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Lately, I had a synchronization problem using bitcoin core, and I asked in this forum how to solve it. Here is the link of the forum post.

I resigned trying to make bitcoin core work again, and connected today on a browser based wallet (blockchain.info).

I imported my private key, and the wallet showed I had exactly 0 BTC...

Option 1) I did the transfer between the 2 wallets wrong.

Option 2) I have been hacked, and lost 350 USD.

What do you think ?

Thank you. (UPDATE : I did the import with a desktop based wallet and the result was te same : two transactions (that I did myslef 2 moths ago) and a balance of 0 BTC...).

Community
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positive.citizen
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    Two ideas: 1) Did you export the right address? 2) Did the address have money in it at some point in the past? Look up the address on blockchain.info. – Nick ODell Jan 30 '17 at 19:16
  • Thank you for your help.
    1. Yes it is the right adress as 2 transactions are coming up in the wallet history. But I don't have ALL the transactions, especially not the ones when money is coming in...
    2. Yes it did have some money in the past. I filled it up and emptied it at least 3 times in the past year.
     – positive.citizen Feb 01 '17 at 19:41
  • Are you sure it didn't go to a change address you didn't move to the other wallet? Core uses change addresses for returning what's left after you send a portion of your total. – Murch Feb 03 '17 at 14:01

2 Answers2

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Bitcoin is completely transparent, with all transaction visible on the public ledger. Your statement “I imported my private key, and the wallet showed I had exactly…” suggests that you're making some incorrect assumptions about how Bitcoin works.

You don't need a private key to find out where payments have gone from your address — just look it up on a blockchain explorer web site to find what was paid to where and when. Incoming payments are also visible and traceable. Also, if you've made incoming payments yourself, you could use the same blockchain explorer web site to look up (i) the sending addresses and (ii) the addresses to which bitcoins were sent from the sending addresses.

Once you've tracked down all relevant incoming and outgoing addresses, you need to see which of them are in one of your wallets. If someone else has made an outgoing transaction from any of your addresses, then that person has gained illicit access to one or more of your private keys.

You will not get a definite answer until you've checked all of the sending addresses and destination addresses.

EDIT: You should avoid exposing any of your private keys to the internet until you're clear about how Bitcoin works. For large sums, it's advisable to keep the private keys permanently off internet-connected computers, and to learn about cold storage techniques that allow offline signing.

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I would go to http://www.coinbase.com and set up an account there,

then try to do the transfer from your original address into there.

If it works, then it will be safe, first of all.

And if it works, then you will know it is your Core that is the problem.

You can always transfer out of Coinbase later once you think you have it sorted out and set up correctly.

SDsolar
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  • Thank you for your help. It seems coinbase does not have an "import wallet" option... Blockchain.info does have one thought. And it did not work... – positive.citizen Feb 01 '17 at 19:39
  • It doesn't actually import wallets, no. But that's not the point. You can do a simple transfer of BTC from your old wallet into Coinbase, if you have either the QR code or the number, from your "paper backup". Then it is safe in Coinbase until your next move. – SDsolar Feb 02 '17 at 06:22