Sending BTC from old QT Client V0.7 - Will coins arrive?

Question

I have an old "BitCoin-QT" Core client at version 'V0.7 2-beta' - that I just want to move coins from, to a Ledger Nano, (and then not need to ever fire up this local QT software again). My BitCoin-QT Core client is about 3 years out of date with regard to the Blockchain..

Without having to go through the whole Client Upgrade path.. last night I tried to move a small BTC transaction off via the Client as a Test.

After a few hours the transaction status on the client was given as "Status: 0/unconfirmed, broadcast through 28 nodes". I sent the nominal BTC transaction to an address beginning with "1B.." a legacy BTC address.

I looked this morning for my Transaction via the Bitcoin Block Explorer (blockchain.info) - but nothing was showing.

Is this telling me :

• I just need to wait longer? (how long approx?), or
• My transaction will never get processed? (its in an old format or something). If so how would I claim the coins sent (and fees charged?) for this failed attempt?, or
• I definitely need to upgrade my QT core client first before I can send any coins from this old client? If so, what is the Min QT Client version I should target to upgrade to ? (ie to avail of the latest Forks, BTC Cash offerings etc?).

Much thanks, L

Answer 1

There haven't been any Bitcoin hard forks in the last 3 years so your old client should still work fine. Of course it won't be able to use new features like SegWit but that shouldn't matter.

Does your v0.7.2 client have the "Transactions" menu option. Double clicking the pending transaction will tell you it's status. If you don't have that menu option where are you getting the transaction ID from?

If you're still getting nowhere with your old client then in your shoes I'd take the following steps:

• If you haven't already backed up your wallet then in your v0.7.2 client do File->Backup Wallet and save it to a USB drive or somewhere safe,
• Download the latest Bitcoin Core client and install it,
• Run the new client and it should update your wallet if it needs to,
• If your blockchain is not synchronised then unfortunately you may have to wait a long time (days) for it to catch up,
• Try another test transaction with the new client.

There are other options that you could do with your existing client, such as extract your private key with the Debug Window->Console, but that could go wrong very easily. Your number one concern is obviously not to lose your private key(s) and even if it takes a number of days to sync your new client that's a small price to pay.