I have several wallets from 2009 and 2010 that have not been touched since day one.I recieved 25 dollars USD worth of BTC for downloading and running a program in the background. Im guessing i was mining BTC. Didnt think another thought about it. I was alittle irritated because 25 bucks didnt just shoot outof the computer screen!! Lol. Luckly my dad never throws away anything. So after scanning 18 hard drives ( it is a whole learning exp.)i have recovered 13 or so private kets and wallet ids. And still looking. So obviously i am very slow to do anything and am stuck on this sweeping thing. The files may have had a list of words. I dont recall. They were not encrypted though. So are the priv. keys considered a masterkey? The only options for a standard wallet is seed or master key. One of the files did say rootsomethingor another. None were wallet.dat. i hid one file in a music folder. So where do i go from here? Also,what is xprv yprv and zprv? And what is the purpose of the console for sweeping if any at all? I am not in tye console. Anybody have any clue how to guide me on this?
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4In 2010 there were no such thing as recovery seeds with words, master keys, xpriv, or even encrypted wallets.– ClarisJan 28, 2020 at 3:30
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So i guess my question is-- when sweeping my private keys into electrum on the screen to enter private keys the address on that screen should be the new electrum wallet address? Or the address that was originally with the private keys.– Erica DawnJan 28, 2020 at 3:31
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Also am i going with standard or import address and keys? And lastly, when i sweep the keys, it should reflect my balance immediatly? Because i backed up the wallet immediatly after downloading the program. So it hasnt ever synced until now. What are the steps to take for this process? I have googled so much that google just shows me the same stuff even when the questions are different.– Erica DawnJan 28, 2020 at 3:34
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Ahh, sweet! So i am on the right track then!! So i am just sweeping the private keys into an electrum generated wallet?– Erica DawnJan 28, 2020 at 3:35
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so how do I get the addresses to show transactions. They all show zero balance and zero transactions– Erica DawnJan 28, 2020 at 18:15
2 Answers
You have to import the keys into electrum. To do that, download electrum on your PC, click on new wallet > import private key > click next and you should see all the coins.
You can do more research by using the bitcoin forum on reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/
So where do i go from here?
You should create a thread on a bitcoin forum like bitcointalk.org or the bitcoinbeginners subreddit. In that describe what you have found. For example do the private keys begin with 5, L or K? Do they have base58 or hexadecimal characters? Describe what you have without giving everything away. Don't share the private keys with anyone!
Figuring out what you have will take some back and forth so a forum thread is more suitable for it. Share the link to your thread here so we can contribute too.
