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Bitcoin => Bitcoin Technical Support => Topic started by: ArpFlush on December 04, 2015, 10:51:42 AM



Title: Wallets and (un)compressed keys
Post by: ArpFlush on December 04, 2015, 10:51:42 AM
Hello everyone,

Can someone list me what (desktop) wallets use uncompressed private keys (and which ones use compressed pk's)?
If I'm correct, a client that uses uncompressed keys (Electrum) can't import compressed keys, right? because you will end up with a different bitcoin address.

Thanks ;-)


Title: Re: Wallets and (un)compressed keys
Post by: shorena on December 04, 2015, 12:32:17 PM
Hello everyone,

Can someone list me what (desktop) wallets use uncompressed private keys (and which ones use compressed pk's)?
If I'm correct, a client that uses uncompressed keys (Electrum) can't import compressed keys, right? because you will end up with a different bitcoin address.

Thanks ;-)

Most wallets should now generate compressed keys. If the wallet can export the private key in WIF (Wallet Import Format) you can see by the prefix whether the public key should be hashed compressed or not. Prefixes starting with 5 are for uncompressed keys while L and K are for compressed keys.

Generally speaking all wallets should be able to handle both compressed and uncompressed pubkeys.

Edit: words


Title: Re: Wallets and (un)compressed keys
Post by: achow101 on December 04, 2015, 12:34:27 PM
The only wallet I know of that only supports uncompressed keys is armory. All other wallets that I know of are able to support both types.


Title: Re: Wallets and (un)compressed keys
Post by: ArpFlush on December 04, 2015, 01:30:52 PM
Good to know that, thanks all.