Topic: About Sweeping Keys (Read 631 times)

If you still have the wallet file that contains your keys try using this page to import it. If that doesn't work maybe the instructions I posted can help.

https://blockchain.info/wallet/import-wallet

Were the private keys from the legacy web wallet or the new HD web wallet?

Are your private keys 44 characters long like this example?

HtacbtAnGRxvecHkjf3Jia5r8TZRpnwZek1aU7CApYDi

If they are then they are probably from the legacy web wallet. This reddit thread might explain the problem.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinBeginners/comments/434tei/blockchaininfo_bci_new_beta_web_wallet_weird/


Unfortunately the simplest solution that reddit thread provides uses the old blockchain.info legacy web wallet login page, and that appears to be discontinued. It currently gives a 404 error.

https://blockchain.info/wallet-legacy/login

edit

I might have figured out a solution to the problem that doesn't need the old legacy wallet page.

Download and install multibit classic 0.4.18 from here.

https://multibit.org/releases/multibit-classic/multibit-0.4.18/

It supports importing those 44 character private keys from blockchain.info, but the newer releases don't.

Copy and paste this code into notepad, then delete HtacbtAnGRxvecHkjf3Jia5r8TZRpnwZek1aU7CApYDi and add your private key in its place. Delete 1Fqdu8waAy53dFKqjBgRgbciLjHQyDrdyY and add your private key's address in its place. Save it as a file named wallet.json


Run multibit classic, then click tools, then click "import private keys".



Click the button named "choose import file", then select "Blockchain.info (*.json")" from the drop down list labelled "files of type".



Afterwards select the wallet.json file you saved earlier, and click the open button.



Next click the button labelled "import private keys". If the import was successful you should be able to see two addresses in your multibit request window.



Click tools in the menu bar, then select "export private keys" from the drop down list.



Click the button named "choose export file" and create a file to export keys to. Check the radio button labelled "do not password protect export file", then click the button labelled "export private keys".



Open the file you exported the keys to in notepad. This is an example of what it should look like.


The characters in red are the private key from the blockchain.info wallet converted to a format normal wallets recognise.

This is the address blockchain.info gave for the key 1Fqdu8waAy53dFKqjBgRgbciLjHQyDrdyY
This is the private key blockchain.info gave HtacbtAnGRxvecHkjf3Jia5r8TZRpnwZek1aU7CApYDi


This is the key converted by multibit 5Kioc2a2otQ1J59m5t6Mxk8rNsN754Qmz36y1yr1NGtw8eYuRCi

If you check it in bitaddress you will see two addresses generated for the same private key, one of which is 1Fqdu8waAy53dFKqjBgRgbciLjHQyDrdyY from the blockchain.info wallet.

https://www.bitaddress.org/

Bitaddress shows two addresses for each private key because one is derived from a compressed private key, and the other is derived from an uncompressed private key.

If you are trying to import from blockchain.info, you will need to first convert the keys to uncompressed format I believe. Try using bitaddress.org to convert the private key to the other format and then try importing. You should be able to verify the correct address after importing the private key into bitaddress.org.

Yes, the address still has a non-zero balance. It doesn't have that much (about 5 mBTC) but definetely more than zero. All the transactions are confirmed.

Are you sure that you're sweeping from the correct address?

Instead of sweeping them, try importing them into a new Electrum wallet; New>New/Restore, choose Standard wallet and Import public keys/private keys.

Go to your address tab, copy the address out and paste it into blockexplorer.com. If the address is empty, then you have the wrong keys.

If it says "no input found" then there are no "Unspent Transaction Outputs" or UTXOs that are controlled by the private key(s) you are attempting to sweep... in other words, the address(es) belonging to the private key(s) are empty and have no coins.

Have you confirmed, using a block explorer, that the address(es) for the private key(s) you're trying to sweep still have a non-zero balance and all transactions into the address(es) are confirmed?

NOTE: if the keys were invalid, the "sweep" button would stay greyed out and unable to be clicked. The error you're getting definitely indicates that there are no coins found

It still does not work. I am trying to sweep keys from blockchain.info, but electrum says: "No input found. (Note that inputs need to be confirmed)" But they are very old coins I have parked on blockchain.info for years and haven't made any transaction for a long period of time...

You can see examples of supported key formats here (WIF and mini private key only):

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Private_key#Base58_Wallet_Import_format

Electrum can import compressed and uncompressed private keys, but it can't import encrypted bip38 private keys.




Electrum also imports both 30-character format mini private keys and 22-character format minikeys (as used in casascius coins).

However, if you want to import encrypted bip38 private keys you have to decrypt them first.

BIP38 format private keys start with '6P' and are 58 characters long.

Electrum should be able to sweep these formats, and also mini keys.

I tried to sweep some of my old keys. First I tried to sweep keys from multibit but it didn't work, then I tried with blockchain.info keys, but still got bad results...

Now I remember maybe I read somewhere not every key can be swept on electrum, but I couldn't find the source so far... so why isn't possible to sweep any kind of keys? How can we know which kind of key can be swept and which not?

This sweeping option seems kinda useless this way...