I have been trying to tansfer the bitcoins I own from Blockchain to Coinfloor. I was having trouble as it wouldn't allow me to do so. It transpires that I have a wallet in Blockchain with an imported Bitcoin address and I need the private key to 'access' it.
Correct, you can import an
address into Blockchain.com wallet (ie. a "watching-only" wallet) and 1Blockchain.com will be able to monitor the transactions and balance etc... but you won't be able to send any transactions without the private key.
I have a paper wallet which I printed off years ago. I try to scan the QR code but my phone doesn't manage to do it. It is faded a little. Under the wallet address is a number and letters (very fine) which I'll need a magnifying glass if I have any hope of reading it. Is there another way of getting the private key? I have just managed to open up my old Bittylicious account from where I bought the Bitcoins. Would I find the key there?
Probably not. As far as I can tell, Bittylicious does not generate private keys or have wallet functionality available to users. You need to already have a wallet of some kind (web wallet like blockchain, paper wallet, desktop wallet like multibit/electrum etc) and when you buy bitcoins, you enter you wallet address and Bittylicious sends the coins directly to that wallet address.
Where would I have got that paper wallet from? Would that have come from Blockchain or Bittylicious? I would be very greatful for some help. Thanks.
Without seeing the paper wallet and it's design etc. it's impossible to say really... but I am fairly sure that you didn't get it from either Blockchain or Bittylicious... I don't think either of those services ever produced "paperwallets".
Yes I apologise and thanks for your reply. Forget the multibit as they weren't a part of the picture. I had downloaded a mulitbit wallet to my computer years ago and now I thought by bitcoin was in there. But I managed to track them to to Blockchain by looking at my old computer's 'favourites'. I have access to the Blockchain account. I tried to move the Bitcoin to Coinfloor but it wouldn't allow me to. Blockchain helped me to realise that they are kept in a wallet in Blockchain which had been imported. I had imported it from Bittylicious.
I don't think you imported it from Bittylicious. You would have
sent the coins to a bitcoin address when purchasing them from Bittylicious... but Bittylicious does not generate private key/addresses for you.
I even still have the Bittylicious account which I managed to gain access to. But, in order for me to do anything with the Bitcoin in the imported account, I need the Private Key which is either a Base-58 or WIF format key.
Can you see if the letters/numbers underneath the QR code start with a "5", an "L" or a "K"?
If it does... then those letters/numbers are indeed the private key that is on the paper wallet (no guarantees that it is the private key that matches your imported address, but it is a good start)
Now I have a paper wallet which is I believe linked to this imported wallet. It's a little faded and my phone is unable to read it. I do have an Iphone 5s. But there's writing under the wallet address which I believe is the private key. I gather Blockchain generated the private key?
I don't think so... not if the only thing you have in blockchain.com wallet is an
address... the private key was likely generated elsewhere.
At this point I would suggest:
1. Getting a magnifying glass and attempting to read the letters/numbers underneath the QR code
or
2. Make a physical copy of the QR Code using a photocopier and then darken up the QRCode code on the copy by hand with a pen/marker
or
3. You could attempt to make a copy of the QR Code and then darken up the image (using photoshop or similar) so it can be read by your phone
or
4. Attempt to re-create the QR Code in a QR Code generator app that allows pixel by pixel editing, like this:
https://www.pixilart.com/draw/qr-code-c70c8f58dfNote that making a digital copy of the QR Code (ie. options #3 and #4) is NOT recommended unless you are happy that your computer is malware free... if someone gets hold of that QRCode, they could take your coins... which, being 2 BTC, is quite a significant sum. Appropriate precautions should be taken.
I would personally attempt #1 first.
Thank you for that informative post.
The letters/numbers do begin with a 5 and it's 50 characters long. The good new is that I've use a magnifying glass and I believe I've got most if not all the characters correctly written down.
The paper wallet I have says blockchain.info/wallet/my account name on the top. It then has two qr codes similar to the one post above with Scan to load & Verify above one on the left and Scan to redeem above the one on the right. In the middle is a bitcoin address identical to the one holding the bitcoins in the blockchain imported address. So it must surely have somehow come from Blockchain. It even has what looks like their faded logo on the top.
I've been in touch with Blockchain and been trying to move the imported bitcoin address to a Blockchain Private Key wallet. But their system won't allow this to be done at the moment. They are now looking into it and I'm waiting to hear back from them.
At what point would I need to use my Private Key?
I did all this back in 2013 and more or less forgott about but I decided to do some searching since bitcoin became much more valuable. I wonder how many others are the same? I remember a guy in Wales who had thrown a computer away (possibly by accident) and it had thousand of bitcoins on it. A search of the local dump wasn't successful.
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