Bitcoin Forum

I recently registered coinbase and I discovered that they give you a wallet address once you finish the registration. Prior to coinbase, I was using an address connected with bitcoinqt, but I screwed up and had to reinstall bitcoinqt, which gave me a new address that I never used.

Let's say coinbase address is 1, the address I had some balance in is 2, new address is 3

Before I re-installed bitcoinqt and got address 3, I was using address 2 on faucet sites and of course, collecting bitcoins. Then I registered coinbase and got address 1. Now because I reinstalled bitcoinqt, address 2 can still be used as a wallet, but it cannot be controlled by bitcoinqt anymore, at least that is what I am thinking since I can't find an import button in the software. I don't know how to initiate a send command for address 2 to address 1 without bitcoinqt's help.

Basically, I ask how do I send coins from 2 to 1? I do not plan to use 3 at all.

Do you have a backup of the wallet that had address 2 from before you re-installed bitcoin-qt?  If you didn't make a backup of the wallet, and you didn't store the private keys anywhere, then the bitcoins are lost forever.

if you meant "wallet.dat", then no, I deleted it.

I'm still new to the wallet aspect of bitcoins, what is a private key looks like? Is it that long string of random characters starting with "1"? if that is so, I have it, or is that the public key?

just researched online, seemed like I'm out of luck.

I guess I'll use coinbase's address for faucet sites then, and I'm releasing my number 2 address for anyone who is skilled at hacking these, have fun. only 13k satoshis are in it, not much.

1CvX1uYmg3R5b8GCcduoyDzp3BtQRsxNkC

No one is going to hack your account. Currently, the network is secure and cannot be cracked. If it could be, I would not invest another minute. Once bitcoin is broken, its broken.

I'm going to suggest you make a wallet on your system. Don't keep online wallets. Keeping online wallets is essentially giving a stranger your money to hold with no insurance. They could lose the money, get "hacked" or just drop their service. Download electrum, a light and local wallet. You should have a paper storage system setup as your savings account and a bunch of smaller wallets for quick transfers and faucets etc.

That is what I thought too, I don't trust Coinbase a whole lot, but I need to transfer Bitcoins to USD, and it seemed Coinbase is the only site that makes this process easier.

Unless someone here can give a better way to do BTC to USD

Address 2 is basically useless now.

Create a localBitcoin advertisment and people would contact you if they are interested in the trade, they are more likely to be interested in higher amounts. The online wallet part depends on what kind of wallet you are using, some wallets give you full control of your private key which allows you to access it even if the service goes down, if you keep a backup. Use opensourced wallets whenever possible and compile it yourself. Precompiled ones offer less assurance of it having no exploits.

so coinbase didn't give me the private key, should I ask them for it?

Coinbase uses shared wallets on the main account(not the vault). You will and should never gain access to the keys, they are transfered to a main wallet or gold storage and your coins are sent from there whenever you make a withdrawal.

so it is like MtGox, once they decided to shut down, all the coins will be gone.

they just struck a deal with Paypal recently, so maybe I can trust them to not shut down anytime soon? It wouldn't benefit Paypal if they do that, and Paypal had been around for years.

MtGox's shut down was due to a 'hack'. Coinbase MIGHT be trusted but there is nothing that is stopping them from claiming thatthey got hacked and declare bankruptcy like MtGox. MtGox has a history of bad reputation but people still trusted them, it is fairly obvious something like this is going to happen. The best practice is to have a private key that only you yourself is aware of and you can control it fully even if the service goes down.

I see, thank you for the advices.

As inexperienced as you are I recognise you no more have private key to 1CvX1uYmg3R5b8GCcduoyDzp3BtQRsxNkC (https://blockchain.info/address/1CvX1uYmg3R5b8GCcduoyDzp3BtQRsxNkC) but on the flip side
the balance there (https://blockchain.info/address/1CvX1uYmg3R5b8GCcduoyDzp3BtQRsxNkC) is 0.00013367 BTC (~0.03 USD) so at least you learnt your lesson cheap.

yes, that is the good thing.

don't try this at home  ;D

use an offline wallet if you're gonna have big amounts otherwise coinbase works , your coins are lost. if you want to i could refund your btc just give me an adress : >

coinbase is also based in San Francisco, so it might be easy to claim theft with authorities. As long as you have proof.

If you are talking about giving my btc back from address 2, then here is address 1, my coinbase address.

1hN2mtR59eXWw1sZSQKVWMxQ62tTz5wFC

What I'm planning to do is sell the bitcoins from time to time, once I linked my paypal debit card and "bank account" to coinbase. I put bank account in quotes because it acts like a checking account but not really a bank, no interest is given. The money won't stay in BTC for long before being converted to USD.

I got everything that was in address 2 from faucet sites, so really it wasn't too much of a loss, just my time wasted.