BTC private key character length

[Unsaint32]

I went to bitaddress.org and generated a private key.  Here it is.  KxJYJ35GVd8vbyAdYTFLoV4vFkLyDPxVHMJq4xu5N39vBTM1wRUy

Why is it only 62 characters?  I thought bitcoin private key is always 64 characters long. 

[pooya87]

bitcoin private keys are numbers that can be from 1 to a 32 bytes long number tops. but since you can't print a byte array for the user we have to encode it with some encoding technique. one of them is hexadecimal format or base-16 which turns each byte to 2 characters hence the resulting 64 character long key. another format is base-58 with a checksum also known as Wallet Import Format (WIF) which can have 51 or 52 (not 62, you miscounted) characters in it.

ps. we always pad the keys, for example if you choose private key = 1 which is 1 byte then we pad it with 31x 0 bytes to make it 32 bytes in total then encode it.

[samcrypto]

Why are you sharing your private keys like that, are you really asking for an answer or you want to be hacked soon?

Anyway, the length of private keys is not always the same there are some wallet with a short private keys and most of the wallet have a very long private keys. You got a normal private keys, the longer the keys the better for me its hard to crack if ever.

[Artemis3]

Why are you sharing your private keys like that, are you really asking for an answer or you want to be hacked soon?

Anyway, the length of private keys is not always the same there are some wallet with a short private keys and most of the wallet have a very long private keys. You got a normal private keys, the longer the keys the better for me its hard to crack if ever.

Well, obviously that particular private key isn't private anymore, so its useless. Lets hope he just wanted to bring an example to complement his question and plans to discard it right away...

There is no "hacking" involved, once you share a private key anyone could use it, so its pointless.

[Unsaint32]

Why are you sharing your private keys like that, are you really asking for an answer or you want to be hacked soon?

Anyway, the length of private keys is not always the same there are some wallet with a short private keys and most of the wallet have a very long private keys. You got a normal private keys, the longer the keys the better for me its hard to crack if ever.

No, it is not my private key.   I just generated it from bitaddress.org just for practice purpose. 

[Krislaw]

No, it is not my private key.   I just generated it from bitaddress.org just for practice purpose. 

You have to secreting private key you has been generated,
for example you wrote : KxJYJ35GVd8vbyAdYTxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
what ever when happen you forgoton, then send btc at there, your btc will be loss

[Unsaint32]

No, it is not my private key.   I just generated it from bitaddress.org just for practice purpose. 

You have to secreting private key you has been generated,
for example you wrote : KxJYJ35GVd8vbyAdYTxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
what ever when happen you forgoton, then send btc at there, your btc will be loss

I have no intention of using that private key.  I needed the whole private key in order to show that I counted 62 characters.  As a newbie, I thought a BTC private key has to be always 64 characters long.  But I guess I was wrong.   

[killat]

Personally, I would recommend you to buy a hardware wallet instead of taking care of your private key.

This way, your private key will never leave the device and it cannot be hacked.

[LTU_btc]

It's same like Bitcoin wallet address - length of it can be from 26 up to 35 characters. There is no exact length for public and private keys. OP, if you are interested, for further reading you can click this link:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Private_key

You have to secreting private key you has been generated,
for example you wrote : KxJYJ35GVd8vbyAdYTxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
what ever when happen you forgoton, then send btc at there, your btc will be loss

Personally, I wouldn't post even part of my private key in such way. Private means private and nobody don't need to know even single character from my private key.

Personally, I would recommend you to buy a hardware wallet instead of taking care of your private key.

This way, your private key will never leave the device and it cannot be hacked.

Good suggestion, but I think it's a bit off-topic here.

[Thirdspace]

I have no intention of using that private key.  I needed the whole private key in order to show that I counted 62 characters.  As a newbie, I thought a BTC private key has to be always 64 characters long.  But I guess I was wrong.    

that's not even a valid private key, bitaddress says invalid checksum
about the length, as pooya87 said the 64 chars long is the Private Key Hexadecimal format

when you generate an address on bitaddress.org, you will get an address and a Private Key WIF Compressed 52 chars long
then you can use this PK WIFC as an input in wallet details tab to find out PK HEX
it just that the one commonly used is the PK WIF/WIFC, and the PK HEX is known as raw private key
they just have different formats but they enable you to access the same bitcoin public address
so you wasn't completely wrong to say it has to be 64 chars long

[nakamura12]

@OP: You will be able to know how many characters are there in a Private Key if you know what the site have used when generating the private key just like what Thirdspace explained.

You have to secreting private key you has been generated,
for example you wrote : KxJYJ35GVd8vbyAdYTxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
what ever when happen you forgoton, then send btc at there, your btc will be loss

Do you mean that when you create a cryptowallet to use it for storing your btc and, the private key should be private right?, if ever you lose the private key then that means that you won't be able to access the wallet anymore. You also won't be able to send btc from your wallet to another btc wallet and the btc sent  The btc that will be sent to you no matter who it is or where it came from then the btc will be sent/credited in your wallet that you have forgot it's private key and you won't be able to withdraw the btc in the wallet.

[DoraNile]

Get yourself a hardware wallet like trezor or other,its more safer than any other bitcoin wallef out there

[Nnuego]

Why are you sharing your private keys like that, are you really asking for an answer or you want to be hacked soon?

Anyway, the length of private keys is not always the same there are some wallet with a short private keys and most of the wallet have a very long private keys. You got a normal private keys, the longer the keys the better for me its hard to crack if ever.

No, it is not my private key.   I just generated it from bitaddress.org just for practice purpose. 

I thought as much cos you can't share your private keys for everyone to see. Private keys differs from others but all serve the same purpose. The issue of private should be store up in hardware wallet for it not to be hack or get loss