private key doesn't work

[Jumperman4]

Has anyone ever had an issue with a private key not working.


I've personally never had that happen, but I am curious if anyone had a paper wallet private key not work not from physical damage or negligence but from it simply not working.

[BlackHatCoiner]

If I want to have a well-funded cold storage, then I test the 12 words to see if it truly works.

but I am curious if anyone had a paper wallet private key not work not from physical damage or negligence but from it simply not working.

I don't believe someone with a lot of bitcoins would only save his wallet on a piece of paper. If he ever lost it, he is gone for good. I would try to memorise it and save it on 3-4 different places. 12 words don't seem suspicious. A whole private key seems.

Underlying words from a book for example is a good way to keep your funds.

[Jumperman4]

If I want to have a well-funded cold storage, then I test the 12 words to see if it truly works.

but I am curious if anyone had a paper wallet private key not work not from physical damage or negligence but from it simply not working.

I don't believe someone with a lot of bitcoins would only save his wallet on a piece of paper. If he ever lost it, he is gone for good. I would try to memorise it and save it on 3-4 different places. 12 words don't seem suspicious. A whole private key seems.

fair points the most ive stored on a paper wallet is negligible, i trust a trezor far more

[hosseinimr93]

What do you mean by not working?
Do you mean the private key doesn't generate any address? Or it generates an address but it's empty?

How did you create your paper wallet?
How are you importing your private key? What's the wallet you are using?

[MFahad]

Has anyone ever had an issue with a private key not working.


I've personally never had that happen, but I am curious if anyone had a paper wallet private key not work not from physical damage or negligence but from it simply not working.

So you mean to say that some has a paper wallet but he has lost the key ?
In fact Paper wallets are just private and public keys written down. If the paper wallet is not lost, he will have access to the private keys and your money will be saved.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

It will always work so long as;
1. The private key that your backed up or copied is valid
2. The Bitcoin wallet you are using to import the private key supports the given format

This could be a good start for you to understand more about private keys https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Private_key

[carlfebz2]

It might not be much needed but would post the basic importing from paper wallet neither on blockchain or electrum.

Importing Bitcoin from a paper wallet into Electrum
Import a paper wallet into Blockchain.info

The question is, op didnt clarify something about on that it doesnt work? The keys wont work?

[arwin100]

Has anyone ever had an issue with a private key not working.


I've personally never had that happen, but I am curious if anyone had a paper wallet private key not work not from physical damage or negligence but from it simply not working.

Did you properly check if the one you save is correct? since maybe you accidentally add some letters or numbers when you try to save your keys that's why it didn't work on your another attempt. But anything with those reasons for sure the given private key will 100% work if it pasted correctly.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Has anyone ever had an issue with a private key not working.

Provided you have written the private key down accurately and it has not been damaged during storage, then no, it will always work.

A private key is converted to an address using a number of very specific mathematical processes - namely elliptic curve multiplication, SHA256 hashing, and RIPEMD160 hashing. The same input (private key) will always give the same output (address). The only way for a private key to stop working is with a massive fundamental change to the bitcoin protocol.

[Nhor1011]

Has anyone ever had an issue with a private key not working.


I've personally never had that happen, but I am curious if anyone had a paper wallet private key not work not from physical damage or negligence but from it simply not working.

I experienced this on my Etherwallet private key but in Bitcoin private key I don't think so because i didn't encounter any problem with my private key ever since I used bitcoin. If you have paper wallet and you input there your private key correctly I think there is no reason not to open your wallet.

[BitMaxz]

It should be work if you backup the right private key, always make sure to save it correctly on the right place or write them down on the piece of paper. But after doing that also make sure to test them and import it to any wallet to test if it will show you the right address so that you know that the private key you have is working.

Make an extra copy of the backup to another storage or write them down on the paper as an additional backup that you can use for future reference.

[Viscore]

Has anyone ever had an issue with a private key not working.


I've personally never had that happen, but I am curious if anyone had a paper wallet private key not work not from physical damage or negligence but from it simply not working.

I'm not sure if you tried to open your wallet after created the keys (this I usually do to check if it is correct or not). Because if that it works before and never has an issue accessing it before there is no reason that makes it hard to access it again unless if your wallet has been hacked. It fort sure nobody had access in your keys as it was stored at your paper wallet.

I suggest also using another browser or double-check the keys (might have wrong with your inputs).

[smyslov]

Has anyone ever had an issue with a private key not working.


I've personally never had that happen, but I am curious if anyone had a paper wallet private key not work not from physical damage or negligence but from it simply not working.

I assume that when you want to keep your coins from one address you made sure that you generate the right private key, that is associated to that address, it should work if it's not then all the private key from paper wallet will not work anymore, so far no one has posted that he has this kind of issue, some of the issues are damaged or corrupt paper wallet but not on the private key.

[dothebeats]

There was one instance when I cannot use my 12-word seed phrase to unlock my wallet. Turns out I have added an extra 's' to a word and that's the reason behind my few minutes of frustration. There isn't a situation wherein the private key doesn't work and do its job. If that's the case, it's either some details are wrong within the string itself or it isn't really a valid key to begin with. It should always work if the backup process is complete and no extra dumb steps were added in between.

[Tipstar]

It did happen with me. I had some coins and a private key for backup. When I entered the private key on electrum, I was surprised to see my  balance zero. And after some seconds of shock realized that I haven't received anything and my receiving address was unfamiliar. So, I google some questions and found out that same private keys could have different wallet for segwit, native segwit and non-segwit. And I need to put p2wpkh-p2sh: (address starting with 3) or p2wpkh: (address starting with bc1) in front of the private key to access my wallet in electrum.

[rhomelmabini]

If it turns out there are some missing or added letters or numbers from the time you saved it that will really not work. I agree with Tipstar maybe you have a different bitcoin address from the latest wallet you're importing right now. Check first the type of address you're trying to import your private key in your wallet.

[hatshepsut93]

Private keys can be stored in different formats, and there are different types of private keys corresponding to different addresses, like segwit or multisig or p2sh and so on. So, it can be possible that the user provides incorrect type of private key, or the wallet just can't understand a given private key, especially if the wallet is outdated. But if everything is correct, than a private key can not "simply" no work.

[masphie]

If we're not mistaken in writing, I'm sure the private key won't be wrong.
And make it a habit not only to store private keys, at least 2 keys.

[molsewid]

Has anyone ever had an issue with a private key not working.

I've personally never had that happen, but I am curious if anyone had a paper wallet private key not work not from physical damage or negligence but from it simply not working.

I haven't heard yet had an issue with the right private key.

As of now, the only problem I encountered yet is the wrong private key due to negligence. So my advice is to store them in a nice place or storage and create enough copies for backup.

[sunsilk]

That's unlikely to happen. Private keys that were generated were always correct but if it's wrong, the error isn't in the generation but to the user who have saved the keys.

It's either there's a misspelled word or missed words upon writing the keys. You must remember that this is your total keys to your funds so be sure to write the right words and check it as you save a backup.