Bitcoin Armory - Always offline - 4 years old account - can't access bitcoins

Spendulus

legendary

Activity: 2926

Merit: 1386

Quote from: wine90 on November 22, 2017, 12:58:15 PM

Hi Guys

Wonderful! Now I know my account balance!

If I ever wanted to now sell these bitcoins how can I do that?

Are they stuck connected to this particular laptop and within Armory? Or can I somehow transfer to a new computer?

If I press ‘sell bitcoin’ on Armory, I can’t because it’s always offline.

I realise these questions are horribly dense! But thanks all the same!

Armory isn't an exchange, it doesn't sell bitcoins. Get an account with one of the exchanges, maybe coinbase.

Another option, which I recommend is to secure them at fresh addresses in a fresh wallet. You know you have them, where they are and how to access them. Then don't sell. Check again in a couple years.

Unrelated. Armory requires Bitcoin Core to co-exist and have an updated database. Are you on Mac or PC?

HCP

legendary

Activity: 2086

Merit: 4361

Quote from: wine90 on November 22, 2017, 12:58:15 PM

Are they stuck connected to this particular laptop and within Armory? Or can I somehow transfer to a new computer?

Your bitcoins are not connected to that particular laptop... nor are they necessarily stuck in Armory. What you need is the private keys for the addresses that have your bitcoins, you can then import those private keys to the Bitcoin wallet of your choice.

Quote from: wine90 on November 22, 2017, 11:02:03 AM

I don't care about Armory, all I'd like to do is see how many bitcoins I have in my account somehow. As I have my passwords and wallet can I just use a different programme instead of Armory?

The problem I have is that this laptop is slow and old and the new version of Armory I downloaded (0.96) has my wallet there... but is always offline and "preparing databases....

Unfortunately, Armory wallet files are ONLY able to be used with Armory.

Also, 0.96 is NOT the latest version... there was a big "thing" with Armory a while back where the original developers abandoned the project for "reasons"... and the project was picked up by another developer. The best website for Armory now is: www.btcarmory.com
- The latest release is available here: https://github.com/goatpig/BitcoinArmory/releases
- Also, for Armory support try posting your queries here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=97.0

If you can get Armory open, you should be able to export your private keys from your wallet file:

- Select Wallet from list then click Wallet Properties -> Backup this wallet -> See other backup options -> Export keys list -> Click "Export Keys list" button.
- Then make sure that "Address String", "Private key (plain Base58)", "include unused (address pool)" and "omit spaces in key data" are all checked and you can copy/paste your addresses/private keys from the text box or save it to a file etc.

cellard

legendary

Activity: 1372

Merit: 1252

Quote from: wine90 on November 22, 2017, 12:58:15 PM

Hi Guys

Wonderful! Now I know my account balance!

If I ever wanted to now sell these bitcoins how can I do that?

Are they stuck connected to this particular laptop and within Armory? Or can I somehow transfer to a new computer?

If I press ‘sell bitcoin’ on Armory, I can’t because it’s always offline.

I realise these questions are horribly dense! But thanks all the same!

You should watch this video entirely:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9TGkUgekLY

The idea is to have an online computer with a synced blockchain. You can use Bitcoin Core or Armory itself as the online wallet. With this online wallet you broadcast the transactions into the network. I have never done this so I don't know the details but I think it's on that video, or maybe in other video. Im researching this myself because I want to have a serious offline setup in an isolated computer with no wifi card and then have another computer to run the online node.

wine90

newbie

Activity: 3

Merit: 0

Hi Guys

Wonderful! Now I know my account balance!

If I ever wanted to now sell these bitcoins how can I do that?

Are they stuck connected to this particular laptop and within Armory? Or can I somehow transfer to a new computer?

If I press ‘sell bitcoin’ on Armory, I can’t because it’s always offline.

I realise these questions are horribly dense! But thanks all the same!

cellard

legendary

Activity: 1372

Merit: 1252

So you stored your coins in an offline cold storage computer with armory. You can't see the balance because you would need to connect it to the internet to do so which is a mistake, since you want your offline computer to stay offline forever.

You need then a secondary computer and create watch-only addresses where you can safely check your balances.

This is a nice tutorial in how to do so (enable captions)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9TGkUgekLY&t=11m49s

You can of course check it with a block explorer, but using Armory is better in case you create more keys in your offline computer.

DannyHamilton

legendary

Activity: 3472

Merit: 4801

Quote from: wine90 on November 22, 2017, 11:38:16 AM

HI

I have the string of numbers/letters starting with the 1 - just one of these

After that there are two addresses

Public x

And

Public y

The string of numbers/letters starting with the 1 is the "Bitcoin Address".

The "Public x" and "Public y" are the coordinates of the public key on the cryptographic curve. You won't need those.

Revealing the "Bitcoin Address" will not give anybody else access to your bitcoins. They won't be able to steal them by knowing the "Bitcoin Address". However, revealing the "Bitcoin Address" will eliminate your privacy. It will allow anybody else to know exactly how many bitcoins you have at that address, and will allow them to see when you spend them, where you send them, and if you ever receive more bitcoins at the same address.

There are website services that monitor the bitcoin blockchain and can determine exactly how many bitcoins are stored with each address. If you don't mind giving up your privacy to the website, you can enter your bitcoin address in the search box of any of the block explorer websites to determine exactly how many bitcoins are at that Bitcoin Address.

Here are a few block explorers to chose from:

wine90

newbie

Activity: 3

Merit: 0

HI

I have the string of numbers/letters starting with the 1 - just one of these

After that there are two addresses

Public x

And

Public y

DannyHamilton

legendary

Activity: 3472

Merit: 4801

Does your paper wallet have one or more bitcoin addresses written on it?

They would be a string of about 34 letters and numbers beginning with a 1.

wine90

newbie

Activity: 3

Merit: 0

Hello

I'm one of those part timers who knew just about enough to buy a bitcoin, forgot about them, saw the news, thought "Holy Moly" and is now logging back onto an old laptop to try and look at my account.

Problem though - I've totally forgotten how I even see my bitcoins.

I know I used bittylicious to buy the bitcoins and I used Armory to download them, I have a paper wallet and know my passcodes etc, however, when I open armory it is always offline and stuck on "preparing databases" and my bitcoin account says (...) -

I don't care about Armory, all I'd like to do is see how many bitcoins I have in my account somehow. As I have my passwords and wallet can I just use a different programme instead of Armory?

The problem I have is that this laptop is slow and old and the new version of Armory I downloaded (0.96) has my wallet there... but is always offline and "preparing databases....

What should I do? Can I abort with armory and install my wallet somewhere else? Or do I have to stick with Armory and this terrible old laptop?

Topic: Bitcoin Armory - Always offline - 4 years old account - can't access bitcoins (Read 384 times)