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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.

Nate Eldredge
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merger
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    This isn't a site to look for people to hire. You can ask about how to solve it yourself, but you'll need to give more information. – Nate Eldredge Jan 22 '18 at 04:57
  • I'm not hiring anyone, it is a good gesture for someone's time and help. I have a potential $3M windfall here so trying to get assistance. Do you blame me? What info do i need to add? – merger Jan 22 '18 at 05:02
  • Nothing to do with blame, it's just that Stack Exchange doesn't think that posts offering money are a good idea. See https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/25615/offering-actual-money-as-a-bounty. I have edited this out for you. – Nate Eldredge Jan 22 '18 at 05:12
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    You've posted something about a transaction but it's unclear what it's about. Is this an incoming transaction that you want to get confirmed, or an outgoing transaction that you want to cancel? It would really help a lot if you were willing to post the transaction ID. – Nate Eldredge Jan 22 '18 at 05:13
  • You can't offer money for help. – Adam Jan 22 '18 at 05:13
  • This is from a transaction that was sent in 2014 with no transaction fee. It just shows as unconfirmed. When I check the generated txid on Blockchain.info, there is none which means the transaction never happened. The coins are presumably in limbo. I found this out by just downloading Bitcoin Core (qT) and switching the generated empty wallet.dat with the recovered wallet.dat file from 2014. The transactions displayed upon booting up Bitcoin Core. – merger Jan 22 '18 at 05:29
  • I have been reading online for hours that it is possible to retrieve the coins but I am unclear as to how. Do I fully install Bitcoin Core (150GB), then try to cancel the transaction that way so the BTC returns to my wallet balance or where do I go from here? I'm clueless. – merger Jan 22 '18 at 05:30
  • As far as the rest of the world is concerned, that transaction never happened. Your client just doesn't know that. You can use `-zapwallettxes` to make your client forget about it. However, you'll have to download the whole blockchain (that's the 150GB) to see your correct balance and be able to spend it. You might also be able to import your wallet into "thin client" software that would let you do this without the full download, but I can't tell you the details as I've never tried this. – Nate Eldredge Jan 22 '18 at 05:32
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    Just extract every address from your wallet and see if any have a non-zero balance. Then, for those, extract the private keys. Look for the `pywallet.py` program that will extract addresses and keys from a wallet.dat file. – David Schwartz Jan 22 '18 at 06:05
  • David, they are going to show a 0 balance as when I sent the transactions back ages ago, I did not include a tx fee through Multibit. I remember I was trying to buy something and told the guy the funds were sent but they really didn't send as I didn't include a fee. Now the funds are in limbo so I have to -zapwallettxes I guess (not sure how) upon downloading the entire blockchain and then the tx will drop and the BTC will appear in my wallet. (I think?) Someone please help. – merger Jan 22 '18 at 06:14
  • Do you know the private key??? – Crypto Jan 22 '18 at 05:46
  • I have the wallet.dat raw file. I used multibit. No passphrase, etc is associated. At this juncture, I am still lost. I need to download the entire blockchain. Upon doing so, my wallet.dat file (from 2014) is associated with it already. I then need to -zapwallettxes (how do I do this via my Macbook?), then the 200 BTC + 41.20 BTC transactions will drop off and the funds will be present in my balance. I am now a millionaire? Is this what is going to come to fruition? – merger Jan 22 '18 at 05:48
  • If all your addresses have a zero balance, then you don't have any bitcoins. If the send didn't go through, then the bitcoins should still be there. – David Schwartz Jan 22 '18 at 23:41

4 Answers4

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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.

Murch
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  • Murch, thank you for this info brother. To confirm, do this upon the full 150GB being downloaded correct? – merger Jan 22 '18 at 07:19
  • @merger: I think it should work before you are synchronized. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. If you actually end up with a load of money, I would suggest that you read this post on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/7dlqtk/200_btc_telling_my_wife/dpza7b6/ – Murch Jan 22 '18 at 07:29
  • why wouldn't he go just take the addresses from this pending tx (bitcoin-cli getreceivedbyaddress $ADDRESS and bitcoin-cli dumpprivkey $ADDRESS ), use this priv key in e.g. Electrum, and create new tx? Wouldn't this be much easier? – pebwindkraft Jan 22 '18 at 10:22
  • @pebwindkraft: Feel free to post another answer... – Nate Eldredge Jan 22 '18 at 15:07
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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?

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

Congrats btw. Hope you get it.

BitcoinsBest.com
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  • I am going to download the full blockchain and cross my fingers. Are you familar with the -zapwallettxes? – merger Jan 22 '18 at 06:15
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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.

Aoommen
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