Advice re: private keys

[Trendy555]

Hi all,

I’m after some advice if I may. I have some btc stored offline but the only info I have is the 64 digit private key. What’s the easiest way to get access to this btc so I can sell it?

Thanks in advance

[Hatchy]

Hi all,

I’m after some advice if I may. I have some btc stored offline but the only info I have is the 64 digit private key. What’s the easiest way to get access to this btc so I can sell it?

Thanks in advance

You already have what you need to access your Bitcoin mate. All you have to do is to choose a reputable wallet a hardware, software, or mobile.( You can use electrum or blue wallet) Import your 64 digit private key into the wallet to access your Bitcoins. use the wallet to transfer to a trustworthy exchange and sell

[hosemary]

A 64 character private key should be in hexadecimal format and include 0-9 and A-F characters.

First you should convert your hex private key to WIF. To do so, you can use bitaddress.org.
Just Note that it's not safe to enter your private key on an online website and it's recommended to run the offline version of bitaddress on an air-gapped device.

After deriving the WIF private key, you can import your private key to a wallet and spend your fund. A good option is electrum and note that it's recommended to run electrum on an airgapped device.
click here to read the guide on how to make a transaction offline.

[Charles-Tim]

hosseinimr93 is correct. 64 character private keys are in hexadecimal and you will first need to convert the private key to wallet import format (WIF).

Run it offline for the safety of your coins.

The website: https://www.bitaddress.org/

To run it offline on an airgapped device: https://github.com/pointbiz/bitaddress.org/releases

There are two WIF: the compressed and the other one that is not compressed. The compressed starts from K or L while the other one starts from 5.

For low fee, use the one that starts from K or L which is compressed.

[LoyceV]

Once you have the WIF private key, keep it offline and sign offline. There's no need to risk exposing your private keys to an online computer.

Online:
Install Electrum on your PC.
Import your address to create a watch-only wallet.
Preview the transaction, Copy the unsigned transaction. Put it on a USB stick.

Offline and running without hard drive storage:
Get a Linux LIVE DVD. Use Knoppix or Tails for instance, or any other distribution that comes with Electrum pre-installed.
Unplug your internet cable. Close the curtains. Reboot your computer and start up from that DVD. Don't enter any wireless connection password. Keep it offline.
Start Electrum. Import your private key.
Copy your unsigned transaction from the USB stick, load it into Electrum.
CHECK the transaction in Electrum. Check the fees, check the amount, check all destination addresses (character by character).
If all is okay, sign the transaction. Copy it back to your USB stick.
Turn off the computer. That wipes the Live LINUX from memory and all traces are gone.

Online:
Use your normal online Electrum to (check again and) broadcast the transaction.

Bonus:
After moving all your Bitcoin, and once the transaction confirmed, check if you own Forkcoins.

[hosemary]

For low fee, use the one that starts from K or L which is compressed.

It's not that OP can use each of compressed and uncompressed private keys.
If the fund has been sent to the compressed address, OP must use the compressed private key and if the fund has been sent to the uncompressed address, OP must use the uncompressed private key.

[Trendy555]

Great thanks for all the advice, I'll give it a try today


Ok so slight progress but no cigar yet......

I've converted the private key to WIF format

Then I've used Electrum and attempted to 'Sweep' the WIF (tried both compressed and uncompressed) into a standard wallet but I keep getting a message saying 'No Inputs Found'

Any idea what the issue could be?

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

[hosemary]

Then I've used Electrum and attempted to 'Sweep' the WIF (tried both compressed and uncompressed) into a standard wallet but I keep getting a message saying 'No Inputs Found'

The error message means that there is no fund at the address derived from the private key you are sweeping.

Do you know your bitcoin address or all you have is the hex private key?
Maybe, that the fund is at the segwit address.

If the fund is at the native segwit address, you should add "p2wpkh:" before your (compressed) private key and if the fund as the nested segwit address, you should add "p2wpkh-p2sh:" before your (compressed) private key.

Native segwit addresses start with bc1 and nested segwit addresses start with 3.

[LoyceV]

Then I've used Electrum and attempted to 'Sweep' the WIF (tried both compressed and uncompressed) into a standard wallet but I keep getting a message saying 'No Inputs Found'

The error message means that there is no fund at the address derived from the private key you are sweeping.

How did you create the 64 character private key? That's not a very common format.

[hosemary]

I received a message from OP.

He doesn't know the bitcoin address at all.
He said he has multiple hex private keys. One of them is for an address with only $10 worth of bitcoin and he asked me if I can check it.

I warned him about messages not being encrypted and the risk involved in sending a private key via pm.
He said he doesn't mind losing the $10 and insisted on sending me the hex private key.


Trendy555, I just sent you my protonmail address.
You can create a protonmail account (if you don't have) and send me the private key. In this way, your message would be more secure.


I can't guarantee the security of your fund and note that with sending your private key online, you are accepting the risk of losing your money (if there's any, of course).

[LoyceV]

He doesn't know the bitcoin address at all.
He said he has multiple hex private keys. One of them is for an address with only $10 worth of bitcoin and he asked me if I can check it.

How does he know the balance without knowing the address?

I warned him about messages not being encrypted and the risk involved in sending a private key via pm.
He said he doesn't mind losing the $10 and insisted on sending me the hex private key.

I wouldn't worry about Bitcointalk PMs being compromised for $10.

[hosemary]

How does he know the balance without knowing the address?

This is my question, too.

I doubt OP has created the private keys by himself.
As you said, it's not common to have a 64 character private key and I don't think there's any wallet displaying private keys in such format.

Maybe, OP has purchased some worthless private keys and someone has scammed him.

I wouldn't worry about Bitcointalk PMs being compromised for $10.

You are right, but we don't know where OP got the $10 from.
There's chance that's a private key of an old address that received $10 worth of bitcoin in the past and now it costs more.

[Trendy555]

Hi all,

Thanks again for all your help.

All I have is the private keys and the amount of btc for each pk so this is how I know roughly how much $$$ is involved.

I've emailed it to hosseinimr93 so hopefully we'll get some answers soon 

[hosemary]

I've emailed it to hosseinimr93 so hopefully we'll get some answers soon

Here are the addresses that can be derived from your private key. They are all empty.

• Uncompressed legacy: 1KLT97kA8Jw7hSzFnVQBoHEgTH7LbrFZBM
• Compressed legacy: 1DGdSzSj8anhcmsGcfRaYmV63U29TwFPGH
• Nested segwit: 3FVDAHLkNhFxA459tt6E8j7SXWV8mfTekK
• Native segwit: bc1qs6tze9e6shjq9hxtx3ye2wqyt7hkngrd38kksh

Did you purchase the private keys? If so, you got scammed.

[Trendy555]

I've emailed it to hosseinimr93 so hopefully we'll get some answers soon

Here are the addresses that can be derived from your private key. They are all empty.

• Uncompressed legacy: 1KLT97kA8Jw7hSzFnVQBoHEgTH7LbrFZBM
• Compressed legacy: 1DGdSzSj8anhcmsGcfRaYmV63U29TwFPGH
• Nested segwit: 3FVDAHLkNhFxA459tt6E8j7SXWV8mfTekK
• Native segwit: bc1qs6tze9e6shjq9hxtx3ye2wqyt7hkngrd38kksh

Did you purchase the private keys? If so, you got scammed.

OK thanks for checking

Good and bad news there i guess. Good that I wasn't doing anything wrong when trying to sweep and bad that there is nothing there.

I didn't purchase the private keys so I am not out of pocket

Can i ask where you checked to see the addresses above were all empty?

[hosemary]

Can i ask where you checked to see the addresses above were all empty?

There are many block explorers that can be used for checking transactions and balance of any address you want. Note that all bitcoin transactions are public.

Here are some good block explorers.

• mempool.space
• blockchair.com
• blockcypher.com
• blockstream.info

[LoyceV]

I didn't purchase the private keys so I am not out of pocket

How did you get them? Normally, when I create my own private key and fund it, I know my funds are there.

[cbskies]

Hi Guys, Im brand new to the forum so greetings and salutations from a long time BTC believer.

I have an old legacy paper wallet that i would like to ideally "sweep" onto a Passport device while keeping my private keys airgapped. Would the above advice about the WIF and such be applicable to me in my situation as well?

If anyone can confirm that or direct me toward more information as far as the most secure method of activating this old paper wallet, preferably with the Passport as I like it's airgapped features.

Thanks!

[BlackHatCoiner]

I have an old legacy paper wallet that i would like to ideally "sweep" onto a Passport device while keeping my private keys airgapped.

Is it in Wallet Import Format? Meaning, does it start with 5, K or L? If so, do what LoyceV has suggested above. You'll have to dedicate a spared computer for this operation, which will be used to safely create and sign your transaction without exposing the private key to an Internet connected machine.

If you have any questions, we're here to help you get this done.

[nc50lc]

All I have is the private keys and the amount of btc for each pk so this is how I know roughly how much $$$ is involved.

You may have a list of "Transaction ID" and their respective amounts instead of an ECDSA Private key.
Because it's rare to have a backup of a private key that's not in WIF these days, unless it's from the very old wallets.
In case those are TXIDs, the list is useless as a backup; it's more of a transaction history export.

But do not test if it's TXID yet until you've confirmed that it's empty if imported as private key.