Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin => Bitcoin Technical Support => Topic started by: spg on June 02, 2017, 05:04:53 AM



Title: Found old keys, but I may have outsmarted myself...
Post by: spg on June 02, 2017, 05:04:53 AM
I found what I think are two private keys I hid long ago (a pair of 64 character hex strings), which is great... except I have no idea what coin they would have been for. The only clue I have is that I saved them in early February 2014. I tried importing each one into a Dogecoin wallet (went to console and typed importprivkey "bunch of letters and numbers") and it didn't work so it either isn't Doge or I used the wrong syntax.

Around that time I was trying all sorts of random mining pools, shady exchanges, and stupid coins, so it could even belong to some trashcoin that doesn't exist anymore. Is there anything I can try beyond downloading wallets that sound familiar and attempting to import the keys into each one?


Title: Re: Found old keys, but I may have outsmarted myself...
Post by: digaran on June 02, 2017, 05:34:22 AM
First try this one: https://www.bitaddress.org
And go to wallet details section and just put the private key.

https://gobittest.appspot.com/PrivateKey

Test this to see if you could figure out anything from it, I haven't slept 2 days so I can't focus on it more than this. :)


Title: Re: Found old keys, but I may have outsmarted myself...
Post by: HCP on June 02, 2017, 07:01:13 AM
You should be able to check BTC, LTC and DOGE relatively easy... goto: https://bitcoinpaperwallet.com/bitcoinpaperwallet/generate-wallet.html#

There is a link to download the source near the bottom of the page. Advisable to run it offline.

On the "Instructions" table, use the dropdown to choose between BTC, LTC and DOGE formats... then you can use the "Validate or Decrypt" tab... paste in the 64 char hex string and click the button, you'll be able to get the compressed and uncompressed addresses (link on the right "Display compressed format keys?") that are generated from the private key.

Check those addresses in a coin appropriate block explorer and see if they hold any value.

As for other coins, you'll need to compile a list of which coins use 256bit private keys... and figure out how to generate the public keys/addresses from a private key :P


Title: Re: Found old keys, but I may have outsmarted myself...
Post by: spg on June 02, 2017, 02:36:32 PM
Thank you! I tried the paper wallet decryption for each key. It looks like they weren't BTC, LTC, or Doge unfortunately. Probably something I've long since forgotten about, or addresses I never actually used. I guess the mystery will be why I ever thought to save them in the first place. :)