Expartner hijacked wallet, now how can I prove...

[Coco_JJ]

Dear (more) technical guys & gals (than me)!

I am in quite a... situation. Please give some information on this.
Thing is - me and my husband are divorcing. We've stored our bitcoins in the same offline wallet. Stupid as I am, I've always trusted my husband and that we will share the bitcoins in case of divorce. He has been the technical support guy and I have just been investing in the whole thing starting from year 2012 (his stack is only like 10%). Back then in 2012 he gave me a copy of the wallet and the password (handwritten, can prove it is his handwriting, and the wallet file's date also tells when it is created).
I've understood that it's a bad thing opening the file in a computer that is online, so I haven't done that. When I checked how big the file is (without opening it), it's over 20 GB - that won't fit into my computer right now. And also, it wouldn't contain the latest transactions anyway since it's been offline.

Some time time ago we had a big fight, and he took command over the bitcoins. He is afraid I will reveal a dark secret he has, a secret that would also hurt our child if people were to know, so he says he won't let me have them. And like I said, I can't check what's going on in the wallet right now, but he would of course be pretty stupid if he hadn't changed the password already.

But. My bank account tells what I have invested in the bitcoins (sums and bitcoinstores), I also have receipts, so this adds to the proofs that I own a lot of what is in the wallet. But here comes the hard part: I know that he has been trading and placing some of the bitcoins in other cryptocurrencies, so right now Iḿ not all that sure about the exact amount that should be in the wallet. AND: it's also possible that he has created new wallets, where he has hidden parts of the bitcoins. So it can be hard for me to prove to a jury "how much I own" or how much there should be to start with. He has been using Thor/VPN. As far as I'm concerned he has been using Bitstamp, but I don't know the rest.
One time before all this, one of our friends told me he knew how much money I potentially had in bitcoins (my husband had told him), so he could be a witness in court, but now that bros come befo hoes, he won't be on my side. Especially not if he is offered bitcoins.

From time to time he tries to calm the situation and tells me he's ready to start paying me a certain sum every month if I need money. But I don't want to be in that unfair situation for the rest of my life.

Is it possible to trace the potential new wallets or activities, so that I would be able to prove what belongs to me? If I am only able to see the actual sum of our bitcoins, I would be ready to share them 50-50 with him, as you should in my country when you divorce. You understand that we are talking 2012 here and that I do not want to see this load go down the drain. The worst part is that I don't know if bitcoins are considered to be "money" - what if the court decides there is nothing to share since it's only computer code...
I have to know what to do before september 2017. I can not trust anything my ex says.

Thank you so much for your help.

Coco

[1714692187]

1714692187

[cr1776]

1. The wallet.dat won't be 20gb, that probably includes some of the block chain.  The wallet.dat includes the private keys which is what you'd need.
2. As far as using it on an internet connected computer, that can be risky depending on the OS, number of coins, etc. You can always use the public keys to check balances. Using Linux Tails (https://tails.boum.org) should be pretty safe also for a large amount of value.
3. Depending on the country, many would divide assets and clearly they have value even if it is "just code."

Good luck, if you do move coins, talk to your attorney first for legal advice first.

And whatever you do, don't send the wallet.dat to anyone and don't share the private keys.

[cr1776]

Regarding the other questions you'd ask in the PM - I am posting it here so that others can clarify things too, if needed. 

This is assuming you are using Bitcoin Core (Bitcoin-QT is what the older versions were called) and probably what he was using:
1. The password is most likely the password to the wallet.dat file - if you have a copy of it, you should be able to unlock it with that password.  That just unlocks the wallet.dat file.   If you and your ex shared the wallet.dat on a single computer, he could have changed the password there.  Since you said he "gave you a copy" without access to the computer or wherever this copy was, he couldn't change the password.  Of course if he had access to this copy and the original he could of course change the password.
2. The private keys let you spend the bitcoins.  The public keys are what people can send bitcoins to. It is fine telling people the public keys, but not the private ones.
3. If you have the public keys from the wallet.dat file, then you can see what the balance is for each address and see if they are moved.  They'll look something like this:
1PXQd9Fg8qZ2bC2f3dpiWLWZjXCF28euJe  (this address just had a transaction in the block chain and I just picked it at random)

You can look balances, transactions etc up on "block explorers" like this:
http://blockr.io/address/info/1PXQd9Fg8qZ2bC2f3dpiWLWZjXCF28euJe
http://blockr.io/
http://blockchain.info/


If he was using a different wallet it is possible the "password" is a sequence of words, like "dog blue water orange etc".  If the password is a sequence of words like that, it is used to derive the private keys. 

Whatever you do, do not share the password, the wallet.dat, or the private keys with anyone unless you trust them 100% because they could steal the coins with them.  I say that because people will ask for it, like, "Oh, send me the password and wallet.dat and I'll help you unlock it" - there are some trustworthy people of course, but there are many who are not and will just steal your bitcoins.

The things to check:
1. What wallet software is it for?  If there is a wallet.dat file, it is probably Bitcoin Core.  If the name is something else, we might be able to determine the software used.
2. What OS are you using?  (if it is Windows 7, for example, I would be very careful if the wallet.dat is there as compared to newer versions).
3. Is the "password" a sequence of words or just something like "thisISmyPASSWORD"?  (Don't tell us the words or the passwords, you can say which it is though.  ;-)  )
4. If the coins are still there, I'd also ask your attorney what they recommend - do they recommend moving half the coins into a different address?  My concern with moving all might be that he might then argue, "Oh, see, she is trying to steal the coins".  Your attorney might have good advice.

[Coco_JJ]

 Is it somehow possible to open the .dat-file in another way, so that I would be able to see the public (to check the balance) and the private key? I tried open it in a notepad software, and there was a lot of long numbers...    I found the Bitcoin core on my computer, so that is probably what he has been using, but the .dat file is so big that I would have to remove everything from the hard drive first.
Thank you.