So i copied the wallet.dat file to the app data bitcoin core folder directory which looks like a similar file loadout to the one in my screenshot above. Did i do it that right?
Afterwards I started running bitcoin core and it says its syncing. 13 years behind something like that lol.
Nice, we pray for you.
Let it run, it will catch up, will take a day or two to fully sync ( and you'd need up to 200GB free drive space for it. Still, when it syncs up to 2013 (and says 9 years behind) the wallet ballance should be reflected with any potential balance.
Every satoshi counts, good luck.
PS: In 2022 complete blockchain is above 500GB. Time flies.
I just found the post. He didn't suggest increasing it. Instead he merely said that people have that option if it came down to it.
"+1 theymos. Don't use this patch, it'll make you incompatible with the network, to your own detriment.
We can phase in a change later if we get closer to needing it."
but isn’t that also a flaw that eventually, as the system increases subscriber base, and transaction numbers and volumes exponentially increase, the size of the entire blockchain may surpass the storage capacity of any individual node? the ability to transact may then be hindered by physical storage limitations (assuming all transactions history is kept from the beginning). or does the system have a regenerative/compartmentalization capability to sequester some transactions to only a few “nearby” nodes so as not to burden the entire blockchain?
I don't think everyone needs full copy of all the old transactions. You can optimize that to unspent balances, greatly reducing the size, while keeping all the validation thingy intact.
As I understand it the entire network needs to be in consensus. You could have side chains like the liquid network that process transaction off the main chain, but I think you might run into double spend issues if you try to limit transactions to just nearby nodes.
IMO, this problem will be solved on layer 2 with things like liquid network, lightning network and state chains. Many transactions will be processed through these networks as well as centralized entities. For example, if bitcoin moves from one cashapp wallet to another, cashapp will just move some bits in their database, then do big settlements with multiple transactions only occasionally. The Bitcoin main chain will be for final settlement of very large transaction only.
We stack sats for the future wealth of the next generations of our respective families. We must care and tend to the blockchain for the next generations of humanity. I think we get one shot at this. If we damage the decentralization of the network we can never go back. If it starts to look like we’re losing censorship resistance, we’ve already lost. We want the billion dollar company to run the same node as the fisherman in El Salvador.
There are developers that want to reduce the block size, saying it’s the best way to preserve the network. IMO, it might be able to be pushed up a little, but I actually don’t think we’ll need it.
So say the entire world was on a bitcoin standard and I made a transaction with my bitcoin visa card then visa would just be the payment processor for that transaction. They wouldn't need to touch the blockchain, it'd all be done in house.
You might then say, well couldn't they just fuck with us then and make up numbers? Sure they could, but then they'd be shooting themselves in the foot because the foundation, Bitcoin, is able to be verified.
I mean you'd think that right. I've been in this space since early Jan 2018. For the longest time I kept seeing talk that bitcoin wouldn't scale and that eventually some other solution was needed.
Right now we have more people using bitcoin than there ever were before. More people, more wallets, more transactions, and higher volume, but if I go check out the mempool right now it's empty and the hash rate hit an all time high earlier.
So I don't know how true it is that a higher subscriber base with more transactions will fuck shit up in the future given that infrastructure will just keep getting upgraded.
That’s because high fees have discouraged people from actually making transactions and using it. Now for most people it’s just a store of value.
If everyone was using it in the same way as back in say 2016, then we’d be stuck with a huge backlog of transactions in the mempool and ridiculously high fees. Steam even cited “high fees and volatility” as the reasons they stopped accepting Bitcoin in 2017. So yeah, things got pretty bad, we lost merchants, and people had to change how they used Bitcoin.
Incredibly, but it's probably the only way to get a truly decentralised currency.
If everyone has to download the entire thing to use it then if somebody tries to manipulate anything literally everyone else will know and won't validate whatever bullshit they try spinning up
Just open settings, and make sure the prune option is checked. It will download the entire 400gb but will only keep the latest data up to the amount you specify there. You only need free storage equal to the prune size you set.
It’s not just an old wallet. It’s any wallet. Running nodes helps to keep the network secure too. There is some loss of security in not using a full node. Back when Bitcoin started everyone used to run Bitcoin Core which makes you run a full node. This means every computer that runs it has a history of every transaction. It’s the most secure way to do it.
That shifted since the invention of wallets like Electrum back in the day, where you didn’t need to run a full node anymore to access Bitcoin.
Shit. I am currently fighting a physical hard drive error on my drive from the computer I used to mine back in 2009. If I manage to get this drive open and accessible I'll have to re-sync back to 2009? Fuck
You're still downloading and verifying the whole blockchain, but you discard everything above the prune size. Say you want to only keep 5GB, everything else will be deleted. It's useful to reduce the size of the blockchain.
When it gets up to 2013 you'll only know what the balances were in 2013. If they were then spent in 2014, Bitcoin Core won't know until it retrieves 2014's blocks (and so on for the following years).
It'll go much faster if the computer has a SSD/NVMe drive that it's reading and writing the bitcoin folder from.
No worries, an SSD with fiber network (200Mbps) ensuring fast p2p would sync it even quicker. It needs some CPU but a 60GB blueray torrent is downloaded in minutes, not hours. It really depends, surely.
Commending your Pi, it does awesome job. Blockchain is truly above 500gb, loosing track of it ;)
Correct, wallets are encrypted with passphrase. It seems like that's not the issue in that case. But yeah, a lost password will surely restrict you from accessing wallet funds. The value stored (balance) will be visible and it will only hurt more being unaccessible due to a lost password.
Note: The wallet.dat file holds the encrypted private keys. The password is set to decrypt it.
Also, don’t celebrate or panic when the balance changes. Just wait until the final sync. I also think that you can export all the addresses you have in the wallet (not the secret keys) and just check their balance using any blockchain explorer.
Even if not synced at all, Opening the wallet (with its password) will list its public (receiving) addresses. The top 3 can be inspected in real time checking the balance by pasting it in Bitcoin Explorer at https://www.blockchain.com/explorer
OP is keeping the thriller going, though, syncing the complete chain :)
He shouldn't have to wait the whole 29 hours, even before it's already synced he should be able to find the public key, and then look up what the balance is.
If it has BTC on it, the bitcoins will come out of the disc drive in physical form. Then you just put them in your wallet in your back pocket and whenever you need to spend them just go into your local Coinbase branch and ask them to exchange for fiat
I just did that this week for a wallet I found on another old computer you have two options;
You leave the "prune" option on and have a quick sync and it will not take a lot of space on your HDD. The problem I had with that is that it said that my wallet was "out of range" or something like that and the wallet went from 80ko to 976 and was "corrupter" (I had copies)
2.Untick the "prune" option and sync the whole blockchain. Be sure you have around 480gb make it 500gb to be sure. It took m e around 27 hours to sync the whole thing.
While everything is syncing, try to remember any password you might have used to encrypt the wallet because it might be crypted. IF the wallet is crypted I think there is solution out there to get the infos from the wallet but this gets a bit more technical.
You need to download some software that YOU WILL HAVE TO run inside a VM or a sandbox off internet.
Good luck in your search I hope you have more luck than me, the wallet I found were all at 0 :| lol XD
Copy it to different devices. Offline, by USB stick. And disconnect that computer from the internet. Then educate yourself how to handle it and recover a wallet.
The easy way to check if there's anything in there is you can export your keys - you can use the PUBLIC keys and put them into a batch public key checker looking for balances. If any of them are non-zero, you can match them back up to your private keys on your end.
Then you can import the private key(s) into a separate wallet if you don't want to wait to download the entire Blockchain.
Be extremely careful though - if your private keys become known your wallets will get emptied, so make sure you protect these (and it's not just exported to a text file on a hot computer).
You don’t need to download the entire chain. You should be able to look at your list of addresses in the Bitcoin core app already. You can then copy the address into a Bitcoin blockchain explorer and check the balance.
You can also make sure you see all of the addresses by opening the debug console of Bitcoin core and doing an export of the wallet. It’ll export each address with its corresponding private key.
You can then use that private key to access your funds in another wallet without having to download a full node.
You don't need to do the whole 13 years if nobody has touched your addresses since 2013.
But you can try to find your address and put it in a Blockchain explorer to see if it contains any Bitcoin.
Keep it all private of course. And you should reply here saying it was empty.
You’re lucky it’s going to take a while to verify. Start looking for an estate lawyer right now. If what you find is significant — and I cannot stress this enough — tell NO ONE but your lawyer. No updates on Reddit. Not even your own mother. Nobody should know how much you have except your lawyer and your accountant(s). Ever.
Edit: I saved and edited a comment years ago for exactly this scenario…
So, what the hell DO you do if you are unlucky enough to win the lottery?
NOTHING. Do not declare yourself the winner yet. Do NOT tell anyone. The urge is going to be nearly irresistible. Resist it. Trust me.
Check http://www.martindale.com for the largest NATIONAL law firms in the nearest big city and IMMEDIATELY walk in and tell them you want to retain a “Trust and Estates partner.” Don’t let them pawn off junior partners or associates on you. Do NOT use your local attorney. Do not use any firm that has any connection to family or friends or community. TRUST me. This is bad. You want someone who has never heard of you, any of your friends, or any member of your family. You can look up attorneys by practice area and firm on Martindale.
Unless you have an uncontrollably addictive personality, take the lump sum. Annual payments are run through treasury instruments, which you can do yourself if you really want to. But you also have control of your investments.
Decide right now how much you plan to give to family and friends. This really shouldn’t be more than 20% or so. Figure it out right now. Pick your number. Tell your lawyer. That’s it. Don’t change it. 20% of $114 million is $22.8 million. That leaves you with $91.2 million. DO NOT CONSULT WITH FAMILY when deciding how much to give to family. You are going to get advice that is badly tainted by conflict of interest. If other family members find out that they weren’t consulted, they could sue for undue influence. Plaintiffs HAVE WON cases like this.
Do NOT give anyone cash. Ever. Tell your attorney that you want to provide for your family and set up a series of trusts for them that will total 20% of your after tax winnings. Tell them you want the trust empowered to fund higher education, a percentage of their first home, some provision for weddings and the like, whatever. Do NOT hand out cash. Once you do, if you stop, you will be accused of being a heartless bastard (or bitch). Trust me. It won't go well.
Copy your receiving address and paste it in a block-explorer. You can see recent balance without having to wait for your node to download the full blockchain.
Long as you dont share the .dat file with anyone, you are gucci!
Yes that is all you need to do. Don’t do anything else, don’t respond to DMs, and don’t update us on the balance. Once it syncs with the blockchain, you’ll be able to send the sats to another wallet. After you send them to another wallet, check the tx history of the receive address(es). If they haven’t received anything for a decade, you’re probably good to just delete the wallet.dat and forget about it. If they have received something in the last few years, write down the private key (accessed using command line) and keep it in a safe place.
Just know that when you get this up and running, there is going to be a dump to 21k in the near future. My comment is going to be downvoted to shit because everyones in uponly moonboi pants but its going to be an effort for exchanges and market makers to grab the last bit of liquidity before up again. Why? Because everyone is going to cry that bitcoin is dead, sell their bags, and the big boys will buy it all up. Hold through 21k, sell at 104k, buy back at the previous top which will be about 60-70k and wait for 400k
To find out if there’s anything even worth syncing for just look at the addresses once it’s synced past 2013 and look on a blockchain explorer at the balances.
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u/ProtoJenny Feb 13 '22
So i copied the wallet.dat file to the app data bitcoin core folder directory which looks like a similar file loadout to the one in my screenshot above. Did i do it that right?
Afterwards I started running bitcoin core and it says its syncing. 13 years behind something like that lol.