Build Databases fault

[StanP]

Hello Community,

I'm new to the bitcoin and Armory world.

I downloaded Armory and Bitcoin Core succesfully.
But to go online I have to download some extra software.
I got some problems with that. I will show you an image.
http://i65.tinypic.com/2zjb5u8.png

First step is done, but "Build databases" won't finish and I'm waiting a pretty long time so far.

Does anyone know what I have to do to fix it?

Thank you very much already

[AdolfinWolf]

Have you fully synced your bitcoin core? I'm not an expert on this but i think you need to fully sync your bitcoin core wallet first before it can build those DB'ses.
It seems that this problem also occurs on 32 bit machines, and other instances; https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1732347.msg17528990#msg17528990

[CryptoReggae]

Hello Community,

I'm new to the bitcoin and Armory world.

I downloaded Armory and Bitcoin Core succesfully.
But to go online I have to download some extra software.
I got some problems with that. I will show you an image.


First step is done, but "Build databases" won't finish and I'm waiting a pretty long time so far.

Does anyone know what I have to do to fix it?

Thank you very much already

you need to synchronize the blockchain on bitcoin core. on average it takes a few days to have it 100% synchronized

[StanP]

You are right, I must have missed that. Thank you!
Estimated waiting time is arround 20 hours.

I want to buy some bitcoins from 2 days ago, but I have to wait atleast another 20 hours.
I really want to buy some coins now because the price is increasing pretty fast and I'm expecting it to be worth more then 10.000 in about 24h.
Couple days ago I had a wallet as well. I bougt bitcoins for 80 euro's, just to test if it works.
But I wasn't able to go online, so I couldn't check if I did receive them. So I did uninstall Armory and installed everything again.
Just as I said, I'm new to Bitcoin & Armory. Is it possible to buy some coins yet, or should I wait untill I finished my wallet completely and restored my old Wallet (if I'm able to)?

[khaled0111]

...

You don't have to wait for Armory to complete downloading the hole blockchain to be able to buy Bitcoins. you can do it right now.

All you need is an address which you are the only one who knows its private key. Just use any SPV wallet to generate your key pair (public/private key).

Keep your bitcoins there untill Armory finishes downloading then import your private key into it or send the coins to the address generated by Armory.

[bob123]

You can receive coins without being synced.

You need it to be fully synced to send your coins, but not to receive them.

To check whether you received them, you can head over to a block explorer (e.g. https://live.blockcypher.com/), enter the address, and check whether you received a transaction and check the amount of confirmations.

However, you will only be able to see it in your wallet if the syncing process has already processed the block where your TX got included into.

[TryNinja]

Since you said you're new to Bitcoin, there is something you should know:

If you don't necessarily want to run a Bitcoin node (which needs to download the whole blockchain and keep it update in a daily-basis - thus wasting a lot of bandwidth and space), you can run a SPV wallet, which is an wallet software that lets you store and spend your Bitcoins imediatelly without the whole blockchain - by relying to node servers hosted by other people. The most famous one is Electrum (electrum.org).

[HCP]

I downloaded Armory and Bitcoin Core succesfully.
But to go online I have to download some extra software.
I got some problems with that. I will show you an image.

What "extra software" did you download?

You should ONLY need to download and install Bitcoin Core... and Armory. What version of Armory did you download? and where did you download it from? You should have Armory version 0.96.5 and you should have downloaded it from btcarmory.com.

[StanP]

Since you said you're new to Bitcoin, there is something you should know:

If you don't necessarily want to run a Bitcoin node (which needs to download the whole blockchain and keep it update in a daily-basis - thus wasting a lot of bandwidth and space), you can run a SPV wallet, which is an wallet software that lets you store and spend your Bitcoins imediatelly without the whole blockchain - by relying to node servers hosted by other people. The most famous one is Electrum (electrum.org).

Alright, is Electrum just as safe as Armory is, or is it safe enough against hackers etc?

I downloaded Armory and Bitcoin Core succesfully.
But to go online I have to download some extra software.
I got some problems with that. I will show you an image.

What "extra software" did you download?

You should ONLY need to download and install Bitcoin Core... and Armory. What version of Armory did you download? and where did you download it from? You should have Armory version 0.96.5 and you should have downloaded it from btcarmory.com.

I downloaded 0.95.1.
Alright, I succeeded to go online with Armory. So I should be able to receive and send coins now I guess. But my balance is still 0.00 unless I bought some a couple days ago.
According to blockcypher they should be sended.

[PhoenixFire]

Alright, is Electrum just as safe as Armory is, or is it safe enough against hackers etc?

Depends on the setup and your own security habits, but Electrum is good enough for a lot of people. The main difference is Armory verifies against your copy of the blockchain, SPV wallets like Electrum rely on other servers to do this.

I downloaded 0.95.1.
Alright, I succeeded to go online with Armory. So I should be able to receive and send coins now I guess. But my balance is still 0.00 unless I bought some a couple days ago.
According to blockcypher they should be sended.

As HCP said, you really need to be using 0.96.5 or you're going to have a rough time. Get it from here: https://btcarmory.com/0.96.5-release/

[bob123]

Security-wise both are identical.

They both require your computer to be clean.
If your computer is compromised (e.g. via download malware / open malicious email attachment), both (armory and electrum) are equally prone to your coins getting stolen.

Most dekstop wallets have the same level of security (except for some shit wallets like jaxx or other closed source wallets).
They all extremely depend on the security of your PC.


If you keep your PC clean (which is not as easy as it sounds) and you use your common sense, a desktop wallet is perfectly fine as long as you don't store amounts inside of it which you definitely can not allow to lose.

[StanP]

Alright I downloaded 096.5, but my balance is still 0.00.
I'm connected (427031 blocks) I don't really know why I can't see my balance.

[bob123]

You are not fully synced yet.

Currently there are 581885 blocks.

Block 427031 was mined 2016-08-27. So you don't see any transactions which happened past this date.
You need core to finish syncing (at least past the block where your transaction was included) for it to be reflected in your wallet.

[StanP]

Ugh... I can't go any further with synchronizing. No space left at my PC. I have only 5GB left now and it says it's another 250GB.
So that means I lost my bitcoins on that wallet?

[bob123]

No, as long as you have your private key of the address which received the funds (e.g. backup of armory / wallet file) you did NOT lose your coins.

You have multiple options now:
1) Enable pruning in core. You can set a maximum amount of storage core should be allowed to use (550 MB default value).
Blocks are going to be downloaded, processed and deleted afterwards. Only the last X blocks (prune size) will be stored.

2) You can decide to use a lightweight client which does not need the whole blockchain to be downloaded / processed (e.g. electrum).
The preferred way to move funds to such a wallet would be to first create a new wallet, then create a 'second (temporary) wallet' by importing the private key which received the funds and then create a transaction sending your funds to an address from your new wallet.

[StanP]

Alright, thank you very much!
I'm not so smart with computers as you see so I will go for option 2. Because I dont know how I only synchronise the last year of blocks. So far I can see I need to download the entire blockchain (that's 250 GB).
I'll check it later today or tomorrow. I'll inform you if it succeeded.

[bob123]

You need to download and process the whole blockchain, always.

With pruning you just simply automatically delete the old blocks.

You can set it in the 'Options' menu of core. prune=550 would be standard and means that core should keep 550 MB of blocks.


But using a SPV client is probably the preferred way since you also don't need to keep the blockchain synchronized to send funds.
Make sure to download electrum from the ONLY official source: https://electrum.org/#home and verify the signature of the file. You can find a short tutorial here: https://bitzuma.com/posts/how-to-verify-an-electrum-download-on-windows/.

Verifying the signature is the only way to be absolutely sure that the software you are running is indeed from the developer of electrum (ThomasV).

[PhoenixFire]

StanP, does the address you sent the coins to start with 1? Or does it start with 3?

[StanP]

It starts with 1
I guess I imported my wallet into Electrum, but still no balance
When I imported my Armory wallet, I created a new one in Electrum and wrote down my Root Key.
NB. Okay I realise now that wasn't smart at all...

I tried to open a new wallet in Electrum and selected the wallet document from Armory, but it's unable to read it.

I don't get anything of this. Sorry guys

[PhoenixFire]

It starts with 1

Good.

I guess I imported my wallet into Electrum, but still no balance
When I imported my Armory wallet, I created a new one in Electrum and wrote down my Root Key.
NB. Okay I realise now that wasn't smart at all...

I tried to open a new wallet in Electrum and selected the wallet document from Armory, but it's unable to read it.

I don't get anything of this. Sorry guys

Don't worry, your coins are still safe

The goal is to get the private key for your address from Armory and import it into your Electrum wallet.
If you don't know already, never share this private key with anyone. Don't paste it anywhere, don't upload it to the cloud.

Before you do that, can you confirm that you created a new wallet with Electrum and created a paper backup of the seed words it gave you? This will be 12 dictionary words. The order matters and again don't share it. You mentioned Root Key, but that is the term Armory uses and isn't the exact same thing as a "seed" in Electrum - just checking where you are in the process.