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Questions tagged [private-key]

Private keys are used for signing transactions and allow the holder of the private key to spend the Bitcoin associated with the address derived from the private key.

A private key is the half of the public/private ECDSA keypair that is kept private. It is a 256 bit integer that is either randomly generated or derived from another private key which was randomly generated. Private keys are typically handled by a wallet software.

Possession of a private key allows the owner to sign transactions which involve the public key derived from that private key. This includes any transaction which spends from a P2PKH or P2WPKH output where the public key hashes to the hash provided in the output, or in P2SH or P2WSH outputs where the public key is provided as part of either the redeem script or witness script as a requirement for spending the output (e.g. for a multisig redeem script).

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The best way to keep my private keys safe?

Best ways means the most reliable and robust, and meanwhile easy to access ways?
Urso
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Is this an ok "poor man's 2 out of 3" key solution?

In the situation that you want no individual to have the complete private key, but you do want to share the complete key between 3 individuals, of which any 2 can construct the complete key, what is the downside from doing something like this: Orig…
Richard Green
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Why does Base58 WIF-format of PK have '5' prefix (the standpoint of mathematics)

I'm trying create raw private keys using the steps: Take a version of PK (0x80) and concatenate (as prefix)with my pseudo-random 32bytes-array. Take a calculated checksum (4bytes) and push it to the end of the array. Encode the result to…
Mergasov
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What qualifies a valid private key?

The title pretty much sums up the question - say (for instance) I have a string of letters or numbers committed to memory, how hard would it be to convert that into a private key? Or similarly, how hard would it be to construct a private key based…
George Pearce
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I don't know how to export a private key from blockchain.info

I am trying to make a raw transaction which requires a private key but i can't seem to find a way to get it from blockchain.info.
user45038
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How Do I Fix: "Safe mode: Warning: Displayed transactions may not be correct!"

While trying to retrieve the private key from satoshi bitcoin client i'm getting this error code: Safe mode: Warning: Displayed transactions may not be correct! You may need to upgrade, or other nodes may need to upgrade. (code -2) Does anyone…
Shon
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How to uncompress a compressed private key?

So I have a compressed private key. Is it possible to get the uncompressed version of it? If yes, how? Examples in Javascript would be much appreciated.
vinhboy
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Why can't I import a used private key?

According the the Bitcoin Wiki, when importing a private key: Bitcoind will rescan the entire block data to ensure this key has not been used before. This process will take from one to two minutes, depending on your CPU performance. DO NOT…
RentFree
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Every bitcoin wallet user has one Private Key or every address has one private key?

I read somewhere that Private Keys are used to uniquely identify users and one user can have multiple addresses. So how does it work? Each private key derives a user or each private key derives an address ?
Varad Bhatnagar
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Do imperfections in dice make them unsuitable to make really good bitcoin private keys?

Dice do have imperfections (depending on how expensive ones you get), but would they not still have enough entropy such that a private key generated by them could be considered really safe? I am thinking of paper wallets storing lots of coins,…
jeorgen
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Python code to generate private ECDSA key

Would this Python code generate a valid ECDSA private key? import random def r(a, b): sys_ran = random.SystemRandom() return sys_ran.randint(a, b) def create_private_key(): hex_chars = '0123456789ABCDEF' ran_hex = ''; for i in…
zombio
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How to specify PrivateKey search range in HEX?

I am trying to generate random bitcoin Private_Keys in HEX format (32bit) but I want the randomness to have a value within a specific HEX range, say between 18909BDE11F67C97A53C62F45E632EAB58EA0D73A5FAC9EB50295FAD40A57EB5 and…
Robert
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How to get the private key in hex from the output of dumpprivkey

I am trying to create raw transactions according to the excellent answer of runeks here: How to redeem a basic Tx? But there he starts with a private key in hex format 18E14A7B6A307F426A94F8114701E7C8E774E7F9A47E2C2035DB29A206321725 and I have one…
relG
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Missing key on blockchain

I created 2 different wallets at block chain. The first one gave me an address for receiving btc. I used that address for a purchase, however, now when I login to my wallet, it no longer shows that address. Luckily, I saved it, and can search for…
Jamie
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How a private key can be invalid?

From here, we can read that : A private key is a 256-bit value, meaning there are approximately 1.1579e77 possible keys (There are about 1.2288e66 invalid values But here, we have : Nearly every 256-bit number is a valid ECDSA private key. …
John Smith
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