Found My Key, Uncompressed

[foundmykey]

I recently found my Base58 (P2PKH) private key and need help compressing my key to WIF format and also signing the transaction.

What do I do or how do I accomplish this task? The key is 51 characters and is verified to be the key to my address.

[1714603126]

1714603126

[1714603126]

1714603126

[1714603126]

1714603126

[1714603126]

1714603126

[1714603126]

1714603126

[1714603126]

1714603126

[hosseinimr93]

Are you sure you need the compressed format of your private key? Maybe, your address has been derived from the uncompressed format of your private key.

Anyway, to get the compressed format of your private key, you can use iancoleman's Bitcoin Key Compression Tool.
To protect the security of your private key, you should run the tool offline. You can get the source code from here: https://github.com/iancoleman/keycompression

[foundmykey]

Are you sure you need the compressed format of your private key? Maybe, your address has been derived from the uncompressed format of your private key.

Anyway, to get the compressed format of your private key, you can use iancoleman's Bitcoin Key Compression Tool.
To protect the security of your private key, you should run the tool offline. You can get the source code from here: https://github.com/iancoleman/keycompression

I do know that I can generate the address from the key as is but I tried to import the private key to a wallet and it said that it must be compressed to import?

Also, it requires a signature since it's P2PKH. Also, the block reward for mining it suppose to be 50 BTC that generates a new block. So, I also want to mine it if I can.

[hosseinimr93]

I do know that I can generate the address from the key as is but I tried to import the private key to a wallet and it said that it must be compressed to import?

That's because the wallet you used doesn't support importing uncompressed private keys. You can use electrum to import an uncompressed private key.
Take note that the uncompressed format and the compressed format of your private key generate two different addresses.

Also, it requires a signature since it's P2PKH. Also, the block reward for mining it suppose to be 50 BTC that generates a new block. So, I also want to mine it if I can.

What? You want to mine a block with the reward of 50 BTC? It seems that you have zero knowledge about bitcoin mining.

My guess is that you have a private key and you think that it's associated with an address owning 50 BTC earned as a block reward. Am I right?
Where did you get that private key from? If you purchased it, you have been scammed.

[pooya87]

I do know that I can generate the address from the key as is but I tried to import the private key to a wallet and it said that it must be compressed to import?

Also, it requires a signature since it's P2PKH. Also, the block reward for mining it suppose to be 50 BTC that generates a new block. So, I also want to mine it if I can.

What is the name of the wallet you are importing your key into? Because the 3 highlighted statements above make that tool sound very suspicious since this is not the normal behavior of a normal wallet.
A normal wallet doesn't generate uncompressed keys but allows you to import or sweep them.
A normal wallet also doesn't require a signature when you import your key!
A normal wallet also doesn't have a "mining" option let alone with a 50BTC reward specially since the current reward is for a block is 6.25!

[LoyceV]

OP, it sounds like you don't know what you're doing, which is risky when handling old keys (which potentially hold high value).
Start with some security: Don't enter your key anywhere online, and don't enter it in a hot wallet! Before doing anything else, learn how to use offline signing, and figure out what you want to do with your Bitcoin once you've recovered them. There's not really a point in importing your old key into a new hot wallet and then leaving it there.

[nc50lc]

-snip-
Also, it requires a signature since it's P2PKH. Also, the block reward for mining it suppose to be 50 BTC that generates a new block. So, I also want to mine it if I can.

If someone is requiring you do these things, it's a scammer.
They use technical jargons or known crypto terms that usually they do not know what means themselves to check if the victim is an easy target.

Have you paid someone to recover your keys for you?

By the way, the correct format for posting technical support topics is in the sticky threads.
This one: [READ BEFORE POSTING] Tech Support Help Request Format

[Rickorick]

Sorry to hijack but can anyone help with spending a transaction from a time lock address???

I accidentally made the time lock 7140000 instead of 714000 and that means I have to wait 120 years to spend the coins. Please can anyone help?

[un_rank]

...I accidentally made the time lock 7140000 instead of 714000 and that means I have to wait 120 years to spend the coins. Please can anyone help?

I do not think there is a way to change the timelock on an address after it has locked using OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY.

Create a new thread so other users see your inquiry and can offer help.

- Jay -

[nc50lc]

I accidentally made the time lock 7140000 instead of 714000 and that means I have to wait 120 years to spend the coins. Please can anyone help?

This sounds familiar.
Is it the same transaction as this one?: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5455368.msg62364885#msg62364885

Seems like there's an ongoing bounty concerning that locked UTXO...

[DaveF]

Second problem: the buyer won't understand how to use this private key, and thus can't easily verify it belongs to that address. Considering OP's history on this forum, I don't think he created this on his own. Which means that whoever created it spread it already. This address is mentioned on Reddit in a 2 years old post, but it doesn't add anything. I'm curious what's the story behind this.

Either a massive screwup / typo when doing something OR exactly what I said, invest BTC0.5 to get BTC2.0 as you sell it for BTC0.01 to 200 people.
I'll keep saying it, never underestimate greed and stupidity.

How many obvious scams do we see here day in and day out.
Add to that telegram and what's app and everything else I can easily see getting a couple of hundred people to pay.

-Dave

Guess whoever it is sold it again to someone else.
Greed will always be able to manipulate others who think they know better and can get around programming that is designed not to allow things to be gotten around.

I'm guessing wit this it's a bit of several things actually FOMO / lack of understanding / thinking they are smarter then everyone else (ego) / greed.

Going to keep happening. Just saw it on a car board where someone was 'selling' a warehouse of old parts. Yes it was a warehouse of old (early 1980s) car parts.
Everyone of them a cheap cheap cheap knockoff. But since they did not know and just googled the part numbers....

-Dave

[o_e_l_e_o]

To convert your Base58 (P2PKH) private key to Wallet Import Format (WIF) and sign a transaction

A private key in Base58 is already in Wallet Import Format. That's exactly what WIF is - the Base58 encoding of your hexadecimal private key with the network byte prefix and the checksum appended, with an optional 0x01 byte to signal that you are using the compressed public key. If you want to swap between your compressed and uncompressed WIF keys, then as suggested above you can do this using https://iancoleman.io/bitcoin-key-compression/ offline.