I think I found 241 Bitcoin [closed]

Question

I have been having dreams for the past month about BTC and an old computer I had bought Bitcoin on a long, long time ago. I just found said computer in my grandmother's basement. Booted it up and lo and behold, found a wallet.dat file.

I abandoned Bitcoin a while ago as when I tried spending the Bitcoin, I couldn't for whatever reason.

Well folks, here is the reason:

Status: 0/unconfirmed, not in memory pool Date: 4/9/2557 BE 03:53 To: (removed) Debit: -200.00000000 BTC Net amount: -200.00000000 BTC Transaction ID: (removed) Transaction total size: 192 bytes Output index: 0

I have two transactions like this. I need to know how to retrieve these coins.

Answer 1

Before you do anything, you probably want to make a couple backups of the wallet.dat. Check that the backups are in order before continuing.

zapwallettxes only works on the start up of Bitcoin Core. First shut down your bitcoin-qt, then open a terminal.

Write:
bitcoin-qt -zapwallettxes=2

If this doesn't start bitcoin-qt, you might need to go to the applications folder. You switch to the installation directory:

cd Applications/Bitcoin-Qt.app/Contents/MacOS/

And then run the application from that folder:

./Bitcoin-Qt -zapwallettxes=2

This should start Bitcoin-Qt, but delete unconfirmed transactions from your wallet. After it loaded completely, check whether the transaction is still listed. The transaction should no longer be listed and your balance should show the full amount. After this you should be able to normally start Bitcoin Core.

If the transaction is still shown, and you're running a very new version of Bitcoin Core, it might have been in your Bitcoin Core's own memory pool i.e. the set of unconfirmed transactions as well.

In that case, you'll need to delete the persisted memory pool.

By default the data directory on Mac is:

~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/

In that folder, you should find a mempool.dat. After you shut down and before you restart with zapwallettxes=2, delete the mempool.dat (and no other files).

Bitcoin Core will probably prohibit you from creating new transactions until it is synchronized with the network.

Answer 2

I first thought, it is bitcoin wallet (I'm still unclear), then one could take the addresses from this pending tx

bitcoin-cli getreceivedbyaddress $ADDRESS
bitcoin-cli dumpprivkey $ADDRESS

and use this priv key in e.g. Electrum, and create new tx. After re-reading all the comments, it turns out that it might be a multibit HD wallet.

As multibit is now discontinued, there was a video on their web page, how to convert into Electrum.

Multibit HD: https://youtu.be/E-KcY6KUVnY

Also on their website: If you are having problems logging into Multibit, we created a utility to export the keys from your Multibit wallet file. Instructions for how install and use it are at https://github.com/Multibit-Legacy/read-multibit-wallet-file

IMHO, best approach is

1.) try the method from the video
2.) do not oversee the comment from David Schwarz :-)
3.) try to export the priv keys from MultiBit HD Wallet 
    - see this thread as well: [How to extract Multibit HD Keys][1]
4.) read the instructions for how install and use their tool ...

Hope this helps to get to the keys or funds. Champaign?

Answer 3

download the full blockchain and import your wallet.dat file.

Congrats btw. Hope you get it.

Answer 4

Check this out opening an old wallet.dat

Otherwise - AFAIK all wallet data should be bitcoin forward version compatible. This would mean that if you use the latest bitcoin executable it should be able to find the transactions in your wallet. If not you might have to use the version of bitcoin client that you used when you made the purchase. This would involve downloading the source code and building it for your platform. Then copy the wallet.dat onto your data directory location check the GUI or some RPC calls to see balance.