Please Help Out A N00B

[woot23]

Hi All,

I'll be brief:

Version 0.14.1 64 bit
OS: Windows 10
Specs: Core i7, 6 GB Ram, using external USB 3.0 HD for block chain save. No room on internal SSD for entire chain.

Problem: The damn sync is downloading at 0.05% per hour. I already made my original bitcoin purchase and at this rate I won't be able to spend it for around half a year.  It's apparently too late to decide to use a "lightweight" wallet because I've already made a transaction using an address number that was generated in Bitcoin Core.

Please... PLEASE help! I'm not a techy person, but I thought I followed the instructions for a brand new bitcoin user very well. I just need to speed up this 120 GB download.

Ugh.. I don't even know how to put a screenshot in here... I don't know how to use HTML.

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[HI-TEC99]

Click file, then receiving addresses. Find the address you sent coins to in the window that opens, right click it, and select copy address. Close the addresses window.

Click help, then debug window.

In the debug window that opens click console.

In the text box at the bottom of the window type

dumpprivkey yourAddress

where yourAddress is the address you sent coins to and copied earlier.

Press your enter key.

The private key for that address should appear in the console window. Copy it.

This is an example private key.

L48toSntMVhC2az4KAQCWscrQGfPbT55yCgzM5cmx9Ao69pTdwrq

Download and install electrum.

https://electrum.org/#download

Import your private key into it using these instructions.

http://docs.electrum.org/en/latest/faq.html#can-i-import-private-keys-from-other-bitcoin-clients

Afterwards your coins should be spendable.

[hexafraction]

Hi-TEC99 hit the nail on the head with his explanation on how to resolve your issue. A few things I will add: if you already set a password on your wallet you will need to type unlockwallet "[password here]" and press Enter before dumping your private key. Additionally, never post that private key in any public location or send it in an email; if someone else gets it they can spend your coins.

Keeping that Electrum wallet backed up will be more annoying than keeping Electrum backed up in the usual case, because that key wasn't generated using a seed.

You might want to eventually make a new Electrum wallet the normal way, record the 12 word seed in a safe place (in case a technical failure such as a dead hard drive keeps you from accessing your wallet, you can use that seed to create a new wallet that has access to the same coins) and send your Bitcoin from the wallet you created by importing private keys to your new wallet with a sufficient fee. New versions of Electrum are usually pretty good at calculating transaction fees compared to some other choices of wallet software.

[zvs]

Hi All,

I'll be brief:

Version 0.14.1 64 bit
OS: Windows 10
Specs: Core i7, 6 GB Ram, using external USB 3.0 HD for block chain save. No room on internal SSD for entire chain.

Problem: The damn sync is downloading at 0.05% per hour. I already made my original bitcoin purchase and at this rate I won't be able to spend it for around half a year.  It's apparently too late to decide to use a "lightweight" wallet because I've already made a transaction using an address number that was generated in Bitcoin Core.

Please... PLEASE help! I'm not a techy person, but I thought I followed the instructions for a brand new bitcoin user very well. I just need to speed up this 120 GB download.

Ugh.. I don't even know how to put a screenshot in here... I don't know how to use HTML.

dunno how fast that USB 3.0 drive is, but HDD speed (and CPU) are the major chokes on how fast it syncs, assuming you have enough bandwidth. 

Didn't say when this 0.05% per hour started, but if you have an 'average' system, it should be super fast to 40-50% (maybe 20-30% now, been half a year since I did a full sync), the middle portions uses huge bandwidth, and the last quarter or a third it'll churn that cpu and hdd.  i have an i7-980x, and don't have major issues with speed.. 

if bandwidth/internet connection (packetloss) are eliminated, would be almost positive it's that USB 3.0 (since you mention your internal SSD, I guess this USB 3.0 isn't SSD    )

... I've never used Electrum or any of these lite clients.. does it not use the same wallet file?

[HI-TEC99]

Hi All,

I'll be brief:

Version 0.14.1 64 bit
OS: Windows 10
Specs: Core i7, 6 GB Ram, using external USB 3.0 HD for block chain save. No room on internal SSD for entire chain.

Problem: The damn sync is downloading at 0.05% per hour. I already made my original bitcoin purchase and at this rate I won't be able to spend it for around half a year.  It's apparently too late to decide to use a "lightweight" wallet because I've already made a transaction using an address number that was generated in Bitcoin Core.

Please... PLEASE help! I'm not a techy person, but I thought I followed the instructions for a brand new bitcoin user very well. I just need to speed up this 120 GB download.

Ugh.. I don't even know how to put a screenshot in here... I don't know how to use HTML.

dunno how fast that USB 3.0 drive is, but HDD speed (and CPU) are the major chokes on how fast it syncs, assuming you have enough bandwidth. 

Didn't say when this 0.05% per hour started, but if you have an 'average' system, it should be super fast to 40-50% (maybe 20-30% now, been half a year since I did a full sync), the middle portions uses huge bandwidth, and the last quarter or a third it'll churn that cpu and hdd.  i have an i7-980x, and don't have major issues with speed.. 

if bandwidth/internet connection (packetloss) are eliminated, would be almost positive it's that USB 3.0 (since you mention your internal SSD, I guess this USB 3.0 isn't SSD    )

... I've never used Electrum or any of these lite clients.. does it not use the same wallet file?

No electrum uses a comopletely different wallet file format to Bitcoin core. If you open a core wallet.dat in a text editor it appears as random characters. If you open an electrum wallet file in a text editor it's human readable.

[HCP]

... If you open an electrum wallet file in a text editor it's human readable.

Assuming it isn't encrypted... which Electrum seems to default to these days when creating a wallet...

[hexafraction]

... If you open an electrum wallet file in a text editor it's human readable.

Assuming it isn't encrypted... which Electrum seems to default to these days when creating a wallet...

An encrypted file is still readable JSON. The only elements that are encrypted are the private keys in the keystore (encoded as base-64 inside a JSON string IIRC). The mpk and transactions are still visible without the passphrase.

[HCP]

Pretty sure it isn't. When I use "encrypt wallet file", I get a wallet file that looks a bit like this:


If I untick that, then sure... JSON with encrypted keystore entries:



This was switched on by default since 2.8 apparently: http://docs.electrum.org/en/latest/faq.html#how-is-the-wallet-encrypted

You can tell which setup you have based on whether or not Electrum asks for a password when you first start it up (or open a wallet). If it asks for the passphrase, the wallet file is encrypted, so it needs the passphrase to open and read it and load your addresses/transactions. If it just opens up and displays all your transactions etc and only needs a password to send or sign messages etc, then the wallet file itself is unencrypted (but obviously your keystore is still encrypted)

[hexafraction]

It's safe to assume that a wallet old enough to warrant this discussion likely wasn't made using 2.8.

My bad, I confused this thread with another thread asking for Electrum wallet identification/help.

[HI-TEC99]

Pretty sure it isn't. When I use "encrypt wallet file", I get a wallet file that looks a bit like this:


If I untick that, then sure... JSON with encrypted keystore entries:



This was switched on by default since 2.8 apparently: http://docs.electrum.org/en/latest/faq.html#how-is-the-wallet-encrypted

You can tell which setup you have based on whether or not Electrum asks for a password when you first start it up (or open a wallet). If it asks for the passphrase, the wallet file is encrypted, so it needs the passphrase to open and read it and load your addresses/transactions. If it just opens up and displays all your transactions etc and only needs a password to send or sign messages etc, then the wallet file itself is unencrypted (but obviously your keystore is still encrypted)

Yes, I forgot about that. If you leave the password blank when creating a wallet in 2.8 you get an unencrypted wallet file. I have been leaving the password fields blank in my personal wallets, so the change to whole wallet file encryption slipped my mind.

However, a bitcoin core wallet.dat is still in a completely different format to an electrum wallet.