Accessing old Bitcoin-qt client on a Mac

[bowser11]

Please forgive me in advance if this has been covered in other threads. I've found many threads online with similar circumstances, but not exactly the same ones and could really use some help from the community on how best to proceed.

I got into BTC in April of 2013. I have Bitcoin-Qt installed on an old Mac that still works, as well as the wallet file backed up externally. I opened Bitcoin-Qt today on my old Mac and it shows the following:

Wallet (out of sync)
URGENT: Alert key compromised, upgrade required

The Bitcoin-Qt version is v0.8.1-beta

I'm not sure when the last time Bitcoin-qt synced. Bitcoin-qt is currently "Reindexing blocks on disks" and looks to be somewhere between 50 to 60% completed. Can I just let it finish reindexing and then I will have access to my BTC again?

My end goal is to access my wallet and transfer what is in there to Coinbase or some other exchange where the coins can be liquidated. I've read online multiple times that I need to "upgrade" to Bitcoin Core and that my version (0.8 and higher) can be upgraded? Does letting the blocks reindex do the trick or do I need to do something else?

Lastly, I'm not 100% sure that I remember my passphrase, but think I do. I'm inclined to let Bitcoin-Qt reindex itself vs. installing Bitcoin Core and taking my chances with having to know my passphrase. I'd love to get feedback from the community on what is recommended here.

And on a separate note -

The last transaction posted in my Bitcoin-Qt (probably before the wallet went out of sync) is a transaction for roughly 0.25 BTC in mid 2014 that has a "?" next to it. I'm assuming this means an unconfirmed transaction since the other ones have green checks next to them. This transaction definitely wasn't made by me. Any ideas?

Thanks for your help -- I really do appreciate it.

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[jackg]

I don't THINK it needs to be updated specifically other than a security measure. It is backwards compaitiblity with the major changes on the network (like with segwit and native segwit).

The security key is a key that was used to post data publicly but too many developers had a copy of it apparently so it was withdrawn, I doubt it can damage your core, just doin't look at whatever that box says (just in case).

I'd suggest just using a piece of wallet software like electrum to get the data instead, downloadable here: electrum.org/#download as it doesn't have to download the entire blockchain, though if it's fairly fast, you may as well keep going with what you are doing.

Yes, it is supposed to reindex also, that's normal. If it randomely stops and starts reindexing from the start again, post again here or if there are any other problems.

[Thirdspace]

I suggest to just extract the private keys and import them to another wallet
that would save your time and bandwidth syncing blocks since 2013 up to now
do dumpprivkey <bitcoinaddress> on all addresses that has utxo/balance
and import them to Electrum as jackg suggested in the previous post

[bowser11]

Thanks to both of you. I just wanted to make sure I am doing everything correctly. I'm not entirely sure how to get my bitcoin address? I read online that the 2 address under "Receive Coins" in Bitcoin-Qt are my bitcoin addresses. Can someone please confirm?

I've dumped my private keys for both addresses and have them ready for copy/paste.

I've also installed Electrum and during the set up process am selecting "Import Bitcoin addresses or private keys" ... add in the private keys, is that it? Just so I understand because I am a bit of a rookie here -- this will become my new "wallet" and from here will be able to send BTC to Coinbase?

Last question -- since I am importing my private addresses to Electrum, do I have to do anything specific for BCH? My Bitcoins are from before the fork obviously, so I believe I have BCH to realize as well.

Thanks again all!

[ranochigo]

I'm not entirely sure how to get my bitcoin address? I read online that the 2 address under "Receive Coins" in Bitcoin-Qt are my bitcoin addresses. Can someone please confirm?

Yes.

I've also installed Electrum and during the set up process am selecting "Import Bitcoin addresses or private keys" ... add in the private keys, is that it? Just so I understand because I am a bit of a rookie here -- this will become my new "wallet" and from here will be able to send BTC to Coinbase?

Yup. The wallet will then prompt you to add a password (or not). Your wallet will then be able to spend the Bitcoins in the address that you've imported. Do not delete your wallet.dat and remember that you have to save your private keys in order to restore it in the future. There are no seeds for imported keys. If you lose your private key, you can't restore it in the future.

Last question -- since I am importing my private addresses to Electrum, do I have to do anything specific for BCH? My Bitcoins are from before the fork obviously, so I believe I have BCH to realize as well.

No. Electrum only uses the Bitcoin blockchain. Electrum cannot see any BCH since it does not recognise the BCH blockchain. You can install a Bitcoin Cash client and transfer out your Bitcoin Cash to a Bitcoin Cash (NOT BITCOIN) address. If you don't want to spend it, you don't have to do anything.

[bowser11]

Thanks rachingo. I've added both Bitcoin addresses to Electrum but it's showing a 0 mBTC balance. I had a BTC balance in my Bitcoin-Qt and know there were Bitcoins there.

Both of the "Receive Coins" addresses were for exchanges that I used in 2013.

Is it possible that I have another Bitcoin address besides these two that I need to dump the private keys for and then import into Electrum?

Sorry for so many questions, but doesn't seem to have work out as planned yet.

[HCP]

Is it possible that I have another Bitcoin address besides these two that I need to dump the private keys for and then import into Electrum?

If you sent any transactions OUT of your Bitcoin-Qt wallet, then chances are that your coins are on a "change" address. By default, Bitcoin-Qt does NOT show the "change" addresses in your "Receive Coins" address list.

Your best bet is to open Bitcoin-Qt, goto "Help -> Debug Window -> Console"... and use the listunspent command.

It will show you the EXACT addresses that your unspent coins are in. If listunspent returns an empty list (or "null"), then it could be that your wallet thinks it has no coins (possibly due to it being un-synced).

If that is the case, you'll have to try using the dumpwallet command and then import ALL the private keys that it puts in the output file. That way you can be sure that you have imported ALL the receive AND change addresses from your wallet.dat

[bowser11]

Thanks. I looked at the ledger online, found some of the change addresses, and was able to transfer a portion of my BTC/BCH into Coinbase. I will try to do dumpwallet next.

HCP, even if my wallet has been out of sync for some time, will my existing wallet.dat file have all the possible change addresses?

[bowser11]

Also, does anyone know the exact command I should run ... I'm using Mac OSX.

dumpwallet <what else?>

Thanks again for everyone's help.

[ranochigo]

HCP, even if my wallet has been out of sync for some time, will my existing wallet.dat file have all the possible change addresses?

What do you mean by out of sync? Are you on the instance of Bitcoin Core which you've always used to send and receive transactions? If you're not using an external backup and you've never used your wallet elsewhere, your wallet should be in sync.

dumpwallet <what else?>

Thanks again for everyone's help.

I don't use OSX but on Windows and Linux, you're specifying a directory to the file.

So it should be something like:

Code:

dumpwallet /Users/ranochigo/Desktop/wallet.txt

Replacing the directory, of course.

[Thirdspace]

The Bitcoin-Qt version is v0.8.1-beta

So it should be something like:

Code:

dumpwallet /Users/ranochigo/Desktop/wallet.txt

he's on v0.8, dumpwallet doesn't exist on that version (cmiiw)

HCP, even if my wallet has been out of sync for some time, will my existing wallet.dat file have all the possible change addresses?

What do you mean by out of sync? Are you on the instance of Bitcoin Core which you've always used to send and receive transactions? If you're not using an external backup and you've never used your wallet elsewhere, your wallet should be in sync.

he hasn't synced his wallet since 2013 (or 2014?)

@bowser11 make sure you make copies of wallet.dat just to be safe
that version does not come with HD wallet yet, though your receive and change addresses was pre generated in that wallet
as long as you have your wallet.dat intact, those addresses should be in there and can be recovered

[bowser11]

Thanks for all your help. I was able to the majority of my BTC (~75%) using listaddressgroupings and doing dumprivkey on all of the addresses. I'm still missing ~25% though. I've definitely backed up wallet.dat multiple times.

I'm wondering where the other 25% would be. I'll take another run through importing the private addresses in case I missed or overlooked something.

[bowser11]

Also, I have found the "change address" online for the missing BTC. It was sent from one of my bitcoin addresses in 2014 to two separate addresses. One of the two addresses is listed in my wallet and when I run dumpprivkey it returns back the private key. The other address however that was sent (at the same day / exact time) returns back nothing when I run dumpprivkey. Is this b/c my wallet is out of sync?

[jackg]

Also, I have found the "change address" online for the missing BTC. It was sent from one of my bitcoin addresses in 2014 to two separate addresses. One of the two addresses is listed in my wallet and when I run dumpprivkey it returns back the private key. The other address however that was sent (at the same day / exact time) returns back nothing when I run dumpprivkey. Is this b/c my wallet is out of sync?

No. Syncing your wallet probably won't do anything as it's non-HD [as it's too early to be].

If the address isn't in your wallet, and you can't remember where the coins went to, you probably can't get access to them. You could search your inbox for that address just in case it is on your emails somewhere and it can jog your memory to where that address went.

[bowser11]

Thanks jack. I definitely didn't send them (the transaction date is July of 2014, same as the other ones that went to my own bitcoin address) -- I stopped using bitcoin in 2013.

I looked up the address they were sent to in the transaction log online, and it seems bitcoins were sent from that address (plus 3 others) to 2 new addresses. I'm getting the feeling my other bitcoins are long gone. Weird.

I did get ~75% of them after almost 5 years.

[bob123]

Thanks jack. I definitely didn't send them (the transaction date is July of 2014, same as the other ones that went to my own bitcoin address) -- I stopped using bitcoin in 2013.

I looked up the address they were sent to in the transaction log online, and it seems bitcoins were sent from that address (plus 3 others) to 2 new addresses. I'm getting the feeling my other bitcoins are long gone. Weird.

I did get ~75% of them after almost 5 years.

This sounds weird.
May it possible that you have send them to another wallet (e.g. showing off how BTC works to anyone) ?
Can you remember using another wallet (a web wallet or mobile wallet) ?

The only possibilities (i can think of) are:

1) Either you have sent them yourself (e.g. to show how it works / sell) or
2) They have been stolen (which seems very unlikely because a thief would have stolen all of your coins and not only 1/4)

[HCP]

Also, I have found the "change address" online for the missing BTC. It was sent from one of my bitcoin addresses in 2014 to two separate addresses.

and it seems bitcoins were sent from that address (plus 3 others)

That sounds like a fairly "normal" transaction... you've used a four previous unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) as "Inputs"... They have been combined into a total amount and have then been split into two "Outputs"... One output, being the person/address you're sending coins to... and the other output being a "change address" that is created automatically within your wallet to receive the leftover "change".

One of the two addresses is listed in my wallet and when I run dumpprivkey it returns back the private key.

That would most likely be the "change address" in your wallet...

The other address however that was sent (at the same day / exact time) returns back nothing when I run dumpprivkey. Is this b/c my wallet is out of sync?

No. That sounds like an external address that you were sending coins to.


It's unlikely that both addresses would be in your wallet, unless you sent coins to yourself.

[jackg]

Thanks jack. I definitely didn't send them (the transaction date is July of 2014, same as the other ones that went to my own bitcoin address) -- I stopped using bitcoin in 2013.

I looked up the address they were sent to in the transaction log online, and it seems bitcoins were sent from that address (plus 3 others) to 2 new addresses. I'm getting the feeling my other bitcoins are long gone. Weird.

I did get ~75% of them after almost 5 years.

Can you post the addresses the coins were sent to or look them up in a block explorer so see if there has been any activity in them recently?
Follow where the majority of the coins go, if they go to an address that says it's held more than 100BTC previously, that means the coins have either gone to an experienced hacker (less likely) or to an exhcange (more likely). If they have gone to an exchange stright from that address, you can look up the exchange and might have a bit of luck contacting them (however, they are probably unlikely to comply and the coins have probably long left their servers).

[Thirdspace]

Thanks for all your help. I was able to the majority of my BTC (~75%) using listaddressgroupings and doing dumprivkey on all of the addresses. I'm still missing ~25% though. I've definitely backed up wallet.dat multiple times.

I'm wondering where the other 25% would be. I'll take another run through importing the private addresses in case I missed or overlooked something.

I'm just curious, how do you tell that you're still missing ~25%? that could've been your last payment that you've forgotten
and your wallet might be showing a wrong outdated balance because not fully synced yet

btw... since you have quite old outstanding balance, you may want to check extra coins on available fork chains
remember to move your bitcoin from old addresses for safety precautions before claiming those forks