Multibit transaction stuck as pending, seen by 1 peer - what should I do?

[Emma Goldman]

Hey everyone!

I was given a bitcoin all the way back in 2013. Last night, I decided to salvage it from my old hard-drive to cash-out and buy some Ethereum.

After I recovered it, I tried to move it from my old Multibit Classic wallet to Coinbase. I sent a test through of $2 and it worked. So, I sent $300 to buy Ethereum. But it got stuck: it just has just shown 'seen by 1 peer' ever since.

Having read around the internet, I now understand that Multibit is (a) highly buggy, and (b) has a fixed transaction fee which is well below the amount necessary to achieve full circulation.

So, my question is, what do I do now?

One apparent solution is to go to Tools > Reset Blockchain and Transactions. But lots of people online have said that, when they actually did this, it wiped all of their bitcoins. I have back-up private keys, which I'm told I 'might' be able to use to restore my old wallet. But I don't want to risk all my bitcoin for 'just' $300 worth of bitcoin.

I seem to have two options:

• Follow the above guidelines and reset the blockchain, but risk losing all of my bitcoin
• Move the private keys to another wallet (maybe electrum), but risk losing my $300

Is there another option? Which option is best?

Any help would be REALLY appreciated - I'm a bit lost right now 

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[TryNinja]

AFAIK the "Reset blockchain and Transactions" will not make your wallet lose your private keys. Instead, it will only "force MultiBit to resynchronize with the Bitcoin network replaying all the transactions associated with the private keys held in your wallet"

I would also recomment you to move all your coins to Electrum after you fix this issue.

Resetting the blockchain would not cause your bitcoin to be lost - it simply forces MultiBit to resynchronize with the Bitcoin network replaying all the transactions associated with the private keys held in your wallet.

https://github.com/Multibit-Legacy/multibit/issues/338

[Emma Goldman]

AFAIK the "Reset blockchain and Transactions" will not make your wallet lose your private keys. Instead, it will only "force MultiBit to resynchronize with the Bitcoin network replaying all the transactions associated with the private keys held in your wallet"

I would also recomment you to move all your coins to Electrum after you fix this issue.

Resetting the blockchain would not cause your bitcoin to be lost - it simply forces MultiBit to resynchronize with the Bitcoin network replaying all the transactions associated with the private keys held in your wallet.

https://github.com/Multibit-Legacy/multibit/issues/338

Great! Thanks for this 

Do others agree, should I go ahead and reset the blockchain?

[Emma Goldman]

Okay, I took the plunge and went for 'reset blockchain and transactions', but the synchronisation process is now stuck as well!

If I sweep/import my private keys into Electrum, will I still have all of my bitcoins, including those in the failed transaction?

[HCP]

Short answer is yes... if you sweep all your private keys into Electrum you will have all of your bitcoins... including the failed transaction... although if the transaction is still floating around in the mempool, it may show up as "unconfirmed" and you won't be able to spend those coins until it gets dropped by the network.

Check the transactionID on several block explorers like:
blockchain.info
blockr.io
live.blockcypher.com

If the transaction is still showing there, then you might have to wait a while for it to either confirm or drop.