Author

Topic: Electrum master private key (Read 1081 times)

sr. member
Activity: 714
Merit: 251
December 05, 2016, 05:33:40 PM
#7
Hello, i have the following questions:

1. Is the master private key the same as the seed? If no then:

2. How to use the `getmasterprivate` in a linux command line, can somebody explain the syntax how to use it? For example if I put my wallet in the /home folder, how to retrieve it's master private key?

1. Strictly speaking it's not the same. The seed mnemonic is run through hashing functions and then out comes the master private key. So the seed is used to derive the master private key which is used to derive all the address specific private keys.

seed mnemonic > master private key > nearly unlimited addresses and associated key pairs.


2.
Code:
electrum getmasterprivate -w /path/to/wallet_file
. wallet files are in ~/.electrum/wallets. ~/ is your home directory.

Yes thank you, I have figured it out now.



Well it's run through hashing functions so I wouldn't say no information is lost. By definition hashing functions will take input of arbitrary size and output a number of a fixed size. You can't convert the output of the hashing function back into its input. That's why they are also called trap door functions.



I understand that the xprivkey (the master private key) is derived from the seed, and that no information is lost when calculating the xprivkey from the seed.

I believe that you can generate the same wallet from either the seed or the xprivkey

The way I understand is that the xprivkey and the seed are both substitutes, so it doesnt matter which one you have, both can recover the wallet.

However the seed supercedes the xprivkey, and the xprivkey can't be reversed into the seed. But the seed only exists to be easy to remember, so logically you want to use the seed instead of the master private. I just need the xprivkey command to test something.
legendary
Activity: 3682
Merit: 1580
December 04, 2016, 12:47:00 PM
#6
I understand that the xprivkey (the master private key) is derived from the seed, and that no information is lost when calculating the xprivkey from the seed.

Well it's run through hashing functions so I wouldn't say no information is lost. By definition hashing functions will take input of arbitrary size and output a number of a fixed size. You can't convert the output of the hashing function back into its input. That's why they are also called trap door functions.

Quote
I believe that you can generate the same wallet from either the seed or the xprivkey

Yep that's true provided you know the algorithm used to generate the xprivkey from the seed.
copper member
Activity: 2996
Merit: 2374
December 04, 2016, 12:28:06 AM
#5
I understand that the xprivkey (the master private key) is derived from the seed, and that no information is lost when calculating the xprivkey from the seed.

I believe that you can generate the same wallet from either the seed or the xprivkey
legendary
Activity: 3682
Merit: 1580
December 03, 2016, 02:55:29 PM
#4
Hello, i have the following questions:

1. Is the master private key the same as the seed? If no then:

2. How to use the `getmasterprivate` in a linux command line, can somebody explain the syntax how to use it? For example if I put my wallet in the /home folder, how to retrieve it's master private key?

1. Strictly speaking it's not the same. The seed mnemonic is run through hashing functions and then out comes the master private key. So the seed is used to derive the master private key which is used to derive all the address specific private keys.

seed mnemonic > master private key > nearly unlimited addresses and associated key pairs.


2.
Code:
electrum getmasterprivate -w /path/to/wallet_file
. wallet files are in ~/.electrum/wallets. ~/ is your home directory.
sr. member
Activity: 714
Merit: 251
November 29, 2016, 12:12:51 PM
#3
Hello, i have the following questions:

1. Is the master private key the same as the seed? If no then:
Some what. You use the master private key and you can derive all the addresses associated with it.
2. How to use the `getmasterprivate` in a linux command line, can somebody explain the syntax how to use it? For example if I put my wallet in the /home folder, how to retrieve it's master private key?
I'm not sure about extracting it from a command line. You could do it by using a text editor to open your wallet file and search for xprv. Just make sure that the wallet file is not encrypted.

There is a command for electrum that can be executed from the linux command line it goes something like this:

`electrum getmasterprivate ...`

I am not sure how to handle the arguments of that command, I am not good with linux syntaxes.
legendary
Activity: 3038
Merit: 4418
Crypto Swap Exchange
November 29, 2016, 08:00:29 AM
#2
Hello, i have the following questions:

1. Is the master private key the same as the seed? If no then:
Some what. You use the master private key and you can derive all the addresses associated with it.
2. How to use the `getmasterprivate` in a linux command line, can somebody explain the syntax how to use it? For example if I put my wallet in the /home folder, how to retrieve it's master private key?
I'm not sure about extracting it from a command line. You could do it by using a text editor to open your wallet file and search for xprv. Just make sure that the wallet file is not encrypted.
sr. member
Activity: 714
Merit: 251
November 29, 2016, 06:04:47 AM
#1
Hello, i have the following questions:

1. Is the master private key the same as the seed? If no then:

2. How to use the `getmasterprivate` in a linux command line, can somebody explain the syntax how to use it? For example if I put my wallet in the /home folder, how to retrieve it's master private key?
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