Problems Importing Paper Wallet into Bitcoin QT Client wallet

[Jon Connor]

I have a paper wallet that I am trying to import to my synced up Bitcoin qt client wallet on a mac OS X laptop. My paper wallet private key is encrypted with a password so when I try to type in walletpassphrase "mypassword" 600 it gives me an error message. What am I doing wrong?

I know that I'm typing my passphrase correctly. Just to test it I imported the paper wallet into my Blockchain.info wallet and it worked.  I've never imported a paper wallet into my bitcoin qt client wallet so I wanted to see if it would work and it obviously did not. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[shorena]

I have a paper wallet that I am trying to import to my synced up Bitcoin qt client wallet on a mac OS X laptop. My paper wallet private key is encrypted with a password so when I try to type in walletpassphrase "mypassword" 600 it gives me an error message. What am I doing wrong?

That command will decrypt your bitcoin core wallet. AFAIK you cant import encrypted private keys into core.

I know that I'm typing my passphrase correctly. Just to test it I imported the paper wallet into my Blockchain.info wallet and it worked.  I've never imported a paper wallet into my bitcoin qt client wallet so I wanted to see if it would work and it obviously did not. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

The best way would be to wipe the private key with e.g. bc.i or another wallet that supports BIP 38 and send the bitcoin to an address you generated with bitcoin core/qt.

[Jon Connor]

I have a paper wallet that I am trying to import to my synced up Bitcoin qt client wallet on a mac OS X laptop. My paper wallet private key is encrypted with a password so when I try to type in walletpassphrase "mypassword" 600 it gives me an error message. What am I doing wrong?

That command will decrypt your bitcoin core wallet. AFAIK you cant import encrypted private keys into core.

I know that I'm typing my passphrase correctly. Just to test it I imported the paper wallet into my Blockchain.info wallet and it worked.  I've never imported a paper wallet into my bitcoin qt client wallet so I wanted to see if it would work and it obviously did not. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

The best way would be to wipe the private key with e.g. bc.i or another wallet that supports BIP 38 and send the bitcoin to an address you generated with bitcoin core/qt.

Thanks Shorena, this makes sense now. I did not know you could not import encrypted private keys into the core. Do you know how to import a non-encrytped private key into the core? Or is this also not possible.  If it is do you need to decrypt the core wallet first?

[shorena]

-snip-
Thanks Shorena, this makes sense now. I did not know you could not import encrypted private keys into the core. Do you know how to import a non-encrytped private key into the core? Or is this also not possible.  If it is do you need to decrypt the core wallet first?

You can use importprivkey (write help importprivkey in the dev console for the details of the command) to import a key in WIF format[1]. The wallet must be unlocked in order to add the key to the file yes.


[1] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Wallet_import_format

[Jon Connor]

-snip-
Thanks Shorena, this makes sense now. I did not know you could not import encrypted private keys into the core. Do you know how to import a non-encrytped private key into the core? Or is this also not possible.  If it is do you need to decrypt the core wallet first?

You can use importprivkey (write help importprivkey in the dev console for the details of the command) to import a key in WIF format[1]. The wallet must be unlocked in order to add the key to the file yes.


[1] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Wallet_import_format

Great info Shorena, this definitely clarifies many gaps in my bitcoin knowledge   I made another paper wallet without the BIP 38 encryption added in. The private key states "wallet import format" WIF. Now I can see why I had problems importing my previous paper wallet with the BIP 38 encryption because the core client doesn't allow you to import a private key like that. blockchain.info worked but the core didn't. Thanks again!