Is there a proper way to verify a BIP38 key to my wallet?
it is unclear what you mean by this even with the follow up. if you want to "import" it in your wallet it has to support BIP38 first then all you have to do is enter the base58 string starting with 6P and your password. you can also use a tool (offline) like https://github.com/pointbiz/bitaddress.org to decrypt and convert it to a normal WIF then import that.
if you want to "verify" it yourself then this is how its done:
Code:
6PRVWUbkzzsbcVac2qwfssoUJAN1Xhrg6bNk8J7Nzm5H7kxEbn2Nh2ZoGg
Code:
decoded = 0142c0e957a24ad357fafb81c71f8375a9a4d0ac02bad5f6c87c4b459fabe34c0c314b33708ec3
checksum=3c415dd5
✔ decoded length = 39
✔ first two bytes = 0x0142
✔ third byte (flag) = 0xc0 = 0b11000000
✔ based on first two bytes and flag => non-EC-multiplied
[] 4 bytes salt = 0xe957a24a
✔ 32 byte remaining
[] the rest is decryption using AES, XORing blocks and deriving the address and checking it with the 4 byte salt.
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the 4 bytes of the salt; should match 4 bytes of the SHA256 hash of the public address? correct? however the result i get is they dont match.
So which method is valid here? ....
you are doing something wrong, i can't know without looking at what exactly you did. you can compare your steps with the example above.So which method is valid here? ....
the WIF of the example is: 5KN7MzqK5wt2TP1fQCYyHBtDrXdJuXbUzm4A9rKAteGu3Qi5CVR
its address is: 1Jq6MksXQVWzrznvZzxkV6oY57oWXD9TXB
Code:
SHA256(SHA256(UTF8(1Jq6MksXQVWzrznvZzxkV6oY57oWXD9TXB) =
e957a24a1d8a976c4d2d2331518186d2833ccf5010dada9c853952f9559569ba
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-side comment: if it was a BIP39 redone into the BIP38 would this then cause the mismatch on the salt sha256?
BIP39 creates mnemonics and BIP39 encrypts private keys. they can't be mixed together!Quote
(( no i dont have my passphrase, (yeah have an idea) so if there is a way to derive it, i would appriciate the help, or if someone wants to give it a shot.))
you can't "derive" your password from the encrypted result! you have to know it. 
