no worries. Just use the backup you already made before you moved around your wallets and started deleting stuff then let it confirm the blockchain again overnight.

Very likely. Sorry to hear that, hope you didn't burn too many Bitoins. But it's kind of like having paper-cash, moving it around different wallets and then throwing one of those wallets into fire.

The difference is that physical wallets are really hard to back up (I'm not aware of any technology that successfully does this). Digital wallets are really easy to back up. One just has to think of it.

That said ... it will be great once the Bitcoin client has some mechanisms for backups encryption built in.

So, what you basically did is this:

You have Wallet A and Wallet B (think of physical wallets). Wallet B is a new wallet you just bought. It's empty. Then you take some dollar notes from Wallet A (which is full of dollar notes) and put it to Wallet B ("the address I sent the BTC to" = "Wallet B"). So the dollar notes were in Wallet B. Then you took Wallet B and burnt it to ashes.

If you had a backup of Wallet B (done magically with some molecule duplication technology), you'd have Wallet B1 and B2, both providing access to the Bitcoins you sent to Wallet B. Then when you burn B1, it's not a big deal - you still got B2.

In any case: Since you took the Bitcoins dollar notes out of Wallet A, they're no longer there. So, if you completely emptied Wallet A, you could safely delete burn Wallet A (however, if anyone ever sends you BTC to an address from Wallet A, those will be lost forever because no one can send them anywhere anymore).

I'm afraid that answers some of the suggestions:


If you had just "deleted" it, it would be kind of like putting it into a really huge, ugly, dirty trashcan. In that case, you could dig into that trashcan and maybe recover it. But my understanding is that you've literally burned it.

Well, I was hoping it was already given... I assumed that you already made a backup encrypted copy of your original wallet you started with before you began testing anything. If you didn't then you are shit out of luck I'm afraid.

Please please please people - DON'T do this sort of thing with "real" coins.

There's a testnet in a box that will allow you to play in a sandbox all you want:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/testnet-in-a-box/

There but for the grace...   I've only managed to make boneheaded market moves so far.

I just saw your post from 7th December 2010 which ended with the words "Where ever will this lead?".

Ouch.

You never know, in 100,000 years time, someone might generate a collision and send you your coins back.

Having read about multiple early adopters losing large amount of Bitcoins (messing up backups, malware, etc.), I wonder if humans in general can actually deal with this.

Is 100% vigilance possible at all times?

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