Advice about sweeping or importing private key for specific btc address - How?

[Altcoin4life]

Hi everyone

I just wanted to ask about importing private keys to become new owner of specific btc address.


Let me explain using an example:



Person 1 is buying a btctalk account from person 2 which includes a private key of specific btc address ass part of sale.


Person 2 has digitally signed address 76528y79u7yg8hy87t8y2h9uj and staked and posted 1 year ago.


As part of the sale Person 1 is also buying the private key of address 76528y79u7yg8hy87t8y2h9uj that was staked.


How can Person 1 ensure he becomes the new owner of this btc address? How can they import this btc address in their own electrum client/wallet, so that person 2 has permanently transferred the address over and can not recover it any way including with seed or with a saved backup of their electrum wallet that includes address 76528y79u7yg8hy87t8y2h9uj ?


What are the steps for person 1 to take... do they sweep and put in private key.... or make a brand new wallet with no seed ......


I am not sure how this can be done....

Hope someone can advise the steps involved

Thanks

[shorena]

There is no way to ensure that the seller has no longer access to the private key. To make sure the buyer has full access to the private key, import it into a new electrum wallet. Its the same as restoring an address, but instead of the seed you put the private key in its place.

[Shibashi Dogemoto]

The original owner can ALWAYS keep a copy of the private key, hence the transferred address should ONLY be used to sign messages, and NEVER to hold any funds...

What i would do is: create a NEW blockchain.info-wallet, remove the pregenerated private keys and import the private key you just bought, so it only has the private keys from the transferred addres. never transfer any funds to this wallet, only use it to sign messages...
This way you can isolate this address from the rest of your wallet, and you can never mistakingly hold any funds on the "exposed" wallet.

EDIT: I'm not in the habit of proposing somebody to use blockchain.info, i personally think webwallets are less secure than desktop wallets... But since this wallet will never hold any funds, it might be usefull to completely isolate it from the rest of your bitcoin-related addresses to avoid "accidents"...
You could aswell use a different desktop client for the sole purpose of holding the staked address... For example: use bitcoin core for your own "real" wallet, and use electrum to import the staked address from the account you bought...

SECOND EDIT: i do think it might be fishy to sell an account with the private key of the staked address just to impersonate the original owner... For example: this is what master-p claimed to have done in the beginning of the master-p fiasco...

[Altcoin4life]

Hi thanks for your reply

So just to be clear the seller can always have access to the address? So a buyer should not use it to store coins and the seller can maybe take these coins?


So the best thing to do would be to create a new electrum wallet, but use the restore option........ then put the private key instead of the seed in restore function?

Also electrum 2.5.4 does not have an import button.... only a sweep button? how can you import the private key then?

Hope someone can explain....

Thanks

[Shibashi Dogemoto]

Hi thanks for your reply

So just to be clear the seller can always have access to the address? So a buyer should not use it to store coins and the seller can maybe take these coins?


So the best thing to do would be to create a new electrum wallet, but use the restore option........ then put the private key instead of the seed in restore function?

Also electrum 2.5.4 does not have an import button.... only a sweep button? how can you import the private key then?

Hope someone can explain....

Thanks

You are correct The seller can always steal your coins, or lose the private keys to a hacker, or sell the private keys to somebody... Never hold any funds on addresses generated with a private key that is compromised (this includes bought private keys, web wallets, vanity addresses that weren't generated with the split key method).

About electrum: if i'm not mistaking, you can import private keys when you setup electrum for the first time. If electrum is already installed, go to file -> new -> restore a wallet or import keys
Since i've never done this before, i'm not sure what happens to your existing wallet... maybe Shorena can shed some light onto that?

[shorena]

Hi thanks for your reply

So just to be clear the seller can always have access to the address? So a buyer should not use it to store coins and the seller can maybe take these coins?

Yes. You can create a signed message with the old address stating that you bought the account and want a new address to be associated with the account. Post that signed message in the stake thread with the bought account to let someone else quote it. This essentially transfers ownership to a new address over time. Newly staked addresses do not matter much, but they matter more the older they get without incident.

So the best thing to do would be to create a new electrum wallet, but use the restore option........ then put the private key instead of the seed in restore function?

Also electrum 2.5.4 does not have an import button.... only a sweep button? how can you import the private key then?

You just explained it above. Restore, use the private key (not(!) the address) as the seed. It will create a new wallet file only for this key and address.

Hope someone can explain....

Thanks

Edit links:

Stake thread -> https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=996318.0
Learn to sign a message with electrum -> https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=990345.0

[Altcoin4life]

Hi thanks for your reply

So just to be clear the seller can always have access to the address? So a buyer should not use it to store coins and the seller can maybe take these coins?

Yes. You can create a signed message with the old address stating that you bought the account and want a new address to be associated with the account. Post that signed message in the stake thread with the bought account to let someone else quote it. This essentially transfers ownership to a new address over time. Newly staked addresses do not matter much, but they matter more the older they get without incident.

So the best thing to do would be to create a new electrum wallet, but use the restore option........ then put the private key instead of the seed in restore function?

Also electrum 2.5.4 does not have an import button.... only a sweep button? how can you import the private key then?

You just explained it above. Restore, use the private key (not(!) the address) as the seed. It will create a new wallet file only for this key and address.

Hope someone can explain....

Thanks

Edit links:

Stake thread -> https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=996318.0
Learn to sign a message with electrum -> https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=990345.0

ok thanks