[How Electrum Works] Why you should be careful with your private keys.

[arorts]

The instructions I gave have nothing to do with his master seed. They are for dumping address specific priv keys.

Edit: To clarify he is using the public key of an ordinary bitcoin address in his armory wallet. Not the armory MPK or anything like that. Just the pub key of an ordinary address. The instructions above are for getting the corresponding priv key and going from there.

Oh ok, I just downloaded Armory and I see what you mean now.


> arorts

I updated all the scripts and the exe to do what Abdussamad mentioned.

Please follow his instructions to find the "PublicX" and "PublicY" that you used in Electrum... then just above it you will see "PrivHexBE"

The new script will ask you for PrivHexBE and NOT the paper backup phrase.

You will get your bitcoins back! yay!

Here's the exe
https://github.com/dabura667/help_arorts/releases/download/0.1/arms.exe

Here's the scripts (use arms_mac.py if you're doing it on your mac)
https://github.com/dabura667/help_arorts/archive/master.zip

Thanks all.

So the publicX and publicY  I used correspond to a **regular receiving address I created in Armory**  , for which I do have its private key as well.

 I'm getting the feeling that I should have used Armory's root key/paper backup (2 text lines) when I created my Electrum wallet (after necessarily removing the "04" and using only the next 128 chars), is that correct?

Will go ahead and use the updated scripts above...not before crossing my fingers. :-)

[dabura667]

I'm getting the feeling that I should have used Armory's root key/paper backup (2 text lines) when I created my Electrum wallet (after necessarily removing the "04" and using only the next 128 chars), is that correct?

NO

That is NOT correct!

Armory and Electrum use fundamentally different algorithms to generate keys, so using the SAME MPK and SAME root seed will generate DIFFERENT addresses.

If you would like to use Electrum, install Electrum on your offline computer and create a new wallet.

Electrum and Armory are NOT compatible.

I am 100% certain your bitcoins will be recovered this time, but next time you might not be so lucky.

[arorts]

Success!!!!  
Thanks a lot!!

Ok, so to summarize. I know that those two wallets are currently not compatible. However, if I do again exactly what I did before but derive the private key using the script you provided in an offline computer BEFORE I send any coins to its public address, I should be in good shape.

I had requested Armory to create a light client but I believe they indicated some time ago that that goes against their security principles (someone might impersonate/hack the torrent/servers holding the blockchain , like the model Electrum does).

Alternatively, I can create a watch-only wallet with Blockchain.info offline, dump the transaction history from sending address from bitcoinexplorer, run a local copy of Brainwallet HTML code in an offline computer to create and sign the transaction offline. And finally, I'll just broadcast it in blockchain.info. In this case, there would be no need to use Electrum at all.
In the offline computer I can have Armory import the private key and back up all using paper backup method. This is the most secure and still light wallet model I can think of.  Bye Bye Electrum...

[dabura667]

However, if I do again exactly what I did before but derive the private key using the script you provided in an offline computer BEFORE I send any coins to its public address, I should be in good shape.

Why are you using armory to begin with? If you want an offline cold wallet with watch-only compononet, Electrum is just as secure as Armory. Armory is only more secure on the online component, as it has the blockchain locally. But you seem to be wanting a light client. So Electrum sounds good for you, if you'd just use it normally.

First of all, my script is not cryptographically secure. I slapped it together so that hopefully it would generate your address. However, there is NO GUARANTEE that every private key listed will definitely correspond to the address listed. Be warned.

Also, the addresses being generated, even if you use Armory's paper backup seed, will NOT be the same as Armory. ALSO, if you decode the paper backup into hex and input it as a restore seed for electrum, you will get COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ADDRESSES from my script AND Armory.

So in summary, either switch to Electrum and send your bitcoins there, or just download the blockchain in Armory. Don't mix the two systems.


I am very glad to have helped!

You can pay the bounty to my tipping address in my sig or the address I pasted in my post a little while back.

Stay safe!

[arorts]

Why are you using armory to begin with? If you want an offline cold wallet with watch-only compononet, Electrum is just as secure as Armory. Armory is only more secure on the online component, as it has the blockchain locally. But you seem to be wanting a light client. So Electrum sounds good for you, if you'd just use it normally.

First of all, my script is not cryptographically secure. I slapped it together so that hopefully it would generate your address. However, there is NO GUARANTEE that every private key listed will definitely correspond to the address listed. Be warned.

Also, the addresses being generated, even if you use Armory's paper backup seed, will NOT be the same as Armory. ALSO, if you decode the paper backup into hex and input it as a restore seed for electrum, you will get COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ADDRESSES from my script AND Armory.

So in summary, either switch to Electrum and send your bitcoins there, or just download the blockchain in Armory. Don't mix the two systems...
 

Yes, I'm definitely going to stick with a single Client wallet because you are right: otherwise I'd have to test sending out some mBTC to see if the private key is really working for that address but that'd be messy and tedious and dangerous.

Is the blockchain.info wallet I was referring before also incompatible with Armory? If yes, then I'd do all in Electrum. But if it's compatible, I'd like to learn from you if that's viable alternative or I should forget about that, too.

The only reason I'm leaning towards Armory is that in the unlikely event my offline PC crashes, I still can have a paper backup, which can be further split into 2 out of 3 paper sheets or electronic fragments required with a SecurePrint code, which is not even printed in the backup sheets to recover the seed. Electrum only has a phrase-based recovery method but that's about it.

Thanks for your suggestions!

[Abdussamad]

blockchain.info is not compatible with armory. For your purposes the only thing compatible with armory is armory, only thing compatible with electrum is electrum and so on.

Choose:

a) Offline armory + online armory

Or

b) offline electrum + online electrum

Don't mix and match wallets.