Bitcoin Forum

Hello ;)

I want to move my btc from my non segwit wallet to a new wallet that is supporting segwit.
Apart from sending them as a normal bitcoin transaction that would cost me some big money (my wallet does not support custom fees), if I am not wrong it is possible to move them using the private keys and save on the fee?
How does this work? Something I should be aware of? Is it safe to do so?

Thanks a lot!

You have to give more details so can better find out options. It should be possible to use your private keys to sweep your entire balance from Wallet 1 to Wallet 2. But since this requires a transaction, and that's not what you want, then you have to use Wallet 2 to import the private keys from Wallet 1. Importing can have compatibility issues, depending on the wallets you're talking about, and then there might be issues with segwit/nonsegwit, but I suppose you could always try above steps.

Unfortunately, while your private key generates the "address" that the coins are stored on... it is the "address" that "owns" the coins. You CANNOT move coins from one address to another without broadcasting a transaction and having it confirmed onto the blockchain.

This is illustrated by "compressed" and "uncompressed" addresses... both addresses are generated by the same private key... but coins sent to 1compressedAddress CANNOT be seen or "sent" from 1uncompressedAddress.

Similarly, while you can use your private key that generated "1nonSegWitAddress" to create "3newSegWitAddress" (ie. addwitnessaddress command in Bitcoin Core)... this DOES NOT move the coins from the nonSegWit Address to the SegWit Address.

TLDR; - You can only move your coins from nonSegWit to SegWit wallet using a transaction