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clonedone (OP)
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May 04, 2011, 04:27:53 AM
 #1
lets say i have 20 btc in my wallet.dat today. and i decide to back it up today and put it in a usb drive.
then three years from now, i have been racking up btc in my wallet.dat on my computer.
I now have 400 btc.
lets say i get a new computer and install the wallet.dat FROM the usb. the wallet.dat file is three years old.
will i have 20 btc in my wallet or 400?
and why?
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Every time a block is mined, a certain amount of BTC (called the subsidy) is created out of thin air and given to the miner. The subsidy halves every four years and will reach 0 in about 130 years.
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theymos
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May 04, 2011, 04:32:17 AM
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You'll probably have 0 if you've used your wallet much. Read:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Securing_your_wallet
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clonedone (OP)
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May 04, 2011, 05:15:06 AM
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this is hypothetical, saying i didnt get hacked.
would it restore my balance to 20 or 400?
Garrett Burgwardt
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May 04, 2011, 05:32:17 AM
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Depends on what addresses you used. What theymos is pointing out is that you'll likely have spent those initial 20 coins, and any new coins would most likely have gone to newly generated addresses. Thus all of your 400 btc would probably be in new addresses not stored in the old wallet, and thus when you restore it you wouldn't have any bitcoins.

theymos wasn't implying that you'd be hacked, but that that page is a good overview of how to backup your wallet.

So, probably 0, unless you have been using old addresses.
clonedone (OP)
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May 04, 2011, 05:35:50 AM
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Ahh I see, so if i used the same 100 addresses three years ago then I would have all my btc up to date right?
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May 04, 2011, 05:49:37 AM
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Quote from: clonedone on May 04, 2011, 05:35:50 AM
Ahh I see, so if i used the same 100 addresses three years ago then I would have all my btc up to date right?

Not if you sent many transactions.
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alkor
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May 04, 2011, 04:21:22 PM
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Quote from: clonedone on May 04, 2011, 04:27:53 AM
lets say i have 20 btc in my wallet.dat today. and i decide to back it up today and put it in a usb drive.
then three years from now, i have been racking up btc in my wallet.dat on my computer.
I now have 400 btc.
lets say i get a new computer and install the wallet.dat FROM the usb. the wallet.dat file is three years old.
will i have 20 btc in my wallet or 400?
and why?

The bitcoin client has the bad habbit of generating a new address every time you receive a payment. If you actually make sure you receive the payments to the same address all the time, and disable the generation of new addresses, then restoring your old wallet file should have the same 400 BTC. But you should make sure you store your bitcoins on the address that is in the original backed-up wallet.
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May 04, 2011, 04:58:56 PM
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Quote from: clonedone on May 04, 2011, 04:27:53 AM
will i have 20 btc in my wallet or 400?
and why?
it depends...

the wallet is contaning the private keys. each private key is a 'account number' so if you backup your wallet.dat, and only are recving money accounts in the wallet, your wallet grows bigger. but if your keep changing account numbers, the private key will not be in your backuped wallet.dat and your money will not be there.
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves and wiser people so full of doubts." -Bertrand Russell
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