Bitcoin Forum

Hi bitcointalk

I am relatively new to Electrum, and I have found an old electrum wallet file with over 0.5 BTC on it.

https://imgur.com/a/S19pb66

I can't figure out weather this is a view only address or I can't access it or something because when I try to send these Bitcoins to another wallet, I get this:

https://imgur.com/a/dhx7NJ2

I suppose I need a ledger? From what I have seen, the private key is stored on the ledger?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks guys  ;D

The private key needed to sign transactions is saved on the Ledger device and without it you will not be able to move those coins.
It's clear from the red icon (on bottom right of Electrum window) that there is no device connected.
If it's not your wallet the better forget about it.

Yeah, it isn't actually my wallet

Thanks for explaining this to me :)

You need the ledger of the original owner of that wallet,
Even if you have the wallet file you cannot have the full authority to use or send the funds inside of it since it is connected to a Ledger that protects its original owner from transferring his funds to another wallet.

Whatever help you get, there is no way to transfer that unless you have the device to enable the withdrawal from that wallet.

I just want to ask what if I am a ledger owner then my wallet have some crypto but I lost the ledger and I have all the details about the wallet even the passphrase,
Could I access it to a new ledger or is it lost forever?

If you have the seed (probably 24 words) you can access your funds with or without a new Ledger.
With a Ledger it's safer, but an Electrum can already do it.

It seems to me, if you bought a hard drive from someone, write to this person and ask about this amount. I think that if the seller has access to these bitcoins, then he can thank you financially for their return. At least that would be very logical and fair.

i think that is the best way to make this Bitcoin valuable because either Both the owner and the buyer of the hard drive or whatever this device is at least owner must be find,because it takes two to tango and maybe they will Both benefits from that amount.

Since you are new to Electrum,

I assume that this old electrum wallet file is not yours, you better return it to the original owner (if you know him) or forget about it because whatever option you may try to benefit from this wallet, you don't have even the slightest chance. Unless you have the device to give you access.

You really need a ledger not because the private key was stored on the ledger, but it is connected to it.

I did find a seed along with the wallet file, could I access the wallet still?


I have no idea who the original owner is, I don't think it's been touched in a long time though. If I did know the owner I would definitely return it  ;D

If that seed is wallet seed associated with the wallet, then you can recovery it.

try Electrum >> File >> new/restore >>  your wallet seed
Since you said an old wallet, I assume that it is a legacy address.
if  it segwit try to change the path to /m/49'/0'/0' instead of /m/44'/0'/0'

Try to find out who is the wallet user, so he may not know the wealth he owns.

Another one proof that hardware wallets can be really helpful

Well it's good that you found at old wallet with .5 BTC in it.

However, its total useless and consider it lost bitcoin already as you can't recover it because you don't have the hardware wallet to go with it.

Well, in any case, you can't transfer it since it is protected by a ledger. He is the only one who have the authority to that wallet. If only you know or you can find its owner, you will benefit yourself from thar BTC0.5.

It seems to me that this is generally impossible, since the owner of Bitcoin is anonymous in any case and it will be impossible to find it, and the other person will not be able to access this wallet.  How, like many other wallets that lose their owners, leaves the cryptocurrency on the balance unclaimed.  I believe that in this way a large amount of Bitcoin can be considered lost forever.

It is impossible to find the owner if OP just found the wallet file out of nowhere. But I don't think that he just found this wallet into his personal computer. The OP did not explain how and where did he find it but if he really knows any of the information, maybe he knows who the real owner is.

You need private key on it for you to open this ledger you know that. You can not open any wallet without private keys or pin for to open it. I think if you own that wallet you know where you save the important information to that wallet so that you can access it any time.

You need to import the private keys to be able to sign transactions. I guess that wallet is not yours. A crypto student of mine activated some panic mood in me 3 days ago when he showed me screenshot of about 43+ BNB on his trust wallet, I know he has no such money to buy the amount, he is still a student, when I asked him to sign a transaction of 1BNB, it failed and asked he import private key, I concluded he added someone's wallet, which enable him to watch only.

As per OP, this wallet does not belong to him. It is an old wallet and he clearly stated that he is just new to electrum.

The owner of the wallet is unknown, not even OP knows him, he had the wallet file that's why he can open it. But the problem is, that wallet is connected to ledger which is not in his hands. He can't move or transfer it due to that reason.

That is a bummer for the owner of that wallet he sure lost a huge amount of money and having that kind of amount is a potential increase in the amount in the coming Halving, and also a bummer for OP because he can not use that money and transfer it to another account,

All he needs to do is to forget and accept the fact that 0.5 BTC is lost forever but if the owner of that wallet can certainly recover it if he still has the private key with him.

This really explains something.

Ledger is really safe when it comes to this and I think we should know now how helpful it is using a Ledger. Just put yourselves on the owner of that wallet, even though the OP can't really open it or access it, I would be really disappointed when this happens to me. Despite no one can use it, I just lost a 0.5 Bitcoin.

It looks that the Electrum account is not yours because if that electrum account is yours then probably you already know what to do in order to sent bitcoin to a new address.
In this situation I see that you need first to have the ledger and the private key is there and you must need to insert your ledger first in order to have access on that account or in able for you to make a transaction or sending bitcoin to other user.