to 2012.  When I put it in the Bitcoin folder the client starts re-indexing the blocks.  I am waiting for that to finish.

Dump the private keys then import them to Electrum / Blockchain.info to see if your funds are safe, if they are then send them to a paper wallet until your TREZOR arrives.

What address do I use to dump the private key for?

dumpprivkey <bitcoinaddress>

17ns8ggpV2SrUXvZwVkCPcGTGNjPUPSjL

19WU83Bb6hQP2Rj6PaELHwhaJQrXPNjTvC
1Jua9ndM56kcVCswkXD8f1Lsv7kL8GJkYS
18knhaiu8tV8kjyFX8BzzQkjgKbtXxJoCL
15cB3uyjXfKh9Kg79cEunuMjb6SKGZX5N1
16rDjknJSc3iGBkqAVzve72rq1Hn9UaR5P
199QyYSVCamc75hguky1DpYwjesexfvph
1NFrw6LqPR3mdJK4CwC8L3vNzspVEKWJWN
1HEnkt2hGPgrsgFgTMXRjMtUwVSYRjn3ny

All these show 0 balances.

Private key for address 17ns8ggpV2SrUXvZwVkCPcGTGNjPUPSjL is not known (code -4)

Test the latest backup since it may not have been generated yet back in 2012

Same results. :(

have you try repair wallet ? or -rescan ?

this thread talk about fixing wallet but are obsolete, make sure you backup everything before do anything
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=11331.0

I hate to be the guy who mentions this, but are you absolutely sure that they were secure?  As in a malicious friend didn't just steal them?

It sounds like your backup is either too old or is corrupted; try running "bitcoin-qt -salvagewallet" and if that fails see if you can get anything from pywallet (on both the current and backup wallets). Don't forget to keep separate copies of the original and the backup though, and check to see if there are any other recent backups that could contain the private key.

What's the likelyhood of an upgrade failing, corrupting my wallet and transferring all the coins to another address?  What happens during an upgrade exactly?  Is this even a possibility that IF something did go wrong the coins are still there in that final address for which I don't have the private keys for?

Are you completely sure you had those coins before the upgrade? Could it be that you sent bitcoins before the client finished synchronized with the network sometime? That in the past has caused me problems.

That is not possible.  Try and see what time you upgraded compared to the time that was recorded for the transaction at blockchain.info.  I don't see how they could be related but you can look at the times anyway.

Is your upgraded client "up to date"?

Your balance will show as zero if it has ended up re-loading the blockchain until it gets to the point when you "acquired the coins" (i.e. it might just "come good" if you wait).

Also - "don't panic" and make sure that your backups are kept intact.

(and yes - use blockchain.info to check the balances of individual addresses to verify whether or not any coins have *moved*)

This is the transaction in question:

http://bitcoinchain.com/block_explorer/tx/f9b0e5f573b410225d3519759263c12e859d4728d9ebfda0edbe03b3dcd96c90

Received Time 2014-09-27 07:23:31

he scanned all his wallets for private key for 17ns8ggpV2SrUXvZwVkCPcGTGNjPUPSjL and it is not there.

You checked the sha256 sum of bitcoin-0.9.3-win64-setup.exe ?

If so, what sha256 sum your Bitcoin-qt.exe has. Just curious if the hosted file on bitcoin.org/en/download could be with malware at the time when you downloaded it...

I checked the timestamps on the file I downloaded and when the transaction took place.  It appears that they were stolen a day prior to the upgrade.   I just didn't see the transaction until I caught up with the blockchain.