Bitcoin Forum

Has anyone ever had an issue with a private key not working.


I've personally never had that happen, but I am curious if anyone had a paper wallet private key not work not from physical damage or negligence but from it simply not working.

If I want to have a well-funded cold storage, then I test the 12 words to see if it truly works.

I don't believe someone with a lot of bitcoins would only save his wallet on a piece of paper. If he ever lost it, he is gone for good. I would try to memorise it and save it on 3-4 different places. 12 words don't seem suspicious. A whole private key seems.

Underlying words from a book for example is a good way to keep your funds.

What do you mean by not working?
Do you mean the private key doesn't generate any address? Or it generates an address but it's empty?

How did you create your paper wallet?
How are you importing your private key? What's the wallet you are using?

So you mean to say that some has a paper wallet but he has lost the key ?
In fact Paper wallets are just private and public keys written down. If the paper wallet is not lost, he will have access to the private keys and your money will be saved.

It will always work so long as;
1. The private key that your backed up or copied is valid
2. The Bitcoin wallet you are using to import the private key supports the given format

This could be a good start for you to understand more about private keys https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Private_key

It might not be much needed but would post the basic importing from paper wallet neither on blockchain or electrum.

Importing Bitcoin from a paper wallet into Electrum (https://thecleverest.com/importing-bitcoin-from-a-paper-wallet-into-electrum/#:~:text=Import%20Private%20Key%20into%20Electrum&text=That%27s%20going%20to%20change%20when,Nice!)
Import a paper wallet into Blockchain.info (https://coineva.com/paper-wallet-import-blockchain-info.html#:~:text=To%20import%20your%20paper%20wallet,to%20the%20Blockchain.info%20wallet.)

The question is, op didnt clarify something about on that it doesnt work? The keys wont work?

Did you properly check if the one you save is correct? since maybe you accidentally add some letters or numbers when you try to save your keys that's why it didn't work on your another attempt. But anything with those reasons for sure the given private key will 100% work if it pasted correctly.

Provided you have written the private key down accurately and it has not been damaged during storage, then no, it will always work.

A private key is converted to an address using a number of very specific mathematical processes - namely elliptic curve multiplication, SHA256 hashing, and RIPEMD160 hashing. The same input (private key) will always give the same output (address). The only way for a private key to stop working is with a massive fundamental change to the bitcoin protocol.

I experienced this on my Etherwallet private key but in Bitcoin private key I don't think so because i didn't encounter any problem with my private key ever since I used bitcoin. If you have paper wallet and you input there your private key correctly I think there is no reason not to open your wallet.

It should be work if you backup the right private key, always make sure to save it correctly on the right place or write them down on the piece of paper. But after doing that also make sure to test them and import it to any wallet to test if it will show you the right address so that you know that the private key you have is working.

Make an extra copy of the backup to another storage or write them down on the paper as an additional backup that you can use for future reference.

I'm not sure if you tried to open your wallet after created the keys (this I usually do to check if it is correct or not). Because if that it works before and never has an issue accessing it before there is no reason that makes it hard to access it again unless if your wallet has been hacked. It fort sure nobody had access in your keys as it was stored at your paper wallet.

I suggest also using another browser or double-check the keys (might have wrong with your inputs).

I assume that when you want to keep your coins from one address you made sure that you generate the right private key, that is associated to that address, it should work if it's not then all the private key from paper wallet will not work anymore, so far no one has posted that he has this kind of issue, some of the issues are damaged or corrupt paper wallet but not on the private key.

There was one instance when I cannot use my 12-word seed phrase to unlock my wallet. Turns out I have added an extra 's' to a word and that's the reason behind my few minutes of frustration. There isn't a situation wherein the private key doesn't work and do its job. If that's the case, it's either some details are wrong within the string itself or it isn't really a valid key to begin with. It should always work if the backup process is complete and no extra dumb steps were added in between.

It did happen with me. I had some coins and a private key for backup. When I entered the private key on electrum, I was surprised to see my  balance zero. And after some seconds of shock realized that I haven't received anything and my receiving address was unfamiliar. So, I google some questions and found out that same private keys could have different wallet for segwit, native segwit and non-segwit. And I need to put p2wpkh-p2sh: (address starting with 3) or p2wpkh: (address starting with bc1) in front of the private key to access my wallet in electrum.

If it turns out there are some missing or added letters or numbers from the time you saved it that will really not work. I agree with Tipstar maybe you have a different bitcoin address from the latest wallet you're importing right now. Check first the type of address you're trying to import your private key in your wallet.

Private keys can be stored in different formats, and there are different types of private keys corresponding to different addresses, like segwit or multisig or p2sh and so on. So, it can be possible that the user provides incorrect type of private key, or the wallet just can't understand a given private key, especially if the wallet is outdated. But if everything is correct, than a private key can not "simply" no work.

If we're not mistaken in writing, I'm sure the private key won't be wrong.
And make it a habit not only to store private keys, at least 2 keys.

I haven't heard yet had an issue with the right private key.

As of now, the only problem I encountered yet is the wrong private key due to negligence. So my advice is to store them in a nice place or storage and create enough copies for backup.

That's unlikely to happen. Private keys that were generated were always correct but if it's wrong, the error isn't in the generation but to the user who have saved the keys.

It's either there's a misspelled word or missed words upon writing the keys. You must remember that this is your total keys to your funds so be sure to write the right words and check it as you save a backup.

the solution to your worry is very simple, test your backup.
after you create the paper wallet (whether it has the private key written on it or the mnemonic or the encrypted private key or mnemonic) you have to test it by recovering your wallet using your backup after you created it to make sure you haven't made any mistakes.
it goes without saying that all of this should happen on an air-gap computer.

Man, that's deep.

OP, have you checked your address first? Is it really working or what I meant is, did you really create a bitcoin address to have a private key?
This is why I always make a lot of physical back up. I don't want to mess everything up just to be secure with just 1 saved copy.
Out of curiosity, what wallet are you using? 

no the op didnt have this problem but he is only asking it because he thinks that it can possibly happen not only to him but also to someone else . having a privatekey out of nowhere is also not possible if he didnt create a crypto wallet at first  and is there is such thing as checking the address if its working or not ? i guess no but the only way to check if the address is active if there are some funds with it  but what your doing is right , two or more is always better than one copy  .

So far, I have never had a problem with my private key, always work for me. And until now, I haven't found any incidents of private key
not working. As long as the private key we keep is valid, I think it will work. It is very important that we keep the private key in a secret
and secure place, if possible we try to memorize it.

I don't think there is such a thing. A properly stored and copied private key will save your assets. there has never been a breakdown of a private key that did not generate a wallet address. unless you lose it and it will lose your money too

I do not understand your question correctly. Your question seems completely unreasonable to me. Why not your personal work? It’s something I don’t understand. This will definitely work if you store your private key in the right place. And I don't even understand what you mean by paper wallet. And I don't think anyone's private key will be okay but it won't work. I have never had such an experience and I don't think there is anyone.

Usually there is never a problem with the private key if you put it and copy it correctly other than if you did it wrong there will be a problem. but now there is an update so you just have to follow the update and it can save properly, it doesn't have to be in one place but at least 2 places that you are sure are not missing.

I myself don't use the private key but keep the keystore file and save it on USB and Email so it can be more secure. and I am safer using the keystore file because it is protected by a password. but again depending on your habits.

I ever it before, I have Segwit where a private key generated using an offline tool. when importing to electrum I had a surprise getting a different address. I need 2 days to understand what happens (because I made mistakes, didn't input script front of a private key)

Most people didn't recommend keeping those on email, I don't understand why you called secure?. Google, proton, yahoo, outlook have access to your email even you have a strong password.

I never heard of such an issue before, the only issue I heard of was lose of privat key...

Are you just dumb or purposely being ignorant?
There's no way in hell your private key will malfunction as it is the only access to a user's funds which are on a decentralized wallet.

What happened to you doesn't qualify as a private key issue. There are various formats and processes of deriving bitcoin address from private key. A same private key can be used to generate any of the three type of addresses. So it is important to mention which address type you want the wallet to show. If your importing wallet is used different format that doesn't mean your private key is invalidated.

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He doesn't mean email password but the password used to encrypt keystore file. If you are using long and secure password to encrypt keystore file, it is not easy to brute-force the password even if you get access to the file. But still saving such files in email is dumb-ass move. It is better to keep things in your hard-disk than email.

It is very difficult for the private key to stop working as if nothing, the only way is that you are putting a letter or a wrong number, so it is always recommended before placing money in the wallet to open in different places with the key to see if everything works normally and keep the private key in safe places 8)

I think OP is just saving the keys in paper wallet without tryng it first it's important to try your keys first before saving it so you will know at early stage that you save the right keys or if there are some problem from what you save   . If the wallet can't be open then there are missing or there are one characters added that should not be there.

That's actually a good suggestion but it would be really hard to look for those random words within the same book unless its a Dictionary. It would be also be bad for someone to keep their Bitcoin on a paper wallet since those kinds of wallet can be vulnerable into threats of being lost or teared apart.

Yeah right?

I mean aside from what you've said, I just wanted to add that a private key won't work if you accidentally have a typo, or add a space after a word for your private key, based on my experienced. So far, this is the first time I've heard something like this.

You can't even close a bitcoin wallet or delete it, even if we just assume that someone use your private key to do that.

This is just security through obscurity (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_through_obscurity), and is generally a poor method to rely on for security of your seed phrase. Better to make sure you seed phrase is stored in a secret and secure location than to store it out in the open but try to obfuscate it like this. If you are going to store it where someone can find it, then better to encrypt it instead.

That's why you make back ups. Paper wallets, if generated properly and spent from properly (i.e. on permanently airgapped computers) are one of the safest ways to store bitcoin - completely airgapped, immune to being hacked or leaked online, practically immune to malware, easy to hide and store securely, etc. Set up correctly, they are safer than web, software, and hardware wallets. Their biggest draw back is that a lot of people create them in insecure ways, and then blame the paper wallet for their own mistakes.

Private keys do not contain spaces or words. You are thinking of seed phrases. Private keys are strings of letters and numbers.

Good Morning all,

upon reviewing some of your replies i should make aware im very well versed in using back up phrases, having private keys. ive used private keys, electrum and even vanity addresses, rolled dice to get a key.

my question is maybe worded odd.

il try again.

has anyone hashed a private key or 12 word phrase that doesn't work?

Provided you are using proper wallet software, then this should not happen.

A private key is simply a 256 bit number. Almost any 256 bit number is a valid private key, with the upper limit being slightly less than 2²⁵⁶ due to the order of the secp256k1 curve that bitcoin uses. If your wallet was to generate a 256 bit number above this limit by chance (somewhere in the region of 1 in 300 trillion trillion trillion chance), then as per BIP32 (https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0032.mediawiki) it should simply skip this value and proceed to the next one. The only way it could use an invalid 256 bit number as a private key would be to calculate it as modulo n, (with n being the order of the curve discussed above), which would result in a much smaller 256 number which is a valid key.

Seed phrases are generated from your entropy. Any 12 word seed phrase could be used to generate a seed number, as it is simply the input to the PBKDF2 function, which then generates the seed number for your wallet. However, the final word of standard BIP39 seed phrases contains a checksum for the rest of the phrase. Again, your wallet should automatically generate a valid checksum, but if it didn't, the seed phrase could still be used to generate a wallet while ignoring the invalid checksum.

The short answer is provided you are using an established wallet, then no, you do not have to worry about invalid seed phrases or private keys.