Second, I created a safety copy of the entire directory and put it on a memory stick. There it was, under ~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin/.įirst, I made sure all my Wifi and Bluetooth connections on the laptop were turned off, and the laptop was not connected to the internet. I searched my file system for a wallet.dat file and got lucky. The address indeed contained some fractions of a bitcoin. I browsed a bit further and realized that there was also a second address, not displayed with default settings, and that second address claimed to contain said fractions of a bitcoin. I started the application and found an address. While opening the DVD player application I suddenly spotted an installation of Bitcoin Core that I have entirely managed to ignore throughout all those years. I never bothered to re-format its hard disk, and that’s my luck. I am still using said MacBook from 2011 to watch movies every now and then as it has an in-built DVD player and actually works more or less flawlessly still today. Certainly, back then it did not have a lot of value. I don’t quite remember whether I managed to get those fractions through mining, or whether one of the members of the research project transferred it to my account as a small gift. Today, the value of that fraction is enough to buy me new laptop or go on a vacation for some days. Nevertheless, I installed Bitcoin core v0.3.19 BETA on my MacBook Pro, and somehow managed to get my hands on a fraction of a bitcoin. And certainly there was no way how to ever either buy something or transfer any bitcoins to real fiat money. While I found the ideas fascinating I could not make a lot of sense of it. There, for the first time, someone told me about Bitcoin. In 2011 my employer sent me and a co-worker to the Netherlands for two weeks to work on a research project. How I found and cashed in a bitcoin wallet from 2011Ī few days ago I found a Bitcoin wallet.dat on a Macbook from 2011.

Mac tower computer 2011