Help to restore my Priv Key

[breske]

I need your help
so recently while i was cleaning my basement I found my old loptop that i used back in time
I see i have saved on txt file  WIF Private Key (Uncompressed):

Its been more than 6 hours that I'm trying to have access and spent the coins
I tried the method with electrum , but it dont give option to put WIF Private Key (Uncompressed):

I tried to crease a new seed wallet on it , and then sweep the priv key, it dont recognize  as its Uncompressed

Should i only install Bitcoin Core or is there any solution
In case your help solve my problem you'll have a reward from my side

[nc50lc]

Check your private key first, it should start with "5" with exactly 51 characters.
If it starts with other character or shorter/longer, describe it.

And Electrum supports uncompressed WIF, if the private key is correct, you may have added something that made Electrum falsely detect it.
If it's appended with any label, remove it before sweeping.

But have you verified if you're using the correct Electrum wallet though?
You can follow guide this to make it safer: /index.php?topic=5240594.0

And you already pasted it on an online machine multiple times so I guess going "cold-storage" wont make any significant difference.

[breske]

thank you for the reply
Yes it does start with  5


on electrum I tried to put an compressed it works
But my Coins are on  WIF Private Key (Uncompressed)

and the electrum dont recognize that it dont allow the button submit

What can i do, Meantime now trying the Sparrow Wallet too

[nc50lc]

What can i do, Meantime now trying the Sparrow Wallet too

Sparrow doesn't support single private key import, it has to be HD.

and the electrum dont recognize that it dont allow the button submit

Are you sure you're using Electrum from electrum.org?
There should be no "submit" button there, only "Next" or "Sweep" buttons depending if you're in Import or Sweep menu
And uncompressed WIF should be supported by both method.

If you're using a legit Electrum client, the reason why the "Next" button is grayed-out is the WIF private key has a wrong checksum or invalid character(s).
Count the number of characters if it's more or less than 51.
Also, check if any of the characters doesn't belong to this BASE58 character set: learnmeabitcoin.com/technical/keys/base58 (red characters aren't included)
If there is, that could be a typo when creating the text file.

[LoyceV]

WIF Private Key (Uncompressed)

That should be pretty straight forward: Electrum > File > New/Restore > type "ImportedUncompressedPrivkey" as wallet name > Next > Import Bitcoin addresses or private keys > Next > paste or type your private key > Next > Enter a password (twice) > Finish.

If you can't click Next after typing your private key, it's invalid. If you typed it, you may have made a mistake. If you copy/pasted it, you messed up before you moved your old laptop to your basement.

[nc50lc]

1. Check the Private Key Format:

Please read the entire thread first.

And he already answered that in this quote:

Yes it does start with  5

-snip-
4. Choose "Use a master key".
5. Instead of a seed phrase, paste your WIF private key (starting with 5).

This is wrong, uncompressed WIF private key will not be accepted in that menu.

Electrum will NOT sweep uncompressed keys but will accept them in wallet creation.

Wrong again, it accepts uncompressed and compressed WIF in both Import (wallet creation) and Sweep.

Method 3: Bitcoin Core (Slow but Sure)
You can install Bitcoin Core, let it fully sync (can take days), then:
1. Run the console (under Tools).
2. Run:
importprivkey "YourWIFKey"

You should use an alternative with an updated database since this is for older versions of Bitcoin Core
or at least cross-check the results first before posting it as a reply.

[breske]

I’ve tried all the methods I could and now I’m just waiting for Bitcoin Core to finish scanning all the blocks so I can test it there too
Thanks for the quick replies guys

[Cricktor]

It should've worked with Electrum, too. I know that you can import or sweep an uncompressed WIF private key properly when you use the correct notation to indicate to Electrum to use legacy address type:

Code:

p2pkh:5HpHagT65TZzG1PH3CSu63k8DbpvD8s5ip4nEB3kEsreB1FQ8BZ

(The Info button in Electrum's import private key or sweep private key dialog box gives you those hints.)

This is the uncompressed WIF of private key 0x02 and the uncompressed legacy address is 1NZUP3JAc9JkmbvmoTv7nVgZGtyJjirKV1 which so far already has a transaction history of 78 transactions. You can test it with it, of course it doesn't have any unspent coins because those will be grabbed by stealer bots. Don't send funds to this public address!

[breske]

thank you very very much for the help guys
it seems that the mistake was at the WIF
I don't know were I got that wif that back in time that I have saved it on text file but it looks that I just wasted time trying all the methods
as the problem seems to be the wif 5HueCGU8rMjxEXxiPuD5BDuRaF2oQfMzuXgbw2x1DJUbpjZSQmW

thank you again to all of you that tried to help me
I'd be happy to send you a small tip as a generous way to thank you for your help
Drop your BTC address

[LoyceV]

I don't know were I got that wif that back in time that I have saved it on text file but it looks that I just wasted time trying all the methods
as the problem seems to be the wif 5HueCGU8rMjxEXxiPuD5BDuRaF2oQfMzuXgbw2x1DJUbpjZSQmW

If you typed it back in the days, there might be a small mistake in one of the characters. Posting it here makes it likely someone tries to use ]The FinderOuter, a bitcoin recovery tool or other software to recover the correct key. I'm not at home right now, but you could try if that software finds the correct key.

I'd be happy to send you a small tip as a generous way to thank you for your help
Drop your BTC address

Most users have their Bitcoin address in their profile (click their username).

[stwenhao]

Oh! It looks like vanity address: 1234y36KcXkBFtmY2fsvE8MHhj1pSJcTnc

Your public key is: 04 4CDEDAAFAA3A71D8FEF92BC37ED3284F00E98801D29181F7D720926854B7ED60 38C3A59ADDE1482633A4DC56974D2DB1A7E12A0E818CAEEC3023D55D3F4800CA

However, it is completely empty, and never received any coins.

[nc50lc]

Oh! It looks like vanity address: 1234y36KcXkBFtmY2fsvE8MHhj1pSJcTnc

Nice catch.
Let me guess, you got that from fixing the WIF's checksum, right?

Given the uniqueness of the address,
There's a good chance that you're correct and it's not a simple typo in the actual private key which could lead to a seemingly random address instead of a vanity address.
Because the chance for it to produce "1234" unintentionally is quite low.

[stwenhao]

Let me guess, you got that from fixing the WIF's checksum, right?

I simply didn't check it at all:

Code:

     Base58: 5HueCGU8rMjxEXxiPuD5BDuRaF2oQfMzuXgbw2x1DJUbpjZSQmW
    Decoded: 80 0c28fca386c7a227600b2fe50b7cae9c9442eb77e263cb960e6e482864e43002 2e421439
Private key:    0c28fca386c7a227600b2fe50b7cae9c9442eb77e263cb960e6e482864e43002

There are tools, which can work with private keys directly, so I just copy-pasted the private key.

However, that key seems to be useless, because it was never used anywhere. Unless it is just a result of grinding some other key, but then, the exact method is needed, to recover it properly. It could be incremented, decremented, multiplied, divided, or generated out of some pseudo random number generator. Only OP knows, how it was made, and if it is connected with any key, which was actually used anywhere.

[Cricktor]

~~~

I did the same: fed the posted WIF in a Base58 decoder to obtain the private key hex part, fixed the checksum and derived the uncompressed legacy public address which had no transaction history. Even tried other address derivations assuming the private key hex would be correct, which is unlikely.

I didn't bother to post about it as I find it highly unlikely that only the WIF checksum is wrong and the rest of the WIF would be without errors. A public address starting with 1234... looks a bit vanityish, but the evidence isn't compelling for me.

[LoyceV]

Because the chance for it to produce "1234" unintentionally is quite low.

That's true. But the chance of getting any 3 character vanity address is a lot higher.

[stwenhao]

Found very similar keys here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Wallet_import_format

Code:

Example private key: 0C28FCA386C7A227600B2FE50B7CAE_SAMPLE_PRIVATE_KEY_DO_NOT_IMPORT_11EC86D3BF1FBE471BE89827E19D72AA1D
   OP's private key: 0c28fca386c7a227600b2fe50b7cae9c9442eb77e263cb960e6e482864e43002

What is even more surprising, is that Wiki contains SAMPLE_PRIVATE_KEY_DO_NOT_IMPORT in exactly that spot, where OP's private key starts to differ.

And of course, when Wiki said "please don't use it", then people obviously used it on-chain anyway: https://privatekeys.pw/key/0c28fca386c7a227600b2fe50b7cae11ec86d3bf1fbe471be89827e19d72aa1d