Having An Issue Importing Paper Wallet, New BTC User

[BellicoseBenny]

Hello everyone, bought a mining rig and have been getting paid out in BTC by nicehash. Was sending it to a paper wallet I got from blockchain info, public address is working transaction history can be checked. But now when I go to try to import the wallet into electrum I'm stuck entering the key. It seems my response isn't in the proper format because the wallet will not allow me to move forward

Here is the path I've taken

Create default wallet > Standard Wallet > use public or private keys > and I get stuck on "create keystore from keys"

Because it's a paper wallet I don't have any files to upload, and I didn't bother printing anything out either. So the only option left is to just type in the private key as far as I can tell. But when I do this for the public or private key "next" is still greyed out. I just in plain text type out the addy with no spaces or tabs.

What am I doing wrong?

DO i need to format the private key in a special way? Again i can check my public addy so I know that's correct. It should at least let me make a watching only wallet. But I can't do either, I must be doing something fundamentally wrong or my install was bad.

Any help appreciated

[Abdussamad]

The private key you've entered is incorrect which is why you are getting this error. You should double check that you typed it in correctly. Case matters.

The private key looks like this in case you have trouble differentiating it from the address: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Private_key#Base58_Wallet_Import_format

[BellicoseBenny]

I'm not mistyping the public address, which I can check on blockchain

If it works on blockchain it should work on the wallet.

About as sure as one can be I'm not mistyping the private addy either

I can try either, it never even lets me move forward*. Next is just greyed out.

edit -

This is the format my private addy is in (5Kb8kLf9zgWQnogidDA76MzPL6TsZZY36hWXMssSzNydYXYB9KF) and I just type it in that format into the box

The public one is like that but slightly shorter. And again works fine with blockchain info

[Abdussamad]

you don't use the address to create a wallet that you can spend from in electrum. you use the private key and the private key alone.

here's a detailed guide: https://bitcoinelectrum.com/importing-your-private-keys-into-electrum/

[BellicoseBenny]

you don't use the address to create a wallet that you can spend from in electrum. you use the private key and the private key alone.

here's a detailed guide: https://bitcoinelectrum.com/importing-your-private-keys-into-electrum/

You're missing the point

I can't create a "watch only wallet" which it should allow me to

Either way it's grey

[Abdussamad]

you don't use the address to create a wallet that you can spend from in electrum. you use the private key and the private key alone.

here's a detailed guide: https://bitcoinelectrum.com/importing-your-private-keys-into-electrum/

You're missing the point

I can't create a "watch only wallet" which it should allow me to

Either way it's grey

well your post was far too long and not very clear about what you wanted to do. i thought you wanted to create a wallet you could spend from. a watch-only wallet will not allow you to spend from. i'm just stating that so there is no misunderstanding going forward.

to create a watch-only wallet begin the process of creating a new wallet by using file >new/restore or just running electrum if you have no wallet already then select "watch bitcoin addresses" and after that it becomes self-explanatory. so instead of selecting "standard wallet" you select "watch bitcoin addresses".

[BellicoseBenny]

Ok I think I understand what's going wrong, was able to get a test wallet going

It doesn't take a bare private keys as it implies in the wallet. I need to figure out how to convert these things around. I saw the guide but assumed the formatting wasn't necessary

It seemed like I was doing something fundamentally wrong, that was it

Thank you for your help

[Abdussamad]

It doesn't take a bare private keys as it implies in the wallet. I need to figure out how to convert these things around. I saw the guide but assumed the formatting wasn't necessary

It takes keys in wallet import format which is what you posted above and which i linked to above too. The problem is that you are typing them in incorrectly. Check again that you are getting it all exactly right. If you still can't get it to work try again in a day or so (we sometimes notice details we missed after taking a break).

Alternatively if you have a web cam you could try scanning in the QR code for the private key. You can try clicking on the little qr code icon in the bottom right of the field on the keystore screen. IT doesn't work for me but might work on your system.

[crairezx20]

As title say are you using a paper wallet which is it has bar code?
Like this

If yes you can download a bar code reader and scan that and you can copy paste the private key and import to electrum because sometimes not successful importing private key in electrum just for typing it..

[HI-TEC99]

A user with a similar problem found that his paper wallet's private key was in compressed format, and needed to be in uncompressed format before electrum would accept it.

An offline copy of this website can convert a private key to uncompressed format.

https://www.bitaddress.org/

These quotes show the user's problem, and the solution.

When I select

wallet>private keys>sweep

Window opens & I paste private key from paper wallet - but the "sweep" button does not highlight, stays inactive. Assumed private key was incorrect, but I tried four different ones, several times, and still nothing. Has this function been removed from this version?

If so, how to?

You are so right, thank you for the link. The Private Key needed to be uncompressed, and in fact Electrum recognized it...

[Abdussamad]

A user with a similar problem found that his paper wallet's private key was in compressed format, and needed to be in uncompressed format before electrum would accept it.

Both compressed and uncompressed private keys are supported by Electrum. In fact electrum's own private keys are compressed.

Perhaps you mean something else by compressed and uncompressed private keys? The private keys themselves are not compressed or uncompressed. It's the public keys that are compressed or uncompressed. The private keys are encoded in a slightly different way to signify that the compressed or uncompressed public key should be used. The page below explains it but the gist of it is that uncompressed private keys begin with 5 and compressed ones with L or K:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Private_key#Base58_Wallet_Import_format

I don't know whether electrum supports things like mini private key. It does not support bip38 private keys. Those have to be decrypted prior to use in electrum.

[HI-TEC99]

I'm not mistyping the public address, which I can check on blockchain

If it works on blockchain it should work on the wallet.

About as sure as one can be I'm not mistyping the private addy either

I can try either, it never even lets me move forward*. Next is just greyed out.

edit -

This is the format my private addy is in (5Kb8kLf9zgWQnogidDA76MzPL6TsZZY36hWXMssSzNydYXYB9KF) and I just type it in that format into the box

The public one is like that but slightly shorter. And again works fine with blockchain info

Don't ever use that private key you posted again. It's related address has received 0.25393524 BTC. The last withdrawal from it was on 2017-05-20.

I just converted the private key to an address and checked it on a block explorer.

https://blockchain.info/address/1CC3X2gu58d6wXUWMffpuzN9JAfTUWu4Kj

[Abdussamad]

Don't ever use that private key you posted again. It's related address has received 0.25393524 BTC. The last withdrawal from it was on 2017-05-20.

That private key is not his. It is the one from the wiki article I've linked above. He posted it here to tell me that his key was in that format (WIF).

[HI-TEC99]

Don't ever use that private key you posted again. It's related address has received 0.25393524 BTC. The last withdrawal from it was on 2017-05-20.

That private key is not his. It is the one from the wiki article I've linked above. He posted it here to tell me that his key was in that format (WIF).

I thought it was his, I was using it to check importing compressed and uncompressed private keys into Electrum. You're right electrum supports both (and mini private keys in 30-character format). I should have tested it before posting.

The reason I thought otherwise was I remembered one of your posts advising someone that a private key needs to be in WIF to import into electrum.

The private key needs to be in wallet import format:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Private_key#Base58_Wallet_Import_format

That answer appeared to allow the user to import his key into electrum, although his reply was vague. He said it was because the key needed to be uncompressed, but he must have been mistaken.

You are so right, thank you for the link. The Private Key needed to be uncompressed, and in fact Electrum recognized it; however the problem is the HD wallet does not support Sweeping so I'll have to create a non-HD Standard wallet to complete the procedure.

Thanks for the tip! Keep up the good path!

[Abdussamad]

gtk about the mini private keys

[HI-TEC99]

gtk about the mini private keys

Although electrum imports 30-character format mini private keys I don't know if it can import 22-character format minikeys. I couldn't find any example keys to test it with.


https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mini_private_key_format#Casascius_Series_1_coins

Casascius Series 1 Physical Bitcoins use a 22-character variant of the minikey format, instead of 30 characters. Everything is the same other than the length. To properly implement minikey redemption, services and clients MUST support the 30-character format, but MAY support the 22-character format as well. Use of the 22-character format for future applications is discouraged due to security considerations.

edit

I tested importing a 22-character format minikey and elecrum successfully imported it.