[Ethereum] web3.eth.getBalance returns always zero

balancessynchronization

I have an ether account (whose details I prefer not to disclose here). I can confirm in etherchain.org that it has the correct amount of funds. I can also check that the funds were transferred in block 3639426

I am running geth on my linux desktop with the plain command

geth

i.e. no "-fast" or nothing enabled. At the moment:

 currentBlock: 3953293,
 highestBlock: 4161833,
 knownStates: 62693,
 pulledStates: 58536,
 startingBlock: 3914231

So, at this stage I should be able to check the balance of my account also from geth console using

web3.eth.getBalance("..")

.. right?

However, I get zero all the time.

Starting to feel cold sweat: I think I've been screwed.. just don't know how! Why I'm getting zero balance?

A Bonus question: what's the essence of "startingBlock" ?

** EDIT **

Phew.. using any account gives me a zero. So, is it so that the blockchain must be downloaded completely before checking account balances works .. ? I guess so.

** EDIT EDIT **

OK, it's finally synchronized & everything works as expected. .. I am using

Geth/v1.7.0-unstable-6ca59d98/linux-amd64/go1.8.3

I wonder if "-fast" is now the default..?

Best Answer

When doing a sync with geth --fast, you will not get any state information until the sync is fully complete. A slow sync will give you incremental state along the way, but take significantly longer.

Related Solutions

[Ethereum] Syncing slow to a crawl (2048 blocks in 2 hours)

You are on the non-forked chain.

From http://fork.ethstats.net/:

The non-forked chain (Ethereum Classic / ETC) does not have many clients or miners and you would therefore experience the slow syncing.

If you intend to be on the hard-forked chain, you will have to specify the geth option:

geth --support-dao-fork console

If you want to fast sync, you will firstly have to remove your current chain:

geth removedb

The start the fast sync:

geth --support-dao-fork --fast console

Also, you will need to be using geth v 1.4.10 or above

geth version
Geth
Version: 1.4.10-stable
...

You can check which chain geth is configured to use by typing:

geth console
...
I0726 13:16:17.848871 cmd/utils/flags.go:842] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I0726 13:16:17.848917 cmd/utils/flags.go:843] Geth is currently configured to SUPPORT the DAO hard-fork!
I0726 13:16:17.848936 cmd/utils/flags.go:844] You can change your choice prior to block #1920000 with --support-dao-fork or --oppose-dao-fork.
I0726 13:16:17.848955 cmd/utils/flags.go:845] After the hard-fork block #1920000 passed, changing chains requires a resync from scratch!
I0726 13:16:17.848973 cmd/utils/flags.go:846] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

See also:

[Ethereum] Why does the account balance show zero

check to see if your keystore has a txt document inside of it with the corresponding keystore values of your wallet. if there are no keystore values, your account balance will read zero.

Related Topic

Web3.js – Balance Returns Zero But Shows Ether with web3.eth.getBalance on Testrpc