Active connections and sync-ing my wallet issues

I have been trying to sync my wallet with the network for around 3 months, and it is still only at 45.29%. Any ideas?

I am using Bitcoin Core version v0.15.0.1 (64-bit). I have UPnP enabled, I am also port forwarding on 8333. The machine is a macbook pro running sierra 10.12.1. The wallet is on an external HDD.

I can not get more that 7 active connections to the network. Most of the time I only have 1.

I would have give up on this if I hadn't accidentally sent bitcoins that I have mined to this address already, before the sync completed. ( I had no idea I would have these problems, I have, in the past, sync'd with no problems, using the same machine, same internet provider).

Any ideas on how I retrieve my lost coin, or make the sync process possible? I've exhausted the few ideas I had.

Thanks. Pete

Applelogicrepair

Posted 2018-01-21T14:48:06.917

Reputation: 1

This seems a bit of an "XY-problem". Your actual goal appears to be to recover your lost coin. Could you tell us a bit more about the circumstances of your lost coins? – Murch – 2018-01-21T20:22:22.923

Hi. I am fine with either getting the coin back or the wallet back, as I understand it is unlikely that I will retrieve the coin. When I was mining on slushpool I underestimated how quickly I would hit the payout threshold. The pool send my confirmed rewards before my wallet was up and running. My wallet is no 50.81% sync'd – Applelogicrepair – 2018-01-23T07:22:54.833

So, to clarify, can anyone explain why it's taking months to sync the blockchain? In terms of lost coins, I'm not going to cry over spilt milk, but I am frustrated by how slow this process is. I have 3 questions: 1) As the blockchain is now 153gb, am I simply experiencing network slow down? 2) Is it even worth carry-on syncing at this point? 3) If the blockchain now so bloated, is bitcoin as a technology doomed? – Applelogicrepair – 2018-01-23T12:36:56.267

Answers

I just synced Bitcoin Core from scratch in about three hours yesterday on my home computer. The active connection count is not likely to be the bottleneck, it's usually rather the Disk R/W or the verification work done on the CPU. External drives exacerbate the Disk R/W delay significantly. If you have a few GB on your main drive, you could try to run a pruned node on your main hard drive, that would at least mitigate some of the Disk R/W delays, especially if your drive is an SSD. Another thing that can speed the process up significantly is to give your Bitcoin Core more RAM.

Murch

Posted 2018-01-21T14:48:06.917

Reputation: 41 609

I have decided to give up. If anyone stumbles across this and is looking to retrieve lost coins, this is the answer

http://bitcoindaily.org/bitcoin-guides/how-to-recover-bitcoins-bitcoin-core-wont-sync-export-private-key/

If you want to sync with bitcoin core, don't bother. It is a dying technology, bloated by it's own success. Bitcoin needs mainstream adoption to stay profitable, but the blockchain can't sustain any more traffic. Bitcoin is the 'ask jeeves' of cryptos.

Applelogicrepair

Posted 2018-01-21T14:48:06.917

Reputation: 1

The linked article is useful if you wish to transfer your private keys to Electrum, but is not entirely accurate in its statements, e.g. With the bitcoin core wallet you have to download the entire bitcoin blockchain (over 8 years of bitcoin transactions) *and keep it synced to be able to spend your bitcoin.* is wrong. Macbooks have a history of slow sync, it mostly seems to be hardware bottlenecks, per this answer.

– Willtech – 2018-02-24T02:10:10.937