Probably I am the first one who lost real ethers. Testnet keystore for go-ethereum gone.

This happened while setting up cpp-ethereum (actually reinstalling via brew, because nondevelop version uses old protocol). As a result some estimated 60 ethers lost from ming x2 blocks. I will later look up the account number, just noted that among the blocks were #298407 and #298439. They were mined on 6-core system, so almost every 50th block could be mined in pre-GPU days.

I tried to reproduce the removal of the keystore folder but apparently current state is different and has no effect. This is a sequence fragment from .bash_history

brew reinstall cpp-ethereum --devel
eth -V
brew install cpp-ethereum --devel
brew reinstall cpp-ethereum --devel
brew tap ethereum/ethereum
brew tap cpp-ethereum
brew reinstall cpp-ethereum --devel
brew reinstall cpp-ethereum
brew reinstall cpp-ethereum --devel
brew doctor
brew update
brew doctor
brew update node
brew upgrade ethereum/ethereum/cpp-ethereum
brew upgrade ethereum/ethereum/ethereum
eth -V
brew reinstall cpp-ethereum --devel
eth -V
brew reinstall cpp-ethereum --devel
pwd
eth -m on --listen 30301
eth -h
eth -K
eth -K -m on --listen 30301
eth -R -m off --listen 30301
eth -R --listen 30301
eth -R --listen 30311
brew linkapps cpp-ethereum


If anyone can make out any sense of this, please let me know. It would be great to know the best method to update these clients.
And yes, wallets have to be backed up even on testnet.



Comments

  • 0xff0xff Member Posts: 22
    I found the address and checked this list https://gist.github.com/anthony-cros/a976a8b87c1ea85d55d3

    I had mined 80 blocks with CPU. Address: eb55a10171a9784caa953ae7da5a75d8eb59099a

    Nowadays (2 days later) GPUs totally have taken over and 6 cores can barely yield estimated 5 - 10 blocks a day.
  • Michael_AMichael_A LondonMember Posts: 61
    don't worry dude
    I have upgraded to geth 0.9.20 then I try to create a new account by importing my old private key and after filed the password I have this as a result:
    Fatal: Could not create the account: encoding/hex: invalid byte: U+007B '{'
    Fatal: Could not create the account: encoding/hex: invalid byte: U+007B '{'

    I'm sure I fucked up somewhere between the back up of my old key and upgrated the geth software :(
  • 0xff0xff Member Posts: 22
    Well, in your case it still may be workable.

    Create a new address, export it and then compare this new one with your old un-importable one.
    Maybe you will see some pattern, missing characters, etc. Preferably make it a binary comparison.



  • 0xff0xff Member Posts: 22
    edited July 2015
    @Michael_A

    While experimenting I could reproduce the error you reported. To reproduce I executed these steps:

    1. Create new account
    2. Copy it
    3. Remove it
    4. Restore from copy

    Here is the console:
    Chimp:~ chimp$ geth account new
    Your new account is locked with a password. Please give a password. Do not forget this password.
    Passphrase: 
    Repeat Passphrase: 
    Address: {12044b31d1603193cbf31a925709abf132365ede}
    
    Chimp:~ chimp$ cp -r Library/Ethereum/keystore/ Desktop/eth/A_keystore 
    
    Chimp:~ chimp$ rm -rf Library/Ethereum/keystore
    
    Chimp:~ chimp$ geth account import Desktop/eth/A_keystore/12044b31d1603193cbf31a925709abf132365ede/12044b31d1603193cbf31a925709abf132365ede 
    Your new account is locked with a password. Please give a password. Do not forget this password.
    Passphrase: 
    Repeat Passphrase: 
    Fatal: Could not create the account: encoding/hex: invalid byte: U+007B '{'
    

    Is this how you got this error?




    Post edited by StephanTual on
  • ConradJohnsonConradJohnson Member Posts: 130 ✭✭
    I'm getting this on a mining address that mined a LOT OF blocks. Hopefully there's a resolution to this as my mining was worth quite a bit of ether.
  • obscurenobscuren Member Posts: 38 ✭✭
    edited July 2015
    The file that you copied from the keystore is already encrypted and does need to be imported using the geth account import tool. You can simply copy over the entire file to the new keystore folder.

    See geth help (topic) for help about the specific commands.
  • ConradJohnsonConradJohnson Member Posts: 130 ✭✭
    @obscuren - this doesn't work. I've tried placing the file in the keystore directory, but when I try to send a transaction it says:

    could not unlock signer account
    at InvalidResponse (:-59655:-133)

    even though it's my password.
  • obscurenobscuren Member Posts: 38 ✭✭
    Did you unlock your account?
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