Using Armory on the BCH chain

[alomar]

oh please gaud, allow me to find a fast way to search thousands of UTXO's for the few BCH address claims i make from time to time from the Coin Control window using the trick method...

[jojo69]

So, I opted to forgo the "tricks" and go ahead and temporarily run a BCH node.

I downloaded and installed Bitcoin ABC version v0.16.2.0-6af5e93 (64-bit) and let it fully sync, only took about 28 hours.

Upgraded Armory to the latest RC3  0.96.3.992-beta-8a7f18a499

Dealt with my custom pathing, which I think I understand.

Nuked my old core armory DB and got armory to build the DB against the ABC install.

If I try and let Armory manage QT it hangs on "preparing databases"

If I run ABC manually Armory loads up the wallets and shows expected BCH balances (which differ from BTC balances as I moved all those onchain first) but in the lower right it reports "Node Offline (blockheight as of armory launch)

I feel like I have made a lot of progress and am very close, but I am stuck here.

logs
https://pastebin.com/yypEZvFu
https://pastebin.com/751Uzqqa

I am so sorry to bother you guys...I really tried.

[droark]

Shut down Armory, wait a few seconds, and then check the task manager for instances of ArmoryDB. If any exist, kill them. Once they're all gone, start Armory again. Hopefully this will do the trick.

[jojo69]

thanks droark

I hope this is a more appropriate venue than squawking at you in IRC

alas, still "node offline" after killing DB and restarting

[PhoenixFire]

thanks droark

I hope this is a more appropriate venue than squawking at you in IRC

alas, still "node offline" after killing DB and restarting

Tried ABC 0.16.1 as per the below?

Spent quite a long time with bitcoin-abc-0.16.2 and armory 0.96.3.991 and trying to get it to work.

This combo throws in the bitcoind log.
2018-01-04 21:34:48 PROCESSMESSAGE: INVALID MESSAGESTART version peer=0

However, bitcoin-abc-0.16.1 and armory 0.96.3.991 allows the connection to happen:
2018-01-05 07:11:02 receive version message: [127.0.0.1:34586] Armory:0.96.3.991: version 70012, blocks=-1, us=127.0.0.1:8333, peer=0

Just a heads up to others. I believe something changed in the bitcoin-abc repo around 12/3/2017 surrounding this PROCESSMESSAGE output.

[jojo69]

Tried ABC 0.16.1 as per the below?

Spent quite a long time with bitcoin-abc-0.16.2 and armory 0.96.3.991 and trying to get it to work.

This combo throws in the bitcoind log.
2018-01-04 21:34:48 PROCESSMESSAGE: INVALID MESSAGESTART version peer=0

However, bitcoin-abc-0.16.1 and armory 0.96.3.991 allows the connection to happen:
2018-01-05 07:11:02 receive version message: [127.0.0.1:34586] Armory:0.96.3.991: version 70012, blocks=-1, us=127.0.0.1:8333, peer=0

Just a heads up to others. I believe something changed in the bitcoin-abc repo around 12/3/2017 surrounding this PROCESSMESSAGE output.

THAT, is probably it!

Thank you PF!  I have read the entire thread, but there is rather a lot of it and after a while it tends to all swim together.  I failed to integrate this point...now to make sure I don't lose the blockchain in the downgrade.

Will report.

[droark]

Spent quite a long time with bitcoin-abc-0.16.2 and armory 0.96.3.991 and trying to get it to work.

This combo throws in the bitcoind log.
2018-01-04 21:34:48 PROCESSMESSAGE: INVALID MESSAGESTART version peer=0

However, bitcoin-abc-0.16.1 and armory 0.96.3.991 allows the connection to happen:
2018-01-05 07:11:02 receive version message: [127.0.0.1:34586] Armory:0.96.3.991: version 70012, blocks=-1, us=127.0.0.1:8333, peer=0

Just a heads up to others. I believe something changed in the bitcoin-abc repo around 12/3/2017 surrounding this PROCESSMESSAGE output.

Thanks. This somehow floated past me. I'm waiting for more reports but it sounds like running 0.16.1 may be the ticket. I took a quick look at the commits. Nothing jumped out immediately but I didn't take a close look. This is an example of what goatpig was talking about when he said that there's no guarantee Armory will support Bcash. People can always try their luck with Unlimited too.

[Holliday]

jojo69, I always put "listen=1" and "addnode=127.0.0.1" in my bitcoin config file. I don't know if it will help your situation or not, but it can't hurt.

[droark]

jojo69, I always put "listen=1" and "addnode=127.0.0.1" in my bitcoin config file. I don't know if it will help your situation or not, but it can't hurt.

Yeah, everybody ought to do this. Something for me to put in the in-progress FAQ, now that I think about it....

[jojo69]

re the bitcoin.conf file changes

this is the one with the rpcuser stuff in it?

and is that IP address universal or specific to your case?

Please forgive my ignorance.

[PhoenixFire]

re the bitcoin.conf file changes

this is the one with the rpcuser stuff in it?

and is that IP address universal or specific to your case?

Please forgive my ignorance.

Yes.
127.0.0.1 is localhost - your local computer, so universal

[jojo69]

OK, my report, as promised.

The ABC rollback to 0.16.1 did the trick!

I did have to rebuild the Armory DB.

I have added the lines to the bitcoin.conf file since, but that was not the issue in this case.   So, to summarize for the benefit of others.

>move all BTC out of any wallets you wish to claim BCH from

>back up your BTC blockchain, ABC uses the same default install paths (borderline malicious behavior IMO but there it is.

>back up your Armory DB

>install Bitcoin ABC v0.16.1, NOT v0.16.2 !  Allow it to fully sync.  Without an old pre-fork blockchain backup or some kind of pruned backup this will take a couple days at least.

>install Armory 0.96.3.922    RC3

>deal with your pathing to point your Armory bookmark to your new BCash blockchain

>Armory file  settings  uncheck "let Armory run Bitcoin Core/bitcoind in the background"

>close armory

>delete armory\databases

>verify Bitcoin ABC is running and fully synced

>launch Armory and let it build your new DB.  This will take some hours, be patient.  It may seem hung on 99% 2 seconds remaining or something like that for a loooong time, just let it run.

>when it is finally done it should show your expected BCH balances (you moved your BTC already right?) and report "connected" in purple in the lower right corner

>set Armory to "expert" mode   user   expert

>click "send bitcoins" and make up your transaction as usual remember to uncheck "enable RBF" in the lower right

>click through and SELECT THE BCH SIGNER AS DETAILED IN THE OP OF THIS THREAD!!!

>click to broadcast, that's it...worked for me

If I screwed any of this writeup let me know guys and I will edit

Thank you all so much for the help!!

[hopebit]

Thank you very much.  I had exact same problem (ArmoryDB not connecting to bitcoinABC) and was struggling since months.  Could not figure out I had to downgrade to an older version, was quite doing the opposite (looking for the latest versions of everything).
Now I hope I can finally spend my BCH.

By the way as you asked how to improve your guide you may want to detail how to get the sources of the v0.16.1.0 version of bitcoinABC (I'm saying this because, differently than Armory which gives step by step instructions for this, I could find no similar instructions for bitcoinABC)..

[jojo69]

Thank you very much.  I had exact same problem (ArmoryDB not connecting to bitcoinABC) and was struggling since months.  Could not figure out I had to downgrade to an older version, was quite doing the opposite (looking for the latest versions of everything).
Now I hope I can finally spend my BCH.

By the way as you asked how to improve your guide you may want to detail how to get the sources of the v0.16.1.0 version of bitcoinABC (I'm saying this because, differently than Armory which gives step by step instructions for this, I could find no similar instructions for bitcoinABC)..

good point

I found the binaries at https://download.bitcoinabc.org/0.16.1/

will link in above post

[hopebit]

By the way as you asked how to improve your guide you may want to detail how to get the sources of the v0.16.1.0 version of bitcoinABC

I found the binaries at https://download.bitcoinabc.org/0.16.1/

I wrote "sources"      and also "v0.16.1.0" according your instructions 

What I did (within a script) was:

  git clone https://github.com/Bitcoin-ABC/bitcoin-abc.git
  cd bitcoin-abc
  TAG=v0.16.1
  git checkout $TAG
  git tag -v $TAG
  git submodule init
  git submodule update

It gave some errors, but overall it worked.
Please note I used "v0.16.1" instead of "v0.16.1.0" otherwise it didn't work at all.

Maybe the git experts here can suggest a better way to do it? Missing specific instructions for Bitcoin-ABC I used same script I use for Armory (just changed the TAG) but it appears the two repositories are setup differently...

[Andre_Goldman]

I am at "POKER" cards (add your own entropy) seed thing ...before cash OUT for investments ...

waiting patiently, until blows up ... 

[goatpig]

By the way as you asked how to improve your guide you may want to detail how to get the sources of the v0.16.1.0 version of bitcoinABC

I found the binaries at https://download.bitcoinabc.org/0.16.1/

I wrote "sources"      and also "v0.16.1.0" according your instructions 

What I did (within a script) was:

  git clone https://github.com/Bitcoin-ABC/bitcoin-abc.git
  cd bitcoin-abc
  TAG=v0.16.1
  git checkout $TAG
  git tag -v $TAG
  git submodule init
  git submodule update

It gave some errors, but overall it worked.
Please note I used "v0.16.1" instead of "v0.16.1.0" otherwise it didn't work at all.

Maybe the git experts here can suggest a better way to do it? Missing specific instructions for Bitcoin-ABC I used same script I use for Armory (just changed the TAG) but it appears the two repositories are setup differently...

I don't think there are submodules in ABC's repo. At least there are none in Core, so ABC would have had to had to add submodules recently. It won't do anything to initialized submodules on a repo that has none, but I'd rather people know that this step has no effect. That aside, this is a acceptable procedure. Note that you can verify a tag without checking it out. It's actually preferable to first verify the signature on the tag then to check it out than otherwise.

[hopebit]

I don't think there are submodules in ABC's repo. At least there are none in Core, so ABC would have had to had to add submodules recently. It won't do anything to initialized submodules on a repo that has none, but I'd rather people know that this step has no effect. That aside, this is a acceptable procedure. Note that you can verify a tag without checking it out. It's actually preferable to first verify the signature on the tag then to check it out than otherwise.

Thank you for the clarification. So what would be the preferable procedure in case of Armory? According to the instructions here:
https://github.com/goatpig/BitcoinArmory/blob/master/linuxbuild/Linux_build_notes.md#ubuntu-build-instructions
it would be (quoting literally, just stripping the comments):

$ git clone https://github.com/goatpig/BitcoinArmory.git
$ cd BitcoinArmory
$ git submodule init
$ git submodule update
$ git checkout v0.96
$ git tag -v v0.96
$ git submodule init
$ git submodule update
$ ./autogen.sh
$ ./configure
$ make

[droark]

I'd replace 0.96 with the latest version (0.96.3.992 as of right now) unless you have specific reasons for using specific versions, but yes, that should work. That said, unless you're just curious or have specific reasons for doing so, why build Armory?

[PsyMan2000]

Thanks to the advice in this thread I have finally gotten around to giving my Armory -> electron cash a try

After a 2 week wait due to a stuck transaction (my fault I think) my bitcoins are now safely confirmed in a new Armory wallet and am ready to export the old wallet keys to electron cash however....one/two last question/s.

Should I sweep or import the old wallet in to electron cash using one of the private key export types in Armory? (will sweeping prevent me claiming any other forked coins like bitcoin gold going forward?)

Any idea which of the private key types are needed?

More interested in the sweep vs import bit really though as I don't want to accidentally eat the golden goose

Grateful as always

PsyMan