wallet problem

[michaelelwan]

I am new to the crypto world and I need your help please... My situation is challenging so I will try to simplify it in the following points:

1- I have installed "Bitcoin ABC" and "Knots" on the same computer
2- Transferred bitcoin to the "knots" and bitcoin cash to "bitcoin ABC" from internet trading website.
3- The transfer went smooth and I saw the coins (although they were mixed up in type.. for example it showed bitcoin cash coins as bitcoins)
4- Hearing about an easy way to store bitcoin, I installed Electrum also on the same computer by creating a standard wallet (for some reason now I realised it is a multi-sig wallet, even though I am sure I did not create it this way)
5- I obtained the private key that has the bitcoin from "Knots" and swapped it in Electrum
6- When I saw the bitcoin in my electrum I thought that this will enable me to send it at anytime using electrum so I deleted the "knots"
7- Now I have:
a) Electrum wallet it is called 2_of_2 but I cannot find the 1_of_1 wallet (if I will need it to send the bitcoin)
b) I have full access to this electrum wallet so I managed to get the private key, address that has the coin and the transaction details. However, I cannot send the coin anywhere since it is watch only wallet
c) Also have full access to the knots wallet

Can anyone help please? I am more than happy to send a generous donation in return if I got my bitcoin

Cheers

[1714187809]

1714187809

[1714187809]

1714187809

[plen]

Trying to follow and it's a bit confusing but sounds to me like you could just create another wallet and "sweep" the watch-only one since you have the private key?

For more information on sweeping. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transferring_coins_from_Bitcoin-Qt_to_Electrum#Sweep_private_keys_with_Electrum

[lcr693354556]

Sounds complex but I think I met difficulty similarly...

[haltingprobability]

I am new to the crypto world and I need your help please... My situation is challenging so I will try to simplify it in the following points:

1- I have installed "Bitcoin ABC" and "Knots" on the same computer
2- Transferred bitcoin to the "knots" and bitcoin cash to "bitcoin ABC" from internet trading website.
3- The transfer went smooth and I saw the coins (although they were mixed up in type.. for example it showed bitcoin cash coins as bitcoins)
4- Hearing about an easy way to store bitcoin, I installed Electrum also on the same computer by creating a standard wallet (for some reason now I realised it is a multi-sig wallet, even though I am sure I did not create it this way)
5- I obtained the private key that has the bitcoin from "Knots" and swapped it in Electrum
6- When I saw the bitcoin in my electrum I thought that this will enable me to send it at anytime using electrum so I deleted the "knots"
7- Now I have:
a) Electrum wallet it is called 2_of_2 but I cannot find the 1_of_1 wallet (if I will need it to send the bitcoin)
b) I have full access to this electrum wallet so I managed to get the private key, address that has the coin and the transaction details. However, I cannot send the coin anywhere since it is watch only wallet
c) Also have full access to the knots wallet

Can anyone help please? I am more than happy to send a generous donation in return if I got my bitcoin

Cheers

1) Before you do anything else, you should securely save your private key to another place, like a USB stick. This way, whatever mistakes you make, you are sure to have at least one copy of the private key.

2) You should stop using the computer on which the wallets are installed, if you can. If there's a lot of money at stake, you need to make it happen. Based on the information you've given, it is possible that you have created a 2-of-2 multisig address and then deleted one of the private keys.

3) Look up the wallet address on a blockchain explorer and verify whether it is multisig. If it is showing multisig, then you will need two private keys, not just one, to access your bitcoins. In this case, you are going to need to download a reputable file recovery utility and un-delete Knots and (hopefully) the missing private key.

4) If it is not multi-sig, then it's OK to ignore step 2, and it's just a matter of correctly importing the private key. For this, I would double-check that you have the private key saved (locally, in a directory you control, and securely on a USB stick), uninstall Electrum, and re-install a fresh copy, and then import the private key.

5) If there's enough funds at stake to justify doing a transaction, I would finish up by sending the funds to yourself in a new address in a fresh wallet, making sure at each step that everything is configured properly. Once finished, secure the new private key appropriately.

Hope everything works out for you.

[haltingprobability]

Thanks haltingprobability, just was wondering how to find out if the address belongs to a multisig wallet or not I assume you mean the address that has the coin in it? I went to blockchain dot info website and typed in the address and I do not know where I can find if it belongs to multisig wallet or not?  

Update: my address start with 3, does this means it is multisig? and if yes, what can I do now?
Cheers mate

An address that begins with 3 means that it is some kind of script hash, see here, which could include multi-sig. But in order to have created a multi-sig address in Electrum, you had to have gone through these steps. Did you do that?

[haltingprobability]

I do not think so! so what can I do not?

In the OP, you said, "2- Transferred bitcoin ... from internet trading website." The address you received those funds at, does it begin with a 1 or a 3? Is that the same address where your bitcoins are currently stored?

[haltingprobability]

I just had a look and found:

1- the 2 addresses where these funds where sent from start with 1
2- the 2 addresses where the funds where received start with 3
3- Yes, these are the same address where the bitcoins are currently stored (as by looking at these addresses on blockchain it says unspent and shows the coins)

Were the receiving addresses created by your wallet or by the exchange?

[Noelnada]

5- I obtained the private key that has the bitcoin from "Knots" and swapped it in Electrum
6- When I saw the bitcoin in my electrum I thought that this will enable me to send it at anytime using electrum so I deleted the "knots"
7- Now I have:
a) Electrum wallet it is called 2_of_2 but I cannot find the 1_of_1 wallet (if I will need it to send the bitcoin)
b) I have full access to this electrum wallet so I managed to get the private key, address that has the coin and the transaction details. However, I cannot send the coin anywhere since it is watch only wallet
c) Also have full access to the knots wallet

If you still have the private key from the Knots Wallet, you can restore it. If i understood correctly, that should give you acess back to your bitcoins.

If that helps, let me know, I am always interested in generous donations 

[Btcspot]

  Hi you probably need your Knots wallet private key, you should download this http://filehippo.com/download_recuva
 from that site then run the program and get your Knots wallet. Then copy the key and see if it works in Electrum.  If it works and you can donate me 1btc send it to my address  37YGHAj8v3vpzaGYLFphRS8Kr2UxW6fk6P
 Thank you

[Noelnada]

Maybe Recuva could help yes. Maybe you have wallet seeds in paper form too to recover wallets. From what i understand so far you deleted the wrong wallet.

Consider splitting the donation between me and the others if my advice has been helpful, my btc adress : 3K6txJdXEJg26TTW8nS1ZAGdggS437V3HK

Good luck !

[HCP]

4- Hearing about an easy way to store bitcoin, I installed Electrum also on the same computer by creating a standard wallet (for some reason now I realised it is a multi-sig wallet, even though I am sure I did not create it this way)

When you installed Electrum, did it actually prompt you to select "Standard wallet", "Wallet with two factor authenticaion", "Multi-Signature wallet" or "watching only wallet"? Did you see something like this:


Or did it just immediately open up a wallet?

NOTE: if you had selected "standard", it would have then prompted you to "create a seed", "I already have a seed", "use public or private keys" or "use a hardware device"... like this:



If it just opened up a wallet and showed you a blank transaction window etc, it is possible that you had already installed Electrum on your computer previously and created a default_wallet... when you uninstall Electrum it does NOT remove the old wallet files... so if you already had used Electrum before and then reinstalled Electrum, it would find and use your old default_wallet.


However, if you definitely had the prompts, and clicked through the options... chances are that you did indeed create a Multi-Sig wallet... especially if the title bar says "2 of 2". If that is the case, then you need the two private keys that you used to create the Multi-Sig.

Without those two private keys, you will never be able to get the coins out of the Multi-Sig. Did you perhaps use the private key from knots and the one from Bitcoin ABC?

[HCP]

2FA wallet? I thought you said that the Electrum wallet said 2-of-2? Which one is it? 2FA or 2-of-2? They're quite different wallets...

Do you have any other files in the wallet folder other than default_wallet?

[HCP]

It sounds like you have had a previous install of Electrum then...

Although, the only way you could have created the 2of2 was by going through the process and adding in the private keys... the trick will be to figure out which private keys you used to create it... unless you can figure that out, you chances of being able to sign a transaction to get the coins out of the 2of2 is pretty much zero

[HCP]

So, how can I know which private keys I have used? shall I create a new wallet and sweep the private keys from all the wallets I already have in the folder?

That isn't going to help...

Ok, taking a step or two back, because I'm kinda confused about a couple of things, and just want to clarify... make sure I'm properly understanding what has happened.

1. You had BTC in "Knots" and BCH in "ABC"
2. You "swept" the private key from "Knots" into an Electrum wallet (it wasn't an "import" was it?)
3. The Electrum wallet appears to be a 2-of-2 MultiSig ("3" address)
4. You have no idea which is the 2nd wallet used to create the MultiSig, so no way to "co-sign" with the required 2nd signature.

Does that sound about right?

If you try and create a transaction in the 2-of-2 wallet to move the BTC, when you try to send, it should come up with a summary window, does it say that the transaction status is "partially signed"? If so, we're just looking for ONE private key, as the current wallet already has one, so you just need the 2nd.

[opebiyiope]

in order to solve the problem fast, you should contact the experts or blockchain support team

[HCP]

Ok... try "saving" the transaction out to a .txn file... then try loading it into your other Electrum wallet(s?) ("Tools -> Load Transaction -> From File" and select the .txn file)... Hopefully it will load up and let you "sign" it in at least one of your wallets.

If it doesn't, then I'm sorry, but I'm out of ideas... you'll have to try and remember how you created the MultiSig and what keys you used.

[karmakeddon]

Wait, how did you get a multi sig wallet from Electrum if you swept the keys? I tried to recreate what you did and in no way I was able to get some results.

[HCP]

Ok... I see what you have done... you have used your 2FA wallet as the cosigner for you original wallet... It is "possible" that you can do the following:

1. Create a transaction in (2_of_2) wallet. Click "Preview"... then click "Sign"... then click "Save". It should prompt you to save a ".txn" file.
2. Open your (default_wallet [2FA]) wallet.
3. Using the [2FA] wallet, from the menu select "Tools -> Load Transaction -> From File"
4. Select the ".txn" file saved in step 1.

You should be presented with the Transaction "preview" window and should be able to see all the details. At this point... is the "Sign" button able to be clicked? or is it greyed out?

[HCP]

Which means that it currently doesn't have the right private key to sign the transaction...

Now... And this is pretty much the "make or break" question... Do you have the 12 word backup seed for the (default_wallet [2fa]) wallet?

[HCP]

Restore that 2FA wallet... But when prompted if you want to "Keep or Disable" the 2FA functionality, select "DISABLE".

This should restore the wallet, so that it contains two of the three private keys that the 2FA MultiSig is generated from... The 2nd private key being the one that matches the "co-signer 2" key that you are currently missing.

This should hopefully allow you to open that partially signed transaction that you generated earlier (the .txn file)... And the "Sign" button should now be 'active' and clickable.