Author

Topic: My whole transaction history has disappeared, i cannot access my coins (Read 2256 times)

newbie
Activity: 30
Merit: 0
Embarrassed

So i put bitcoins to my electrum wallet on a usb 2,5 years ago. I made an another topic on the matter earlier on

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bitcoins-imprisoned-inside-a-usb-tails-os-electrum-wallet-please-help-me-2130374

But i recovered my wallet file and the seed is not wrong, and i have the password right. The transaction history is simply not showing, and it tells me i have 0mbtc which is not true.

Can you tell me what exactly do i need to do? Yes, the green mark is connected, ive let it sit there for an hour and i still get no transactions. Do i need to connect to a different server or recover my private keys from the wallet file or something else? What do i do to access my coins now?

I got the same situation with my wallet. I save a true seed from Electrum, but it not synchronize history.
Are you restore your bitcoins? I can help you in this.
HCP
legendary
Activity: 2086
Merit: 4363
Good to know your 1.6BTC is "safe"... Now if you could solve the mystery of the 5 BTC... Undecided

but yeah, leaving sizeable balances on exchanges is not recommended. I would definitely get your Trezor up and running as soon as you can if I were you!
member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
Yeah thats my plan. I have a trezor wallet but i havent initialized it yet (i recall i had some sort of an issue with it... Roll Eyes Roll Eyes Roll Eyes ,,,yeah Roll Eyes Roll Eyes Roll Eyes ). Plan on doing that tomorrow and then moving my coins to it.
copper member
Activity: 2856
Merit: 3071
https://bit.ly/387FXHi lightning theory
Omg

Sorry i was afk for a while, getting the situation out of my head.

Yeah i moved them to my polo account temporarily, no need to be worried about that.  Cheesy I just forgot to mention that. Yeah im not gonna leave them there for a long time.

Whoa well. What a situation.  Huh Embarrassed Undecided Cheesy



Glad to hear your coins are 'safe' then.
You can store a small amount on poloniex, I just wouldn't recommend storing 100% of what you had (unless you split it between exchanges but even then that's risky).

It might be of use for you to look into hardware wallets like trezor or ledger, or for you to attempt to start using a paper wallet (preferably encrypted) to store the coins as storing them on an online computer may not be your safest bet.
member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
Omg

Sorry i was afk for a while, getting the situation out of my head.

Yeah i moved them to my polo account temporarily, no need to be worried about that.  Cheesy I just forgot to mention that. Yeah im not gonna leave them there for a long time.

Whoa well. What a situation.  Huh Embarrassed Undecided Cheesy

copper member
Activity: 2856
Merit: 3071
https://bit.ly/387FXHi lightning theory
~
I don't want to be an alarmist, but did you move your 1.6 BTC after you sent it to Electrum?? Because those coins have been moved... At least twice since the transaction you say you did to sweep them...

He probably moved them into an exchange for some reason, considering we got the updates when he was worried about the coins being sent to the other address and having them pending for a while (he probably mved them for something such as 2FA or to try to margin trade them for a profit or even invest them in an altcoin).
@OP, even though an exchange offers IP security and 2FA it's still not a great option as a place to store funds.

Your 1.6 btc are still safe.
You sure about that?
Nothing is ever 100% safe. Once something touches the internet it enters a critical state and has potential to be hacked.

Also, @jackg, can you please stop quoting entire posts and then just adding 1 or 2 sentences... It's really annoying and makes it difficult to follow the thread with massive walls of quoted text everywhere... Thanks in advance.
I'll try doing that on my PC. If I'm on my phone, I have only 512mb so loading chrome tends to crash it a few times. But i'll not that.
HCP
legendary
Activity: 2086
Merit: 4363
Hmmmm seems that the address it ended up in: 12cgpFdJViXbwHbhrA3TuW1EGnL25Zqc3P belongs to Poloniex... so someone has sent those coins to the deposit address: 1Dfat2qDcdAh9Tjgux59U7jHzKwHt8LHbW at Polo, and Polo have then consolidated it all...

I'm really hoping it was the OP moving his coins... they sat around for nearly an hour or so before being sent to Polo, so it doesn't seem like an automated bot...

OP, did you create a brand new Electrum wallet? If so, and you didn't send the coins to that 1Dfat2 address, then as Abdussamad has suggested, it is highly likely your machine is totally compromised Undecided
legendary
Activity: 3710
Merit: 1586
so he has malware on his system and he just fed it more coins. sad. should have diagnosed the earlier problem first before sweeping his casc private key. sorry for your loss op.
HCP
legendary
Activity: 2086
Merit: 4363
I don't want to be an alarmist, but did you move your 1.6 BTC after you sent it to Electrum?? Because those coins have been moved... At least twice since the transaction you say you did to sweep them...

https://blockchain.info/tx/41d857b8605e86581f6a406083733cc95653cff5ea8ef80fc5ce18c9849dd74c
https://blockchain.info/tx/61d825f226c94cd5170e2405b8a60e372ed3861afe528e1344649e3ad32f30dd

They appear to have been consolidated along with a number of other UTXOs into a 359+BTC UTXO... Again, possibly an exchange or other web service consolidating deposits into a warm wallet (given the destination address has had 25,000+ transactions and over 3.25 MILLION BTC deposited!!?! Shocked)


Your 1.6 btc are still safe.
You sure about that?

Also, @jackg, can you please stop quoting entire posts and then just adding 1 or 2 sentences... It's really annoying and makes it difficult to follow the thread with massive walls of quoted text everywhere... Thanks in advance.
copper member
Activity: 2856
Merit: 3071
https://bit.ly/387FXHi lightning theory
As near as I can figure, you sent 5 BTC directly to a deposit address at an exchange (possibly Bitstamp)... It didn't go anywhere near your Electrum wallet. I suspect you may have "swept" the funds directly to the exchange.

For the record, that was the same day (15th August 2015) that the Bitcoin XT fork happened and the Bitcoin price was "only" ~USD$260... (10 days later it was $214, according to this: https://99bitcoins.com/price-chart-history/ )

Does any of this trigger any memory? Perhaps you were cashing out before the fork? Huh

Back then, your 5 coins were maybe $1250-1300... about 1/5th of what the 1.6BTC is worth now! Wink

Anyway, what you do with the 1.6BTC you have left is up to you... Do you want to cash it out or keep it? If you want to cash out then just sweep the funds into a new wallet of your choice.

If you want to keep it, maybe you should consider moving to a new wallet as well, given the lack of faith in the current private key... If you didn't send the 5BTC then it may have been compromised.

I did not even know of the fork. This seems unlikely to me, but my skepticism is on steroids now cause i cant remember doing that transaction either. Maybe i just have some serious memory loss now. Ive deleted emails from that time, for sure. I guess i need to start by looking at all the papers i have and see if any in them give me a clue of what has happened.

Maybe contact bitstamp to see if there is an account relating to my email.

Well im glad i got my 1.6 back, at least all this was not for nothing. I think 1.6 is worth the stress after all. You guys have a time machine so i can go back and a. save my coins b. slap myself in the face???

Your 1.6 btc are still safe.
And, if you wait to  remember where the 5 btc were then your future self will be even happier (even if it's still without a time machine to remember how exactly the 5 btc ended up where they did (wherever they are).
member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
As near as I can figure, you sent 5 BTC directly to a deposit address at an exchange (possibly Bitstamp)... It didn't go anywhere near your Electrum wallet. I suspect you may have "swept" the funds directly to the exchange.

For the record, that was the same day (15th August 2015) that the Bitcoin XT fork happened and the Bitcoin price was "only" ~USD$260... (10 days later it was $214, according to this: https://99bitcoins.com/price-chart-history/ )

Does any of this trigger any memory? Perhaps you were cashing out before the fork? Huh

Back then, your 5 coins were maybe $1250-1300... about 1/5th of what the 1.6BTC is worth now! Wink

Anyway, what you do with the 1.6BTC you have left is up to you... Do you want to cash it out or keep it? If you want to cash out then just sweep the funds into a new wallet of your choice.

If you want to keep it, maybe you should consider moving to a new wallet as well, given the lack of faith in the current private key... If you didn't send the 5BTC then it may have been compromised.

I did not even know of the fork. This seems unlikely to me, but my skepticism is on steroids now cause i cant remember doing that transaction either. Maybe i just have some serious memory loss now. Ive deleted emails from that time, for sure. I guess i need to start by looking at all the papers i have and see if any in them give me a clue of what has happened.

Maybe contact bitstamp to see if there is an account relating to my email.

Well im glad i got my 1.6 back, at least all this was not for nothing. I think 1.6 is worth the stress after all. You guys have a time machine so i can go back and a. save my coins b. slap myself in the face???
member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
OH two confirmations. Ive never seen the word *confirmation* with it looking so beautiful. Damn. I deserve a beer you guys  Roll Eyes

member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
I used sweep to put the 1.6 into a new electrum wallet

https://blockchain.info/tx/1799965988b878401c49810b70e08da23e91fc65af3537bb6d4e56b5c6a5c76d

There has been a block after that, but it says unconfirmed and the electrum wallet also has 0 confirmations. And it looks like it indeed went out of the casc bar....

Are they gonna be stuck??? I could not customize the fee which is 0.19325 mbtc

Oh my fuck did i fuck up the coins i have left???
copper member
Activity: 2856
Merit: 3071
https://bit.ly/387FXHi lightning theory
As near as I can figure, you sent 5 BTC directly to a deposit address at an exchange (possibly Bitstamp)... It didn't go anywhere near your Electrum wallet. I suspect you may have "swept" the funds directly to the exchange.

For the record, that was the same day (15th August 2015) that the Bitcoin XT fork happened and the Bitcoin price was "only" ~USD$260... (10 days later it was $214, according to this: https://99bitcoins.com/price-chart-history/ )

Does any of this trigger any memory? Perhaps you were cashing out before the fork? Huh

Back then, your 5 coins were maybe $1250-1300... about 1/5th of what the 1.6BTC is worth now! Wink

Anyway, what you do with the 1.6BTC you have left is up to you... Do you want to cash it out or keep it? If you want to cash out then just sweep the funds into a new wallet of your choice.

If you want to keep it, maybe you should consider moving to a new wallet as well, given the lack of faith in the current private key... If you didn't send the 5BTC then it may have been compromised.

Damn. I used coinbase at that point so couldnt cash out anything from the fork Sad.

Anyway, OP if you have a main email your using, search that for sires like bitstamp and coinbase and other exchanges at the time and see if there's anything you can get in regards to where your coins are.
HCP
legendary
Activity: 2086
Merit: 4363
As near as I can figure, you sent 5 BTC directly to a deposit address at an exchange (possibly Bitstamp)... It didn't go anywhere near your Electrum wallet. I suspect you may have "swept" the funds directly to the exchange.

For the record, that was the same day (15th August 2015) that the Bitcoin XT fork happened and the Bitcoin price was "only" ~USD$260... (10 days later it was $214, according to this: https://99bitcoins.com/price-chart-history/ )

Does any of this trigger any memory? Perhaps you were cashing out before the fork? Huh

Back then, your 5 coins were maybe $1250-1300... about 1/5th of what the 1.6BTC is worth now! Wink

Anyway, what you do with the 1.6BTC you have left is up to you... Do you want to cash it out or keep it? If you want to cash out then just sweep the funds into a new wallet of your choice.

If you want to keep it, maybe you should consider moving to a new wallet as well, given the lack of faith in the current private key... If you didn't send the 5BTC then it may have been compromised.
copper member
Activity: 2856
Merit: 3071
https://bit.ly/387FXHi lightning theory
Sorry it took me a while to reply. I have a flu now on top of the distress (though the news about the apparent 1.6 btc is perhaps better than any other medicine....of course 10000 btc would be a better medicine but anyway). Im just feeling sleepy and confused.

Now i started looking into other possible bitcoin addresses that i have, and i just noticed something and this clears things up a bit:

15FyEELVAzyKiWNQA888SDPDyZdB1Czrqj is the address to my ledger nano (havent really been using it, had certain issues with that too [yes, i dont know why but i always get some crazy issues with technical devices, but there is enough of a headache already so lets leave ledger out of this]) and i do remember sending a small amount to it, so i can confirm to that transaction. Apparently i just imported the casascius private keys to the electrum (Huh) since it shows transactions going from the casc public address and i made that transaction using electrum.

As for the 0.6 btc, well that should logically be the time i sold the 0.6 so yeah

As for the 5.0 bitcoins, now that is my WTF moment. I dont remember doing that. But if i still have 1.6, its weird if a hacker left that, and since the two other transactions are most obviously mine, i guess i must be behind this one too. I just cant imagine how i would transfer 5 goddamn coins and not remember it  Huh My own memory is starting to scare me now. Now i imagine i would have transferred that to a btc wallet of my own and somehow forgotten about that, but it shows a lot of transactions happening after that so it cant be cold storage??? I dont think i have a bitstamp account and if i do, im pretty sure ive made that later.

Did i just iuwbgiubgiebwiugbw 5 coins ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nVk25ZvTkU

Wow what the fuck is going on.

----------

Well.....how would you guess suggest i get that 1.6 btc out safely? Import the private keys again, then move them wherever? Im asking cause to me it seems at this point its smarter if i dont do damn thing before someone else verifies im not doing something dangerous. I seem to have a skill at fucking things up which is a skill i dont yet know how to use in the most productive manner.

-----------

Thanks for all the support ive been receiving, i really appreciate it. I can already feel my mental health repairing itself a little bit, maybe i dont have to go live in a crazy people home after all (and i wouldnt wanna spend the rest of my money on the treatment).

What ive learned:

-Keep everything in order and pay attention to security
-Backups, so i dont have to come back online and whine about whats going on
-Unfortunately cannot trust electrum anymore, the transaction history is still lost
-Im not made to deal with crisis situations or with losses, i better avoid these scenarios like the plague they are
-I cant trust myself, i thought i could, but 5 btc and the blockchain disagree and i cannot argue with that. I have to deem myself untrustworthy which kinda sucks cause i have to rely on myself anyway.
-The community in bitcoin still works, so you guys are alright  Smiley



Make a seed in a newer version of electrum and go to sweep the coins into there. You can write down your seed beforehand then and write down the private key also (optionally encrypted).
member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
Sorry it took me a while to reply. I have a flu now on top of the distress (though the news about the apparent 1.6 btc is perhaps better than any other medicine....of course 10000 btc would be a better medicine but anyway). Im just feeling sleepy and confused.

Now i started looking into other possible bitcoin addresses that i have, and i just noticed something and this clears things up a bit:

15FyEELVAzyKiWNQA888SDPDyZdB1Czrqj is the address to my ledger nano (havent really been using it, had certain issues with that too [yes, i dont know why but i always get some crazy issues with technical devices, but there is enough of a headache already so lets leave ledger out of this]) and i do remember sending a small amount to it, so i can confirm to that transaction. Apparently i just imported the casascius private keys to the electrum (Huh) since it shows transactions going from the casc public address and i made that transaction using electrum.

As for the 0.6 btc, well that should logically be the time i sold the 0.6 so yeah

As for the 5.0 bitcoins, now that is my WTF moment. I dont remember doing that. But if i still have 1.6, its weird if a hacker left that, and since the two other transactions are most obviously mine, i guess i must be behind this one too. I just cant imagine how i would transfer 5 goddamn coins and not remember it  Huh My own memory is starting to scare me now. Now i imagine i would have transferred that to a btc wallet of my own and somehow forgotten about that, but it shows a lot of transactions happening after that so it cant be cold storage??? I dont think i have a bitstamp account and if i do, im pretty sure ive made that later.

Did i just iuwbgiubgiebwiugbw 5 coins ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nVk25ZvTkU

Wow what the fuck is going on.

----------

Well.....how would you guess suggest i get that 1.6 btc out safely? Import the private keys again, then move them wherever? Im asking cause to me it seems at this point its smarter if i dont do damn thing before someone else verifies im not doing something dangerous. I seem to have a skill at fucking things up which is a skill i dont yet know how to use in the most productive manner.

-----------

Thanks for all the support ive been receiving, i really appreciate it. I can already feel my mental health repairing itself a little bit, maybe i dont have to go live in a crazy people home after all (and i wouldnt wanna spend the rest of my money on the treatment).

What ive learned:

-Keep everything in order and pay attention to security
-Backups, so i dont have to come back online and whine about whats going on
-Unfortunately cannot trust electrum anymore, the transaction history is still lost
-Im not made to deal with crisis situations or with losses, i better avoid these scenarios like the plague they are
-I cant trust myself, i thought i could, but 5 btc and the blockchain disagree and i cannot argue with that. I have to deem myself untrustworthy which kinda sucks cause i have to rely on myself anyway.
-The community in bitcoin still works, so you guys are alright  Smiley

HCP
legendary
Activity: 2086
Merit: 4363
So as near as I can tell from looking at the address(es)...

The Casascius bar was initially funded with 0.001 BTC in early 2013... Nothing much happened until December 2013 when someone added around 0.008 to it

Then it got REALLY busy on the 1st April 2014... There were five deposits, totalling about 7.2 BTC onto the bar.

Then a year passes and there were a couple of withdraws (approximately 0.6 BTC) in May 2015... Leaving about 6.6 BTC on the bar.

Following that, one final withdrawal from the Casascius in August 2015 of a nice round 5BTC...

This left 1.6 BTC on the bar as "change"... 1.6636573 BTC to be exact. If you still have the private key, you should be able to import or sweep those funds into a wallet. The blockchain doesn't lie... Those coins are still on that address belonging to the bar! Wink

As for what happened to the other funds that were sent out... You had 0.01 goto an address (15FyEELVAzyKiWNQA888SDPDyZdB1Czrqj) that then looked like it paid some funds out... 0.002 and 0.0079... I'd guess 0.002 and the 0.0079 was change. Both the outputs are "unspent" so haven't been touched since 2015.

The 0.6 that got sent out to (19sf373NoDfkv85JaA2Cp7s3L9GNViFQmM) was then combined with another UTXO and sent to this mysterious "3KYEMZfWaGSsNKj8ypR9xLzYmUDQyGeMFG" address.

A similar thing happened with the 5BTC that was shifted after being sent from the bar... It was sent on to the "3KYEMZfWaGSsNKj8ypR9xLzYmUDQyGeMFG" address as well...

I'm going to guess that the "3KYEM" address is an exchange or gambling site or something... It has had a total of 9245 BTC sent to it over the years... The last transaction, emptying the address, was in February of 2016.... The "19sf3" and the "1EY6X" address appear to be deposit address for the exchange.

The, albeit very unreliable, Bitcoin "who's who" website seems to think that it is a Bitstamp wallet, so that would tie in nicely with my exchange theory.

Relatively difficult to trace from this point, as the coins are then effectively mixed, sold, exchanged to altcoins etc...

It should be noted that there is a time gap of the 0.6 being sent from the bar and ending up in the "3KYEM" address and the 5BTC being sent from the bar and ending up in the "3KYEM" address of about 3 months!!?!... So it doesn't look like it was hacked or stolen.

So, did you ever have an account on Bitstamp?


TL;DR - bar still has 1.6 BTC on it... Other funds seem to have been moved to an exchange (possibly Bitstamp)
copper member
Activity: 2856
Merit: 3071
https://bit.ly/387FXHi lightning theory
I mean this is the address of my casc bar

https://blockchain.info/address/1GCqjEHwr1BUU7wArNF4X5htyTAwR7Ljzc

And the three outgoing transactions i suppose should be the ones where i moved them to my electrum, right?

So those three addresses

1EY6XWAtKo64x7gcY9AgnVgxnUMc8YJZn6

   1GCqjEHwr1BUU7wArNF4X5htyTAwR7Ljzc

15FyEELVAzyKiWNQA888SDPDyZdB1Czrqj

Should they be in the addresses tab in the wallet file where my bitcoins should be? None of those are in there, only other, empty addresses.

So it appears i got hacked? I didnt really do anything with it, i used it to send to an address once to sell, and at an another time to check them. From what ive understood that should be pretty unlikely to happen. And i cant see any history, but i dont see how i could have the wrong wallet file. Could the hacker mess up the history in the file so that tracking would be more difficult?

Sorry I appear to be a bit confused with this.
So to clarify:
Those three addresses you posted are all empty. Are these the casacious addresses or not?
If not, then you may have lost the coins but I'll take a closer look once I regain wifi.
member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
I mean this is the address of my casc bar

https://blockchain.info/address/1GCqjEHwr1BUU7wArNF4X5htyTAwR7Ljzc

And the three outgoing transactions i suppose should be the ones where i moved them to my electrum, right?

So those three addresses

1EY6XWAtKo64x7gcY9AgnVgxnUMc8YJZn6

   1GCqjEHwr1BUU7wArNF4X5htyTAwR7Ljzc

15FyEELVAzyKiWNQA888SDPDyZdB1Czrqj

Should they be in the addresses tab in the wallet file where my bitcoins should be? None of those are in there, only other, empty addresses.

So it appears i got hacked? I didnt really do anything with it, i used it to send to an address once to sell, and at an another time to check them. From what ive understood that should be pretty unlikely to happen. And i cant see any history, but i dont see how i could have the wrong wallet file. Could the hacker mess up the history in the file so that tracking would be more difficult?
copper member
Activity: 2856
Merit: 3071
https://bit.ly/387FXHi lightning theory
I cant understand how my casascius bar could still have btc in it  Huh

If you click on one of those transactions where i transact out of the casascius address, thats a 2015 transaction. Further from that you can find transactions on 2016  Huh Huh Huh

And thats where i found the 3K address.

https://blockchain.info/address/3KYEMZfWaGSsNKj8ypR9xLzYmUDQyGeMFG

I mean i didnt send anything in 2016, i only checked my wallet.

Whats going on?
That address is completely empty.
If you didn't make that transaction then it's likely your coins may have been stolen by a virus/Trojan. Unless you used a watch-only wallet.

If you're going to import a private key with a high amount on it at least run it on a live CD or safe mode to limit virus activity.

Unless: you sent the coins to another wallet instead of that one.
member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
I cant understand how my casascius bar could still have btc in it  Huh

If you click on one of those transactions where i transact out of the casascius address, thats a 2015 transaction. Further from that you can find transactions on 2016  Huh Huh Huh

And thats where i found the 3K address.

https://blockchain.info/address/3KYEMZfWaGSsNKj8ypR9xLzYmUDQyGeMFG

I mean i didnt send anything in 2016, i only checked my wallet.

Whats going on?
legendary
Activity: 3710
Merit: 1586
You're cascius coin still has bitcoins in it so if you have the private key for that you can get that money back.

As for the 3K address where is that from? What does it say in your electrum wallet window title bar?
member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
Here is the public address for my cascascius bar:

1GCqjEHwr1BUU7wArNF4X5htyTAwR7Ljzc

https://blockchain.info/address/1GCqjEHwr1BUU7wArNF4X5htyTAwR7Ljzc

So as you can see, i loaded it in 2014 and then moved it to my electrum in 2015 (somehow it shows that balance is still 1.6??? must be a mistake). Now clicking on those addresses i didnt notice the 0.6 i transferred out, but it seems that in 2016 all the addresses seem to have transactions out, at exactly 2016.02.22

https://blockchain.info/address/3KYEMZfWaGSsNKj8ypR9xLzYmUDQyGeMFG

Am i missing something? I think that could well have been the day i last checked (apparently a bit more than 1.5 years then) and saw my coins there. Did i get hacked or am i missing something???

copper member
Activity: 2856
Merit: 3071
https://bit.ly/387FXHi lightning theory
Maybe your electrum is corrupted that is why its sometimes not asking for the seed/password or maybe your internet is slow do you have any stable internet? Also did you install carefully the latest version if you install the electrum without removing the old one or uninstall you can experience of some conflict base on what i experience before so much better to remove the old 1 an re install the new version of electrum..

When doing this, be sure to back up the entire electrum data folder and the wallet files inside it. Just in case there's another issue and you need to gain access to them at a later point (once the new wallet is fully functioning though, it is acceptable to delete those backups if needed).
hero member
Activity: 924
Merit: 1001
Maybe your electrum is corrupted that is why its sometimes not asking for the seed/password or maybe your internet is slow do you have any stable internet? Also did you install carefully the latest version if you install the electrum without removing the old one or uninstall you can experience of some conflict base on what i experience before so much better to remove the old 1 an re install the new version of electrum..
HCP
legendary
Activity: 2086
Merit: 4363
It boots, but sometimes it fails to start and there is nothing else i can do but shut it down from the power button. Thats why i dont like starting it up in the first place. It no longer starts electrum, and when i tried starting it from the terminal it complained something about the config. file getting an error.

Wait, should it ask for my password when i open the file itself, or only when i ask for the seed/perform operations? It doesent ask the password for opening it.
It will only ask for the password to open the file if the file has been encrypted... which was a relatively "new" feature... so an older file probably wouldn't be encrypted (only the seed/private keys inside it). So, an older file would only ask for password when doing tasks involving private keys or viewing the seed etc)

member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
Yes, it should... but can you be certain that it IS the original wallet file? 2.5 years is a long time ago... and there is no real way for us to know exactly what you backed up to USB. I still think it might be more likely that you've backed up the wrong file and the wrong seed, it's the only explanation for the fact that your seed is generating addresses that have no coins (and your original wallet file gives you that same seed)...

I'm fairly sure that if you opened the true old file with your coins in it, in a new version of Electrum, that your coins would be available. The only way for this not to happen is if your file was either corrupt (but Electrum should detect this and tell you) or you are opening a file that is not the one with your coins in it.

At the end of the day, I guess it doesn't really matter... either way your coins seem to be gone Undecided

Do you still have the original Tails OS on the USB? Does it boot at all?

It boots, but sometimes it fails to start and there is nothing else i can do but shut it down from the power button. Thats why i dont like starting it up in the first place. It no longer starts electrum, and when i tried starting it from the terminal it complained something about the config. file getting an error.

Wait, should it ask for my password when i open the file itself, or only when i ask for the seed/perform operations? It doesent ask the password for opening it.

Why don't you look up the cascius coins' address on a block explorer site and see whether it still has funds in it or not? See if those addresses are in your USB wallet.

If all the money has been sent from the address then see if the destination address is in your electrum wallet (this would be a private key sweeping transaction).

Block explorer would be a site like blockchain.info

Finally there is one last thing you can try but you have to do this offline. Open the site bitaddress.org and disconnect from the net. Go to wallet details tab and enter your cascius coin private key(s) there. For each private key you should get two addresses one for the compressed public key and one for uncompressed public key. Save those addresses in a text file for future reference. See if any of those addresses are in your electrum wallet.

Before going online again close the bitaddress.org tab and then your browser. You can run your browser once you've gone online again.

Alternatively you can do all of the above using a live cd. Bitaddress.org is just one self-contained file and can be saved on a disk for offline usage.

Ok im gonna do this, i think i still should have both the casc private and public key stored.
legendary
Activity: 3710
Merit: 1586
Why don't you look up the cascius coins' address on a block explorer site and see whether it still has funds in it or not? See if those addresses are in your USB wallet.

If all the money has been sent from the address then see if the destination address is in your electrum wallet (this would be a private key sweeping transaction).

Block explorer would be a site like blockchain.info

Finally there is one last thing you can try but you have to do this offline. Open the site bitaddress.org and disconnect from the net. Go to wallet details tab and enter your cascius coin private key(s) there. For each private key you should get two addresses one for the compressed public key and one for uncompressed public key. Save those addresses in a text file for future reference. See if any of those addresses are in your electrum wallet.

Before going online again close the bitaddress.org tab and then your browser. You can run your browser once you've gone online again.

Alternatively you can do all of the above using a live cd. Bitaddress.org is just one self-contained file and can be saved on a disk for offline usage.
HCP
legendary
Activity: 2086
Merit: 4363
Yes, it should... but can you be certain that it IS the original wallet file? 2.5 years is a long time ago... and there is no real way for us to know exactly what you backed up to USB. I still think it might be more likely that you've backed up the wrong file and the wrong seed, it's the only explanation for the fact that your seed is generating addresses that have no coins (and your original wallet file gives you that same seed)...

I'm fairly sure that if you opened the true old file with your coins in it, in a new version of Electrum, that your coins would be available. The only way for this not to happen is if your file was either corrupt (but Electrum should detect this and tell you) or you are opening a file that is not the one with your coins in it.

At the end of the day, I guess it doesn't really matter... either way your coins seem to be gone Undecided

Do you still have the original Tails OS on the USB? Does it boot at all?
member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
The master public key you sent me has NO HISTORY AT ALL.
This means, your seed is wrong or there's an issue with the formats changing between the new versions and old versions of the electrum client.

The seed format has changed since the first wallet realease, I'd suggest you try this with your seed just to check it. This one supported MPK keys and is the latest one I can find that does (though I didn't do too much of a search, though my seed was generated from 2.6.3).

What is that link?

Don't want to thread jack but I feel this sounds like a problem I am having at the moment as well.

I installed Electrum 2 nights ago from a link (Version 2.1), created a new wallet, saved the seed address. Used my receive address in my mining .bat file and started mining. The next day I noticed Electrum wasn't connected. No matter what I did it wouldn't (only listing one server).

I reinstalled Electrum from the actual electrum website on my main laptop. This was the latest version and it connects to servers now. I copied my wallet from the mining rig, there was only one wallet called default_wallet.
What was strange was the file opened without asking for my password or anything. None of the address matched and my old address wasn't listed under changed. I then tried to open it from the Seed address I saved the night before. Same issue/address all with no history. Although i may not have any history or funds yet I would still like to see my address from the night before to make sure.

What is odd is none of the new addresses will work with the miner. As soon as I change the .bat back to the old address it starts working again. So I cant even start again with one of these new addresses and I cant access my old one.

Possibly the same issue as OP which is why I thought Id mention it here rather then a new thread...


For me this has for sure become a permanent red flag on electrum. My mistake, someone elses mistake, whatever it is: i was under the impression my coins were safe. I cannot trust electrum after this. In fact, i dont know what i can trust anymore. Cant trust myself either, obviously.

The master public key you sent me has NO HISTORY AT ALL.
This means, your seed is wrong or there's an issue with the formats changing between the new versions and old versions of the electrum client.

The seed format has changed since the first wallet realease, I'd suggest you try this with your seed just to check it. This one supported MPK keys and is the latest one I can find that does (though I didn't do too much of a search, though my seed was generated from 2.6.3).
The seed version should not make any difference... Electrum detects "old" seeds and will recreate the old wallet correctly. I've just tested with Electrum 1.8.1 and 1.9.8... Seeds generated with both of those versions will restore into Electrum 2.9.3 just fine. They show up as "Seed Type: old" when you type them in, but 2.9.3 will still generate exactly the same addresses as the earlier versions using the same seed.



I dont remember how i did it exactly, but i had like a casascius cold wallet, and i got its private key into my electrum with someones instructions somehow. I honestly dont remember, but ive used electrum to send bitcoins after that from the same wallet.
Based on this little snippet of information... Perhaps it is possible that the OP has created a wallet in Electrum, written down the seed... and then imported the private key (older versions allowed "hybrid" wallets that contained both seed AND private keys) and possibly missed this warning:


Wallet has then been recovered from seed at some point... and the private key containing the coins has been lost Undecided


I have the original wallet file that im holding. I have both the seed and the original wallet file. Shouldnt the original wallet file still do its thing?

Did my wallet file just decide to fuck itself up one day and throw the private keys in the trash can?

Shouldnt the original wallet file still contain the private keys?
HCP
legendary
Activity: 2086
Merit: 4363
The master public key you sent me has NO HISTORY AT ALL.
This means, your seed is wrong or there's an issue with the formats changing between the new versions and old versions of the electrum client.

The seed format has changed since the first wallet realease, I'd suggest you try this with your seed just to check it. This one supported MPK keys and is the latest one I can find that does (though I didn't do too much of a search, though my seed was generated from 2.6.3).
The seed version should not make any difference... Electrum detects "old" seeds and will recreate the old wallet correctly. I've just tested with Electrum 1.8.1 and 1.9.8... Seeds generated with both of those versions will restore into Electrum 2.9.3 just fine. They show up as "Seed Type: old" when you type them in, but 2.9.3 will still generate exactly the same addresses as the earlier versions using the same seed.



I dont remember how i did it exactly, but i had like a casascius cold wallet, and i got its private key into my electrum with someones instructions somehow. I honestly dont remember, but ive used electrum to send bitcoins after that from the same wallet.
Based on this little snippet of information... Perhaps it is possible that the OP has created a wallet in Electrum, written down the seed... and then imported the private key (older versions allowed "hybrid" wallets that contained both seed AND private keys) and possibly missed this warning:


Wallet has then been recovered from seed at some point... and the private key containing the coins has been lost Undecided

full member
Activity: 187
Merit: 102
Don't want to thread jack but I feel this sounds like a problem I am having at the moment as well.

I installed Electrum 2 nights ago from a link (Version 2.1), created a new wallet, saved the seed address. Used my receive address in my mining .bat file and started mining. The next day I noticed Electrum wasn't connected. No matter what I did it wouldn't (only listing one server).

I reinstalled Electrum from the actual electrum website on my main laptop. This was the latest version and it connects to servers now. I copied my wallet from the mining rig, there was only one wallet called default_wallet.
What was strange was the file opened without asking for my password or anything. None of the address matched and my old address wasn't listed under changed. I then tried to open it from the Seed address I saved the night before. Same issue/address all with no history. Although i may not have any history or funds yet I would still like to see my address from the night before to make sure.

What is odd is none of the new addresses will work with the miner. As soon as I change the .bat back to the old address it starts working again. So I cant even start again with one of these new addresses and I cant access my old one.

Possibly the same issue as OP which is why I thought Id mention it here rather then a new thread...
copper member
Activity: 2856
Merit: 3071
https://bit.ly/387FXHi lightning theory
The master public key you sent me has NO HISTORY AT ALL.
This means, your seed is wrong or there's an issue with the formats changing between the new versions and old versions of the electrum client.

The seed format has changed since the first wallet realease, I'd suggest you try this with your seed just to check it. This one supported MPK keys and is the latest one I can find that does (though I didn't do too much of a search, though my seed was generated from 2.6.3).
copper member
Activity: 2856
Merit: 3071
https://bit.ly/387FXHi lightning theory
I received enough information via PM. Will load it into a watch-only wallet once my computer loads and check the addresses.
member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
Rescanning is something usually reserved for clients like Bitcoin Core. You don't need to rescan for Electrum.

I think you misunderstand my point about having the wrong seed and wrong file...

2 years ago, you had Wallet A with Seed A and Wallet B with Seed B... For whatever reason, you wrote down Seed B and started sending coins to address(es) in Wallet A... then you backed up Wallet B.

So now, 2 years later... you have Wallet B file with no transactions and no coins... and matching Seed B, which just regenerates your empty wallet.


No, i sent coins to wallet A from a paper wallet and the password i have of wallet A corresponds to the seed which i have on paper when i open the file and ask for the seed. Ive used the same wallet to send coins.

Rescanning is something usually reserved for clients like Bitcoin Core. You don't need to rescan for Electrum.


However, if your current wallet has addresses that you can lookup on blockchain.info and see coins, then it could indeed some sort of network issue with Electrum. Do you have any record of old addresses that you used back when you initially sent the coins?

Under "Tools -> Network", you should see a value labelled "Blockchain"... if the number of blocks is equal to the current block height of Bitcoin Network (485020 at the time of this message) then your Electrum is sync'd OK.

If it is less than that number, then your Electrum is not synced properly. You might need to try a different server



485084 at this moment.

Tried multiple servers.

I also have no issue importing other wallets successfully.

I'm not particularly sure any of his public keys would be exposed. However @op if you have a problem with this, you can PM me or the user I just quoted with the public key.

I said private key not public key. Any one private key + the MPK = whole wallet compromized. There is no reason to believe any of the OP's private keys have been exposed. Just saying that exposing the MPK is not entirely risk free.

Quote
Also, if the seed formats are the same and a new wallet is created then an xpub key should be created shouldn't it? Otherwise, the problem op is facing is merely a compatibility issue.

No that's not the case. Electrum maintains backward compatibility with old seed formats. The MPK would be of the old type too.

@Numerous64: You haven't answered the question HCP posed about familiar addresses. Can you bring the address tab into view with ctrl+a and see if any familiar addresses are listed there?

Also please answer the question I posed above regarding sweeping vs. importing.

crtl+a does not seem to do anything, but from view>show addresses i get a bunch of empty addresses.

I dont remember how i did it exactly, but i had like a casascius cold wallet, and i got its private key into my electrum with someones instructions somehow. I honestly dont remember, but ive used electrum to send bitcoins after that from the same wallet.

legendary
Activity: 3710
Merit: 1586
I'm not particularly sure any of his public keys would be exposed. However @op if you have a problem with this, you can PM me or the user I just quoted with the public key.

I said private key not public key. Any one private key + the MPK = whole wallet compromized. There is no reason to believe any of the OP's private keys have been exposed. Just saying that exposing the MPK is not entirely risk free.

Quote
Also, if the seed formats are the same and a new wallet is created then an xpub key should be created shouldn't it? Otherwise, the problem op is facing is merely a compatibility issue.

No that's not the case. Electrum maintains backward compatibility with old seed formats. The MPK would be of the old type too.

@Numerous64: You haven't answered the question HCP posed about familiar addresses. Can you bring the address tab into view with ctrl+a and see if any familiar addresses are listed there?

Also please answer the question I posed above regarding sweeping vs. importing.
copper member
Activity: 2856
Merit: 3071
https://bit.ly/387FXHi lightning theory
Did you sweep private keys or import them? I don't think the option to sweep private keys was there 2 and half years ago.

If you imported them then a restoration from seed would not restore the imported private keys.


@OP, if youre sure the seed is correct and what HCP suggests isn't working. Can you go to wallet>master public key from the top menu and copy and paste the key beginning with "xpub" here.
There isn't anything anyone can get with that key other than information about your wallet that is public to nodes already.

For a 2.5 year old wallet it'll be the old style hexadecimal MPK rather than a bip32 xpub. It's worth a try though. We can create a watch-only wallet and see if there are any transactions.

Ah your wrong about the privacy leak though. The MPK is normally not revealed to electrum servers so exposing it is a big privacy leak. It also has security implications. If any of his private keys were to leak too then his entire wallet could be compromized.

I'm not particularly sure any of his public keys would be exposed. However @op if you have a problem with this, you can PM me or the user I just quoted with the public key.
Also, if the seed formats are the same and a new wallet is created then an xpub key should be created shouldn't it? Otherwise, the problem op is facing is merely a compatibility issue.
legendary
Activity: 3710
Merit: 1586
Did you sweep private keys or import them? I don't think the option to sweep private keys was there 2 and half years ago.

If you imported them then a restoration from seed would not restore the imported private keys.


@OP, if youre sure the seed is correct and what HCP suggests isn't working. Can you go to wallet>master public key from the top menu and copy and paste the key beginning with "xpub" here.
There isn't anything anyone can get with that key other than information about your wallet that is public to nodes already.

For a 2.5 year old wallet it'll be the old style hexadecimal MPK rather than a bip32 xpub. It's worth a try though. We can create a watch-only wallet and see if there are any transactions.

Ah your wrong about the privacy leak though. The MPK is normally not revealed to electrum servers so exposing it is a big privacy leak. It also has security implications. If any of his private keys were to leak too then his entire wallet could be compromized.
copper member
Activity: 2856
Merit: 3071
https://bit.ly/387FXHi lightning theory
@OP, if youre sure the seed is correct and what HCP suggests isn't working. Can you go to wallet>master public key from the top menu and copy and paste the key beginning with "xpub" here.
There isn't anything anyone can get with that key other than information about your wallet that is public to nodes already.
HCP
legendary
Activity: 2086
Merit: 4363
Rescanning is something usually reserved for clients like Bitcoin Core. You don't need to rescan for Electrum.

I think you misunderstand my point about having the wrong seed and wrong file...

2 years ago, you had Wallet A with Seed A and Wallet B with Seed B... For whatever reason, you wrote down Seed B and started sending coins to address(es) in Wallet A... then you backed up Wallet B.

So now, 2 years later... you have Wallet B file with no transactions and no coins... and matching Seed B, which just regenerates your empty wallet.

However, if your current wallet has addresses that you can lookup on blockchain.info and see coins, then it could indeed some sort of network issue with Electrum. Do you have any record of old addresses that you used back when you initially sent the coins?

Under "Tools -> Network", you should see a value labelled "Blockchain"... if the number of blocks is equal to the current block height of Bitcoin Network (485020 at the time of this message) then your Electrum is sync'd OK.

If it is less than that number, then your Electrum is not synced properly. You might need to try a different server

member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
To answer the questions about the seed and how i imported them, no, the seed is not wrong. Clarification:

I swept my private keys from a cold wallet following someones instructions 2,5 years ago. I had 7.2 btc back then, and i did this with no problem, i sold 0.6 sending that from the USB. So this wallet has worked in the past. The last time i checked and it connected and had the remaining 6.6 btc was 1.5 years ago. Now, everything has disappeared.

I do have the correct seed. Ive checked it from the electrum seed and typed my password, and it shows me the same seed i have written on paper. So it is the correct file, i have the correct seed, it worked before and ive used it to receive and to send, and now there is no proof of any of this and i  cant see my coins.

And what comes to choosing the wrong wallet file, i made a specific name for this wallet so i know its not the wrong one, but ive done the same to the autogenerated default wallet that was created in electrum to which i also have a password. So to answer whether or not my wallet file is wrong, ive tried it with the other file too.

"What node are you connected to. Go to tools > network and check the block height in comparison to the block height of the landing page of blockchain.info.
"

How do i do this more specifically? Where do i see the block height?

"It is also possible that for some weird reason the addresses with the coins are out beyond Electrum's default gap limit of 20 "receive" and 5 "change" addresses.
"

What does this mean? Im afraid im a bit unfamiliar with the terminology (and it seems, once again, that i have bad karma with technology  Huh Huh Undecided )

If what you mentioned is the problem, how would i go about finding out whether or not thats the problem and how to fix it?

-----------


Are there other possibilities beyond the mentioned, and also: is it possible to get the private keys of the wallet out of there and import them somewhere else to see whats going on? I also heard that if this is a connectivity problem something called a "rescan" should help, whatever that is. I tried googling it but i found nothing. Is this true?
HCP
legendary
Activity: 2086
Merit: 4363
As i said before, i do not have the wrong seed and i can restore it from the seed the same way i can open it from the file, but i cant tell the difference because neither option shows me my transaction history. I have the correct file, i have the correct seed and i have 6.6 bitcoins stored, but due to reason X i am not seeing them.

I sure hope i didnt just lose 6.6 bitcoins because of electrums technical errors. I wasnt even aware that these kinds of things could happen and just assumed that holding my funds in electrum will indeed keep them safe.
Do you have any record of the addresses that you used that contain the coins? If so, do you see these addresses in Electrum? If you don't see those same addresses in your wallet, then it is highly likely that you're opening the wrong wallet file (Electrum can have several wallet files)... and/or the seed that you have written down is NOT the seed for your wallet with 6.6 BTC in it... Undecided

It is also possible that for some weird reason the addresses with the coins are out beyond Electrum's default gap limit of 20 "receive" and 5 "change" addresses.


Quote from: Numerous64 link=2130374.msg21288436#msg21288436
I made a bad call and moved my BTC two years ago to a tails operating system USB stick for storage,
What exactly did you move to USB? did you create a new Electrum wallet and send your coins to it or did you just copy the wallet file to the USB? If you just copied it, it is possible that you originally copied the wrong wallet file and copied an empty wallet... If you created a new wallet, it is possible that you were opening the wrong wallet file and using a wallet you did not actually have the seed for... it seems to be a somewhat common mistake.


I doubt that it is a "technical error" with Electrum.
hero member
Activity: 924
Merit: 1001
Is it a 12 word seed or you only have 11 word seed maybe this is just like the same as other people forgotten 1 word to be noted or copy pasted in notepad. . this is happening until now..
And try to install latest version first of electrum since you save your electrum wallet in usb as a portable you can get the wallet folder and copy and import it in the latest electrum wallet.. and check if its working or not ..
copper member
Activity: 2856
Merit: 3071
https://bit.ly/387FXHi lightning theory
Since my issue is clearly more mysterious than most normal issues, should i ask somewhere else? Should i contact electrum directly?

Sorry I didn't spot this earlier.
1. You've already overwritten your walket file so you can no longer use that (unless you have a backup)?
2. How did you save the seed? Did you write it down or copy and paste it? If it's written down, there's a list of all the bip39 words, ensure all of them are on there and none are spelled wrong? I did that the first time with 0.5 btc I got locked out of until I input my seed into a word processor and found a spelling error I previously didn't notice.

What node are you connected to. Go to tools > network and check the block height in comparison to the block height of the landing page of blockchain.info.
member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
Since my issue is clearly more mysterious than most normal issues, should i ask somewhere else? Should i contact electrum directly?
member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
As i said before, i do not have the wrong seed and i can restore it from the seed the same way i can open it from the file, but i cant tell the difference because neither option shows me my transaction history. I have the correct file, i have the correct seed and i have 6.6 bitcoins stored, but due to reason X i am not seeing them.

I sure hope i didnt just lose 6.6 bitcoins because of electrums technical errors. I wasnt even aware that these kinds of things could happen and just assumed that holding my funds in electrum will indeed keep them safe.
legendary
Activity: 3710
Merit: 1586
Assuming you have the latest version of electrum i suggest you restore from seed:

https://bitcoinelectrum.com/restoring-your-standard-wallet-from-seed/

If that doesn't do it either then you have the wrong seed. Perhaps for a different wallet than the one you sent coins to. Sorry for your loss.
hero member
Activity: 2576
Merit: 883
Freebitco.in Support https://bit.ly/2I9BVS2
I've never had to do this so I'd be guessing if I gave you advice. Looks like you need to File > New/Restore and select the wallet file, but that's only what I'd try. I hope someone else can chime in.

member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
I copied the wallet file from my tails persistence to a new usb and opened it in a different OS on a different electrum wallet, the newest version.

I cannot see anything in the history tab. I can see a bunch of empty addresses in the addresses tab.

I should have bitcoins there and a transaction history, but its as if i never had put anything in there. Im 100% sure that im not mistaken on that.
hero member
Activity: 2576
Merit: 883
Freebitco.in Support https://bit.ly/2I9BVS2
So it looks like you maybe didn't restore the wallet right, it's difficult to tell. Try and explain exactly what you did what you can and can't see, do your addresses show up etc? I'm sure someone here will be able to help.

member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
I tried that with multiple servers and does not work. Sitting there and waiting for something to happen.

So what now?
hero member
Activity: 2576
Merit: 883
Freebitco.in Support https://bit.ly/2I9BVS2
Go to tools > network and untick select server automatically and just pick anyone that's different to what it is now.
member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
What server to use? Should i just pick one randomly?

Where do i find the different servers?
hero member
Activity: 2576
Merit: 883
Freebitco.in Support https://bit.ly/2I9BVS2
The first thing to do is try connecting to another server. I've had that happen to me before and it fixed it. if it's more complicated than that someone else will probably have to help you.
member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
 Embarrassed

So i put bitcoins to my electrum wallet on a usb 2,5 years ago. I made an another topic on the matter earlier on

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bitcoins-imprisoned-inside-a-usb-tails-os-electrum-wallet-please-help-me-2130374

But i recovered my wallet file and the seed is not wrong, and i have the password right. The transaction history is simply not showing, and it tells me i have 0mbtc which is not true.

Can you tell me what exactly do i need to do? Yes, the green mark is connected, ive let it sit there for an hour and i still get no transactions. Do i need to connect to a different server or recover my private keys from the wallet file or something else? What do i do to access my coins now?
Jump to: