I think I lost some btc ?

[bercy]

Hi,

I wanted to buy some BitcoinCash quickly through an exchange with bitcoin as the source...  Usually I'd use my hardware wallet for the destination address, but I didn't have it handy, and decided I'd temporarily use a wallet that I'd create on a web site such as bitaddress.org, and then transfer to the hardware wallet when I get back home.

I do not remember which web site I used to create the temporary wallet.  When I created it, I copy-pasted the private key to a local file (or at least I think I did 
 ), thinking I could then import the private key later into a client to access the BCH.

The problem is that I think I pasted the wrong information ??!?  I tried multiple BitcoinCash wallets, and whenever I try to import the private key, it doesn't work (I either get a "key not valid" message, or the wallet interface doesn't let me continue the import process (the "next" button is grayed out for example).

I've googled this a bit, it seems that keys would start with an L or a K, and have 52 characters ?

The thing I've pasted has 66 characters, only lowercase letters + numbers, and starts with 00 (zero zero).

Have I lost my btc, or is my 66-character thing really an encrypted version of my private key ?

[Salmen]

It might be that you copied the Public key that is about 66 characters long and contains only numbers and lowercase letters, it is basically an encryption of the bitcoin address and not the Private Key which starts with an uppercase letter. You can check here what you have copied on bitaddress.org here https://coinb.in/#verify, it will return the information.

[bercy]

It might be that you copied the Public key that is about 66 characters long and contains only numbers and lowercase letters, it is basically an encryption of the bitcoin address and not the Private Key which starts with an uppercase letter. You can check here what you have copied on bitaddress.org here https://coinb.in/#verify, it will return the information.

Thanks for your answer.

When I try the 00 address at coinb.in, it says "The above public key has been encoded to its address", an address that starts with 1.  If I then check on a block explorer for that address, I get 0 transactions.  And trying to import the wallet with that address doesn't work either.

Any other ideas ?

[Salmen]

It might be that you copied the Public key that is about 66 characters long and contains only numbers and lowercase letters, it is basically an encryption of the bitcoin address and not the Private Key which starts with an uppercase letter. You can check here what you have copied on bitaddress.org here https://coinb.in/#verify, it will return the information.

Thanks for your answer.

When I try the 00 address at coinb.in, it says "The above public key has been encoded to its address", an address that starts with 1.  If I then check on a block explorer for that address, I get 0 transactions.  And trying to import the wallet with that address doesn't work either.

Any other ideas ?

Because you need the private key. Importing into the wallet using public key or bitcoin address does not work, you can use the watch-only function but as long you do not have the private key saved, there is no access to the funds.
By the way, you should use the Bitcoin Cash Explorer since you mentioned you have received Bitcoin Cash to the address.

[DannyHamilton]

It seems likely that you saved the wrong information, and that you do not have the private key.  If that is true, then it is probably impossible for you or anyone else to ever access those bitcoins.

However, it is not entirely clear what process you used, so it isn't clear what information you actually saved.

bitaddress.org doesn't typically provide any information that is all lowercase and numbers starting with 00.

The default bitaddress.org "Single Wallet" page typically provides an address that starts with a 1, and a private key that starts with K or L.  Both of these are very clearly labeled.

It is possible that you could enter a private key into the "Wallet Details" page, in which case it would then provide you with additional information (such as private keys in 3 different formats as well as both compressed and uncompressed public keys and addresses).  However, none of those typically start with 00.

• Both compressed and uncompressed addresses typically start with: 1
• Compressed public keys typically start with: 02 or 03
• Uncompressed public keys typically start with: 04
• WIF private keys typically start with 5, K, or L
• Hexadecimal private keys are typically 64 characters long using the characters 0 through 9, and a through f (or A through F). They can start with any combination of those 16 characters. So while it is slightly possible that they could start with 00, that only happens about once every 256 addresses generated.
• Base 64 private keys are 44 characters long and use numbers, lower case AND upper case as well as the '+', '/', and '=' symbols.

Perhaps if you explained exactly which website you used, and what process you used at that website to generate your address, we might be better able to explain to you what happened and if you can recover access to the bitcoins.

[Spendulus]

Hi,

I wanted to buy some BitcoinCash quickly through an exchange with bitcoin as the source...  Usually I'd use my hardware wallet for the destination address, but I didn't have it handy, and decided I'd temporarily use a wallet that I'd create on a web site such as bitaddress.org, and then transfer to the hardware wallet when I get back home.

I do not remember which web site I used to create the temporary wallet.  When I created it, I copy-pasted the private key to a local file (or at least I think I did 
 ), thinking I could then import the private key later into a client to access the BCH.

The problem is that I think I pasted the wrong information ??!?  I tried multiple BitcoinCash wallets, and whenever I try to import the private key, it doesn't work (I either get a "key not valid" message, or the wallet interface doesn't let me continue the import process (the "next" button is grayed out for example).

I've googled this a bit, it seems that keys would start with an L or a K, and have 52 characters ?

The thing I've pasted has 66 characters, only lowercase letters + numbers, and starts with 00 (zero zero).

Have I lost my btc, or is my 66-character thing really an encrypted version of my private key ?

what was the type of file you "pasted it into?"

some word processors change the data of a paste. For example they might split your paste into several lines.

If this had occurred, there would possibly be characters added to your data, but all the original data characters would still be there.