Do private keys remain the same once sweeped?

[bolan]

I recently sweeped an old bitcoin wallet into electrum and successfully extracted what was in there. I'm now trying to get the bitcoin cash using electron. The old bitcoin wallet has thousands of private keys and it's a hassle to scan them all, but the newly sweeped eletrum bitcoin wallet has a lot less (the active keys from the thousands).
Do these active keys remain the same after being sweeped, or do they change? So far when sweeping the old keys it has not shown any bitcoin cash (they should be there as the the funds existed through the fork).

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[Mountaingoat]

A private key is bound to an address, you can't change the private key without getting a new and completely unrelated to the first one address.

[bolan]

OK I thought so, but just to be clear, a private key can't change if sweeped into a new wallet with a new public key/wallet, right?

[TryNinja]

OK I thought so, but just to be clear, a private key can't change if sweeped into a new wallet with a new public key/wallet, right?

Nothing will change. Sweeping is basically sending all the coins available in your address to a new one.

The previous address is still the same and can be used as usual.

[bolan]

OK thanks.

[TechPriest]

Do these active keys remain the same after being sweeped, or do they change? So far when sweeping the old keys it has not shown any bitcoin cash (they should be there as the the funds existed through the fork).

When you sweeping some private keys to electrum it just send their balances to new (Electrum) address. It's not "destroy" them. Nothing can "destroy" bitcoin address.
You can use your old addresses too. But i HIGHLY would not recommend that.

[HCP]

I recently sweeped an old bitcoin wallet into electrum and successfully extracted what was in there. I'm now trying to get the bitcoin cash using electron. The old bitcoin wallet has thousands of private keys and it's a hassle to scan them all, but the newly sweeped eletrum bitcoin wallet has a lot less (the active keys from the thousands).
Do these active keys remain the same after being sweeped, or do they change? So far when sweeping the old keys it has not shown any bitcoin cash (they should be there as the the funds existed through the fork).

The addresses/keys in your new Electrum wallet WON'T have any BitcoinCash on them... because you SWEPT... which means you moved the BTC from the old bitcoin wallet keys onto new keys in Electrum.

So you can't sweep the Electrum keys looking for BCH, as the BTC was put onto Electrum keys after the fork. You would need to either sweep or import the OLD keys from your "old bitcoin wallet", but using ElectronCash instead of Electrum.

[bolan]

I recently sweeped an old bitcoin wallet into electrum and successfully extracted what was in there. I'm now trying to get the bitcoin cash using electron. The old bitcoin wallet has thousands of private keys and it's a hassle to scan them all, but the newly sweeped eletrum bitcoin wallet has a lot less (the active keys from the thousands).
Do these active keys remain the same after being sweeped, or do they change? So far when sweeping the old keys it has not shown any bitcoin cash (they should be there as the the funds existed through the fork).

The addresses/keys in your new Electrum wallet WON'T have any BitcoinCash on them... because you SWEPT... which means you moved the BTC from the old bitcoin wallet keys onto new keys in Electrum.

So you can't sweep the Electrum keys looking for BCH, as the BTC was put onto Electrum keys after the fork. You would need to either sweep or import the OLD keys from your "old bitcoin wallet", but using ElectronCash instead of Electrum.

Oh yes I understand that, it's the old keys I've been trying to use get the BCH, but so far it hasn't worked and I don't really know why.

Maybe I didn't explain clearly enough as some of the replies seem a bit conflicted. I was asking if the old private keys which I have now sweeped into electrum remain the same after being sweeped, or does the new wallet which they have been sweeped into generate new private keys? In other words, are the old private keys still active and remain the same inside the new wallet?

[ranochigo]

Maybe I didn't explain clearly enough as some of the replies seem a bit conflicted. I was asking if the old private keys which I have now sweeped into electrum remain the same after being sweeped, or does the new wallet which they have been sweeped into generate new private keys? In other words, are the old private keys still active and remain the same inside the new wallet?

If you are sweeping the keys, the Bitcoins inside the addresses are sent into an address that is controlled by the wallet. Hence, the keys are not inside your new wallet. If you want the address to be in your new wallet, you need to import it.

The way Bitcoin address works is that a specific public key will correspond to specific private keys. By changing your private key, you are hence changing your public key and hence the corresponding address will change and that is the only scenario your address could change. A specific private key will always correspond to the address.

tl;dr: Your private keys will always correspond to the same address.

[HCP]

Maybe I didn't explain clearly enough as some of the replies seem a bit conflicted. I was asking if the old private keys which I have now sweeped into electrum remain the same after being sweeped, or does the new wallet which they have been sweeped into generate new private keys? In other words, are the old private keys still active and remain the same inside the new wallet?

Sweeping does not "change" private keys. It simply moves coins from one set of private keys to another, exactly like a normal Bitcoin transaction does. Perhaps this will help?

Sweeping:

Before sweep:
Old private keys: 1 BTC + 1 BCH
New private keys: 0 BTC + 0 BCH

"Old Bitcoin Wallet" - Old private keys
    |
    | Sweep
    |
    V
New Electrum wallet - New private keys

After Sweep:
Old private keys: 0 BTC + 1 BCH
New private keys: 1 BTC + 0 BCH


Importing:

Before import:
Old private keys: 1 BTC + 1 BCH

"Old Bitcoin Wallet" - Old private keys
    |
    | Import
    |
    V
New Electrum wallet - OLD private keys

After Import:
Old private keys: 1 BTC + 1 BCH

[bolan]

Before sweep:
Old private keys: 1 BTC + 1 BCH
New private keys: 0 BTC + 0 BCH

"Old Bitcoin Wallet" - Old private keys
    |
    | Sweep
    |
    V
New Electrum wallet - New private keys

After Sweep:
Old private keys: 0 BTC + 1 BCH
New private keys: 1 BTC + 0 BCH


Importing:

Before import:
Old private keys: 1 BTC + 1 BCH

"Old Bitcoin Wallet" - Old private keys
    |
    | Import
    |
    V
New Electrum wallet - OLD private keys

After Import:
Old private keys: 1 BTC + 1 BCH

Yes that's a useful explanation. Thanks for the responses. I managed to get hold of the BCH after much messing around.