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When opening and old wallet created by simplewallet, I'm asked for a fee to import old transactions, why?

JollyMort
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4 Answers4

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Re-scanning the blockchain from 0 consumes server resources and takes time. The fee is there to discourage this use case, but providing the utility if it's really required for some users.

If a new wallet is generated, the server doesn't need to re-scan the blockchain as it knows that the wallet has not been used before.

JollyMort
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  • That is almost $20. Seems high. – A.D. Jul 30 '16 at 23:16
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    Yeah, it's ridicoulous, and I believe it's intentionally like that. There is really no reason to use the import function, unless you created your wallet elsewhere AND didn't use it on mymonero before receiving a payment. If you're not willing to pay, you can always use simplewallet and transfer to a fresh mymonero wallet. – JollyMort Jul 31 '16 at 09:51
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To add to what Jolly Mort correctly said (rescanning the blockchain is a heavy process on the server, which the Mymonero operators want to discouraged), it is possible to have a wallet created in Mymonero, then import it in simplewallet. This will not incur a fee in Mymonero, and you will have a wallet which you can use in both.

See for instance If I saved my view key and spend key can I recover my wallet if my mnemonic seed is lost? for instructions on how to import a wallet from keys with simplewallet (Mymonero will show you the keys to your address).

user36303
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2

The answer from user36303 was correct at the time but is no longer up to date. Following the large rise in XMR prices a few months back fluffypony lowered the import fee from 10XMR to 1XMR. The following message is now displayed on MyMonero.com when attempting to import old transactions:

Import transactions

Import your transactions from the entire blockchain

To import all your previous transactions and account balance you have to pay a once-off import fee of 1 XMR to the account listed below. The command to make the payment has already been prepared to make it easy for you to copy and paste it into simplewallet.

Community
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neversleep
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What you are seeing is the Import Instructions modal.

IF you didn't create a fresh wallet with MyMonero but you imported an already-created one (like from the GUI) by using your:

(a) mnemonic seed, or (b) address and keys,

then you can send MyMonero a small fee in order to subsidize the MyMonero back-end (server / hosting) doing the very computationally expensive job of scanning the entire blockchain for your account transaction background and balance.

Dead the Bolasie
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