managing private keys

[smokeydog]

I’m having trouble understand what should be a simple issue and that is the use of the private key.  I know how public/private key pairs work.

I understand that I kind of need an address for people to send me bitcoin which is associated to a wallet.  But, once I have a bitcoin it is bound to a private key which is nothing but a big long number but I don’t know how to get at that simple number.  All this stuff about seeds for restoration just don’t add up.  Just give me the number so I can take it off line and protect it.   All these things to scan and wallets to maintain just to deal with a simple number, just a string of digits. 

All I need is the private key number,  I roll it out, protect it, get rid of all this wallet stuff until the day in 5 or 10 years when I want to send someone my bitcoin. Then I create a wallet and address and put my private key into it.

How do I get at my private keys.  It’s clear I just don’t understand enough yet and I just can’t commit to a currency system with the just “trust us, it all works”.  I keep reading and just get lost in all the details.

[TimtheYoutuber]

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[mahboob123]

private keys is very important key scure the private key and store it in safe palce

[pelonis]

I think the hardware wallets are the best option right now for storing your private key in.

[RudeeTam]

If you don't want a cold storage wallet, then a paper wallet is you next best option if you want to store your coins for a long time. Below is a link on how to create one. Print at least 2 copies then destroy all other soft copies. Store in a safe, have it laminated, put in silica or what not just do everything you need to do to protect that piece of paper. You just need your address where you will send all your coins moving forward.

https://www.coindesk.com/information/paper-wallet-tutorial/

[s2sallbygrace]

private keys is very important key scure the private key and store it in safe palce

I agree with you. Private key should be kept properly and if possible why not make at least 3 or 4 copies of your private just incase you lost a copy of your private. It is very important because you cannot open your wallet without a private key. This is like your Identification on your own account.

[menoharrison]

yes i agree with you private key should be properly kept because without the key you can not check your wallet, so at list make 2 copy of it so in case you lost one you can easily replace it. and avoid showing your key to people.   

[Bonakid]

Yes that's true private key is the very important to us especially to keep our password in our wallet and dont tell or show to anybody.To avoid hackers want to get your money in your wallet.Private key that can protect your wallet just in case you lost it.

[btcgreen63]

And for Bitcoin and some other cryptocurrencies you can BIP-38 encrypt the private key so if anyone sees the paper wallet, they can't use it. But you have to remember the password you used to do the encryption otherwise you will lose access to the money.

[madwica]

I’m having trouble understand what should be a simple issue and that is the use of the private key.  I know how public/private key pairs work.

I understand that I kind of need an address for people to send me bitcoin which is associated to a wallet.  But, once I have a bitcoin it is bound to a private key which is nothing but a big long number but I don’t know how to get at that simple number.  All this stuff about seeds for restoration just don’t add up.  Just give me the number so I can take it off line and protect it.   All these things to scan and wallets to maintain just to deal with a simple number, just a string of digits. 

All I need is the private key number,  I roll it out, protect it, get rid of all this wallet stuff until the day in 5 or 10 years when I want to send someone my bitcoin. Then I create a wallet and address and put my private key into it.

How do I get at my private keys.  It’s clear I just don’t understand enough yet and I just can’t commit to a currency system with the just “trust us, it all works”.  I keep reading and just get lost in all the details.

If you are using hardware wallet you should need to save your private key in a safe file because that key is the thing to access your wallet if you lost that i think you can not recover your wallet.
I think also before creating a wallet there is alwayd have instructions to catch your attention of what you need to save before giving you a wallet address and if you failed to save it you will be in trouble accessing it.

[jakelyson]

How do I get at my private keys.  It’s clear I just don’t understand enough yet and I just can’t commit to a currency system with the just “trust us, it all works”.  I keep reading and just get lost in all the details.

I hope you do know how your wallet works because if you do, it is quite easy to navigate around and find the private keys. But if you cannot find it, then you might be using a wallet that do not give the private keys, which you should avoid.

Example, in an electrum wallet, you just need to right click your address and select private keys. Then it will show your private key which you can store somewhere safe.

In blockchain.info, you get 12 seed words that you can store. That is the equivalent of your private keys.

I hope this helped you.

[coinlawyer]

How do I get at my private keys.  It’s clear I just don’t understand enough yet and I just can’t commit to a currency system with the just “trust us, it all works”.  I keep reading and just get lost in all the details.

I hope you do know how your wallet works because if you do, it is quite easy to navigate around and find the private keys. But if you cannot find it, then you might be using a wallet that do not give the private keys, which you should avoid.

Example, in an electrum wallet, you just need to right click your address and select private keys. Then it will show your private key which you can store somewhere safe.

In blockchain.info, you get 12 seed words that you can store. That is the equivalent of your private keys.

I hope this helped you.

Thanks for the clear explanation.
I`ll aso add that Electrum supports third-party plugins: Multisig services, Hardware wallets, etc. and is more safer as it keep your private keys offline, and go online with a watching-only wallet.

 

[pooya87]

the answer to your question can be in a lot of different ways depending on how much you want to understand the "system". as an end user all you need to know and trust is a trusted and long tested wallet or private key generator that can create random enough keys for you.
some examples of these wallets are: bitcoin core (full node), Electrum (SPV), bitaddress.org (paper wallet), Trezor (hardware wallet).

for more technical understanding try reading the wiki at https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/ or developers doc at https://bitcoin.org/en/developer-documentation

But, once I have a bitcoin it is bound to a private key which is nothing but a big long number but I don’t know how to get at that simple number.  All this stuff about seeds for restoration just don’t add up.  Just give me the number so I can take it off line and protect it.   All these things to scan and wallets to maintain just to deal with a simple number, just a string of digits. 

data (a number in this case) can be represented in many forms. for example 2018 is 07E2 in hex or 11111100010 in binary. there is a lot of different ways too. one way that is specific to bitcoin is an alphanumeric encoding excluding 0, O, I, and l characters.

the number:

Code:

5500171714335001507730457227127633683517613019341760098818554179534751705629

hex of the same number

Code:

0C28FCA386C7A227600B2FE50B7CAE11EC86D3BF1FBE471BE89827E19D72AA1D

base58 of the same number which is what you see as your private key in your wallet

Code:

5HueCGU8rMjxEXxiPuD5BDku4MkFqeZyd4dZ1jvhTVqvbTLvyTJ

converting between these are also pretty simple, you just have to know the specifications. there are benefits in showing it in base58 format like being more human readable with less errors and the checksum. you can see it here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Base58Check_encoding

[oddwh]

Could you please tell us which wallet do you use ?

The method to get your private keys is a bit different on each wallets.

Btw, once you get these, you should find a secure way to store these. A good one is to print it and keep somewhere safe. But to protect your paper backup, it's better to keep another backup somewhere. For me, as I haven't switched to a hardware wallet, I decided to store these on an encrypted keepass file, in an encrypted usb drive that I don't store on the same place than the paper backup.

[Nunoluck]

Don't show your private keys to everyone. If you want easier way to use your bitcoin then you can use blockchain mobile wallet, this is online wallet. Only need 4 password number in mobile version of blockchain.info wallet. Its much more practical to use. Sometime I access my wallet in blockchain.info through email. When you create wallet in the first time in blockchain.info wallet, they must be give you an email cointain link of private keys then you only need to click the link - type password.

[cryptokingmaker]

keep secure ur private in secret file in drop box or else google drive but it is very important for private keys to be secured if we forget private keys there might be risk of loss of btc

[Ironman07]

I using Trezor for my coin and all are okay!

[1C6fV5DtakfKANLJ8GUV7hCaA]

Sir, your private key = password to gain spending access to your Bitcoins.

Public address =  more like your bank account number which other people can send Bitcoins to.

Wallets = there are different wallets out there. Trusted ones are Electrum for PC and Mycelium for Android. Not sure for iOS.

Through these wallets, you can import your private key to spend Bitcoins.

[Dudeperfect]

Some exchanges won't allow the users to extract private keys but if you have a paper wallet or web wallet (like blockchain.info) then you can easily extract your private key. If you are using the hardware wallet like Trezor then you have to enter your seed key (BIP 39) for the recovery of the wallet. If you are going to require the private key then make sure that the wallet/wallet service provider has a functionality of private key export.

[Mersterious]

for me you must have usb instead of private key because it safe no to hacking .