Topic: help working out what I did with my BTC (Read 1300 times)

So having had all the help from you guys, for which I am very grateful, it looks like:

• I did NOT delete a wallet file (phew)
• I did NOT store this on an online wallet that remains secure.

which leaves:

• I might have stored these on an online wallet which was insecure (or otherwise ripped off).
• I might have sent them to an exchange where they may still be notionally attached to an account I hold.
• I might have sent them to an exchange where they have been ripped off.
• I might have had them stolen from my computer.

If I sent them to an exchange where they're still associated to my account and I have forgotten it - I'll still feel like an idiot. If it is one of the other options, I guess I still feel aggrieved yet I can console myself that there is someone else that deserves to be kicked rather than myself (well I guess I do still deserve to kick myself either way... but I'd prefer company in the deserves to be kicked department).

There is that tiny little (shrinking) hope that these funds will magically appear on my account at one of the exchanges I have accounts at.

I still feel that BTC are important and will keep increasing in value. I keep telling myself I should buy some more - yet this incident has shaken my confidence a little and their value is *so* much more than when I first invested. Arrrg... about to start kicking myself again, must stop, take a breath, and have a cup of tea.

I don't have any of those in my browser history, and have tried to log in (or do forgotten password processes) on those that will let me to see if I have accounts on there - and no joy.

How did this work out my friend?

I don't remember the exact dates, but in the past few months I know InstaWallet, BitFloor, and BitMe have all shut down.

In a way that's reassuring ... the idea of having deleted a wallet is just plain idiocy and I wouldn't have thought that of myself. Of course the idea that I got scammed somehow isn't all that much more reassuring. I hope I have sent them to some exchange/shared wallet thing because even though not remembering is just a s stupid - there is at least a chance I could get them back (happy for anyone to suggest any such services I might have stumbled onto and used.

Have any exchanges closed or reported thefts or other issues around that time? (I guess over whole period of last month and a bit)

No.  Either you made a purchase that you forgot about, or you sent them to an exchange (or other shared wallet service), or you were scammed into sending them to someone without realizing it, or you were hacked and someone stole them, but they do not appear to be sitting in a lost wallet.

Just the 40.603

So yes it does look like they are mixing with others - so not a deleted/lost wallet.

It seems like the coins are being mixed with a lot of other coins -- did you only have the 40BTC?  or more?

Do you say that based on what is most likely from the information I've given, or do transaction IP addresses show anything you recognise? (I am assuming that at some point a transaction takes place on the exchange's server and their IP would be tagged as the one doing the transaction?)

I did make backups, fairly regularly. But on this forgotten day when I did that big transfer then split ... I didn't seem to backup after that. I've searched desktop and laptop for all files with *.dat, *dat*, *backup*, *btc* and I can't find any recent (enough) ones.

If you're using bitcoin-qt client - there's an option to backup your wallet. Otherwise - you have to store only private key, cos address can be retrieved from it.

Hello everybody, what's the best method to backup the wallet? Is saving the private key and the address in a "safe" manner the only thing needed?
Thanks

It looks like both the 36 and 4 were sent to exchanges and not just change addresses because they're being mixed with 100s of other bitcoins.  (Or they were stolen)

I'm just curious, do not judge me hard for this question, but why you have not made any backups of your wallet.dat?
Especially keeping in mind that you had around $6+k usd worth of bitcoins?
$6k in cash will drive anyone crazy in countries like USA and surely won't be kept on toilet table...

A great idea - especially as my browser is set to keep it forever by default. This was one of the first things I did, and nothing helpful jumped out at me which is why my immediate thoughts were that I'd overwritten my wallet.dat and that was that.

Still my best guess will be try to check browsing history for that day. Maybe something will come to mind...

That does seem to be what I'm saying - you might think someone can't be that stupid, *I* can't imagine I'm that stupid (and I know me!). Last time I had the balance on my desktop was probably about 30 days ago ... but closing my eyes and trying to visualise I don't have active memory of that (if I did I'd know what I did rather than just be guessing what I did). Last time before that I could confirm I absolutely had balance would likely be in 2012 or very early 2013.


The split to 36.603 and 4 does make sense to me. Because around that time I was thinking that it might be useful to play the market a little. Keeping most (36.603 I guess) saved and use a small amount (guessing the 4 BTC) to speculate with - putting them into an exchange and selling them when the market rose a bit more to get some 'hard currency' into my account and then waiting for the next crash to buy as much as I could.

As I haven't actually done any such speculating with the small amount (I cannot conceive that I have and have forgotten that too), or anything at all with the large amount is what puzzles me. I want there to be a dead end on those amounts - as that would make sense with what I can remember planning to do but not following through on. Of course that would also mean the BTC was likely lost in a deleted wallet - which I don't want.

As for exchanges, I've only used britcoin/intersango (June 2011 last used), bitmarket.eu (June 2011 last used). I have accounts on intersango, MTGox, and bitmarket.eu - the first two show balances of 0.00319 and 0.00000000 respectively. BitMarket doesn't let me log in saying 'Only members with outstanding Bitcoin balance can log in!' I think BitMarket went bye-bye end of 2012 so unlikely that I transferred BTC in 30 days ago. I wouldn't be surprised if I have accounts on other exchanges - just to have a look and see what they're like - none spring immediately to mind (form mind or history)

I have also speculated (desperately) that I might have used an online wallet and have gone to https://blockchain.info/wallet and punched in the few email addresses I use into the forgotten password option in case I put them there (but again they'd just dead-end rather than show further transactions so that seems unlikely too!).

Something here just isn't adding up for me.  You're saying that just 30 days ago you sent over $6,000 worth of bitcoins somewhere, but you can't remember where you sent it?

Assuming this is true.  When was the last time you remember seeing any balance on your desktop computer?

It appears that, of the 40.603 BTC balance, you sent exactly 4 BTC to 171wBfYRt1btkd53wLbw3wvmRpx7HcSfM, and the remaining 36.603 to 12YFP8qdKg4xbWugXvcDAeenKUUkqAtNxm?  Odd that you wouldn't split them a bit more evenly if you were sending them to exchanges.  Any idea which exchange you might prefer to send the larger amount to?

How many exchanges do you use?  It might just be easier to look at your transaction history at each exchange and see how much you sent to each and when.  Wouldn't that answer your question?

I guess there are no way of knowing ip addresses and other related information since bitcoin was designed in a way to hide this info.
If you exchanged those BTCs somewhere - can't you just check your PC's browsing history around timestamp of that transaction?