Bitcoin Forum

Okay wondering this for a while now. I transferred from Tradehill 1 BTC to my bitcoin account about a week ago. I copied the "Your Bitcoin Address" field, pasted it into the appropreate withdraw line from Tradehill and sent the funds to said address.

Funny thing is, my amount was withdrawn from my Tradehill funds, but I still have a 0 wallet balance according to the program. I've never used it before so I wasn't sure if I had to do something in order to connect to recieve the transaction before it shows up in my wallet.

Anyone got any light on why this is happening?

When you open the Bitcoin app, at the bottom next to connections, how many blocks does it say?  If it's low (under 100,000) you probably need to leave the app open for a while.

At 133,000 currently. Didn't know I had to leave it open for a while in order for me to get anything, thanks for the info.

Yup.  Check the blockexplorer. Once you pass your block number you should see it show up.

You don't have to leave it open to 'get anything'.  You own the BTC whether you run your program or not.  It's just that it won't show up in your program until your program has downloaded the block which says you now own the BTC.  There are about 133,433 blocks at the moment, and about 6 new ones are made each hour.

Is it possible you moved the original wallet.dat file? If you moved the original wallet.dat file that would also explain why no bitcoin has arrived.

Actually, I did. In effort to have increased security I have my Wallet.dat file point to another directory per the command line:

 -datadir=F:\(DIRECTORY)

I just don't want it inside my C:/ drive for security reasons, and because that drive is dedicated to my OS.

turn off the program, move back the original wallet file, check the balance, encrypt and backup the wallet file and delete it from the bitcoin directory :)

Oh wow the orignal bitcoin folder is almost 500mb

I can't have that on my C/ drive where my OS is, I don't have that kind of space to push around, only enough for the OS and essential programs :\

EDIT: I did what you said, and still at 0 balance plus my bitcoin address is now different... doesn't look good...

just backup the wallet.dat file..no need to back up whole folder..let the other files stay there..

The bitcoin client changes addresses (keys) automatically, though I thought it happens after receiving coins. But IF you are using the original wallet.dat (to which you sent that coin) it may take a while before you see the coin received, particularly if that happened a while ago.

A wallet makes new keys, but never gets rid of old ones. If you don't see the address the coin was sent to in your address book then you have the wrong wallet file. If you moved the old wallet file when you backed it up a new one was created in it's place and you need to put the original back.

Did you put the address into blockexplorer.com to see if the transaction actually happened?

Definately plunk your address into blockexplorer.com and have it check for a transaction on your address. You'll see the block #. Then make sure your bitcoin app has at least that block count loaded. I've noticed that near the upper end they load much slower than the lower count ones. Until that block has been grabbed by your bitcoin app it won't know about the transaction.

Hopefully you didn't enter a wrong address when you did the transaction. AFAIK that would put funds in someones else's hands or a void address which can't be claimed.

Wow pretty sure I just got jipped then.

My 1 BTC is completely missing from my address according to block explorer... for some reason it seems like my address changed since the last time I've used it, or Tradehill completely threw away my BTC

This whole thing seems compeltely unreliable.... jesus fucking christ. Why the hell is my address different now than it was before? I sent this data in a week ago and it still isn't here, now I have a different address and I'm still jipped of about $14 USD worth of bitcoin. Fuck this!

yeah this sorta thing is something that could lead to bitcoins demise. just be happy you only lost 1 BTC instead of hundreds like some.

What address did you withdraw to. Not what shows in the client, what did you put into trade hill.

Put that address into the explorer, not whatever it shows now. Moving around wallet files can change that (though to be clear, you still have control over all addresses you have the wallet files for).

You don't have an address, you have several addresses. The client automatically generates new addresses to help you preserve your anonymity.

In the client go to "Address Book", "Receiving" and try to find there the address you used with Tradehill. Look at it with block explorer. If it's not there you need to contact Tradehill about this. Make sure you are using the correct wallet file.

If the money appears in blockexplorer and not in the client, and you have all blocks, run bitcoin with the -rescan parameter.

... aaaannd this is why things have to get simpler and simpler and more user friendly.  It is definitely too soon to start running tv ads, etc.

Not really, you just have to not be pants on head retarded.

This is true - you need a diploma in Bitcoinology to understand what's going on. Not exactly that bad but it's not going to work for your average Ma & Pa type user. It isn't that hard but it involves things that are unfamiliar to most users expecting it to be like an ATM machine.

I think they would be better to keep a single address by default in Bitcoin, and have it as an advanced option to assign new addresses each receipt transaction. Anyone who read up on and cares about anonymity could enable that mode easily but it wouldn't confuse users starting out.

In other words, 3/4's of the world's population isn't fit for using our currency?  Think of your grandma.  ;)

exactly.  most grannys dont even know how to surf the web, and we want everyday people to embrace and have faith in this new currency that you wont even be able to use if your power goes out.

Pretty sure changing my default bitcoin data folder back to the default location completely wiped whatever wallet.dat file that the BTC was sent to, somehow. Despite both wallet.dat files in both data locations supposidly being exactly the same.

I have no transaction history in my bitcoin client, and the only address I have in the address book is the "new" one.

korjax...... welcome!      Vam from mektek is here too

Hold on - to be clear, how many blocks do you have? If it's not ~133000 you're not caught up and won't see the transaction.

atm there are 133387 blocks- as mentioned above... need em all to confirm transactions

Korjax, you had better return to the exchange transaction records and get the address you entered there and then plug that into bloxexplorer.com. If that address does NOT show up then contact the exchange and ask them why they never sent funds to that address.

If that address DOES show up then you need to figure out what you did with it. When you changed wallets and stuff you shouldn't have deleted a wallet and the address should still be in one of them. But it is possible in confusion that something was lost perhaps.

When you check addresses in the wallet be sure to click the "receiving" tab because it contains different addresses than "sending". The way bitcoin works it creates 100 addresses for you upon first run and they are inside your wallet. Only ones you use (or when you click Add Address) get shown in the addresses list. This aspect is confusing because it seems to make no sense but it is useful for people wanting to make tracking identity difficult.

There's a checksum built into Bitcoin addresses.  You're very unlikely to typo an address and end up with another valid address.  And if the address you type isn't a valid address, you'll not be able to send funds to it.

Good to know. Makes sense but I didn't realize that.

Alas my identity has been comprimised :D

How do I look that up on Tradehill? It looks like they only track "recent transactions"... I see no page about full transactions made.

On the top of the page, there is "Welcome" and your login. Clicking on it leads you to your profile which should have a complete list of the transactions. I'm not sure they display the address used for withdrawal though.

They don't :(

Then contact them, ask to which address it was sent. Look it up in blockexplorer. Find the wallet containing it.