Trying to get private key from Bitcoin QT core to import addresses into Electrum

[jwlBTC]

Hi, i am not sure i should post this publicly so thoguht i would PM you if thats ok

i have exported the entire history of my wallet

Confirmed   Date   Type   Address   Amount   ID
FALSE   2018-01-26T10:47:16   Sent to   1MD9ARDM2yMJWK35krRnknNB7XGXVbRQnU   -0.01893046   2294cb80792a03cb6255961b6908b8254569a77c519eca460c197a49fd3f94e5-000
TRUE   2018-01-14T09:51:21   Sent to   15pWWFAPC7xGsTHNhaWcicRADnRGf63p1P   -0.0105   62dc19dfe170b19f8d585b2cdfc68e6dd9f42261258089116c62b238404ab4e7-000
TRUE   2018-01-13T21:04:04   Sent to   12uYtCkeNxMrJRrV5wfZhUCdDiJ79UA2mz   -0.1005   4fc63c6079b562c527585759cabed2257daaf098ac1d1cde6a119177e0e0423b-000
TRUE   2018-01-13T12:09:06   Sent to   1LccZXvhsMPHbKYMk2kGXxLYdo4piJNWGM   -0.0105   75312e248dba6e72b25d35e2df618aca5cbc43b72680922cd6c7264ac9cb4bdf-000
TRUE   2018-01-12T16:23:05   Sent to   16FHEPFYMiZ6eYnu3Mn6xQJrV88ctXHwYW   -0.01   831498f8ee2c210182b65862a51c931723e43122b019d20ab3bc6474fe2d5085-000
TRUE   2018-01-12T15:39:39   Sent to   16NsQfXHt93v88eS3Gt89KTQDMHsHdZm5Y   -0.0105   b916fe303317977033e0ef3ee14ec6cd3a20cd3c2050c257f87118ea2456f591-000
TRUE   2014-03-28T15:50:22   Sent to   15EC9F1PtcaJYAZhCRNqfMmB4qoFC4oCQ7   -0.0015   646b9f0b3da6daa9e960c6432f2fa35fe470ed15f5743a5cb7f04f7cfbfe1baa-000
TRUE   2013-11-13T19:53:39   Sent to   1FsdYR2AMwAxajx8SWExCvmGmQeUr5w9NE   -0.03474039   9732bc17cd2d3468a1af8e3c3f83a67e87e45b865f10dcc8e15904e1c80da955-000
TRUE   2013-08-30T16:49:06   Sent to   16GkT88ZPcRdsqSM4Bnd7exweRWDekJntV   -0.1185   d50f99784e8bf9fe2e1a504cf7c1074e08ac7de27a84769e19ca96cf095a917c-000
TRUE   2013-08-30T16:17:29   Sent to   1DQWptH63n35hU2LksPNU28CKrpLyCAnb   -0.13659029   2f87f095450b7427e1349e2bcd547d84da4fec01d01beb91cc7244c3d3e2abe3-000
TRUE   2013-07-24T09:05:18   Sent to   1CzyB8ja1EKvBNYEenHMcRh57DNakFQvLj   -0.17153829   56e734f3f5df475f81469a339eb908e8f3e9f941f4ce36cf8d8febc6da24325c-000
TRUE   2013-07-11T09:34:56   Sent to   1MJqiqJixPAF11RmUEEAxGbf6wnUEvoHoT   -0.43735742   5c58d346217aacc10e74c430ffc87863969a1522cc761d2be08ddbe11b00518d-000
TRUE   2013-07-10T12:52:46   Sent to   1HqWcLB86YQdrGWYKhfVoqo6zFqGXtyvvb   -0.2122773   70bb3f3aac2c44c17c0464ac754c3782af63fc55b1e2095affa074f18dec4180-000
TRUE   2013-06-14T15:27:38   Received with   14G3Tr7PAb2L8xZKy2ib7MH9MscXHkQphj   0.20246875   3fae9880f8a3dc9641a24114f5ab2fd502ae47a179478f5b360ee3c9156c1be1-000
TRUE   2013-06-14T15:09:15   Sent to   1EEbWG1ckF9FGPjL4FSM1wQJryv3pApmAT   -0.20296875   83e7b0b792ec52e144adf74a3a68892202863955f3fde8bb8f9619c3e8a06a06-000
TRUE   2013-05-14T16:41:20   Received with   12zMmbzU5VrfdsjqpN5gnwNt65kJW7HaKb   2.707   422c742829cc69aca4767536f659a7efbc5d88e5b58a3c52a425425240e2d17e-000

i am getting very confused to tell the truth

my wallet says i have a balance of 1.43306585 BTC

as you can see from the transaction history nothing much has come or gone since 2013

[ranochigo]

-Snip-

Your client is not synchronized. If it isn't synchronized, it would only display the correct transactions up to the point for which it is synchronized to. Your transaction was probably dropped by the mempool a long time ago and you can't use that input without first broadcasting the related transaction(s) on the network which is also likely impossible to get.

[jwlBTC]

oops, i posted publicly, oh well, hopefully thats ok

so does that mean i have lost the 1.4 BTC? how can that be?

[mocacinno]

Things actually start to become rather clear to me...
You started by funding your wallet using tx 422c742829cc69aca4767536f659a7efbc5d88e5b58a3c52a425425240e2d17e (2.707 BTC) and also with a second transaction funding it with ~0.2 BTC.
Then you made a series of payments,... The change was always sent back to a change address.
You sent ~1.48 BTC to several addresses, minus the fees... So the change sent to your change address in the last transaction you created should have been around ~1.4 BTC .

SOOOO... long story short, i think the last transaction(s) you created didn't get included into a block... The person you were paying wasn't payed, but if you'd wait untill your wallet would synchronise, your balance should indeed be ~1.4 BTC, your wallet will probably rebroadcast the transactions that were dropped from the mempool to... Fixing about everything.

In your case, it might be a wise idear to install bitcoin core 0.9 or higher, copy your wallet.dat in the bitcoin data folder, dump your wallet, import all private keys into electrum and pay the person you were going to pay with those dropped transactions.
If you don't want to do this, you should export the private key belonging to the change address of the last transaction that was confirmed...

[jwlBTC]

so there is some hope?

i dont have space to synchronize my wallet so do i need to get an external harddrive or something?

sorry, i know nothing!

[mocacinno]

so there is some hope?

i dont have space to synchronize my wallet so do i need to get an external harddrive or something?

sorry, i know nothing!

Not really, i think you should copy your wallet.dat on a thumbdrive, install a more recent version of bitcoin core that supports dumpwallet on a second PC, copy the wallet.dat to the bitcoin datadir on this second pc, then (without waiting for the full synchronisation) dump the private keys, and import them into electrum.

there are (much) faster ways of achieving this, but by using a secondary pc and a copy of your wallet.dat, you minimise the odds of an error.

To be honest, i didn't have the energy to crawl trough all those transactions and find out which inputs were used and which outputs were generated, nor did i have the energy to crossreference everything with the addresses you posted, so there's a chance i'm completely wrong... But the numbers do add up to support my hypothesis

[jwlBTC]

sorry, i missed the last part of your last reply

i will try and do that on another computer with more space

thanks so much, i will let you know if works!

[mocacinno]

sorry, i missed the last part of your last reply

i will try and do that on another computer with more space

thanks so much, i will let you know if works!

The idear of using a second computer is just to minimize the odds of a messup... The second computer doesn't have to have more space, you don't need to wait untill core is fully synce'd to dump the wallet, or a more recent version of bitcoin core can also be run in pruned mode so you'd only need about ~10Gb of diskspace.

Just make sure you use a COPY of your wallet.dat, and make sure you keep an original copy of the wallet.dat in a safe place. Things might go wrong, but as long as you have an untouched copy of your wallet.dat, all problems should be fixable.

EDIT:
rather important sidenode: AFTER you've moved your funds to a clean wallet, hold on to those private keys, they can be used to import into a bitcoin cash wallet, a bitcoin gold wallet, dig for clams,... An address funded with +1BTC before the blockheigts on which these altcoins forked is holding hundreds of USD (in fiat value) worth of altcoins on alternative blockchains!

[LoyceV]

TRUE   2018-01-13T12:09:06   Sent to   1LccZXvhsMPHbKYMk2kGXxLYdo4piJNWGM   -0.0105   75312e248dba6e72b25d35e2df618aca5cbc43b72680922cd6c7264ac9cb4bdf-000
~
as you can see from the transaction history nothing much has come or gone since 2013

This address had transactions 2 days ago (in and out!). How did that happen if your wallet isn't synchronized? Did you import this address' private key into Electrum already?

[jwlBTC]

sorry, i missed the last part of your last reply

i will try and do that on another computer with more space

thanks so much, i will let you know if works!

The idear of using a second computer is just to minimize the odds of a messup... The second computer doesn't have to have more space, you don't need to wait untill core is fully synce'd to dump the wallet, or a more recent version of bitcoin core can also be run in pruned mode so you'd only need about ~10Gb of diskspace.

Just make sure you use a COPY of your wallet.dat, and make sure you keep an original copy of the wallet.dat in a safe place. Things might go wrong, but as long as you have an untouched copy of your wallet.dat, all problems should be fixable.

EDIT:
rather important sidenode: AFTER you've moved your funds to a clean wallet, hold on to those private keys, they can be used to import into a bitcoin cash wallet, a bitcoin gold wallet, dig for clams,... An address funded with +1BTC before the blockheigts on which these altcoins forked is holding hundreds of USD (in fiat value) worth of altcoins on alternative blockchains!

thanks, i will make sure to do that

i bet i will struggle with it all though! thanks again

[jwlBTC]

TRUE   2018-01-13T12:09:06   Sent to   1LccZXvhsMPHbKYMk2kGXxLYdo4piJNWGM   -0.0105   75312e248dba6e72b25d35e2df618aca5cbc43b72680922cd6c7264ac9cb4bdf-000
~
as you can see from the transaction history nothing much has come or gone since 2013

This address had transactions 2 days ago (in and out!). How did that happen if your wallet isn't synchronized? Did you import this address' private key into Electrum already?

i dont know how that has happened, i sent them as tests over a week ago and they dropped into my coinbase account 2 days ago, i did not import the private keys

i am completely baffled!

[jwlBTC]

back for some more questions i am afraid

i have located the file on my PC

C:\Users\james\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin

i have installed bitcoin core and it is running on my mac but no bitcoin folder has been created here:

~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin

I have tried the same thing on another PC in the house and the same issue exists - no bitcoin folder in which to find and swap the wallet.dat file

i dont have to wait for it to sync for it to create this folder do i?

cheers

[mocacinno]

back for some more questions i am afraid

i have located the file on my PC

C:\Users\james\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin

i have installed bitcoin core and it is running on my mac but no bitcoin folder has been created here:

~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin

I have tried the same thing on another PC in the house and the same issue exists - no bitcoin folder in which to find and swap the wallet.dat file

i dont have to wait for it to sync for it to create this folder do i?

cheers

The data directory seems to be correct

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Data_directory

You can always manually create it if it doesn't exist, or you can start bitcoin-qt with the command line paramater -datadir=<a completely different datadir containing your wallet.dat>

[ranochigo]

back for some more questions i am afraid

i have located the file on my PC

C:\Users\james\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin

i have installed bitcoin core and it is running on my mac but no bitcoin folder has been created here:

~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin

I have tried the same thing on another PC in the house and the same issue exists - no bitcoin folder in which to find and swap the wallet.dat file

i dont have to wait for it to sync for it to create this folder do i?

cheers

You do have to run the wallet for the data directory to be created, if you haven't ran it before.

I would really recommend you to just prune the Blockchain on your PC instead of moving it around, a lot less hassle. Can you create a file (not text file) and name it bitcoin.conf. Put the following inside of it:

Code:

 prune=550

The next time you start Bitcoin Core, the blocks will be pruned and the total size of the block files will not exceed 550mb.

[jwlBTC]

back for some more questions i am afraid

i have located the file on my PC

C:\Users\james\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin

i have installed bitcoin core and it is running on my mac but no bitcoin folder has been created here:

~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin

I have tried the same thing on another PC in the house and the same issue exists - no bitcoin folder in which to find and swap the wallet.dat file

i dont have to wait for it to sync for it to create this folder do i?

cheers

The data directory seems to be correct

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Data_directory

You can always manually create it if it doesn't exist, or you can start bitcoin-qt with the command line paramater -datadir=<a completely different datadir containing your wallet.dat>

sorry, what i am saying is that no Bitcoin directory has been created at all on my MAC

it should be here - ~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin but there is no /bitcoin folder

[mocacinno]

back for some more questions i am afraid

i have located the file on my PC

C:\Users\james\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin

i have installed bitcoin core and it is running on my mac but no bitcoin folder has been created here:

~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin

I have tried the same thing on another PC in the house and the same issue exists - no bitcoin folder in which to find and swap the wallet.dat file

i dont have to wait for it to sync for it to create this folder do i?

cheers

The data directory seems to be correct

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Data_directory

You can always manually create it if it doesn't exist, or you can start bitcoin-qt with the command line paramater -datadir=<a completely different datadir containing your wallet.dat>

sorry, what i am saying is that no Bitcoin directory has been created at all on my MAC

it should be here - ~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin but there is no /bitcoin folder

Like i said: you can always manually create one and put the copy of your wallet.dat in it, or you can put the wallet.dat in any other folder on your machine, and use the -datadir startup parameter.

[jwlBTC]

back for some more questions i am afraid

i have located the file on my PC

C:\Users\james\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin

i have installed bitcoin core and it is running on my mac but no bitcoin folder has been created here:

~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin

I have tried the same thing on another PC in the house and the same issue exists - no bitcoin folder in which to find and swap the wallet.dat file

i dont have to wait for it to sync for it to create this folder do i?

cheers

The data directory seems to be correct

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Data_directory

You can always manually create it if it doesn't exist, or you can start bitcoin-qt with the command line paramater -datadir=<a completely different datadir containing your wallet.dat>

sorry, what i am saying is that no Bitcoin directory has been created at all on my MAC

it should be here - ~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin but there is no /bitcoin folder

Like i said: you can always manually create one and put the copy of your wallet.dat in it, or you can put the wallet.dat in any other folder on your machine, and use the -datadir startup parameter.

sorry, i see what you have said now, its all way above my level of understanding so i am struggling to understand much!

i will have a look at that

[jwlBTC]

OMG i think i have done it!!

thanks mocacinno this worked:

If you don't want to do this, you should export the private key belonging to the change address of the last transaction that was confirmed...

I looked at the transaction, found the 'change address', dumped the private key for that and then went to electrum and did a sweep and its now showing as an unconfirmed transaction

the other address i swept earlier how now confirmed so hopefully this one will do the same

can i buy you a beer seeing as its friday night?

[mocacinno]

OMG i think i have done it!!

thanks mocacinno this worked:

If you don't want to do this, you should export the private key belonging to the change address of the last transaction that was confirmed...

I looked at the transaction, found the 'change address', dumped the private key for that and then went to electrum and did a sweep and its now showing as an unconfirmed transaction

the other address i swept earlier how now confirmed so hopefully this one will do the same

can i buy you a beer seeing as its friday night?

I'm glad it worked, a tip isn't really necessary. That being said: i'm certainly happy when i receive a small tip.
My tipping address is in my profile, it's the same address for bitcoin and bitcoin cash (since you found the private key for your bitcoin address, and you swept the unspent outputs, you can safely import the private key in the electrum wallet for bitcoin cash and spend those BCH to ... Well, wait untill the sweeping transaction is confirmed just to be sure.

[jwlBTC]

OMG i think i have done it!!

thanks mocacinno this worked:

If you don't want to do this, you should export the private key belonging to the change address of the last transaction that was confirmed...

I looked at the transaction, found the 'change address', dumped the private key for that and then went to electrum and did a sweep and its now showing as an unconfirmed transaction

the other address i swept earlier how now confirmed so hopefully this one will do the same

can i buy you a beer seeing as its friday night?

I'm glad it worked, a tip isn't really necessary. That being said: i'm certainly happy when i receive a small tip.
My tipping address is in my profile, it's the same address for bitcoin and bitcoin cash (since you found the private key for your bitcoin address, and you swept the unspent outputs, you can safely import the private key in the electrum wallet for bitcoin cash and spend those BCH to ... Well, wait untill the sweeping transaction is confirmed just to be sure.

cool, i will send a little bitcoin cash to the address in your profile then

is it safe to install the electrum cash wallet on the same machine? i have read you should empty your electrum wallet and do it on another machine. maybe thats over cautious?