Documenting my noobish learnings

[LAMarcellus]

After the recent fork I decided to check my version of BitcoinQT.exe
I was using version 0.6.3 I think. Anyway I downloaded and installed 0.8
The wallet needed to re-index ~230000 block (if i remember correctly).
It is now finally done indexing but there is something odd.

My wallet shows that I am fully re-indexed and synced with the last block being created 3 minutes ago.
Yet In the overview tab I see   "unconfirmed:     0.00142 BTC"

So why am I fully synced and up to date with blocks yet my wallet shows a value for unconfirmed?

FYI I have not performed any transactions since the fork except to send .705 BTC. My most recent receive transx was on March 8th,  3 days prior to the fork.
Also now my transaction list shows all completed transx prior to Feb 18th with a question mark on the left, and all transx from Feb 19th on with a green check to the left.

Can anyone point me to some reading, a solution, or care to respond here?
Thanks,
LAM

[1714059366]

1714059366

[1714059366]

1714059366

[1714059366]

1714059366

[Stephen Gornick]

Yet In the overview tab I see   "unconfirmed:     0.00142 BTC"

Chances are you've been playing Satoshi DICE (even if that was a month ago). 

Does the transaction show up in the blockchain (e.g., on Blockchain.info ?)

If not, let your client run for a half hour to an hour to ensure there is an attempt to re-broadcast it.    Then check blockchain.info again.

[LAMarcellus]

Yet In the overview tab I see   "unconfirmed:     0.00142 BTC"

Chances are you've been playing Satoshi DICE (even if that was a month ago).  

Does the transaction show up in the blockchain (e.g., on Blockchain.info ?)

If not, let your client run for a half hour to an hour to ensure there is an attempt to re-broadcast it.    Then check blockchain.info again.

Thank you for the response.   I have never played Satoshi dice. Although I have received small transactions (prior to Feb 18th) from tagpad, cointube.tv and other "free btc" sites. Again these were all confirmed prior to the recent upgrade and now just show a grey question mark next to the transx.

As to your second question...   I do not have a transaction in the amount of 0.00142 BTC so I can not check the blockchain for that. However I can use your advice by checking many of the small transactions mentioned above to see if they are in the block chain. Thank you for that suggestion.
 I assume the amount of 0.00142 reflects a number of transactions in the amounts of .001 or less, again all completed prior to Feb 18th, and now all shown in my transaction history with a grey question mark on the left side of the window.

All the transactions prior to Feb 18th add up to more than the unconfirmed value of 0.00142. and again ALL transactions prior to Feb 18th have a grey question mark to the left where all transx after Feb 19th have a green check mark. I have some transaction from slush pool in the amount of .05 BTC prior to Feb 18th. Grey question mark next to them yet they are not included in the unconfirmed total. Yet this leaves me wondering why with the re-index/upgrade to 0.8   certain transaction completed prior to Feb 18th are now unconfirmed.   

I will check the blockchain to see if the small transactions are present and report back.  

Whats with the green checks and grey questions marks?  Any ideas?

I hope I was able to describe this well enough. And again thanks for the response.

[LAMarcellus]

OK  I opened a transaction in my wallet transx list from 8/18/2012.
I clicked transaction details to get the transx # to investigate it at blockexplorer.
I noticed that when I right click a transaction in my wallet with a grey questions mark next to it and click transaction details, it tells me right there whether the transaction is uncon/confirmed.

So I can say definitively that according to my wallet, all transactions prior to Feb 18th are unconfirmed.
Yet that same transx, with id# bd2341b9418203601f7324ee899d9cae8db9e058167ce1b1788dc2a23e015ef0   is being shown at blockexplorer.
https://blockexplorer.com/tx/bd2341b9418203601f7324ee899d9cae8db9e058167ce1b1788dc2a23e015ef0


So why would a transaction be present in block explorer, yet my wallet, recently updated to 0.8, shows the transx as unconfirmed. Just to reiterate, this particular transaction is from 8/18/2012 and only now unconfirmed upon upgrading my wallet to 0.8.  Also this same oddity applies to ALL my transx prior to Feb 18th.  
Here's what my wallet says:
Status: 0/unconfirmed
Date: 8/18/2012 03:30
From: unknown
To: 1JDzNTkXeLP3jvaTfJxLRS24HigXkPmgG3 (own address, label: cointube.tv)
Credit: 0.0002 BTC
Net amount: +0.0002 BTC
Transaction ID: bd2341b9418203601f7324ee899d9cae8db9e058167ce1b1788dc2a23e015ef0

What happened to my copy of the blockchain when I updated. Or why when I upgraded and re-index did my blockchain on my computer lose track of all transx that occurred prior to Feb 18th??

[LAMarcellus]

Here's what my wallet says about a slush transx

Status: 0/unconfirmed
Date: 2/18/2013 20:00
From: unknown
To: 1DwtEVxL9yLL62ZMozFUZoYGQB7VwL4aJP (own address, label: Slush's)
Credit: 0.05010565 BTC
Net amount: +0.05010565 BTC
Transaction ID: 1a319abd554a55930ca398c5cacf7da365f6885c105ee7ff703c18591614770f


And here's blockexplorer

https://blockexplorer.com/tx/1a319abd554a55930ca398c5cacf7da365f6885c105ee7ff703c18591614770f

[theymos]

That also happened to a few extremely old transactions of mine when I upgraded. Run Bitcoin with the -rescan switch to fix it.

[LAMarcellus]

That also happened to a few extremely old transactions of mine when I upgraded. Run Bitcoin with the -rescan switch to fix it.

Thank you for the response.   I will research how to do -rescan and report back once I have learned how to do it and actually completed the rescan.

[LAMarcellus]

I opened the command line interface,
navigated to the bitcoin folder,
then typed in bitcoin-qt -rescan

The first attempt failed as my wallet was already running.

So I closed my wallet,   re-entered the command and this caused windows7 to open my wallet and now it is at the loading screen.
Below the wallet image with the BTC symbol on it is the word "scanning".

[LAMarcellus]

I opened the command line interface,
navigated to the bitcoin folder,
then typed in bitcoin-qt -rescan

The first attempt failed as my wallet was already running.

So I closed my wallet,   re-entered the command and this caused windows7 to open my wallet and now it is at the loading screen.
Below the wallet image with the BTC symbol on it is the word "scanning".

Scanning was much quicker than re-indexing and syncing the blockchain.
I am now rescanned and the unconfirmed balance my wallet is reporting is now 0.00

Problem solved.  Kudos to theymos for the apropos response. And Stephen Gormick for the suggestions. This newb is grateful.

[LAMarcellus]

Sent a donation to theymos in the amount of .00001337.
My wallet assessed a transx fee of .0005.


So I sent less money to theymos than I did to the miner who will process this.   WTF!?!?!

[wtfvanity]

Sent a donation to theymos in the amount of .00001337.
My wallet assessed a transx fee of .0005.


So I sent less money to theymos than I did to the miner who will process this.   WTF!?!?!

You sent him 1/15th of a US cent.

Bitcoin calculated that a mining fee was necessary for the transaction to send that small of a transaction, and charged you two cents.

[LAMarcellus]

Sent a donation to theymos in the amount of .00001337.
My wallet assessed a transx fee of .0005.


So I sent less money to theymos than I did to the miner who will process this.   WTF!?!?!

You sent him 1/15th of a US cent.

Bitcoin calculated that a mining fee was necessary for the transaction to send that small of a transaction, and charged you two cents.

WTFvanity thanks for the response.   I am aware what the value of the BTC I sent to theymos is. He didn't ask for payment, I donated what I wanted to which is the word LEET.   My balance is .06655002.    I want to donate to as many people as I can so I'm limited in the $$ value, but I'm hardly limited in the amount of LEETs I can give away.

My wtf reflects what you stated in your second sentence and which I would love to have explained. Not because I'm butthurt about it but because I don't understand how or why it works.   I would've rather given the .0005 to theymos.
How or why does the network/software/dev team whatever, deem a transaction fee necessary. And if bitcoin is divisible down to the 8th zero, why am I charged for doing something the software allows.

So I don't expect you to write me a book. But if you know of a place where I can find these answers could you point me there? In the meantime I will scour the forum for an answer but I will send you a LEET if you can shorten my search.   

Thanks again for the response.

[DannyHamilton]

There is more than one force at work influencing your being forced to include a fee.

The client/wallet you are using is forcing you to include a fee because you have chosen to use a client/wallet that enforces these rules.  There are other clients/wallets that you can choose to use that will allow you to attempt to send a transaction without the fee.  Note that if you use such a client/wallet and send such a transaction, you may potentially find that the peers you are connected to will refuse to relay it, or that miners will refuse to confirm it.  These are the other two forces at work here.

The peers you are connected to may be using the relay rules as defined in the reference client.  If so, then they may choose not to relay the transaction, and it will never leave your wallet to be seen by the network and confirmed.

The miners that confirm transactions may choose not to include your transaction in the blocks they create unless you include a token fee.  This can potentially result in the transaction never being confirmed. More realistically it would result in the transaction taking an excessively long time to be confirmed.

Here is a good place to look for more details:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transaction_fees

[wtfvanity]

Sent a donation to theymos in the amount of .00001337.
My wallet assessed a transx fee of .0005.


So I sent less money to theymos than I did to the miner who will process this.   WTF!?!?!

You sent him 1/15th of a US cent.

Bitcoin calculated that a mining fee was necessary for the transaction to send that small of a transaction, and charged you two cents.

WTFvanity thanks for the response.   I am aware what the value of the BTC I sent to theymos is. He didn't ask for payment, I donated what I wanted to which is the word LEET.   My balance is .06655002.    I want to donate to as many people as I can so I'm limited in the $$ value, but I'm hardly limited in the amount of LEETs I can give away.

My wtf reflects what you stated in your second sentence and which I would love to have explained. Not because I'm butthurt about it but because I don't understand how or why it works.   I would've rather given the .0005 to theymos.
How or why does the network/software/dev team whatever, deem a transaction fee necessary. And if bitcoin is divisible down to the 8th zero, why am I charged for doing something the software allows.

So I don't expect you to write me a book. But if you know of a place where I can find these answers could you point me there? In the meantime I will scour the forum for an answer but I will send you a LEET if you can shorten my search.   

Thanks again for the response.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transaction_fees

He posted everything you needed right above me, and all the rules and more information is on that page.

[Nikola]

Hi, found this thread while searching "old transactions now unconfirmed"...I fired up my 0.8.1 wallet today (have been on 0.8.1 for awhile) and ALL my 2012 transactions were "unconfirmed"! (I have none earlier than 2012).  I was a bit perplexed/panicked, but I found "theymos"'s advice to start BitCoin QT w/the -rescan option, and it worked...all transactions back to "confirmed".  Thanks Theymos!  Any idea what might have happened?   Thanks!

[theymos]

Hi, found this thread while searching "old transactions now unconfirmed"...I fired up my 0.8.1 wallet today (have been on 0.8.1 for awhile) and ALL my 2012 transactions were "unconfirmed"! (I have none earlier than 2012).  I was a bit perplexed/panicked, but I found "theymos"'s advice to start BitCoin QT w/the -rescan option, and it worked...all transactions back to "confirmed".  Thanks Theymos!  Any idea what might have happened?   Thanks!

Not sure. Some bug in the 0.8 reindex, maybe?

[nimda]

Sent a donation to theymos in the amount of .00001337.
My wallet assessed a transx fee of .0005.


So I sent less money to theymos than I did to the miner who will process this.   WTF!?!?!

If you try to mail someone a penny in the real world, you will find the same thing. You'll pay 46 cents for the stamp and only send one penny.
WTF?? Well it's because there are fixed costs: no matter how light the envelope is, it still has to be driven in a mail truck that runs on gas.

And in Bitcoin, even a 0.00001337 transaction is 250+ bytes.

(This was just a rationalization. The real reason is partially about DoS protection. But that's outside the scope of this thread.)