Strange behaviour when trying to restore old wallet.

[deescrid]

Hi all,

Returning BTC dude here.

I was digging through my PC recently for old wallets that I know are knocking around and I found one in particular that appeared to have a number of funds associated with it (which matched my memory of having a certain amount of BTC too, so it wasn't unexpected).  This one in particular was from 2013.


When I open it in Bitcoin Core 0.13.2 (which is the version stored on my previous installation and therefore presumably the version the wallet was used with, I get the following behavior:


https://s8.postimg.org/wmrwqv3c5/btccore_error.jpg
Inbound transactions only.  No outbound.  No pending balance.  No receiving addresses(!!!)

https://s8.postimg.org/z5dlriu79/btccore_error2.jpg
Completely blank receive dialogue box.  Allows me to create a new address with no issue, seemingly.

https://s8.postimg.org/3mxiagcvp/btccore_error3.jpg
The three transactions show correctly in the transactions tab.  The Transaction info gives an ID that does not show on the blockchain.  The status on all 3 transactions is: Status: 0/unconfirmed, not in memory pool



I've come to accept the fact that my wallet appears to be screwed, or something, and the coins will probably not be recoverable (though if anyone is able to set me on a path to recovery I will absolutely reward them).

What I would at least like to know, is if anyone can give an explanation of what happened here.   Back in 2013 transactions didn't take a long time to confirm.  I can't understand how there are several days between the transactions but yet none of them are confirmed at all in the wallet.  Zero shows in the available and the pending transactions.

FYI - if I open the wallet in v0.7.0 then I get the same behavior, except the total balance of the incoming transactions shows in the "Pending balance" section (which appears correct?).

I've checked the receiving address on blockchain.info and it appears to be completely un-used.  I find it difficult to believe that I would have left this unresolved back in 2013 before I stopped using the wallet!  I find it even harder to believe that the first transaction wouldn't have been confirmed or rejected by the time that the third transaction had happened several days later!

[1715141586]

1715141586

[deescrid]

Just for info, this is what I get when opening the wallet with 0.7.0:

https://s8.postimg.org/xt53gpj4l/btccore_error4.jpg

From what I've read, this old version won't ever fully sync with the server, so I doubt it'll have any impact.

[HCP]

It's entirely possible that you received 3 transactions that either did not confirm, or were double spent, or were in orphaned blocks... If I had to guess, I'd guess possibly orphaned blocks as the likely culprit... SopaXTs idea about it being an altcoin possibly has merit as well.

Anyway, that address (1Jxn...) has ZERO transaction history... so you're effectively chasing ghosts. The transactions no longer exist and I seriously doubt you'll be able to locate them... most likely because the inputs have since been spent in other transactions.

As always, the blockchain has the final say... if that TXID does not exist on the blockchain, then it doesn't exist.

[LoyceV]

Inbound transactions only.  No outbound.  No pending balance.  No receiving addresses(!!!)

This address has never received a transaction.

The three transactions show correctly in the transactions tab.  The Transaction info gives an ID that does not show on the blockchain.  The status on all 3 transactions is: Status: 0/unconfirmed, not in memory pool

It seems the transactions never got confirmed back in 2013. Your wallet remembers them, but they're gone.

I've come to accept the fact that my wallet appears to be screwed, or something, and the coins will probably not be recoverable

Did you make a new backup of your wallet.dat before starting it, so you can try to recover from the "untouched" wallet?

What I would at least like to know, is if anyone can give an explanation of what happened here.   Back in 2013 transactions didn't take a long time to confirm.  I can't understand how there are several days between the transactions but yet none of them are confirmed at all in the wallet.  Zero shows in the available and the pending transactions.

We can only guess what happened. One way or another, the address didn't receive any confirmations. Are the received amounts the same on all 3 transactions?

I find it even harder to believe that the first transaction wouldn't have been confirmed or rejected by the time that the third transaction had happened several days later!

As far as I know, Bitcoin Core doesn't drop transactions, unless you give a specific command to do so, even if they never confirm.

[deescrid]

Thanks for the help all.

I realize I'm chasing ghosts sadly but I'm still super pissed / annoyed / confused.

The address that the transactions came from appears to have never been used either.  So both the sending and recieving address are completely empty and never had any transactions.  I'd have figured that at least the sending address must have some record of BTC being in it at some point in order to create the (doomed) transactions?

In other words, I just.... I can't understand how I have these ghost transactions in my wallet if both sending and receiving addresses have never had any funds at all (according to the blockchain)?

This would be a life changing amount of funds nowadays, for it to simply "vanish without a trace" is really, really messed up.  If the transactions failed and the funds went back to the sending address I could understand but it's like the whole thing has just completely disappeared without a trace.

[SopaXT]

Thanks for the help all.

I realize I'm chasing ghosts sadly but I'm still super pissed / annoyed / confused.

The address that the transactions came from appears to have never been used either.  So both the sending and recieving address are completely empty and never had any transactions.  I'd have figured that at least the sending address must have some record of BTC being in it at some point in order to create the (doomed) transactions?

In other words, I just.... I can't understand how I have these ghost transactions in my wallet if both sending and receiving addresses have never had any funds at all (according to the blockchain)?

This would be a life changing amount of funds nowadays, for it to simply "vanish without a trace" is really, really messed up.  If the transactions failed and the funds went back to the sending address I could understand but it's like the whole thing has just completely disappeared without a trace.

It's possible that this wallet is an altcoin one.
Did you ever have any DASH, Litecoin, etc?

Could you post the TXID there so we can try looking it up on different chains?

[deescrid]

For the first transaction shown:

TXID: 

Code:

37dc3fe6ffddb07229a759f8144e9afddbb46d10ca27b77168ff0edd97e44366

raw transaction: 

Code:

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

I did dabble in a few altcoins but they were pretty doomed.  Specifically, QuarkCoin and FedoraCoin.  I'm pretty certain that I never moved any significant amount in to either of these coins because I didn't want the risk (in hindsight, pretty accurate).
I had my wallets stored relatively cleanly in seperate folders for each coin, however, you have a valid point, so I will do some checking with some other things and see what happens.

I really appreciate the help by the way, thank you.

[SopaXT]

For the first transaction shown:

TXID:  

Code:

37dc3fe6ffddb07229a759f8144e9afddbb46d10ca27b77168ff0edd97e44366

raw transaction:  

Code:

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

I did dabble in a few altcoins but they were pretty doomed.  Specifically, QuarkCoin and FedoraCoin.  I'm pretty certain that I never moved any significant amount in to either of these coins because I didn't want the risk (in hindsight, pretty accurate).
I had my wallets stored relatively cleanly in seperate folders for each coin, however, you have a valid point, so I will do some checking with some other things and see what happens.

I really appreciate the help by the way, thank you.

Indeed, it's a Quark transaction: https://chainz.cryptoid.info/qrk/tx.dws?37dc3fe6ffddb07229a759f8144e9afddbb46d10ca27b77168ff0edd97e44366.htm.
Load up your QRK wallet, maybe you still have some left.

P.S. I'm very sorry to disappoint you

P.P.S. Your Quark address is: QeZn3jwoWwEUUe5J2qQCCJgpEdo3obNUcC (1JxnwSf6LUMf3VzGcW5i52uBjNrLY84hvu).
It still has some 4000 QRK, maybe you can sell them?

[deescrid]

Thank you Sopa.

So, BTC-Core is reading the wallet.dat file incorrectly because its a QuarkCoin wallet.  Odd, but a good explanation.

I'm pretty confused as I dont remember doing this but I can't argue with results.

Sadly 4,000 QRK are virtually worthless nowadays.  I guess this can be a good lesson to anyone looking at altcoins.  I'll see if I can sell them but for such a small amount I'd guess that the fees will make it not worth it.

I'm still going to hunt around on my PC for any other wallets.  I know for certain I had some BTC.  Though I have a sinking feeling that they were stupidly left on BTC-E a long time ago.


If I do manage to get anything Sopa I'll be sure to send you a thank you.

[LoyceV]

Sadly 4,000 QRK are virtually worthless nowadays.  I guess this can be a good lesson to anyone looking at altcoins.  I'll see if I can sell them but for such a small amount I'd guess that the fees will make it not worth it.

Most popular altcoins from just a few years ago are completely forgotten, and I expect the same to happen to the current top 10.
Your 4000 QRK is worth just over $50, traded at Cryptopia. The 0.003BTC is barely worth the fee to withdraw, but you could exchange it into a more common altcoin again.
At it's peak your 4000 QRK was worth 1BTC! I've said it before: altcoins are created to get your BTC from you.

[deescrid]

Thanks Loyce.

I do believe there are altcoins that can and will succeed, but you are right in that the vast majority are just engines to extract BTC from people such as myself.

On the bright side I haven't "lost" much, except for a potential gain.

I'll take it as a lesson, and be smarter in the future.

[americaslasthope]

I have a very similar problem as the OP.  I only dabbled in two other altcoins, and I checked and my address doesn't work for them either.  I have many more transactions than he does reporting multiple different sending addresses, but they're all unconfirmed, and not in the memory pool, which makes zero sense to me.  Another difference between my receipts and the OP is my coins were ones that I had mined back in 2013 and 2014.

I posted this on another forum and was referred here by the OP to try to get a hold of a Bitcoin Developer to help solve my problem. IMO, there is a bug in the blockchain. Either the blockchain is reporting transactions to me that never existed, or I have unconfirmed transactions in my ledger that need to be confirmed and are not confirming. The transactions are from 2013 and 2014 when I first started mining.

I am running the latest version of Bitcoin Core, and have fully synced through the blockchain.

Background: Years ago I mined a little bit of BTC, and forgot about it. With the prices going astronomical I wanted to open my old wallet up and sell some. I opened it in Bitcoin Core and I can see a bunch of transactions, but they're all unconfirmed and my balance is reporting zero.

Address: 1BWCNpA3MGYHS3sbbVpGW7jY1Ean1Y3sX4

One of many transaction id's:

Status: 0/unconfirmed, not in memory pool Date: 1/23/2014 22:01 Credit: 0.10630472 BTC Net amount: +0.10630472 BTC Transaction ID: c16587ae806c2392635a20843a78f8f6a1275c6990a797f8266e3b9d8a29bd1e Transaction total size: 225 bytes Output index: 0

When I try to rebroadcast the raw transaction I get this...

Missing parents for c16587ae806c2392635a20843a78f8f6a1275c6990a797f8266e3b9d8a29bd1e while inserting: [c677f8172824b4bb761f0ce51e23235f4a6613c62e74e847936f95440fae6b6c]

If I decode it I get this...

{ "lock_time":0, "size":225, "inputs":[ { "prev_out":{ "index":0, "hash":"c677f8172824b4bb761f0ce51e23235f4a6613c62e74e847936f95440fae6b6c" }, "script":"47304402204f1602b609027990a8e17355bdb9d967882aed3ac85e06c9311d33a3228ba9d902200 97941a24457d36508f8d17e94400184c849f44c48296aab09e4deb9d23e4e2f012103db4cc04dac 3ee0cb4ab0afc108eb1f398ab659be127240a672b1abe139f84b60" } ], "version":1, "vin_sz":1, "hash":"c16587ae806c2392635a20843a78f8f6a1275c6990a797f8266e3b9d8a29bd1e", "vout_sz":2, "out":[ { "script_string":"OP_DUP OP_HASH160 7336d1277adaf305dddde5cedc686bb1e4988bda OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG", "address":"1BWCNpA3MGYHS3sbbVpGW7jY1Ean1Y3sX4", "value":10630472, "script":"76a9147336d1277adaf305dddde5cedc686bb1e4988bda88ac" }, { "script_string":"OP_DUP OP_HASH160 95a28eec6c32896699df4ca36c880d7e42e504c5 OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG", "address":"1EeCRLCksdBRJ7SUkAAFKk1TssVv62hoTQ", "value":89379528, "script":"76a91495a28eec6c32896699df4ca36c880d7e42e504c588ac" } ] }

Does this offer any more clues?

This is the raw transaction in Hex...

01000000016c6bae0f44956f9347e8742ec613664a5f23231ee50c1f76bbb4242817f877c600000 0006a47304402204f1602b609027990a8e17355bdb9d967882aed3ac85e06c9311d33a3228ba9d9 0220097941a24457d36508f8d17e94400184c849f44c48296aab09e4deb9d23e4e2f012103db4cc 04dac3ee0cb4ab0afc108eb1f398ab659be127240a672b1abe139f84b60ffffffff024835a20000 0000001976a9147336d1277adaf305dddde5cedc686bb1e4988bda88acc8d25305000000001976a 91495a28eec6c32896699df4ca36c880d7e42e504c588ac00000000

I really need help ASAP so I can sell some coins. How do I resolve this issue, or at the bare minimum how do we correct the blockchain so this issue doesn't affect others? Any help is appreciated!

[HCP]

I have a very similar problem as the OP.  I only dabbled in two other altcoins, and I checked and my address doesn't work for them either.  I have many more transactions than he does reporting multiple different sending addresses, but they're all unconfirmed, and not in the memory pool, which makes zero sense to me.  Another difference between my receipts and the OP is my coins were ones that I had mined back in 2013 and 2014.

Chances are this is the same thing... an altcoin wallet. Don't check the address on the altcoin chain... check the transactionID.

IMO, there is a bug in the blockchain. Either the blockchain is reporting transactions to me that never existed, or I have unconfirmed transactions in my ledger that need to be confirmed and are not confirming. The transactions are from 2013 and 2014 when I first started mining.

It isn't a bug... if you're running a wallet file from a different blockchain (most likely forked from bitcoin so compatible at a technical level), these transactions you see are actually stored locally in the wallet, but obviously, not on the BTC blockchain... so Bitcoin Core marks them as unconfirmed.

I really need help ASAP so I can sell some coins. How do I resolve this issue, or at the bare minimum how do we correct the blockchain so this issue doesn't affect others? Any help is appreciated!

The blockchain doesn't need correcting.

[americaslasthope]

I have a very similar problem as the OP.  I only dabbled in two other altcoins, and I checked and my address doesn't work for them either.  I have many more transactions than he does reporting multiple different sending addresses, but they're all unconfirmed, and not in the memory pool, which makes zero sense to me.  Another difference between my receipts and the OP is my coins were ones that I had mined back in 2013 and 2014.

Chances are this is the same thing... an altcoin wallet. Don't check the address on the altcoin chain... check the transactionID.

IMO, there is a bug in the blockchain. Either the blockchain is reporting transactions to me that never existed, or I have unconfirmed transactions in my ledger that need to be confirmed and are not confirming. The transactions are from 2013 and 2014 when I first started mining.

It isn't a bug... if you're running a wallet file from a different blockchain (most likely forked from bitcoin so compatible at a technical level), these transactions you see are actually stored locally in the wallet, but obviously, not on the BTC blockchain... so Bitcoin Core marks them as unconfirmed.

I really need help ASAP so I can sell some coins. How do I resolve this issue, or at the bare minimum how do we correct the blockchain so this issue doesn't affect others? Any help is appreciated!

The blockchain doesn't need correcting.

You solved the problem, thanks!  The transaction id matches RonPaulCoin which is one of the two altcoins I was mining at the time.  Now if only I could find my old BTC wallet...