Inside this file lives the "private key." In cryptocurrency, the private key is the absolute proof of ownership. It is a cryptographic string of numbers and letters that allows the owner to sign transactions and spend the coins. The public address (the string you share to receive money) is mathematically derived from the private key.
An old Wallet.dat contains:
: Close the application, navigate to the data folder mentioned above, and replace the newly created wallet.dat with your old one.
Are there reputable tools to dump the public addresses from the file so I can check them on a block explorer?
You don't need a full node to see if the wallet is empty. You can use tools like Pywallet or the dumpwallet command in Bitcoin Core's console to export a text file of public addresses.
Inside this file lives the "private key." In cryptocurrency, the private key is the absolute proof of ownership. It is a cryptographic string of numbers and letters that allows the owner to sign transactions and spend the coins. The public address (the string you share to receive money) is mathematically derived from the private key.
An old Wallet.dat contains:
: Close the application, navigate to the data folder mentioned above, and replace the newly created wallet.dat with your old one.
Are there reputable tools to dump the public addresses from the file so I can check them on a block explorer?
You don't need a full node to see if the wallet is empty. You can use tools like Pywallet or the dumpwallet command in Bitcoin Core's console to export a text file of public addresses.