Memorizing Private Key

[From Above]

Have u ever attempted to memorize one of ur Bitcoin private keys?

Do u think anyone has ever done this?

Just remembering one's own key to valuable funds.

With Brainwallet seeds I'm sure people have done this.

I love to memorize.

I'm capable of memorizing up to 32 digits by visualization.

~CfA~

[jhenfelipe]

Oh it never came across to my mind. I'm thinking about it after reading this, and I find it complicated. Yes you can memorize it, but as time passes by that you don't review it, you can forget it for sure especially when you have lots of things to do and think every single day. And I know it would kinda be a hassle if you missed one character or when you got confused and ramble those characters on your mind. So even if you want or you are planning to memorize it, it's better if you still save your copy on a safe place.

Maybe some have done this, thinking that it will be safer on their mind and no one can steal it (just a maybe since nothing is impossible).

[gentlemand]

I've memorised a couple of lengthy passwords, but probably not above 15 figures. I did notice that they started to fade after time so I'd need to keep practicing them.

I seriously doubt I'd be able to manage a private key. At my age my brain's starting to go. In a couple more years I won't be able to dress myself.

If I was committed to doing it I'd do it through reminders somehow or spread it around the house.

[Red-Apple]

a bitcoin private key is a combination of random letters and numbers and worst of all is that they are case sensitive which means the lower case and upper case actually matters so it is impossible for normal human beings to memorize that. unless you have a photographic memory (or whatever it is called in english, like that beautiful mind movie)

[Sarthak]

a bitcoin private key is a combination of random letters and numbers and worst of all is that they are case sensitive which means the lower case and upper case actually matters so it is impossible for normal human beings to memorize that. unless you have a photographic memory (or whatever it is called in english, like that beautiful mind movie)

I tried it once but couldn't do it after 10 characters However, I have memorized a password 30 characters long and it's still fresh in my memory

[franky1]

there is no point remembering the random private key. because once you spend it you then have to learn a new private key for the change address.

high deterministic seeds are not only easier to remember but also represent MANY keys that would all be used by you, so even when funds move to a "change" address, that address is also included in the seed

[Red-Apple]

a bitcoin private key is a combination of random letters and numbers and worst of all is that they are case sensitive which means the lower case and upper case actually matters so it is impossible for normal human beings to memorize that. unless you have a photographic memory (or whatever it is called in english, like that beautiful mind movie)

I tried it once but couldn't do it after 10 characters However, I have memorized a password 30 characters long and it's still fresh in my memory

password is so much easier because you are not actually making it out of random characters. i too have memorized at least 10 long complex passwords for my different accounts (email, wallet, forum, ....) but remembering a word (even a wallet seed which is random words) is so much easier.

[pereira4]

Our brains are not designed to deal with such long string of characters. Unless the password is a readable one (real normal words, like the ones used to generate seeds) then it's just impossible, it's safer to save them in an encrypted text file (encrypted with an easier password just for some protection) than trying to pretend to memorize it.

[harizen]

Have u ever attempted to memorize one of ur Bitcoin private keys?

Do u think anyone has ever done this?

Just remembering one's own key to valuable funds.

With Brainwallet seeds I'm sure people have done this.

I love to memorize.

I'm capable of memorizing up to 32 digits by visualization.

~CfA~

Why should I go through a hassle way if there is an alternative/s to do it in a quite easy way?

Private Keys are important, I saving it on my own way of saving any other important keys and passwords.

But in general, it's not wrong for people if they want to memorize it. I just found it hassle in my case.

[mobnepal]

I even haven't tried to memorize neither private key nor those brain wallet seeds as i am not quite good at remembering random words and what we get in brain wallets are just random words. Hardest part with these brain wallet seeds is to remember the sequence of words rather than remembering actual words.

[FruitsBasket]

It is prety much impossible to memorize your private key.
Yes if you study it everyday, then at some point u will remember it, but I don't think anyone has done this.

Just print the private key out and keep the paper somewhere safe, and have multiple backups.

[RussianRaibow]

It would be a really bad idea to memorize a private key.  If you forgot just one character you would be locked out of your money.  A much better option if you are wanting to memorize something would be to memorize a mnemonic seed for a HD wallet.  That way you would have an infinite number of key pairs and it would be A LOT easier to remember 12 actual words rather than 30+ random characters.

[Sniper44]

it is not even possible to do it! and even if you could memorize it by some miracle i think that is not a good idea to do it because forgetting or mistaking even one character of that private key means losing all the funds in that address.

[RawDog]

Boy are you guys so stupid!!!!   

But in general, it's not wrong for people if they want to memorize it. I just found it hassle in my case.

Hassle?  Easy.

Our brains are not designed to deal with such long string of characters.

Our brains can remember with no problem!  (some combinations)

because once you spend it you then have to learn a new private key for the change address.

You can send the change back to the same address.  Totally allowed. 


This is a private key:

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

This is also a private key:

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001


This is one too! 

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000101010101010101010

Put your mom's birthday in there!  Put anything you want in there. 
1214890000000000000000000000000000000000000000101010101010101010
...is also a private key. 


Therefore, you design your desired private key, which is easy to remember and then make the public key hash.  The public key hash will so no signs whatever that your key highly organized. 

The first two above kind of suck.  But with just a few chunks of easy to remember information BAM!!!  you've got a memory key!!! 


Cool - eh?

[White sugar]

It is too hard for the work, unless you are a memory champion like Dominic O'Brien.

But if you use Multibit you can recover you wallet from some worlds, that are much easier to remember than a private key.

Still I don't think it is worth if you can just backup them where no one will find

[iv4n]

RawDog explained everything very nicely, and his idea can make private key much easier to remember. Making combination of important dates, favorite numbers is something that can help a lot.
I never tried to remember my keys and address, I wrote everything. I'm a bit forgettable, and I don't wish to have problems later with this, cause when ever I said I will remember passwords, after some time of not using that password I totally forgot it. So this memorizing is definitely not for me.

[Sniper44]

-snipped because it is long and bad-

this is a terrible idea, and you should never do it. it may sound cool but trust me, anything that you create by hand lacks the randomness required for safety and the chance of getting hacked by brute forcing, social engineering,... is very high in this cases.

so do this if you want to have some fun making a custom private key to memorize but never send any money to it.

actually this is one of the reasons why brainwallet website was shut down. people can not make random stuff. it is best that it is done by machine instead.

[xhomerx10]

Boy are you guys so stupid!!!!  

But in general, it's not wrong for people if they want to memorize it. I just found it hassle in my case.

Hassle?  Easy.

Our brains are not designed to deal with such long string of characters.

Our brains can remember with no problem!  (some combinations)

because once you spend it you then have to learn a new private key for the change address.

You can send the change back to the same address.  Totally allowed.  


This is a private key:

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

This is also a private key:

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001


This is one too!  

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000101010101010101010

Put your mom's birthday in there!  Put anything you want in there.  
1214890000000000000000000000000000000000000000101010101010101010
...is also a private key.  


Therefore, you design your desired private key, which is easy to remember and then make the public key hash.  The public key hash will so no signs whatever that your key highly organized.  

The first two above kind of suck.  But with just a few chunks of easy to remember information BAM!!!  you've got a memory key!!!  


Cool - eh?

 Pretty good info except that the lowest value for a private key is 0x1 so
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Is not a private key.

Edit: that might have been a little nitbit-picky

[tspacepilot]

I think you certainly could memorize a private key, but it would probably have to be a private key with low entropy.  Consider, 0 is a private key, so is 64 'f's.  But you really don't want to use either of those keys to generate your bitcoin addresses.  As you said, brainwallet effectively let people memorize phrases that hashed to keys, but we've all learned that that actually doesn't provide enough entropy to be secure.  You could probably make a private key out of 1-f, 19cafebabe5... but you'd have a low entropy key based on the fact that it was memorizable.  I dunno, if you don't keep too much money there, it might be a fun experiment to see what happens.

[chaser15]

-dumb-

Why are you interfering in other's way? If they have their own view about memorizing then so be it.

Me too, I don't want to memorize it since I can listed it in multiple safe notes of mine.

Am I stupid then because I don't want to memorize it?

Don't say stupid to other people. That's their own view and you are out of it.