Can coins stocked on an old Bitcoin Core be lost ?

[Erkallys]

Is it possible that coins stocked on a Bitcoin Core version that is not updated for a few years are lost because they become off-chain or on a fork ? If it is possible there's not way to hold them securely ? Let's say that you lose your computer for a very long time and then find it, you could lose your coins. If it is possible, is there any other way to keep them somewhere without seeing them for a few years ? I know there's paper wallets, but is there any other way ?

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[unamis76]

As long as you keep your private keys (secure), you will not lose your coins.

[Erkallys]

As long as you keep your private keys (secure), you will not lose your coins.

That's why I talked about paper wallets, but if you keep your coins on a wallet, can this possibility happen ?

[unamis76]

As long as you keep your private keys (secure), you will not lose your coins.

That's why I talked about paper wallets, but if you keep your coins on a wallet, can this possibility happen ?

It is the same thing. The wallet file holds your private keys. If you store it securely, you will not lose your coins, regardless of what happens.

[Erkallys]

As long as you keep your private keys (secure), you will not lose your coins.

That's why I talked about paper wallets, but if you keep your coins on a wallet, can this possibility happen ?

It is the same thing. The wallet file holds your private keys. If you store it securely, you will not lose your coins, regardless of what happens.

Ok. So no Bitcoin Core update is mandatory ? And in the case of a fork, your private keys will be still working ?

[unamis76]

As long as you keep your private keys (secure), you will not lose your coins.

That's why I talked about paper wallets, but if you keep your coins on a wallet, can this possibility happen ?

It is the same thing. The wallet file holds your private keys. If you store it securely, you will not lose your coins, regardless of what happens.

Ok. So no Bitcoin Core update is mandatory ? And in the case of a fork, your private keys will be still working ?

No, no recent update has been absolutely mandatory, although you risk not having your transaction broadcast if you use older versions for not complying with network rules, I think.

If the network were to fork now (ex.: big block chain and small block chain), the coins you had yesterday would be valid (on both forks), because they're on both forks blockchain's history.

[Erkallys]

As long as you keep your private keys (secure), you will not lose your coins.

That's why I talked about paper wallets, but if you keep your coins on a wallet, can this possibility happen ?

It is the same thing. The wallet file holds your private keys. If you store it securely, you will not lose your coins, regardless of what happens.

Ok. So no Bitcoin Core update is mandatory ? And in the case of a fork, your private keys will be still working ?

No, no recent update has been absolutely mandatory, although you risk not having your transaction broadcast if you use older versions for not complying with network rules, I think.

If the network were to fork now (ex.: big block chain and small block chain), the coins you had yesterday would be valid (on both forks), because they're on both forks blockchain's history.

Ok. Thank you. Now I'm a bit less worried . But in case of a fork that I am not aware of, if I try to send my coins, on which chain will I be ?

[achow101]

Ok. Thank you. Now I'm a bit less worried . But in case of a fork that I am not aware of, if I try to send my coins, on which chain will I be ?

If the transaction was valid for both blockchains, then it would be possible for the transaction to confirm on both. However your node will only be able to use one of the forks. It will go with either the longest fork or the one that is valid under its rules if the fork was for a consensus rule change (e.g. soft fork or hard fork).

[johnyj]

OP's concern is valid. What if your old wallet format does not get recognized by new clients and the old clients are not able to send transactions after 2 years? (private key is relatively safe but still... see below)

In fact, in today's bitcoin design, nothing is guaranteed. A new protocol that is accepted by majority of the nodes can even spend your coins without your private key. Of course such a situation will almost never happen because of the decentralized nature of bitcoin: Existing stakeholders have many reasons to deny such kind of protocol change, since it basically ruins people's trust in bitcoin

However, if the protocol change is coming from a malicious actor or sybil attack, then old coins might still get lost in a compromised environment

The most important is to be aware that unlike gold, no rule of bitcoin is fixed by law of nature, they are just rules made by human and maintained by consensus among its participants. So you can expect that different clients have different rules, but usually you don't get enough details about these rules unless you are familiar with source code inspection and build the client by yourself each time

[teukon]

Theoretically, if secp256k1 were broken then there would be a strong incentive to migrate to another algorithm.  The migration may specify a deadline past which all old-format outputs are deemed unspendable.  In this event, yes, coins stored with an old version of Bitcoin Core and not rescued in time could end up locked away forever.

[Jet Cash]

So how can you store Bitcoins as long-term savings or investments?

[unamis76]

OP's concern is valid. What if your old wallet format does not get recognized by new clients and the old clients are not able to send transactions after 2 years? (private key is relatively safe but still... see below)

Install an older client and dump your keys. Or use wallet management software compatible with the older format

However, if the protocol change is coming from a malicious actor or sybil attack, then old coins might still get lost in a compromised environment

Wouldn't such a change be instantly discarded by the majority?

So how can you store Bitcoins as long-term savings or investments?

Some prefer to store them on encrypted backups stored offline. Others prefer paper wallets. Others prefer a mix of paper and digital... Many secure ways to store them. Obviously one has to pay attention to Bitcoin, in the remote case of what teukon wrote about happens

[Decoded]

It's not possible. Throughout updates, your wallet.dat file status static. Unless a new fork changes you're wallet.fat. you're safe. And there'll probably be a way to reclaim your coins, as there's also records in the blockchain.

[BitcoinNewsMagazine]

So how can you store Bitcoins as long-term savings or investments?

Probably the easiest way to securely store bitcoin long term would be to buy a Trezor hardware wallet. There are other hardware wallets but Trezor seems to be most popular. Read the user manual to see if that would work for you.

[unamis76]

It's not possible. Throughout updates, your wallet.dat file status static. Unless a new fork changes you're wallet.fat. you're safe. And there'll probably be a way to reclaim your coins, as there's also records in the blockchain.

The Bitcoin Core wallet.dat has gone through slight changes during Bitcoin's history, so I wouldn't say it is purely static, but it doesn't indeed make any sense if the format changed overnight

[Rude Boy]

your question has been answered already. If you still unsure about that, just import the private key to another wallet like electrum, etc.,

[grau]

A copy of wallet.dat contains all information you need to spend or transfer your coins at any later date (except the scenario described by teukon).

I would however advise against long term storage using wallet.dat for practical reasons:

Chances are rather good that in a few years
a) a current Bitcoin Core will not even have a wallet, therefore unable to import wallet.dat
b) your old Bitcoin Core might not be able to join the network, e.g. because current nodes use a different chain download protocol and you can't find old nodes.
c) your old Bitcoin Core might create transactions that are no longer forwarded/accepted by the network because they violate some later introduced soft-fork rule
d) your choice of new wallet might not be able to import wallet.dat

There are developments in Core that support assumptions a-c and d is probable because all modern wallets use HD key generation instead of a random key chain, that is wallet.dat.

I suggest you move your coins to a more modern wallet, e.g. the TREZOR and store its recovery seed in your long term store. Also assume that you may need to move on again later.

It is a bit like converting your videos to a newer codec. Ignore the development and will become a pain, but will work with sufficient expertise.

[spud21]

Sourceforge used to store some very old Bitcoin Qt wallet binaries before the source code was migrated to Github. They had a warning attached saying they couldn't connect to the Bitcoin network because they were no longer compatible with it.

If you had Bitcoins stored in one of those very old wallets you would have to dump your private keys, and import them into a modern wallet. The very early Qt wallet.dat files are not compatible with modern Qt binaries. Without the right historical Qt binary you would need to use a utility like Pywallet to dump your private keys from your wallet.dat file.

[vapourminer]

i would think there would always be utilities that would export keys from old wallets to whatever current format there is.

might be a good idea to collect a bunch of utils. and a few rpis or something with various adapters to run them on.

[HardcoreSuperstar]

I fee like paper wallets are your best bet.  That's the only way you can get a physical copy of your coins.  Leaving it in a wallet seems way to risky.