Bitcoin Forum

I'm pleased to be able to report that MagicalTux has just added the ability to redeem Bitcoin private keys on MtGox.

Simply go to the "Add Funds" screen.  There is a new choice: "Redeem Private Key".  There are sub-choices for full length private keys versus the ones used on Casascius coins.

When you enter a code, it is treated as a new deposit to your account (including you must wait for six confirmations).

MagicalTux says that when you redeem a code, MtGox keeps the private key and will auto-sweep any future funds sent to that key into your MtGox account.

I did a quick test, tearing open one of my coins.  For the time being, the only immediate response is "Sending code...", the balance of the coin is not shown on the screen, possibly until the six confirmations are received.  However I could see that the coin balance got swept by checking the unconfirmed transactions list at bitcoincharts.

Round of applause for MagicalTux for these and the other newly released features on MtGox.

GREAT JOB!

Will add some nice liquidity + boost your sales

I'm thinking of buying a few of your Casascius Physical Bitcoins as gifts now. Maybe for the future you can add like a 'How to Redeem' for newbies instructions using MtGox.

Charlie

hmmm more ways to put money into gox.

if i weren't having trouble getting money out of gox, i'd find this really handy.

well, hopefully it sets the scene for more websites to do something similar.

good stuff.

This is great!  Another venue to get hold of these lovely coins!

We're working on that right now  ;)
Soon, we'll have instant withdrawals in addition to our current instant deposits. Supporting 5 bitcoin exchanges.
Will keep ya updated

BitInstant.com

So am I right in thinking this allows using bitaddress.org to print a paper wallet.

Then do some transactions receiving BTC and then easily dump the balance into MtGox?

All without the vulnerability of wallet.dat being hacked or needing to use a client or download the block chain? This seems like a nice way for lightweight Bitcoin users to get going quickly.

YES.  In my ideal vision of Bitcoin, the average unbanked (and computer illiterate) Joe should be able to use bitcoins without needing to run software or download a block chain.  Joe should be able to think of paper wallets much the same as gift cards.

This is so awesome!! Glad you're doing strong work.

I tried it too and still have the "Sending code..." message at the top of the screen.  I sent some coins to the address, so we'll see what happens.

How much do you charge for a "circulated physical bitcoin"? I mean a complete used coin, that was loaded, tamper-evident seal torn off, bitcoin then spent. Something of numismatic quality "very fine grade circulated", I guess the seal will be evidently damaged, but still recognizable and 100% readable, maybe glued back to a piece of transparent plastic?

Terms: payment in USPS money order, shipment 1st class contiguous states.

Thanks.

8 confirmations and no joy.    :-\


EDIT: So what's the easiest way to import a private key to gain control over my missing coins?

I use StrongCoin.com because all private key math is done on my computer in Javascript and not on the server.  The server only keeps encrypted versions of the private keys so the server (and server owner) does not have access to the Bitcoins.

Hopefully the sweepprivkey proposal will become more of a reality than a proposal, and then every website that accepts Bitcoins can be easily made to also accept Bitcoin deposits directly.

We have fixed the bug with the "sending code" message remaining.

Please also make sure you did not make any mistake when writing the private key (it'll show you any bitcoin that was swept).

It looks like a new bug has been introduced.  On the page for redeeming private keys, there are two options labeled "Standard private key". It looks like this:

http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/bitcoin/mtgox-private-key-error.png

OK, so I tried entering the private address again and got a message:

Private address added to your virtual wallet with address 1xxxxx......

This has me a little confused.  I originally generated the keypair using bitaddress.org.  It provided me with both a Bitcoin address and a private key.  Mt Gox doesn't have the public key from this keypair, so they cannot generate a corresponding address.  The address they gave me is not the correct one for the original keypair, of course.  What does this new address do, specifically?  Why do I need another address if I still have the original?  Does Mt Gox now own my private key, and should I no longer use the associated address?  The balance from the imported key still hasn't shown up in my account.

Does it support sending back out via that private key? That would be awesome.

You wouldn't want this.  It has non-ideal security implications.  If you want to stay safe, don't re-use private keys once you've typed them into a website.  Use a new one.

Of course it supports it all you have to do is tell Mt Gox to send Bitcoins to the corresponding public key, however since you have imported the private key into your Mt Gox account the coins would just be sent from your Mt Gox account back into your Mt Gox account, unless I am missing something in your question.

Great work! I'm handing out some of my casascius coins to friends, and having this feature will make the explanation a lot easier.

Maybe I'm confused but I thought the address was a hash of the key, not a public key. I would expect once you redeem the key at MtGox that key becomes one of the ones attached to your account just like other keys they generate for you.

So any funds sent to that address later would end up in the account. I'm not sure about this. The difference would be that you could potentially spend money from that address without having to withdraw it using the MtGox interface. Or, alternately perhaps they transfer funds into your account and leave the key empty so that such "outside withdrawls" cannot occur.

Hmmm okay I tried using bitaddress, generated a new keypair, and sent one coin to the address: 1QGUNoJ799PKGrFuPrXJPRM3ZsHPoHh1rh

I've tried "redeeming" this with MtGox (using the long-ass private key) a couple times now (including yesterday) and nothing is showing up. You can see the 1 btc is still at the address above.

Any help?

bitaddress.org provides the private key in "Sipa Wallet Import Format" and MtGox is expecting "Standard Format".
I'm working on a new tab for bitaddress called "Wallet Details" it will have one input box for the private key and I will auto-detect the format and display the private key in the various different formats including the "Standard Format" required by MtGox.


THANKS to MtGox for this super cool feature of private key redeeming!! I hope they add an auto-detect for all the different private key formats.

I want to send out transactions specifically from the wallet I uploaded to a specified recipient (outside Mt. Gox)

Here is what I have tried so far:

I entered the mini private key S4b3N3oGqDqR5jNuxEvDwf and got the response "Private address added to your virtual wallet with address 1GAehh7TsJAHuUAeKZcXf5CnwuGuGgyX2S. There was no coins in there, maybe you did a typo?"  This is the correct public key address and there are no coins at this address.  So far so good.

I entered the hex private key for the same key 0c28fca386c7a227600b2fe50b7cae11ec86d3bf1fbe471be89827e19d72aa1d and got the response "Your private address could not be redeemed (already redeemed?)".  I guess this is the expected response and it proves that they calculated the same account for this version of the private key.

However, when I enter the WIF 5HueCGU8rMjxEXxiPuD5BDku4MkFqeZyd4dZ1jvhTVqvbTLvyTJ for the same private key it calculated the wrong public key address.  So there appears to be a problem/bug when using the WIF.

I reported this bug to Mt. Gox.

I then used both a real mini private key and a real hex private key to attempt to import Bitcoins from active accounts (opened physical coins).  In both cases it calculated the correct public key address and found that there were Bitcoins in the accounts and promised to import them into Mt. Gox.

The Bitcoins were eventually moved off the accounts for the private keys I entered into Mt. Gox and placed on new accounts withing Mt. Gox.  This proves that they sweep the value off the imported private keys so there is no way to reuse the private key to send Bitcoins out of Mt. Gox.

See http://blockexplorer.com/address/13MsUf2Nnowoj8gdZBfBSyBJzVcC1R7hZA

And http://blockexplorer.com/address/13MT4QvExmajXAYqKQeMXAh9saVTVP6f6a

Both (one from a mini key and one from the hex key) showed up in my Mt. Gox account:  The notation looked like this:

This shows both the notes I put in when I imported the key (first bits of the original public address and the private key type used) and the new public address the Bitcoins were swept into.

Wow.  This is huge for Casascius.  Congratulations!

"Auto sweep" also works.  I added 2 more Bitcoins to one of the addresses I imported via private key.  The amount was then automatically swept from the imported private key account and transferred to yet another new account inside Mt. Gox.

See http://blockexplorer.com/address/13MsUf2Nnowoj8gdZBfBSyBJzVcC1R7hZA

After sending 4 opened coins (2 using mini key and 2 using hex key) and then sending two more Bitcoins by sending them to one of the opened coin accounts using the "auto sweep".  My Mt. Gox account shows:


Very nice new feature!

Hmm this is frustrating, I don't know how to take a "sipa format" key and turn it into "standard key"

Can anyone help me?  I can just give you my private key with 1btc on it and you can send me a btc if that's easiest. My coin is stuck in purgatory :(

Please pm if you can help

If you don't mind telling your private key to Block Explorer, you can use their API:

Example:
Address: 13mWJ7RtAoMTB6nYTWouHSc8KLfpUWZskY
Privkey: 5JSnvLmCsFDye4QMbYE1fsyGAPbpr1XjyBuGJpqVfdvuz2kmuo6

Go to https://blockexplorer.com/q/addresstohash/5JSnvLmCsFDye4QMbYE1fsyGAPbpr1XjyBuGJpqVfdvuz2kmuo6
and the hex that it spits back is 52E417A1818758EBC3E1C595BF0DCA0C9F29A0E1087D5B01456F43819CFBD401

And if I go to Mt. Gox and try to redeem it, it says "Private address added to your virtual wallet with address 13mWJ7RtAoMTB6nYTWouHSc8KLfpUWZskY. There was no coins in there, maybe you did a typo?"

I'm sure that there are ways of doing it with openssl or python or whatnot locally, but as long as you trust the Block Explorer site to not do anything nefarious with your private key before you have a chance to redeem it, it ought to work for you until Mt. Gox supports the import format directly.

MtGox intends to support this format but may have a bug in its implementation.  I was discussing how this format worked with MagicalTux about 16 hours ago and he indicated his initial understanding of the format was incorrect. So this presumably should be supported at some point soon once it is all fixed.

The "sipa format" is the most commonly used private key format in Bitcoin so it will undoubtedly be supported.

Boom that worked!!! Thanks bud!

This is all just very awesome. Thanks again to Casascius and MagicalTux.

pywallet.py --info --importprivkey 5JSnvLmCsFDye4QMbYE1fsyGAPbpr1XjyBuGJpqVfdvuz2kmuo6

will return:
Address (Bitcoin): 13mWJ7RtAoMTB6nYTWouHSc8KLfpUWZskY
Privkey (Bitcoin): 5JSnvLmCsFDye4QMbYE1fsyGAPbpr1XjyBuGJpqVfdvuz2kmuo6
Hexprivkey: 52e417a1818758ebc3e1c595bf0dca0c9f29a0e1087d5b01456f43819cfbd401

Cool. I take it the --info ensures it won't actually import the key. I tested it with no wallet present and it still works the same so that's handy.

I have confirmed that MtGox now accepts private keys in "sipa format".

I just got shown bwagner's private key from this post as my Bitcoin receiving address at MtGox. From what seems to be a php var_dump showing me debug.

This is a major WTF.

1GAehh7TsJAHuUAeKZcXf5CnwuGuGgyX2S

imgur proof: https://i.imgur.com/GAmhb.png

Interesting.  That particular address and public key pair is just the test pair from the wiki here:  https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mini_private_key_format


So, it is not any of my personal addresses or public keys (whew).  But it interesting that it showed up.  My guess is that Mt. Gox may be using that test pair for testing and somehow their testing went astray?