Help, I screwed up

[Samorr]

So I had a sizable amount of bitcoins sent to an address over BitCoin core before it finished it's synchronization (it probably has another 3-4 days of downloading to go). Am I going to be out of the money? I can't get it to update, and am worried that I just spaced some of my funds.

Apologize if this was technically inaccurate or lacking detail, I'm still a newbie. And yes, I realize I should have used a more compact wallet, did not read through on it accurately.

[DannyHamilton]

So I had a sizable amount of bitcoins sent to an address over BitCoin core before it finished it's synchronization (it probably has another 3-4 days of downloading to go). Am I going to be out of the money? I can't get it to update, and am worried that I just spaced some of my funds.

Apologize if this was technically inaccurate or lacking detail, I'm still a newbie. And yes, I realize I should have used a more compact wallet, did not read through on it accurately.

You'll be fine.

Follow these very important steps immediately:

• Don't panic!
• Create a backup of your wallet and store it somewhere safe. (You'll find the "Backup Wallet" option under the "File" menu)
• Decide what wallet you would prefer to use instead of Bitcoin Core.
• If you have already encrypted your wallet, make sure you know what the password is and that you won't forget it (Write it down somewhere secure if necessary)

Once you've done those four important things, we can help you transfer control of your bitcoins from your Bitcoin Core wallet to whatever wallet you decided to use.

Be VERY careful about who you take advice from and what that advice is asking you to do.  There are scammers and thieves that come to this forum hoping to find frightened, panicking newbies and trying to trick them into accidentally turning over access to the bitcoins. If you communicate with anyone over Private Messaging, be certain that you either understand fully what the consequences are of what they are asking you to do or that you can trust them.  If you communicate in the open in threads like this, wait a while after getting advice to make sure that someone more experienced doesn't come along and state that the advice is BAD.

[Samorr]

Thank you so much, once I get home I'll get right on this. Are you a representative of BitCoin Core? I can work with you directly if that's possible.

[Samorr]

Alright, it's backed up and a new wallet has been downloaded.

[achow101]

Alright, it's backed up and a new wallet has been downloaded.

What wallet are you using now? What you will need to do is export the private key for your address(es) and sweep (or import the private key but sweeping is better) the Bitcoin into your new wallet. When you export your private key, make sure that you NEVER SHARE IT with anyone, the private key is what gives people the ability to spend Bitcoin associated with an address.

To export your private key, open up Bitcoin Core and go to Help > Debug Window. Then type the following into the textbox at the bottom:

Code:

dumpprivkey <address>

where <address> is your Bitcoin address that you want the private key for. It should give you something that looks like 5HueCGU8rMjxEXxiPuD5BDku4MkFqeZyd4dZ1jvhTVqvbTLvyTJ. That is your private key, NEVER SHARE IT WITH ANYONE. The private key will always start with a 5, K, or L.

Once you have the private key, you will need to sweep the Bitcoin (or import the key) into your new wallet, and further instruction for that will be given once you get there.

Thank you so much, once I get home I'll get right on this. Are you a representative of BitCoin Core? I can work with you directly if that's possible.

There are no "representatives" for Bitcoin Core, just the developers, and they don't hang around these forums a lot except for gmaxwell (although maybe you could consider me a representative since I do marginally participate in Bitcoin Core development and I am one of the gitian builders). However Danny and I among many others including Shorena are several members of the community who have extensive experience with many different Bitcoin clients, including Bitcoin Core, and are willing to help others to solve their problems.

[MRKLYE]

I would almost suggest running a headless wallet such as electrum if just starting out in BTC.
Really no sense having to use a fair chunk of hard drive space to send/receive Bitcoins.

Electrum can be found here: https://electrum.org/#home

Also look into paper wallets and safely backing up private keys as the guys above have touched on.
Can not emphasize enough that you should always backup your private keys in safe places under password.

[Samorr]

Alright, I've obtained the Private Key and downloaded Electrum. Waiting on further instructions.

P.S., once again thank you so much. Huge relief.

[achow101]

Alright, I've obtained the Private Key and downloaded Electrum. Waiting on further instructions.

P.S., once again thank you so much. Huge relief.

In Electrum, a wizard that should appear on your first run of the software. If you don't see the wizard for creating a wallet, make sure that you haven't already created a wallet. If you haven't and you don't see the wizard, stop and post back here; something is very wrong.

In the wizard, select the options for "Create new wallet" and "standard wallet"; they should be selected by default. Click next and you will see your wallet seed. DO NOT SHARE THIS WITH ANYONE. Follow the instructions and keep a backup of your seed words in a safe place. Go through the wizard and make sure you set a password. Once you finish it will open up to the main Electrum window.

Once in the main window, go to the top and select Wallet > Private Keys > Sweep. In the next window that opens, enter the private keys that you got, one on each line if you have more than one. Click sweep and it should sweep all of the Bitcoins from your previous addresses into this new wallet and it should be ready to use and spend from once the transaction confirms.

[Samorr]

How long should it take the transaction to confirm? Or do you mean the initial transaction?

[achow101]

How long should it take the transaction to confirm? Or do you mean the initial transaction?

Sweeping creates a new transaction so you have to wait for that new one to confirm. I haven't swept Bitcoin into Electrum in a while so I don't exactly remember what happens after you click Sweep, but I think there should be something about setting a fee, if there isn't fee estimation in Electrum is decent and the default fee should be high enough.. You can check https://bitcoinfees.21.co/ for the optimal fee (it is in satoshis per byte) and set the fee accordingly. Fees are fairly low right now so it shouldn't be long for your transaction to confirm. Higher fees will make a transaction confirm faster.

[Samorr]

hmm, I don't/didn't see anything about fees. Is that bad? Otherwise it just seems like a waiting game at the moment.

[bitbaby]

hmm, I don't/didn't see anything about fees. Is that bad? Otherwise it just seems like a waiting game at the moment.

If you have sweeped the funds already then the bitcoins are in your electrum wallet already, just go to History tab, you'll see your transaction there, right click on it and click view on block explorer, that will show you how much fee was added and based on that you can estimate how long will it take for your Tx to get confirmed.

Also, make sure to keep backup of your Seed.

[Decoded]

hmm, I don't/didn't see anything about fees. Is that bad? Otherwise it just seems like a waiting game at the moment.

If you have sweeped the funds already then the bitcoins are in your electrum wallet already, just go to History tab, you'll see your transaction there, right click on it and click view on block explorer, that will show you how much fee was added and based on that you can estimate how long will it take for your Tx to get confirmed.

Also, make sure to keep backup of your Seed.

You could pass your TXID over to us, we can help you estimate the TX time. I would recommend storing your bitcoin in electrum for as little time as possible, and put your coins back onto core. Core is safer, and you've already said you have a relatively large sum of coins?

[shorena]

hmm, I don't/didn't see anything about fees. Is that bad? Otherwise it just seems like a waiting game at the moment.

If you have sweeped the funds already then the bitcoins are in your electrum wallet already, just go to History tab, you'll see your transaction there, right click on it and click view on block explorer, that will show you how much fee was added and based on that you can estimate how long will it take for your Tx to get confirmed.

Also, make sure to keep backup of your Seed.

You could pass your TXID over to us, we can help you estimate the TX time. I would recommend storing your bitcoin in electrum for as little time as possible, and put your coins back onto core. Core is safer, and you've already said you have a relatively large sum of coins?

Id say electrum is fine, esp. if you cant get core to sync (like OP). To follow up on your question about the TX ID, maybe @Samorr you can post the address you initially received the coins on. This would allow us to follow the transaction trail and give you an estimate when the TX should confirm. Given the time that passed, it might already be confirmed though.

[DannyHamilton]

I would recommend storing your bitcoin in electrum for as little time as possible, and put your coins back onto core. Core is safer, and you've already said you have a relatively large sum of coins?

Safer?

In what ways is it safer?  I frequently see people write that "Core is safer", but they never explain how or why they think it's safer.  For most people the difference in safety is negligible.

It's a bit like saying that it's safer to drink distilled water than filtered water.  It might be technically "true", but the difference is generally meaningless.

[bleachedno]

Now i am  confused i use myself electrum hd? for a while is this wallet not safe should i more to some online wallet?

[achow101]

hmm, I don't/didn't see anything about fees. Is that bad? Otherwise it just seems like a waiting game at the moment.

If you have sweeped the funds already then the bitcoins are in your electrum wallet already, just go to History tab, you'll see your transaction there, right click on it and click view on block explorer, that will show you how much fee was added and based on that you can estimate how long will it take for your Tx to get confirmed.

Also, make sure to keep backup of your Seed.

You could pass your TXID over to us, we can help you estimate the TX time. I would recommend storing your bitcoin in electrum for as little time as possible, and put your coins back onto core. Core is safer, and you've already said you have a relatively large sum of coins?

Id say electrum is fine, esp. if you cant get core to sync (like OP). To follow up on your question about the TX ID, maybe @Samorr you can post the address you initially received the coins on. This would allow us to follow the transaction trail and give you an estimate when the TX should confirm. Given the time that passed, it might already be confirmed though.

OP did pm me and I helped him over pm. The sweeping transaction worked and it did confirm quickly. His problem has been resolved.

Now i am  confused i use myself electrum hd? for a while is this wallet not safe should i more to some online wallet?

Electrum is still very safe. IMO it is one of the safest wallets out there. It is safe to keep using electrum. Do not switch to using an online wallet; they are significantly less safe than electrum.