Lost Bitcoin

[GoogleBit]

Sorry for stupid question. How do I do that ?

I don't know what a public and/or private key is.... (as many others)

Which wallet do you mean? MXC1, MXC2 or Master. Or the MXC2 with the err extension?


I installed Electrum. At startup it is asking me:

- Create new wallet
- Restore an existing wallet from its seed
- Create a watching-only version of an existing wallet

...what should I choose ?

[Newar]

Sorry for stupid question. How do I do that ?

I don't know what a public and/or private key is.... (as many others)

Which wallet do you mean? MXC1, MXC2 or Master. Or the MXC2 with the err extension?

Make a backup of each of those wallet.dats, now.

You can try them one by one by putting them in the bitcoin app data folder. Once Bitcoin Core starts it will work with whatever wallet.dat is present in that folder. Give it time to start and also to stop. Check in the task manager if you are unsure if it is still running.


Do you know which address holds the coins that you want to recover?

Step-by-step instructions for working on a single address here:
http://computriks.com/en/bitcoin-export-private-key

For working on a whole wallet.dat look into pywallet http://www.devtome.com/doku.php?id=pywallet

It is somewhat more complex though.

I installed Electrum. At startup it is asking me:

- Create new wallet
- Restore an existing wallet from its seed
- Create a watching-only version of an existing wallet

...what should I choose ?

I doesn't need to be Electrum. Once you have your keys and a properly working Bitcoin Core again, you can import private keys there.

http://computriks.com/en/bitcoin-import-private-key



As a side note: Having different wallets running on the same machine within VMs does not add any safety, IMHO.

[GoogleBit]

Newar....?

I don't know the address who holds my coins. I never messed around with addresses, ....till today. Now I have to :-(
The last successful transfer I did was from MXC2 to Master. The coins showed up at the Master, but then while still waiting for confirmations, the PC with the VM's crashed.
MXC1 was not running then.

1. transfer from MXC1 to MXC2 = BTC's arrived
2. shutdown VM MXC1
3. transfer from MXC2 to new Master = system crash after a few minutes.
4. after restarting all 3 VM's and wallets:


MXC1: "verifying blocks" since about 10 minutes
MXC2: "verifying blocks" since about 10 minutes
new Master: 0 BTC, I see one "payment request" I created for MXC2 to transfer the coins.

Do I have to dl the blockchain first before searching for the privat key?
Which wallet would you try first?
Do I look  for one or more addresses...?

I'm reading the wiki about the whole thing while waiting for your response ;-)


reply to your single note: I hardly ever start the Master VM, and never use it for tranfers to external wallets. Does this make sense, or not...?

[GoogleBit]

All wallets are synced now:

MXC1: I see all transactions i did.

MXC2: I see all transactions i did, including my last (missing) one from MXC2 to Master.

Master: no transactions.

If I use "dumpprivkey (Bitcoin address)" I get a response, but just for the "received with" transactions. Unfortunately my transfer from MXC2 to Master is a "sent to" transaction.

What do I have to look for ?

Please help...

[Newar]

Let's do one thing at a time. Before we start, have you backed up all your wallet.dats?


I thought you had the blockchain already? You said you were using Bitcoin Qt (Core)? To see your transactions the blockchain needs to up to the date of when you did your last transactions at least.

I would try the "Master" wallet.dat first. See what you get out of it.

new Master: 0 BTC, I see one "payment request" I created for MXC2 to transfer the coins.

If you can see this, it should also show you the addresses involved and a transaction ID. Is this the case?


Regarding the VMs: I don't think it matters how often you start them. The data is sitting "there" on your hard drive all the time. You don't say if and which parts of your system are encrypted.

[Newar]

All wallets are synced now:

MXC1: I see all transactions i did.

MXC2: I see all transactions i did, including my last (missing) one from MXC2 to Master.

Master: no transactions.

If I use "dumpprivkey (Bitcoin address)" I get a response, but just for the "received with" transactions. Unfortunately my transfer from MXC2 to Master is a "sent to" transaction.

What do I have to look for ?

Please help...

Ah, okay.  

How about that last transaction? In MXC2 right click on the ("last, missing") tx and "Show transaction details"

new Master: 0 BTC, I see one "payment request" I created for MXC2 to transfer the coins.

If you can see this, it should also show you the addresses involved and a transaction ID. Is this the case?

[GoogleBit]

YES it is the case.

I get an address out of the wallet on Master. Is this the privat address of that wallet ?

I really appreciate your help...

[Newar]

YES it is the case.

I get an address out of the wallet on Master. Is this the privat address of that wallet ?

I really appreciate your help...

No worries.


It starts with a "1"? That is your address, not the private key.

Before you go further check that the tx actually went through. So copy the receiving ("Master") address from your "last, missing" MXC2 tx and paste it into any of these sites:

http://blockr.io/
http://live.insight.is/
https://blockexplorer.com/

[GoogleBit]

new Master: 0 BTC, I see one "payment request" I created for MXC2 to transfer the coins.

If you can see this, it should also show you the addresses involved and a transaction ID. Is this the case?

[/quote]




Yes, got that. Got a privkey from last received transaction on Master.


.....keep going, please....

[GoogleBit]

Before you go further check that the tx actually went through. So copy the receiving ("Master") address from your "last, missing" MXC2 tx and paste it into any of these sites:

http://blockr.io/
http://live.insight.is/
https://blockexplorer.com/
[/quote]


Yep, at block.io I get 147 confirmations.
I see the same address in my Master wallet  in the "payment request".......Ahaaaaa....

[Newar]

Ok, let me clarify:

Your receiving address for the "last, missing" transaction to "Master" shows 147 confirmations on blockr?
You see that address in "Master"?
Is your "Master" Bitcoin (QT) Core blockchain fully synced?

Then you should see your coins in "Master".

You then should also be able to export your private key for that address, if you still wish to do that.

[GoogleBit]

Yes. (...to "Master" shows 147 confirmations)
Yes. (...that address in "Master"?
No, sorry, Master is not fully synced yet.

Do I have to wait for that...?

[Newar]

Yes. (...to "Master" shows 147 confirmations)
Yes. (...that address in "Master"?
No, sorry, Master is not fully synced yet.

Ok, wait 

Or if you are in a hurry, you could now get the private key to that address as described earlier and import it in another wallet software of your choice. If you use a lightweight one like Electrum that was suggested earlier the coins should be available to you to spend quicker, depending on how far your "Master" Bitcoin (QT) Core is synced of course.

[GoogleBit]

Master is still 70 weeks behind.

If I delete the wallet.dat in the old MXC1, where the blockchain is already synced, can I do that importing into that new generated wallet ?

Not that I'm in a rush, but this way I use what I have learned now...


...and I could transfer your 0.5 BTC sooner :-)

[Newar]

Master is still 70 weeks behind.

If I delete the wallet.dat in the old MXC1, where the blockchain is already synced, can I do that importing into that wallet ?

Not that I'm in a rush, but this way I use what I have learned now...


...and I could transfer your 0.5 BTC sooner :-)

Unless you are very much concerned about anonymity, I wouldn't recommend deleting wallet.dats. Better back them up or rename to i.e. wallet_old_MXC1.dat etc.

Yes, Bitcoin Core will use whatever wallet.dat it finds in its app directory. So if you copy "Master" wallet.dat in the MXC1 machine it will use that. If you already have Bitcoin Core running, remember to wait until it has shut down completely before start renaming, copying and re-starting with another wallet.dat

[GoogleBit]

...bloody hell, they show up in MXC1 !!!!!

Can I transfer them now to Master, which is still synchronizing, and see them in the next minutes ?


What was my mistake ? Was it because I moved wallet. dat to a wallet which is not fully synchronized ?

Is that BTC address in your profile correct ?
Should I first do a small test ?

[Newar]

You will see them in Master once it has the blockchain up to that block where the transaction was confirmed.


If I remember it all correctly... Your "mistake" was to "play with a mining application" and running multiple VMs stressing your PC whilst you had Bitcoin QT Core running (which can be a resource intensive application by itself). The result was that the VM crashed and corrupted your wallet.dat. So we started thinking the problem was with that file corruption. But as it turns out, yes, it was a synchronisation issue, thankfully that corruption had no effect on your coins. Remember that you are responsible for your bitcoins and they are valuable to us bitcoiners. Don't do too many things at the same time that could corrupt your wallet.dat and make regular backups.

Another thing to remember is that your coins are not actually on your PC, for example as files or anything like that. Rather the private keys that control them are on your PC. Some more in-depth info is here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transaction

[GoogleBit]

Yes, I stuffed it up in the first place.

The 3 BTC's are moving now from MXC1 to MXC2. After that get's confirmed your job is done.


And you did it like a pro. I really appreciate your help. You where very nice to an idiot who has himselve to blame.

You are a good guy :-)

Now I know what that "HERO MEMBER" means :-)



But again, is it ok if I transfer you 0.5 BTC to the address in your profile ? (Last chance ;-)

cheers, MAX

[Newar]

No worries. I'm glad it worked all out and you got control over your coins again.

I'm just another bitcoin user. The "Hero" etc. are simply numbers counting up. Not necessarily an indicator of who to trust or amount of knowledge somebody has, as you will undoubtedly find out if you stick around here. 

Thanks again for your offer for a tip. You can send to the address in the profile or to the one I mentioned in the PM.

[kellzy]

Great job Newar!
I initially  thought the guy got hacked. You are alot more patient then I am hehe.
Good to see a happy ending for everyone.