Chipmixer to Electrum private key import issue

[Yamo1123]

hi Guys, I'm new to all this, I recently transferred chipmixer private keys to my electrum wallet and the bitcoins cleared and showed up in the balance so I left them there and closed my computer.

today I find the balance is 0 with no history of the transaction.

has anyone come across this?

thanks

[1714041441]

1714041441

[TryNinja]

Odd... try going to the Address tab (View -> Show Addresses) and see if the addresses are shown there.

Did you save the chips private-keys somewhere?

[Yamo1123]

hi, when I go to the addresses it only shows the addresses used for old transactions, the new ones are nowhere to be seen.. I am 100% sure I saw the balance before I closed my computer. I never saved the chipmixer private keys as they've always worked in the past once they've been imported to electrum. I am using version 3.2.3

i still have the voucher references used and session ID which i will send to chipmixer to see if they can trace anything.

thanks

[TryNinja]

hi, when I go to the addresses it only shows the addresses used for old transactions, the new ones are nowhere to be seen.. I am 100% sure I saw the balance before I closed my computer. I never saved the chipmixer private keys as they've always worked in the past once they've been imported to electrum. I am using version 3.2.3

i still have the voucher references used and session ID which i will send to chipmixer to see if they can trace anything.

You probably imported the keys and for some reason Electrum didn’t save it on your wallet file. They will probably get the private-keys back to you.

[Yamo1123]

I hope so, will let you know the outcome.

how long do chipmixer usually take to respond to their chipmixer@protonmail.com account? does anyone know? and if my session expires with them are my private keys (chips) gone also?

thanks

[TryNinja]

I hope so, will let you know the outcome.

how long do chipmixer usually take to respond to their chipmixer@protonmail.com account? does anyone know? and if my session expires with them are my private keys (chips) gone also?

thanks

0 ~ 48 hours.

If the session expires, there is no way you can get them back. But the session default expiration time is 7 days and you can easily extend it.

[Abdussamad]

The correct way to receive bitcoin is to have the sender send them to an address whose private keys only you know. Sharing private keys is not the way to transfer bitcoin because you don't have exclusive control and the sender can move the coins too.

I suggest going to file > recently open or file > open in case you imported the private keys into a different wallet. If you find the correct wallet I suggest creating a new standard wallet via file > new/restore and then sending your bitcoins to an address in that. This way only you will have the private keys that control the coins.

[jackg]

@OP, if you still have your token and your session is unexpired, you should be able to put in your token and go to step 3 and get your private keys out...

[Yamo1123]

I was given vouchers by chipmixer as they ran out of chips recently so when I finally withdrew chips and imported the private keys to electrum the vouchers I used cannot be re used to view the keys.. so hopefully these used voucher references can be traced with chipmixer.

Thanks

[BitMaxz]

I was given vouchers by chipmixer as they ran out of chips recently so when I finally withdrew chips and imported the private keys to electrum the vouchers I used cannot be re used to view the keys.. so hopefully these used voucher references can be traced with chipmixer.

Thanks

Your problem looks the same as x31337 post from here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1935098.msg42946742#msg42946742
If you are done importing the private key to electrum and restart without saving the private key I think the voucher code can't be re-used again, but you can request a new voucher again.

[Thirdspace]

I was given vouchers by chipmixer as they ran out of chips recently so when I finally withdrew chips and imported the private keys to electrum the vouchers I used cannot be re used to view the keys.. so hopefully these used voucher references can be traced with chipmixer.

even so, you must have done it in a (new) mixing session to get the private key out
if you still haven't destroyed that session, you can still open it and check the private key
if you don't remember the session token, try checking your browser history for its url
otherwise you need to ask ChipMixer on the issue by providing the used voucher code

[nc50lc]

I was given vouchers by chipmixer as they ran out of chips recently so when I finally withdrew chips and imported the private keys to electrum the vouchers I used cannot be re used to view the keys.. so hopefully these used voucher references can be traced with chipmixer.

Hey, understand what Abdussamad said, importing the keys doesn't mean that's its exclusively in your control.
Either do what he said, make another wallet and send all your funds there or Sweep the keys, don't just import them.

[Yamo1123]

Ok will use the sweep option instead next time. I imported as those are the steps shown on chipmixer when you reach the withdrawal step.

 At the moment I have my main default electrum Wallet and an imported wallet from that... should I still create a new wallet and what is the reason for that?

Sorry if this is all basic stuff.

Thanks

[nc50lc]

Ok will use the sweep option instead next time. I imported as those are the steps shown on chipmixer when you reach the withdrawal step.

 At the moment I have my main default electrum Wallet and an imported wallet from that... should I still create a new wallet and what is the reason for that?

Sorry if this is all basic stuff.

Thanks

Your main (standard) electrum wallet is fine as long as it hasn't been compromised.
Creating another standard wallet is fine too, but don't sweep them in your imported wallet.

The reason for not-using that imported wallet is: the private keys of the addresses that you've imported came from another source.
Even from a reputable source (Chipmixer), the only user who must have the control over (who have seen) the private key(s) must exclusively be you.

By doing "import private keys", you're just including the address & prv key pair to your wallet, the source still have access to the prv key.
By "Sweeping" it, Electrum will make a transaction using all the tx inputs from the address pairs of that prv key, it will discard that key later, the balance will be transferred to your own (addresses) wallet, minus the transaction fee.

[Abdussamad]

If your default wallet is made of imported private keys then you need to create a new standard wallet. Here's a guide to do it properly. Then you simply use the sweep function to sweep any private keys to it.

The reason you do it like this is because knowledge of private keys is what determines ownership of bitcoin. You don't have exclusive knowledge of the chipmixer private keys. The owners of that site may also know the private keys. So you have to move the bitcoins to an address whose private keys only you control i.e. an address in the new electrum wallet you create.

[jackg]

If your default wallet is made of imported private keys then you need to create a new standard wallet. Here's a guide to do it properly. Then you simply use the sweep function to sweep any private keys to it.

DON'T use the sweep function. The sweep function is designed to charge you a really high transaction fee. In that case, you may aswell use the sweep function in chipmixer (it does exactly the same thing)...

Import private keys and send a transaction with a small fee (1 sat per byte is enough to get a fast confirmation atm)...

[Abdussamad]

If your default wallet is made of imported private keys then you need to create a new standard wallet. Here's a guide to do it properly. Then you simply use the sweep function to sweep any private keys to it.

DON'T use the sweep function. The sweep function is designed to charge you a really high transaction fee. In that case, you may aswell use the sweep function in chipmixer (it does exactly the same thing)...

Import private keys and send a transaction with a small fee (1 sat per byte is enough to get a fast confirmation atm)...

The sweep function in Electrum now redirects you to the send tab where you can set a fee of your choice.

[jackg]

If your default wallet is made of imported private keys then you need to create a new standard wallet. Here's a guide to do it properly. Then you simply use the sweep function to sweep any private keys to it.

DON'T use the sweep function. The sweep function is designed to charge you a really high transaction fee. In that case, you may aswell use the sweep function in chipmixer (it does exactly the same thing)...

Import private keys and send a transaction with a small fee (1 sat per byte is enough to get a fast confirmation atm)...

The sweep function in Electrum now redirects you to the send tab where you can set a fee of your choice.

Oh that's cool! You used to just get to preview how much you'd lose in tx fees from the high rate and then end up losing them when you hit broadcast...

[bob123]

Ok will use the sweep option instead next time.

For the sake of your privacy, don't.
While with sweeping the private keys instantly you are still retaining a lot of privacy, it is better to not do this immediately.

The big advantage with chipmixer is, that they give you (a) private key(s) which you can import and use later.
Most mixers around simply just send funds back to you. This can easily be traced using advanced blockchain analysis.

With those private keys, you are able to create the transactions days, weeks or months later. This will complicate a blockchain analysis to a non-efficient way anymore.


Since you are trusting chipmixer anyway when using their service (simply by sending funds to their address), there is no reason to not trust them beyond the point of receiving the private key.
In addition to that the reputation of chipmixer is very good if you look across the forum (or other sources).

[Abdussamad]

It was a mistake to trust this service. Any service that shares private keys as a mechanism to transfer bitcoin can't be trusted. He should do what he can now to secure his coins and the way to do that is to sweep them to an address whose private keys only he knows.

Also OP regarding your lost coins did you try switching wallets like I said? Each time you import you import to a different wallet file so your latest imported private keys are probably sitting in a different wallet file. Just go to file > open or file > recently open. You should still send those coins to an address in a new standard wallet though.