Sweeping Armory Signer PC Private Keys to a BIP39 Air-Gapped Coldcard-Q

[matrix01]

I am thinking about migrating my funds from my present Armory cold storage setup over to a new cold storage setup consisting of an air-gapped Coldcard-Q hardware wallet and also an online connected StartOS BTC Node running Knots, Electrum Rust, Mempool Space, etc... . Nevertheless, making all of this very complicated for me is how the Coldcard-Q hardware wallet complies to the BIP39 standard and Armory does not comply to the BIP39 standard (as I understand via some research). In short, after much time spent searching in this forum, I cannot find any step-by-step instructions on how to sweep the private keys from my air-gapped Armory Signer PC over to a newly created Coldcard-Q BIP39 compliant wallet. Therefore, I would be very grateful if knowledgeable members in this forum community can address my questions below or just simply offer any advice on what is the best approach to implement:

• Which of these two approaches is the best and most secure option to migrate the funds? #1 Migrate the funds using my present Armory Signer PC / Armory Online PC setup to broadcast a transaction over to a new Coldcard-Q wallet I control?    OR    #2 Sweep the private keys from my air-gapped Armory Signer PC over to a newly created air-gapped Coldcard-Q BIP39 compliant wallet?
• Can the seed phrase/QR Code paper backup the Armory Signer PC generated be utilized by a Coldcard-Q? Or does the BIP39 incompatibility make it Coldcard-Q unusable.
• Is it a good idea to install Sparrow Wallet software onto my Armory Signer PC to assist in sweeping the private keys more securely?
• What are the steps to follow for sweeping private keys from air-gapped Armory Signer PC over to an air-gapped Coldcard-Q BIP39 compliant wallet?
• Is it best to sweep the private keys operating within the Armory Signer PC GUI? Or is it better to just operate outside of the Armory Signer PC GUI by manually collecting the private keys and moving them to a different directory?
• What directory are the private keys located in the air-gapped Armory Signer PC?
• Has anybody in the forum community seen any online documentation on how best to sweep private keys stored in an Armory Signer PC? I ask because I have never done this so it will help me a lot if I had links pointing to some form of instructional material available online.

I look forward to reading any posts or getting any links that may be helpful to successfully completing this migration task. I realize I have a steep learning curve ahead of me but I figured this forum is the best place to start learning considering Armory is the current setup I utilize. Thank you for your time.

[noorman0]

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• Which of these two approaches is the best and most secure option to migrate the funds? #1 Migrate the funds using my present Armory Signer PC / Armory Online PC setup to broadcast a transaction over to a new Coldcard-Q wallet I control?    OR    #2 Sweep the private keys from my air-gapped Armory Signer PC over to a newly created air-gapped Coldcard-Q BIP39 compliant wallet?

Option #1 is the best.
For general security reasons: extracting the privkey from the Armory file (or any wallets) and importing it to another device increases the risk exposure (exposing the key on the machine, USB stick, clipboard, etc.).

-snip-

• Can the seed phrase/QR Code paper backup the Armory Signer PC generated be utilized by a Coldcard-Q? Or does the BIP39 incompatibility make it Coldcard-Q unusable.

Your research explains that, Armory's backups is not compatible and unusable with Coldcard BIP39

[nc50lc]

• Which of these two approaches is the best and most secure option to migrate the funds?
  #1 Migrate the funds using my present Armory Signer PC / Armory Online PC setup to broadcast a transaction over to a new Coldcard-Q wallet I control?    OR
  #2 Sweep the private keys from my air-gapped Armory Signer PC over to a newly created air-gapped Coldcard-Q BIP39 compliant wallet?

Both of the options do the same.
Because "sweep" will just create a transaction that spends all of the UTXO that the provided private key can spend and send it to the target wallet's address.

In this case, it's more simple, easy and safe if you just send all of your Bitcoins to your new wallet using your current cold-storage setup.
I only recommend the latter if your existing setup isn't working.

[matrix01]

Thank you for the posts Noorman0 and Nc50lc.

I forgot to mention my current Armory setup is not working due to how the Bitcoin Core app installed on my Online Armory PC is really outdated. I need to update it and just to confirm, is Bitcoin Knots version 29 compatible with the Armory software running on my Armory Online PC?  Or am I obligated to only install Bitcoin Core version 29 on my Armory Online PC?

Additionally, it’s not clear to me how my BTC onchain custodial history will show up on the blockchain before and after I implement the sweep the privkeys approach if I decide to go this route. The way I understand it this sweep the privkeys approach bypasses broadcasting to the blockchain under the original wallet number used by Armory. Instead, the funds now end up under a new incompatible Coldcard-Q BIP39 wallet number using what I see as the offchain approach of sweeping the privkeys.  In short, is my new Coldcard-Q BIP32 wallet going to remain tied to my Armory wallet number or will my new Coldcard-Q BIP32 wallet appear on the blockchain with no ties to the old Armory wallet number if I decide to go with the sweep privkeys approach?

Any info welcome.  Thank you for your time.

[nc50lc]

I need to update it and just to confirm, is Bitcoin Knots version 29 compatible with the Armory software running on my Armory Online PC?  Or am I obligated to only install Bitcoin Core version 29 on my Armory Online PC?

Since it follows most of Bitcoin Core's updates including the block storage, it should be compatible if you have an existing block directory with actual block files in your datadir because it will remain non XOR'd.
But it'll not be compatible if it needs to build a new blocks directory.
 
For bitcoind, Armory may not find it, if so, you should update the path in ArmoryQt's setting or start Bitcoin Core manually.

The way I understand it this sweep the privkeys approach bypasses broadcasting to the blockchain under the original wallet number used by Armory. Instead, the funds now end up under a new incompatible Coldcard-Q BIP39 wallet number using what I see as the offchain approach of sweeping the privkeys.

No, it simply creates a regular transaction with "max amount".

[Aethereal]

I'm not an expert as nc50lc, but I migth give my two cents, that I hope could be useful to some newbies too...

Most wallet software/hardware like Armory or Coldcard-Q manage the private keys in their wallet deriving them from a "seed", that is the set of strings/values you use as "backup". You can't really "import" foreign keys inside them, even if sometimes you can find a similarly named function (you already know that the seeds of Armory and Coldcard-Q use different algorithms and can't be transferred whatever is the direction).
What happens is that a new transaction is created (and broadcasted) "sweeping" all the *current* balance of the previous wallet(s) into a new one created with the new software/hardware.

Once you have done that, there is no more connection with the old wallet/private keys. Even if the old wallet keys were leaked, the balance would be zero, and you will operate only on the new wallet.
Of course there is still a "logic" connection, as anyone exploring the blockchain can find out that the content of the old wallet was transferred to the new one, and thus inherit you were the owner of both. That's how the blockchain works and is not avoidable, in case you were having privacy concerns.

One more point worth is that the old wallet is still "active". If you ever published your address and are receiving funds on the old wallet, those funds won't automatically be transferred onto the new wallet by the blockchain (if that was your question about the new wallet "remain tied" to the old one). You might have to do a "sweep" again if that's the case (beside, of course, update all the occurence of your old addresses where used them).

As a last point, if your Armory can't go online and you can't send your funds from there to the new wallet, you can still launch it in Offline mode and manually retrieve the private keys of the addresses you used, and then use them on the "import/sweep" feature of your new wallet.

If some more savy user spots someting incorrect, please correct me.

[matrix01]

Nc50lc and Aethereal thank you for the posts. Ok, I will try installing Knots version 29.1 onto my Online Armory PC. Just for my peace of mind, does the Online Armory PC store any private keys not already stored in the Air-Gapped PC?  I ask because my understanding is all of the private keys are stored in the Air-Gapped Armory PC.  In short, my plan is to rebuild the hard drive on my Online Armory PC from scratch. Meaning I am planning on installing the latest version of both Linux Mint and the last released version of Armory which I think was version 0.093 if I am not mistaken.  Obviously, I will have to download the entire blockchain again but I rather do this than compared to shoe horning in Knots into a very old version of Bitcoin Core currently installed on my Online Armory PC. 

Nevertheless, I hope somebody can clarify to me what Online Armory PC folders or files definitely need to be backed up before I wipe the hard drive on my Online Armory PC. Just to clarify, the reason I am considering rebuilding my Online Armory PC from scratch is because it has been in storage for close to 8 years. For this reason I think it will be easier to just start from scratch after I backup any critical data. Also does the Armory software running on my Air-Gapped Signer PC also require updating after I update the Armory software running on my Online PC?  I prefer not to make any software updates to my Air-Gapped Signer PC and just leave it as is. Is it a good idea to leave the Air-Gapped Signer PC it the same state I left it in 8 years ago?

Any advice on this matter will be greatly appreciated.  Thank you for your time.

[nc50lc]

Just for my peace of mind, does the Online Armory PC store any private keys not already stored in the Air-Gapped PC?  I ask because my understanding is all of the private keys are stored in the Air-Gapped Armory PC.

Yes, your online Armory's wallet files only contain public keys which are the pairs of your offline Armory's private keys.

Nevertheless, I hope somebody can clarify to me what Online Armory PC folders or files definitely need to be backed up before I wipe the hard drive on my Online Armory PC.

Generally, it's just your watch-only wallet that should be backed-up from the online Armory.
But you can easily generate that from your offline Armory so there's nothing remotely important there, I recommend the "Watch-Only Root ID" and "Watch-Only Root Data" saved as text for compatibility.

Ok, I will try installing Knots version 29.1 onto my Online Armory PC.
Obviously, I will have to download the entire blockchain again but I rather do this than compared to shoe horning in Knots into a very old version of Bitcoin Core currently installed on my Online Armory PC.

Take note that if you start new, Armory will not be able to read your new block files since those'll be XOR'd.
So in its very first attempt to sync, you'll need to start it with --blocksxor=0 or set in your bitcoin.conf file for it to save the blocks with zeroed XOR-key.
Adding that arg will result with an error if the blocks are already XOR'd. (you should start again if so)