Need Help managing wallet

[marbu1022]

Hello everyone,


Just installed Bitcoin Core wallet on windows and the blockchain was 6 years and 50 weeks behind or so. The first 5 years went by fairly fast, however, the last year and 50 weeks are dreadfully slow and still going. There are 46 weeks left as I write this and it has been two days. There are 8 active connections to bitcoin network. Can anyone tell me why it is taking so long? How can I avoid this next time I set up another wallet, and can someone point me to a good tutorial on wallet management? Any information would be greatly appreciated.

[unholycactus]

Hello everyone,


Just installed Bitcoin Core wallet on windows and the blockchain was 6 years and 50 weeks behind or so. The first 5 years went by fairly fast, however, the last year and 50 weeks are dreadfully slow and still going. There are 46 weeks left as I write this and it has been two days. There are 8 active connections to bitcoin network. Can anyone tell me why it is taking so long? How can I avoid this next time I set up another wallet, and can someone point me to a good tutorial on wallet management? Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Bitcoin core is a full node wallet. It needs to download the whole blockchain before it's able to work. Once it's done, you won't have to do it again, assuming you don't lose the data.
The reason why it's taking so long is that we're talking about GBs of data and you probably have fewer peers available to download from compared to when you started.

There are other wallets that do not need to download this huge chunk of data. They are called light wallets and you should look them up on bitcoin.org.

[achow101]

Hello everyone,


Just installed Bitcoin Core wallet on windows and the blockchain was 6 years and 50 weeks behind or so. The first 5 years went by fairly fast, however, the last year and 50 weeks are dreadfully slow and still going. There are 46 weeks left as I write this and it has been two days. There are 8 active connections to bitcoin network. Can anyone tell me why it is taking so long? How can I avoid this next time I set up another wallet, and can someone point me to a good tutorial on wallet management? Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Bitcoin core is a full node wallet. It needs to download the whole blockchain before it's able to work. Once it's done, you won't have to do it again, assuming you don't lose the data.
The reason why it's taking so long is that we're talking about GBs of data and you probably have fewer peers available to download from compared to when you started.

There are other wallets that do not need to download this huge chunk of data. They are called light wallets and you should look them up on bitcoin.org.

Not only does it need to download huge amounts of data, the years closer to present have had fuller and fuller blocks due to more and more transactions. This means that the blocks from the recent year or two will be larger and thus take more time to download and index.

OP, once the wallet is synced the first time, you don't need to do it again, provided that you don't delete the data directory.

[GoldTiger69]

FYI, it can take up to 2 days, maybe even more, to download the entire blockchain (of course, it depends on the speed of your Internet connection and your computer).

[marbu1022]

Still have 7 weeks left. I am hoping when I wake up in the morning it will be done and my btc will show up. Anyhow, Why does the core wallet need the entire blockchain and light wallets do not? If I don´t need to maintain such a large database why do it?

[achow101]

Still have 7 weeks left. I am hoping when I wake up in the morning it will be done and my btc will show up. Anyhow, Why does the core wallet need the entire blockchain and light wallets do not? If I don´t need to maintain such a large database why do it?

If no one has the whole blockchain, then how do you get the blockchain? Bitcoin Core is supposed to be a full node, which means that it is completely independent and is also helpful to the network. SPV wallets rely on full nodes for their data, which opens them up to attack. They assume that the data they get from the node is valid, but this may not always be the case. Bitcoin Core is a full node so it will verify every transaction and block it receives. It doesn't trust anyone else, it has to check that what it gets follows the rules that it knows. If something fails, it will forget it and refuse to broadcast whatever received to its peers. If the transaction or block passes, then it will relay it to its peers. SPV wallets don't do that.

[BitMaxz]

Still have 7 weeks left. I am hoping when I wake up in the morning it will be done and my btc will show up. Anyhow, Why does the core wallet need the entire blockchain and light wallets do not? If I don´t need to maintain such a large database why do it?

Hi sir if you dont want to wait just try to import your wallet from bitcoin core to electrum try this solution i got this from other thread
You can export your private key in bitcoin core using the "dumpprivkey"(you dont need this step if you already have the private key) command in the debug window. Google then instructions. Then when you have all the private keys you need, you can import them into electrum this way:

- Select "Wallet | Private Keys | Import" on the menu
- Enter password when prompted
- Read the warning and click "Yes"
- Copy and paste multiple private keys in the box and click "Import"
- Click "OK" on the success message
- Imported addresses are listed in "Imported" section under the "Received" tab
- Wait for Electrum to synchronise the transactions

If you intend to leave your coins in those address, remember to backup your bitcoin core private keys, because the electrum 12 word seed will NOT generate those bitcoin core addresses when you restore from seed in the future.


Please feedback after do this step...

[marbu1022]

If you intend to leave your coins in those address, remember to backup your bitcoin core private keys, because the electrum 12 word seed will NOT generate those bitcoin core addresses when you restore from seed in the future.


Please feedback after do this step...

Is that because the private keys would have been imported and not generated in electrum iteself?

[Stedsm]

If you intend to leave your coins in those address, remember to backup your bitcoin core private keys, because the electrum 12 word seed will NOT generate those bitcoin core addresses when you restore from seed in the future.


Please feedback after do this step...

Is that because the private keys would have been imported and not generated in electrum iteself?

This should answer your query I think:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1retxr/psa_using_electrum_with_a_12_word_seed_is_so_much/

[marbu1022]

Thanks for the info guys. Much appreciated. What I ended up doing is sending all of my btc to an electrum wallet where I generated a new private key. I have the seed saved just in case anything happens.