[Bitcoin Address]

The process of creating and validating a BIP38 wallet is still confusing to me.

So I go to bitaddress.org and generate a BIP38 encrypted wallet. This is all done offline via ubuntu usb drive.

Now I have the BIP38 public and private keys. So I print these.

In order to validate this wallet is functioning correctly, I use bitaddress.org's "wallet info" tab and enter the encrypted (6P...) private key on my paper wallet and passphrase.

Success. It opens a bunch of different addresses; the important ones I'm guessing are "Bitcoin Address" and "Bitcoin Address Compressed"

Also, "Private Key WIF 51 characters base58, starts with a '5'" and "Private Key WIF Compressed 52 characters base58, starts with a 'K' or 'L'".

I was under the impression that the "Bitcoin Address" was supposed to match the public key on my physical paper wallet, which goes along with the "Private Key WIF 51 characters base58, starts with a '5'".

However, I notice my physical paper wallets public address does not match the displayed "Bitcoin Address" from the "wallet info" tab. Instead the "Bitcoin Address Compressed" matches.

So if I were importing and sweeping this wallet onto a hot wallet, would I use the "Encrypted Private Key (6p...)" as seen on my physical paper wallet or the "Private Key WIF 51 characters base58, starts with a '5'" or "Private Key WIF Compressed 52 characters base58, starts with a 'K' or 'L displayed in the "wallet info" tab?

Furthermore, is opening the wallet under "wallet details" on bitaddress.org (offline) using the encrypted private key on my paper wallet and passphrase, and seeing the matching "Bitcoin Address Compressed" to the physical paperwallet's public key in my hand, enough to verify the wallet is functioning correct and to begin sending funds to?

I've been into cryptocurrency for the past 2 weeks, so sorry if this comes off as newbish.

I have noticed that alt coins are exploding in growth, but not because of their actual purpose of use, their technology or a recent update but because this whole industry has become extremely popular lately.

It seems that the majority of coins in the top 200 have exploded in value between Nov-Dec; so much so that investing at that time was almost fool-proof ROI for a large amount of coins.

It also seems like if you missed out investing in October-November, you are now forced to pay around 2-20x more for the same alt coins, many of which haven't had any new breakthroughs or updates to justify the price increase.

I am wondering if anyone thinks there will be a sort of global correction when the hype starts to die down in the next few months?

It is hard for me to invest in my favorite coins knowing that only a few weeks ago the prices were significantly less. At the same time I feel as though every day the prices go up and it might be better to dump it all in now rather than to do so periodically (hoping for updates and dips and what not).

It's also hard to tell whether 95% of these coins will fade away as new, more refined versions come out in the following years to replace this generation, and so on and so forth until the technology is really understood and maximized.

I understand this is more or less trying to gauge the entire industry, but I'm interested in peoples thoughts on this?