How-to extract private keys from a Blockchain wallet

[Fglxrp]

Hi All,

You are here because you need to export Bitcoin private keys from a Blockchain wallet.

Before reading the rest of that message make sure you understand the concepts of wallet, address & private key (there are plenty of useful resources on that forum).
Moreover ask yourself what you want to do with that private key!
The private key gives full access to your address and therefore to your funds.
Keep it secret and never give it to anyone! ANYONE!!

Ok let's get started...

The Blockchain wallet is very easy to use and a like an exchange it allows users store, buy and sell Bitcoins without any technical knowledge.
That's great for most people and most cases but with simplicity and "user-friendliness" come the inability to access advanced features/options.
That's what's happening with the default wallet of the Blockchain wallet. Its addresses are bound to the wallet and cannot be used individually anywhere else without exporting the whole wallet with a third party tool.

I - Exporting the private key of an imported address
It is very straightforward and available through the user interface.
  1. Log on to your wallet
  2. Click on "Settings > Addresses"
  3. Find the address you want to export
  4. Click on "More options > Private key"
  5. Click on "confirm" in the warning window
  6. You should now be able to copy the private key

Here is a screenshot to summarize the steps above:
https://ibb.co/c2XE7w


II - Exporting addresses from the default wallet
As explained above the challenge is to export the private key of an address from the default wallet as they are bound to the wallet.

Here is how to do so:

  1. Make sure you have your seed phrase available (the 12-word phrase generated when you created your wallet)
      Consider the seed phrase as precious and sensitive as a private key as it give full access to you wallet! Again keep it secret and never give it to anyone!
  2. To extract information from your wallet you will need to use the following GitHub project: https://github.com/iancoleman/bip39
  3. Download the file called "bip39-standalone.html" (click on it, then click on the "Download button" and save the file)
  4. Open that html file locally (does not seem to work with IE). It works offline if you are more comfortable manipulating your wallet offline.
  5. Change the number of words to 12
  6. Input your seed phrase in the fields called "BIP39 Mnemonic"
  7. Finally scroll down to the section called "Derived addresses", spot the address you are interested in and copy its private key


That's it.

I hope it helps.

Refs / Credits:
- https://github.com/iancoleman/bip39

** Disclaimer: I provide the information above as-is without any guarantee **

[zazarb]

Keep it secret and never give it to anyone! ANYONE!![/u]

Good tutorial, but  with this statement I can argue
if you do not give it to anyone your privkey, you fund will be lost forever In the event of death, especially sudden.
So close family member who you trust should know.

[Fglxrp]

You are 100% right.

That warning was for people not to message me or the forum their private keys... it happened already
 
Relatives should obviously be treated differently.

[LightnLove]

im in the process of receiving bitcoin.  An imported wallet was sent to my blockchain account as non spendable.  the sender is asking me to send them my private key to release the funds, how do I generate or get a key to transfer funds from non spendable wallet

[coupable]

I thought it's possible to open the wallet in a new client using the 12 words seed, let's say in Electrum Desktop, then you will be able to extract any PK of any of your addresses.

An imported wallet was sent to my blockchain account as non spendable. 

What do you mean by "imported wallet sent to your account" ?
If you receive an amount of btc into one of your addresses, you should be able to spend it. Am i missing something here?

the sender is asking me to send them my private key to release the funds, how do I generate or get a key to transfer funds from non spendable wallet

Do never send your private key to anybody. If someone is asking you to do so, then it's a try to steal your money.

[Potato Chips]

im in the process of receiving bitcoin.  An imported wallet was sent to my blockchain account as non spendable.  the sender is asking me to send them my private key to release the funds, how do I generate or get a key to transfer funds from non spendable wallet

Looks like the "I give you an account with non-spendable bitcoins and now you owe me money" scam attempt. It's pretty easy to import a non-spendable addresses since you just need an address which anyone can look up in any block explorer (blockchain.com, blockchair, btc.com etc..) and ofc you can't get any private key from that because there was never any to begin with, that's why it's non-spendable because there is no private key.

Don't ever send any sensitive info such as your private keys to anyone as that basically allows them to spend the coins in it. Be vigilant to strangers approaching you especially with too good to be true offers and read about the basics of bitcoin in bitcoin.org

[noorman0]

I heard that facial recognition is coming much sooner than later, someone's about to literally drop this. A yay from me as I hate worrying about secret keys

There are better web wallet options that allow unrestricted self-control of asset and let users extract private keys. And in any case, blockchain which is slowly starting to become a central wallet is highly discouraged. If you don't want to be annoyed one day, immediately withdraw all your assets from this wallet.

[Potato Chips]

I heard that facial recognition is coming much sooner than later, someone's about to literally drop this. A yay from me as I hate worrying about secret keys

Facial recognition for what? unlocking the app? logging in your wallet? I can't find any information about this, where did you hear it?

In any case, I wouldn't recommend using facial recognition to keepsafe sensitive information since they are more prone to targeted spoofing attacks. Some mid-range phones still unlocks using pictures.

Lastly, if by secret keys you mean your backup phrase/seed. Note that it is your fallback plan in case something goes wrong with your wallet, please keep it safe.

[montythegoat]

Can you export private key if you are not able to login to the wallet but have the wallet.aes.json file?

[nc50lc]

Can you export private key if you are not able to login to the wallet but have the wallet.aes.json file?

Only if you know the wallet's password at the time when you extracted the "wallet.aes.json" file.
The "aes" in the wallet file's name suggests that it's encrypted; and since it's basically a static copy of the wallet, its password wont change after you changed your password in their website/app.

For private key export, you have some choices:

• [1] their "My Wallet Backup Decrypt Tool" [link] which outputs BASE58 privKey (missing checksum, have to be converted to WIF prvKey),
• [2] BTCRecover [link] (needs command line knowledge)
• [3] or import it to their import wallet page and export your private key by following the OP (not recommended).