Bitcoin Forum

Newbie question I'm sure...

How the $%& do I import the private key generated at bitaddress.org so I can actually spend those bitcoins sent to the public keys?

I'm running bitcoin-qt on a Mac.  

Thanks

The Bitcoin-Qt client GUI doesn't have any support for that but bitcoind does.  On a Mac though, there is no bitcoind.  You could run Bitcoin-Qt in server mode ( $ bitcon-qt  -server ), and config file changes so that it could accept RPC commands but that's probably more than you want to do.

Mt. Gox makes it easy to redeem private keys.  Use the Funding tab.

Also Blockchain.info/wallet allows you to import private keys as wel.

 - http://Blockchain.info/wallet

Then you an send the funds to your wallet on your Mac.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=88477.msg974356#msg974356

Replace dumpprivkey by importprivkey on the instructions also leaving the bitcoin address out.

I would write a full guide but on the tablet keyboard I would take hours lol

You can do it, but Bitcoin-qt will crash on my Mac with the key imported when restarted.

1.) Fire up Bitcoin-qt (v0.7.0rc2-beta in my case)

2.) Click on Help > Debug Window

3.) Click on console

4.) Type "importprivkey [keynumber]" in the prompt.

5.) Watch program crash

6.) Wait a minute. Start program again. See imported key.

It's not graceful and I wouldn't do it with a wallet with any funds in it.

I recommend installing bitcoind if you want advanced features like this. The importprivkey function works fine with that.

There's also alternative Bitcoin clients which have nice, pleasant user interfaces for doing this.  There's a list of popular ones on the main bitcoin.org website:

http://bitcoin.org/clients.html (http://bitcoin.org/clients.html)

Bitcoin-Qt is really not good for advanced functionality like this unless you want to use bitcoind on the command line.  That program is focused on stability and network security.  Other clients have really pioneered making other functionality, like importing private keys, easier for the average user.

Except there is no bitcoind for Mac. You need to use Bitcoin-qt, run it with the server=1 flag on the bitcoin.conf file and pass it the commands using curl.

Thanks for your replies.

I found a workaround for MAC. 

Using Multibit I export the private key.  Then open that exported file using Textedit.app and editing it with the new address.

Then importing that private key file back into Multibit.

Seems to be working.

BTW if some smart programmers and some excellent GUI people got together and made all the moving parts to using Bitcoin click simple (and mobile) it would likely be the single largest lever we have to getting mainstream adoption.

....add to that some viral tools built right into the software, recruiting the new users social network friends we could make this explode.

It took me a day just to learn how the system worked, how to secure everything, and how to use the system. 

All the resources are written by techies... with the assumption that everyone else understands the techie stuff.

Most mainstream won't go through that.  I needs to be click simple for the masses.  And because of the elegant design of Bitcoin I can't see why the tools to use it can't be click simple. 

Wish I was a techie...Perhaps when I get some more $$$ aside I'll recruit the right techies and make "Bitcoin Click Simple" a passion project for humanities sake :)