[DEVELOPMENT] Extracting WIF and Address prefix codes from altcoins' sources

[chiguireitor]

I'm currently rolling my own wallet generator with the use of PYCoin https://github.com/richardkiss/pycoin and i'm having a hard time finding the WIF and Address prefix codes on the altcoins' sources.

BONUS QUESTION: The bip32 codes for each altcoin, where to find'em?

Does anyone know where to find it?

Simple non-dev explanation: Address prefix is for the special first character you see on most coins. WIF prefix is for importing the Wallet into the coins' client.

Some code:

Code:

###### excerpt from networks.py

NetworkValues = namedtuple('NetworkValues',
                           ('network_name', 'subnet_name', 'code', 'wif_prefix', 'address_prefix',
                            'pay_to_script_prefix', 'bip32_priv_prefix', 'bip32_pub_prefix'))

NetworkValues("Bitcoin", "mainnet", "BTC", b'\x80', b'\0', b'\5', h2b("0488ADE4"), h2b("0488B21E")),
NetworkValues("Dogecoin", "mainnet", "DOGE", b'\x9e', b'\x1e', b'\x16', h2b("02fda4e8"), h2b("02fda923")),

As you can see, BTC's wif prefix and address prefix are 0x80 and 0x05 each. DOGE's 0x93 and 0x1e.

I'm at a loss here.... halp plz

[elbandi]

bitcoin:
https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/src/chainparams.cpp#L153

litecoin
https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/blob/master-0.8/src/base58.h#L275
https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/blob/master-0.8/src/base58.h#L403

[chiguireitor]

bitcoin:
https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/src/chainparams.cpp#L153

litecoin
https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/blob/master-0.8/src/base58.h#L275
https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/blob/master-0.8/src/base58.h#L403

Excellent! Spot on... only missing now the WIF address prefix, however this will do for now on the hot wallets' side.

[XBITCOIN]

bitcoin:
https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/src/chainparams.cpp#L153

litecoin
https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/blob/master-0.8/src/base58.h#L275
https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/blob/master-0.8/src/base58.h#L403

Excellent! Spot on... only missing now the WIF address prefix, however this will do for now on the hot wallets' side.

Did you ever have any luck figuring out the WIFPrefix or the compressed.WIFPrefix?

Im forking this https://github.com/cantonbecker/bitcoinpaperwallet  and going to make paper wallets for my favorite Alts,


case 'Bitcoin': 
     window.networkVersion = 0x00;
     window.privateKeyPrefix = 0x80;
    window.WIFPrefix = '5';
     window.compressedWIFPrefix = '[LK]';
     break;
   case 'Litecoin':
      window.networkVersion = 0x30;
      window.privateKeyPrefix = 0xb0;
      window.WIFPrefix = '6';
      window.compressedWIFPrefix = 'T';
      break;

I am trying to set up an alt coin paper wallet generator and I havent been able to figure out how exactly to determine or find the value that needs to be place for the WIFPrefix and the compressedWIFPrefix?

I know how to determine window.networkVersion = 0x00; window.privateKeyPrefix = 0x80; from here
https://forum.digitalcoin.co/archive/index.php/t-1447.html
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=384093.msg4134858#msg4134858

Now all I need to make sure its 100% functional is the WIFPrefix!

Any help here would be appreciated?

Thanks,

[XBITCOIN]

I was able to figure out the compressedWIFPrefix is basically the Letter that the wallet generated private key starts with, in the case of Bitcoin it starts with either L or K which is why you see [LK] and Litcoin is T

The way that I determine the compressedWIFPrefix was by opening a wallet and typing in the console: dumpprivkey "The wallets address" Press enter and it will give you the compressed private key (52 digits), then you can see what letter the key starts with, Litecoin starts with T T77jSKLkPvX4SBgRN8v11jTdnHwb8ckrn7WLjXcNjLikug2dAhaP

To Determine the WIFPrefix I had to run the rest of the code with
window.networkVersion = 0x30;
      window.privateKeyPrefix = 0xb0;
      window.WIFPrefix = 'Put any Number in here to start';
      window.compressedWIFPrefix = 'T';

And the output automatically shows the Private Key Prefix as the first number of the 51 digit string using
https://github.com/cantonbecker/bitcoinpaperwallet


The Private Key WIF (Wallet Import Format) is a code that needs to be keep secret since it can be used to spend any funds that have been sent to the corresponding public key. Keys can be encoded in a number of different formats. The most popular encoding formats (WIF, WIFC, HEX, B64) are shown below.


Public Litecoin Address
LdZ2AU1oWfmqGopivVGG5fmmR4KyM42kva
Litecoin Address Compressed Format
LMvQWzsUppbdxq39JeMv3KqXantVSH2idr


Public Key (130 characters [0-9A-F]): 04C5CE09ABF9C5E1A0ACE700F7729FA996AB5115B05857D8EF550DB34F96A7E184C1BB8E00A07A0 6F3BF64FB3641A13A1618A8822B9791BEDC33AD40116BF68244
Public Key (compressed, 66 characters [0-9A-F]): 02C5CE09ABF9C5E1A0ACE700F7729FA996AB5115B05857D8EF550DB34F96A7E184

Private Key WIF
51 characters base58, starts with a '6'
6v3S2CrndTdGH8QS1Fw9cWZKJWfee52KytmiB687HPbPBdobUX9
Private Key WIF Compressed
52 characters base58, starts with a 'T'
T77jSKLkPvX4SBgRN8v11jTdnHwb8ckrn7WLjXcNjLikug2dAhaP


Private Key Hexadecimal Format (64 characters [0-9A-F]): 79480E439276C481E13799439A9A0BEC103E2701B17851A236650658F685C272
Private Key Base64 (44 characters): eUgOQ5J2xIHhN5lDmpoL7BA+JwGxeFGiNmUGWPaFwnI=

So, it works perfect now!