Author

Topic: Convert BIP 38 to BIP 44 (Read 178 times)

newbie
Activity: 19
Merit: 9
December 15, 2019, 05:51:42 PM
#4
To further explain:

BIP-38 refers to a particular proposal that allows for the encryption of singular private keys.  go to https://www.bitaddress.org and go to the details pane and you have the option of entering a private key, encrypting it with bip-38's specifications, then scroll down and find the encrypted key (starts with 6) and enter it back into the box. it will then ask for the decryption passphrase.  
The utility of such a proposal is likely for paper wallets where one prints the encrypted version of the privkey and writes the decryption passphrase on the paper wallet so that any situations such as the printer keeping a secret copy of your prints, etc..., since the key is encrypted no one who can intercept the paper wallet can get anywhere but the real paper wallet user just needs to read the passphrase written down.

https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0044.mediawiki
BIP-44 is actually the standard for which how one should use the derivation scheme defined in bip-32 to derive different coins from the same mnemonic without risk of address reuse/replay attacks.  Explained further below
https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0032.mediawiki
BIP-32 is the real cryptographic standard for dealing with derivation and extended keys.  Basically almost always (some exceptions exist) whenever you see the term derivation path (m/44'/0' etc... but always starts with m/), you are utilizing a format layed out in bip-44, which define the second parameter to the right of m/.  Bitcoin is 0, litecoin is 2, eth is 60. They are defined in SLIP-0044
https://github.com/satoshilabs/slips/blob/master/slip-0044.md
whenever you see m/44 it refers to the purpose of the key, which is for sending/receiving--as opposed to being for identity verification through signatures. (just ignore that for now but bip-43 goes over this if interested https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0043.mediawiki )


https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0039.mediawiki
BIP-39 specifies the standard for turning a mnemonic phrase into an actual cryptographic seed.  So when you get a 12/24/other length in words seedphrase, its really just an abstraction of the more important string of numbers and letters that is really what is used to derive addresses from the multiword phrases.
Great tool https://iancoleman.io/bip39/


So when you use a multi-coin wallet like exodus or jaxx, or one of the many phone wallets, its likely they are bip-44 compliant and thus are compatible.  


I know the derivation path struggles i've had to go through over the years (from finding old android phone wallet's derivation paths, from even recovering from a backup of which you cant find documentation for.  happy to assist for free with donations accepted if funds are recovered and at no point will i ask compromising information in any sense.

Cheers!
HCP
legendary
Activity: 2086
Merit: 4361
December 10, 2019, 09:38:56 PM
#3
How can I convert Bits in BIP format 38 to BIP format 44?
This has all the hallmarks of an "XY problem".

What exactly is it that you're attempting to achieve? Huh
legendary
Activity: 2128
Merit: 1293
There is trouble abrewing
December 10, 2019, 03:16:54 AM
#2
you are possibly confusing a bunch of BIPs with each other.

BIP38 is for encrypting private keys (eg. 6PRVWUbkzzsbcVac2qwfssoUJAN1Xhrg6bNk8J7Nzm5H7kxEbn2Nh2ZoGg)

BIP44 is just a path specification that you give to your BIP32 to derive the child keys from the main entropy.

you obviously can't convert BIP38 to BIP44, if you meant another BIP related to BIP32 then you still don't convert them as they are paths if you want to get an entirely different set of key pairs then set the different path when you are deriving the keys.
newbie
Activity: 1
Merit: 0
December 10, 2019, 02:18:44 AM
#1
How can I convert Bits in BIP format 38 to BIP format 44?
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