Bitcoin Forum

I want to sign a message from one of my electrum wallet. But the address is a change address , it did't displayed in my Electrum cold wallet. When i sign the message, it shows"address not in wallet".
Is there any method to  sign a message use unseen address in Electrum cold wallet?

The private key of the address you are trying to sign has to be in the wallet. If it is not, it is not possible for you to sign a message using that address. Even if the address is a change address, the private key should be stored in the wallet.

Go to Console and type ismine("1YOURADDRESS") while replacing it with your address. If the response is false, you cannot sign a message with that address with your cold wallet.

I am sure the address is mine in my Electrum cold wallet. It can be displayed in my Electrum watch only wallet by the order listaddresses(). But when i type ismine("MYADDRESS") , the response is false,  why?

The command checks if the wallet has the corresponding private key of the address. This means that you do not have the private key of the address. Without the private key, you will not be able to sign a message with it.

You have likely imported the address as a watch only address.

There are a few different ways just not on electrum. Try out https://brainwalletx.github.io/#sign (https://brainwalletx.github.io/#sign) but I would download the website first and disconnect from the internet.

It's impossible ! I am sure the address is mine in my Electrum cold wallet . I just send btc from it  to participate an ICO not long ago. That's why i must sign message from the address.

I just want to find a way to let Electrum cold wallet display more change address. A friend teach me a way to display more address by command wallet.storage.put('gap_limit', 50) and wallet.storage.write(). It's worked. There must be some command to display more change address. In lower version Electrum, I knew the commands , but I forgot now. And I did't find them in http://docs.electrum.org/en/latest/.

use the Electrum console command:


Passing a parameter of "True" to the create_new_address() function will generate a change addresss past the so-called "gap limit"

Note: if you want to generate "receive" addresses... then use "False" as the parameter:

"True" and "False" are case sensitive... you need the uppercase T or F ;)

You can even use a little "for" loop to generate a whole bunch in one go: http://docs.electrum.org/en/latest/faq.html#how-can-i-pre-generate-new-addresses

You are trying to do this from the wrong computer. If you try to sign a message from your computer that has the "watch only" wallet (eg your online computer), then you will be unable to sign a message from any address.

You will need to sign the message from the machine that you sign transactions from (eg your 'offline' machine).

I just signed the message from the machine that I sign transactions from (my 'offline' machine).
But without some command to show the address in the cold wallet, it can't be signed.

Thank you very much! It's worked!