How to Cancel Unconfirmed Bitcoin Transactions

Do not wait long!

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Cancelling stuck Bitcoin transaction sent from your local BTC wallet requires you to run the qt wallet client with a special option that would remove all pending transactions that are not included in the blockchain. You need to run bitcoin-qt.exe (or the respective qt executable file depending on the OS you are using) with the -zapwallettxes parameter, but before running it make sure you backup your wallet.dat file.

I used this method and confirm it works.  All these command line and only at startup options are a bit annoying.  I tried using console to issue an abandontransaction "transaction string"   but that issued an error saying it could not do the function.

BitCoin Core Wallet – Dumping Your Private Keys

Wallet backup operations

Bitcoin Core does not have a GUI for displaying private keys.  There is probably a good reason for that.  What is it?

  1. launch your bitcoin client as usual and wait for it to load the blockchain and start up
  2. click on 'help' in the menu bar (top right)
  3. click on 'debug window'
  4. select the 'console' tab
  5. type: walletpassphrase "your walletpassphrase here" 600
  6. type: dumpprivkey [your Bitcoin address here]
  7. this will return the private key, you can copy it now; ensure you clear your clipboard/history afterwards
  8. type: walletlock

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How to Send BitCoins from a Paper Wallet

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Each public private key pair can be thought of as a single note as shown below

  1.  In order for that note to be good it has to be loaded up first.  This is done by sending the public key to the person who will give you BitCoin
  2. Once loaded up you can now spend the BitCoin by using the private key.  

The private key must be kept secret.  If a person was able to get your private key they could then spend it. ( I think.  Will need to verify this is complete and accurate description of behavior ).  Certainly if another person had both the public and private key they would be able to spend.  

QUESTION:  How is the amount associated with the Public / Private key encoded?