<p>Bitcoin Core distinguishes between <strong>spendable</strong> and <strong>solvable</strong>.</p>
<p>Spendable means your wallet knows how to spend the UTXO (for example, it knows all the scripts it needs), <em>and</em> has all the private keys it needs to create and sign a spending transaction.</p>
<p>Solvable, on the other hand, only means the wallet knows <em>how</em> to spend the UTXO (it knows all the scripts it needs), but it doesn't necessarily know the keys, so it may not actually be able to spend it. If something is spendable, it is always solvable, but not the other way around. For example, if you import all the scripts and public keys for a P2SH address into your wallet, it will be solvable, but not spendable, because you don't have the private keys (they may be on a hardware wallet, for example).</p>
<p>So in your case, it is neither solvable nor spendable, because you don't have the private keys or scripts needed to even know how to spend.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-12-20T06:21:29.787Z
2021-12-20T06:21:29.787Z
meshcollider
<p>Solvable refers to the wallets ability to create a transaction which could spend those funds. As it is a watch only key that has been imported, there is no possible solution which it could come to in order to spend that money.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-25T14:45:04.350Z
Ok so i need the right key in other words to access the funds then?
Dogo777
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-25T14:45:41.837Z
Yes, a watch only import does not let you spend the money in any circumstance.
Claris
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-24T13:43:48.843Z
2021-03-24T13:43:48.843Z
Claris
<p>So i have retrieved an old wallet.dat file. When i open it in bitcoin-core i can only see the adress as an watchadress. I went to the console and typed - listunspent and this shows up.
I understand why the bits are unspendable due to the fact that it only shows as a watch-adress. But how is it possible that it says &quot;solvable -false&quot; since i accessed with the wallet? Am i missing something very important here?</p>
<pre><code>&quot;vout&quot;: 14,
&quot;address&quot;: &quot;-------------------&quot;,
&quot;label&quot;: &quot;&quot;,
&quot;scriptPubKey&quot;: &quot;----------------------&quot;,
&quot;amount&quot;: 0.60790000,
&quot;confirmations&quot;: 257190,
&quot;spendable&quot;: false,
&quot;solvable&quot;: false,
&quot;safe&quot;: true
</code></pre>

<listunspent>
Listunspent: "Solvable - False"
Dogo777
# Listunspent: "Solvable - False"

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-03-24)

So i have retrieved an old wallet.dat file. When i open it in bitcoin-core i can only see the adress as an watchadress. I went to the console and typed - listunspent and this shows up.
I understand why the bits are unspendable due to the fact that it only shows as a watch-adress. But how is it possible that it says "solvable -false" since i accessed with the wallet? Am i missing something very important here?
"vout": 14,
"address": "-------------------",
"label": "",
"scriptPubKey": "----------------------",
"amount": 0.60790000,
"confirmations": 257190,
"spendable": false,
"solvable": false,
"safe": true

**Tags:** listunspent


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-12-20. Score: 1

Bitcoin Core distinguishes between **spendable** and **solvable**.

Spendable means your wallet knows how to spend the UTXO (for example, it knows all the scripts it needs), *and* has all the private keys it needs to create and sign a spending transaction.

Solvable, on the other hand, only means the wallet knows *how* to spend the UTXO (it knows all the scripts it needs), but it doesn't necessarily know the keys, so it may not actually be able to spend it. If something is spendable, it is always solvable, but not the other way around. For example, if you import all the scripts and public keys for a P2SH address into your wallet, it will be solvable, but not spendable, because you don't have the private keys (they may be on a hardware wallet, for example).

So in your case, it is neither solvable nor spendable, because you don't have the private keys or scripts needed to even know how to spend.


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### Answer by username_2 on 2021-03-24. Score: 0

Solvable refers to the wallets ability to create a transaction which could spend those funds. As it is a watch only key that has been imported, there is no possible solution which it could come to in order to spend that money.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Ok so i need the right key in other words to access the funds then?  
> **username_2**: Yes, a watch only import does not let you spend the money in any circumstance.  

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