The miners get the transaction/network fees from all the transactions included in a block when they mine it... the fees gets paid out along with the block reward in the coinbase transaction.

For instance, the latest block:


You can see they got 7.29203853 BTC... block reward is now 6.25 BTC... so they got around ~1.042 BTC in transaction fees from all the transactions included in that block.

No... that's not how it works. The pools generally prioritise transactions that pay the highest fee rate so they can maximise the return they get from mining a block. Note that it is the rate which is important here, NOT the actual fee amount.

The rate is important, because a transaction that is 50,000 bytes, that pays a rate of 1 sat/byte would generate 50000 sats of fee, but take up a large portion of the block. Whereas a transaction that was only 200 bytes, but paid 100 sats/byte, might only generate 20000 sats of fee, but takes up WAY less space so you can fit in a lot of other transactions as well.

This is how it has always been. The halving makes no difference to this approach to maximising fees by miners.


Also, don't use blockchain.com wallet and/or it's ridiculous "Regular" and "Priority" fee settings... they are generally very inaccurate and will end up with stuck transactions or paying more than you should in fees. Click the "customise fee" button and set it yourself!

Bitcoin Core uses a "seed", but it does not use "seed mnemonics" like other wallets... However, if you use the dumpwallet command you should see all the private keys currently contained in your wallet.dat

You will need to do some manipulation on the text file, but you can then bulk import them into Electrum. NOTE: If you continue to use Bitcoin Core, and use more than the 1000 keys in the wallet file, any new keys generated by Bitcoin Core will NOT show up in Electrum!



The dumpfile also has an extended private masterkey, but unfortunately Electrum doesn't let you specify the derivation path for this, and Electrum doesn't seem to generate the correct addresses when you use this master key.

I believe this is because Bitcoin Core uses "hardened" addresses and Electrum does not.

For the record, the derivation path in Bitcoin Core is m/0'/0' (for receive) and m/0'/1' (for change) and the addresses are "hardened"... so the first addresses are m/0'/0'/0' and m/0'/1'/0' (for receive and change, respectively).

Whereas Electrum will use: m/0 (for receive) and m/1 (for change)... with the addresses being: m/0/0 and m/1/0

If you want to securely store your bitcoins "private keys" offline (remember, bitcoins are on the blockchain, not in your wallet!), but also be able to spend easily and without complications... then I would recommend a hardware wallet like the Trezor or Ledger devices.

Other option is a software wallet on an "airgapped" PC/laptop (this device needs to be dedicated to this purpose and can NEVER touch a network)... create unsigned transactions on online "watching only" wallet, transfer to airgapped machine via USB stick, sign transaction on offline machine, transfer signed transaction back to online machine via USB stick, broadcast transaction (Hardware wallet essentially do the same thing, but with a LOT less hassle!)

As for losing your coins... as the others mentioned, make sure you keep your seed mnemonic (12 or 24 words) safely stored offline (written on paper, stamped on steel, or use a cryptosteel type device) and you won't have a problem. Your wallet (hardware or software) will be fully recoverable with your seed mnemonic.

That's actually a pretty neat feature of that BIP39 tool... Just need to pick a word that uses the same initial entropy as the N bits of entropy leftover (7 for 12 words, 3 for 24 words) and then pad it out to 11 bits, then click "entropy details" and it'll correct it automagically!

So, basically, an offline copy of the BIP39 tool and a coin... and one can randomly generate mnemonics to their hearts content, knowing that they don't need to worry about "bad" RNGs (assuming their coin isn't biased! )

The "prediction date" is May 15th @12:00 GMT... so no-one has won yet, because the "winning" price won't be determined for another ~2.5 days from now.

Quoted (again) and also verified

Note that Electrum won't generate them in that format... just copy paste the "Bitcoin Signed Message" format template from below and fill in the "blanks" NOTE: don't include the <'s and >'s!

So yours would be:


Also, your "message" is not very 'good'. You should really include your username, the date and the reason for signing the message. I mean, anyone could send that same message to someone else and claim that they own that address

A better message would be something like:

Yes, I got OTG cables from AliExpress... they were around US$1 (or less) including free international shipping (at least to my location).

I had a MicroUSB to USB Female for my old phone... and now I have a USB-C to USB Female for my current phone:


The beauty of these is that they're fairly compact, and work by simply plugging in the "normal" data cable you use with the Ledger. I've tested them with the Trezor ONE that I have as well. Both work fine.


Most OTG "cables" (adapters) that I've found for sale end in a standard USB-A Socket (female) like a regular USB port... that's one "advantage" of the Ledger ones I guess, is that they have the micro-USB plug on the end that connects directly to the Ledger device.

Not quite...

So, it only remembers your preferences... it still doesn't backup the keys

They have added a "transfer via QR code" feature which makes it easier to migrate to a new device, but there is still no proper backup facility within the app.

How exactly did you do this? Did you shutdown Bitcoin Core, move (not copy) the original wallet.dat file, and then start Bitcoin Core?


No... they're not saved anywhere... and No, a newly created wallet.dat should contain a completely different and random seed (and different addresses etc).


It would appear that you've either imported that private key before (have you previously used vanitygen?)... or you hadn't actually opened Bitcoin Core with a "new" wallet.dat and you actually imported the private key into your "original" wallet.dat

Won't padding out the checksum cause issues down stream when you attempt to restore this in a wallet tho?

It'll complain that it's not a valid BIP39 mnemonic. I know Electrum will let you bypass that and go ahead and use it anyway... but surely for max compatibility you'd want a "valid" mnemonic!

But yes, I was being facetious about manually calculating the SHA256 hash ... the setup you are using has a really good mix of "randomness", security and convenience. I like it.

I have Windows 10 + Armory running OK... I don't use armory-qt.conf or armorydb.conf

Instead, I have Armory setup to "run Bitcoin Core/bitcoind in the background":


Note: leave the "install dir" blank, and it will find it in the default c:\program files directory


Then Have the Blockchain and Database Paths set as follows:



However, in your setup, you'll need to set the "Bitcoin Home Dir" to: E:\801_BITCOINCORE\BitcoinCore_Data\
NOTE: do NOT include the "blocks" folder here!

And set the "Armory Database Dir" to: E:\800_Armory\ArmoryDB


Then shut down Armory, shut down Bitcoin Core (if it is running)... then manually start the Bitcoin Core GUI, and once it has started up and is fully synced, then try starting Armory. If it still doesn't work, can you post the latest version of your Armorylog.txt.

Electrum works with TOR... and Electrum works with Trezor, so you could use Electrum instead of the web wallet... at least, for BTC. For other currencies/Tokens you'd need to find a Trezor+TOR compatible wallet I suppose.

I'm also able to connect the Brave Browser to the Trezor wallet, when using a TOR private window within Brave.

Now all you need to do is do your SHA256 hash by hand to generate the checksum and you've got the complete no computer solution to generating a seed mnemonic

It would however blow out your 15-20 minute time frame to probably closer to a day... having to do 64 rounds of SHA256 to get your final hash at a rough speed of 1 round per 15 minutes or so


There are just some things that are better left to computers

I agree that the OP is confused.

It would appear that the OP had an address that received payment from a transaction that had 11 inputs and 142 outputs. ie. they received a payout from a service provider like an exchange/gambling site etc that used "Pay2Many".

They're checking the transaction details on a blockexplorer and seeing "142 outputs"... not realising that only one of those 142 UTXOs is actually related to their wallet. Thus, when they go to "max" it only shows the 1 UTXO being used as an input, as that is all that is actually controlled by their wallet.

I don't think this is possible from the official store. If I recall correctly, they simply ship it with the documented values. Maybe you could try and contact them and ask if they can help you out?

Seems a bit harsh that you'll incur duties on something that only cost around US$40+shipping

You need to realise that a "DEX" is a decentralised exchange... and is only useful for trading from one cryptocurrency/token to another. There is usually no "central control" that is connected to traditional banking services. You will not be able to get fiat currencies "into" or "out of" a DEX. At best, you'll be able to get so-called "stablecoins" (or pegged tokens) etc... but you'll most likely need to find a centralised exchange like CoinBase that will allow you to convert these to fiat and then withdraw to a bank etc.

It seems TrustWallet has a builtin facility for purchasing via a CreditCard (but I would assume that is probably by using a 3rd-party like Simplex). However, there is no "withdrawal" to fiat facility that I am aware of.


It seems that TrustWallet allows you to purchase via CreditCard... no doubt they'll include a "margin" on the conversion... so while it may not technically be a "fee" as such, be aware that the price you pay versus the amount of BTC you receive isn't likely to be at true market rates... you will be losing value in the transaction.


I would guess that CoinBase used a "Pay2Many" or "batched" transaction to send your funds to TrustWallet. That is to say, they bundled your request up with a load of others... so while they only charged you a small fee, the transaction as a whole would have been quite large and incurred a much larger fee.

If you have the TransactionID, you should look it up on a blockexplorer like blockchair.com... and see how many outputs there are. If there are more than two, then chances are it was a Pay2Many, and the system is just showing you the fee for the whole transaction... rather than what CoinBase actually charged you.

A lot of big sites do this, they charge all the individual users a "set" fee... and then bundle them all together to keep costs down.


Correct.


Sadly, those two things are pretty much mutually exclusive.

You either keep your BTC secure in a non-custodial wallet, and accept the fact that to liquidate it, you'd need to transfer to an exchange and then withdraw (accepting all the fees and time involved)... or you keep the coins on an exchange and accept the risk that the exchange could lock your account or get hacked etc.

What was your DNS server set to before you changed it? Was it set to your router or your ISP? If it was your router, it's possible that your router's DNS service has "crashed" and needs a restart.

What is the DNS setting on the VM that "just works"?

It's probably best to try and sign a message now... proving not only to everyone else but, most importantly, to yourself that you can actually sign a message from that address.

There have been numerous examples in the past of people using addresses from custodial wallets and web wallets like blockchain.com (for staking here and also for airdrops etc), not realising that they are not able to sign a message using their wallet's UI.

Then, when the time comes that a signed message is "required" (ie. account recovery, airdrop claiming etc)... suddenly they find they can't.


Also, some people need/want stake addresses for sig campaigns, loans, trading etc. As it doesn't "cost" anything other than time to sign a message now... there really isn't any reason not to sign a message while staking your address.

It is obviously one of those "fake" wallet.dat's which has been modified to include public keys containing tens/hundreds of BTC and then sold for 0.1 BTC.

I'd like to point out that the OP actually did put it up for sale in their CryptoTalk thread (via the pay2download file hosting service satoshidisk.com)


NOTE: DO NOT PAY TO DOWNLOAD THIS FILE!


You'll find that the password found will not allow spending of the BTCs... the encoded data in the wallet.dat will be some bogus data which even when decrypted, will not allow you to spend anything.