Watch only address?

[Cook My Sock]

Is there a way to create a watch only address from just having the public key? If so what are the steps to take to create a watch only address on a bitcoin address? Do you have to control the address to actually generate a xpub key or is there a way to figure out what an addresses xpub key is?

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[NeuroticFish]

Is there a way to create a watch only address from just having the public key? If so what are the steps to take to create a watch only address on a bitcoin address? Do you have to control the address to actually generate a xpub key or is there a way to figure out what an addresses xpub key is?

If you want to create an address from a public key, I think that the place to look is https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Technical_background_of_version_1_Bitcoin_addresses
and https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Invoice_address


For watch only you need the address. In the same way you can see all the transactions on a block explorer based on the address, the wallets allow you do the same (I've done it many times in Electrum).
Since you don't want to spend, the address is enough.

xpub is afaik only necessary if you want to get all the addresses of a HD wallet as watch only.

[Cook My Sock]

What if I wanna monitor an address within say blockchain wallet on my phone if I don’t own the actual address. One of my friends was able to generate QR code’s somehow and import them from random addresses to monitor whales moving coin from within his wallet. Is there a way I can generate a xpub QR code to scan and import a watch only address based off just the public address solely?

[TryNinja]

Yes, you can monitor one or multiple addresses by creating an watch-only wallet.

The Bitcoin blockchain is public, so you can see the balance and transactions related to any address in the world, even if you don't own it. Creating an watch-only address is the same thing as looking for such address on a blockchain explorer.

If you want to do that on your PC, you can use Electrum[1]. For your phone, you can use BlueWallet[2] for iOS or Sentinel[3] for Android.

[1] https://bitcoinelectrum.com/creating-a-watch-only-wallet/
[2] https://bluewallet.io/watch-only/
[3] https://samouraiwallet.com/sentinel

edit: changed Blockfolio for Sentinel.

[Cook My Sock]

But how do I create a watch only address to import to my phone app to monitor addresses I don’t control

[TryNinja]

But how do I create a watch only address to import to my phone app to monitor addresses I don’t control

You don't need to control/own it. You just need to know the address. It's called "watch-only" wallet, because you can only watch it. Meanwhile, if you want to spend the coins on an address, you obviously need its private-key to "control it".

Download the app and follow the instructions.

[pawanjain]

If you just want to monitor a public key without owning it's private key then you can do it easily in Electrum wallet. It's available for Android.

Steps :

1. Download Electrum wallet from Playstore.
2. Create a new wallet.
3. Select Import using public key option.
4. Enter the public key in the input box.

Now you will be able to monitor the address on your smartphone.
You can follow the same process on Desktop too by downloading the desktop application.

[bob123]

But how do I create a watch only address to import to my phone app to monitor addresses I don’t control

"Watch only" means that you can only watch that address. You don't need to control it.

Watch only basically is checking the blockchain for updates regarding that address (i.e. incoming/outgoing transactions).
Anyone can do it.

Most mobile wallets offer that option to import addresses to watch (e.g. electrum).

[Cook My Sock]

Awesome thanks guys. Was looking to monitor multiple whale wallets to check movement in future.

[Cook My Sock]

Ok so all the wallets I’m trying to monitor from are asking to scan QR code or private key to watch only. How do I generate this from an address I don’t control for example I want to monitor this address as read only
3MdDnf94uUbEjJxMYMtmwrnDeqfV6V9s8E

I don’t see options to monitor just from a public address. Any ideas. I hope you guys understand what I’m trying to accomplish here

[TryNinja]

I don’t see options to monitor just from a public address. Any ideas. I hope you guys understand what I’m trying to accomplish here

On which app? You are looking at the wrong place...

- Sentinel only allows you to watch addresses. There isn't even any place to input a private key.
- Blue Wallet has an "import" button where you literally just paste the Bitcoin address, it also has a step-by-step on the link I posted above.
- Electrum also has an step-by-step tutorial on the link I, again, posted above.

[Cook My Sock]

I was using the generic wallets like BitPay and blockchain but looks like they changed the options to private import only

[NeuroticFish]

OP, since you just want to create a QR from an address and then scan it somewhere, you could try a general purpose QR generator (Google returned this to me: https://www.qr-code-generator.com/ )
As a general warning, avoid searching for Bitcoin qr generator because may end up with scams, see more here.

So get a QR generator in a browser and generate qr either from address (eg 1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE), either from bitcoin:address (eg bitcoin:1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE ) ; I think that one of the two should be what you need.

[Csmiami]

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He could alternatively search for that especific address in any block explorer, and it will also show the QR code of said address.

See this with Blockchair or with Blockchain

[Cook My Sock]

Yeah but the wallets I try to import to watch only say invalid... I’m just trying to import the public key into my existing wallets to “watch only”

[Csmiami]

Without knowledge of the xpub. Unless there is a way to generate the xpub somehow or make it work to what I’m trying to do

At least on Sentinel you can import a watch only address just scanning the QR. I know this because it's the setup I currently have on my phone

Xpub, Ypub and Zpub are for the whole wallet, which for what I've understood is not what you are looking for.

[Cook My Sock]

Yeah so basically what I want to do is import just a generic public key on the blockchain and consistently monitor it from within a wallet preferably on iPhone of possible

[Csmiami]

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Yes! Then please, follow the guides Tryninja has provided for different apps that you can use to monitor

- Sentinel only allows you to watch addresses. There isn't even any place to input a private key.
- Blue Wallet has an "import" button where you literally just paste the Bitcoin address, it also has a step-by-step on the link I posted above.
- Electrum also has an step-by-step tutorial on the link I, again, posted above.

My personal recomendation is to go with Sentinel, as it's the one I use and it's really easy, there is no way anyone can get lost during the process. Just click the "add" button, the select "bitcoin address" and "scan QR code". That's all. For the rest, check the guides provided please

[Cook My Sock]

Great thanks I’ll try that on an old android device