Author

Topic: getting the private keys from an android electrum wallet set up with a seed (Read 555 times)

HCP
legendary
Activity: 2086
Merit: 4361
help, please. I want to claim my bitcoin gold. I have some bitcoin in my android electrum wallet, which was set up with a 12 word seed. But the android version of electrum is very different from the windows version (so all the online directions don't work), and i can't work out how to get the private keys, to claim my bitcoin gold. So, 2 questions:
1. does anyone know how to get the private keys?
2. is there any way of claiming bitcoin gold using my electrum wallet seed only, and not the private key?

anyway to do this with an iphone?
The short answer is, unfortunately, No. There is no iOS version of Electrum.

The longer answer is, possibly... assuming there are HTML/Text editors available for iPhone that will allow you to work on a downloaded copy of the BIP39 tool, make the edits I listed above and then open that edited HTML file in your phone's webbrowser so you can run the edited code...

If someone wants to send me an iPhone I'll give it a try! Tongue
newbie
Activity: 56
Merit: 0
help, please. I want to claim my bitcoin gold. I have some bitcoin in my android electrum wallet, which was set up with a 12 word seed. But the android version of electrum is very different from the windows version (so all the online directions don't work), and i can't work out how to get the private keys, to claim my bitcoin gold. So, 2 questions:
1. does anyone know how to get the private keys?
2. is there any way of claiming bitcoin gold using my electrum wallet seed only, and not the private key?

anyway to do this with an iphone?
HCP
legendary
Activity: 2086
Merit: 4361
thanks hcp, i'll read ian coleman's website.
Re. point 2, i used electroncash wallet to claim my BCH, but it won't work for claiming bitcoin gold, will it? Isn't my only option to read up on how to get my private key from the seed by modifying the bip39 code convertor?
It's a pretty simple mod... basically I downloaded a copy, and then modified the "BIP39 Mnemonic" validation... so it just always returns "True"...

Hint: look for this function, and just change the last statement so that it always returns true:
Quote
self.check = function(mnemonic) {
        var mnemonic = self.splitWords(mnemonic);
        if (mnemonic.length == 0 || mnemonic.length % 3 > 0) {
            return false
        }
        
        ... SNIP bunch of code ...
        
        return true; // h == nh;
    }


and then changed where it calculates the "passphrase", so instead of using the string "mnemonic" + entered passphrase, it uses the string "electrum" + entered passphrase.

Hint: look for this code and change the highlighted line:
Quote
   self.toSeed = function(mnemonic, passphrase) {
        passphrase = passphrase || '';
        mnemonic = self.joinWords(self.splitWords(mnemonic)); // removes duplicate blanks
        var mnemonicNormalized = self.normalizeString(mnemonic);
        passphrase = self.normalizeString(passphrase)
        passphrase = "mnemonic" + passphrase;
        var mnemonicBits = sjcl.codec.utf8String.toBits(mnemonicNormalized);
        var passphraseBits = sjcl.codec.utf8String.toBits(passphrase);
        var result = sjcl.misc.pbkdf2(mnemonicBits, passphraseBits, PBKDF2_ROUNDS, 512, hmacSHA512);
        var hashHex = sjcl.codec.hex.fromBits(result);
        return hashHex;
    }

After that, you simply put in your seed, Click BIP32 tab, use a "custom derivation path of m/0 and m/1 and you'll see all your receive and change addresses and associated private keys



Quote
I really don't recommend using the android version of electrum. It's a completely different set-up from the mac and widows versions, and when reading any guides, they refer to the other versions, which is very confusing (and exasperating)
The Android version is not meant to be a 1:1 copy of the desktop version... that is expecting a bit much. It is more of a "companion" app... in that it will give you quick and easy access to your wallet "on the go" for basics like sending and receiving.


Is there any particular reason why you can't just use a desktop computer, restore your seed into desktop version of Electrum and then extract the private keys from there? You're probably going to need one to modify the BIP39 Mnemonic Code Convertor anyway... the downloaded HTML file is HUGE, nearly 45,000 lines of code... and it runs pretty slow on a mobile device! Tongue
newbie
Activity: 3
Merit: 0
thanks hcp, i'll read ian coleman's website.
Re. point 2, i used electroncash wallet to claim my BCH, but it won't work for claiming bitcoin gold, will it? Isn't my only option to read up on how to get my private key from the seed by modifying the bip39 code convertor?

I really don't recommend using the android version of electrum. It's a completely different set-up from the mac and widows versions, and when reading any guides, they refer to the other versions, which is very confusing (and exasperating)
HCP
legendary
Activity: 2086
Merit: 4361
1. You can't see private keys on the Android app, you can only see the Seed. You can convert the seed to private keys, but it isn't easy and requires some technical knowledge to modify the BIP39 Mnemonic Code Convertor (https://iancoleman.io/bip39/) to work with Electrum seeds.

2. Yes, install the Android version of Electron Cash (https://electroncash.org/#download) and restore your wallet using the seed. Electron Cash is the BCH fork of Electrum, so is compatible with Electrum seeds.
EDIT: Sorry, mis-read your original post, I thought it said you were trying to claim "Bitcoin Cash"... Tongue

2. Bitcoin Gold Dev's are apparently going to release a fork of Electrum that will be compatible with Bitcoin Gold (refer "Next Steps" here: https://bitcoingold.org/replay-protection-development/)


I also note that BTG is going live on Nov 12... not sure when they will release the Electrum fork though... Undecided

newbie
Activity: 3
Merit: 0
help, please. I want to claim my bitcoin gold. I have some bitcoin in my android electrum wallet, which was set up with a 12 word seed. But the android version of electrum is very different from the windows version (so all the online directions don't work), and i can't work out how to get the private keys, to claim my bitcoin gold. So, 2 questions:
1. does anyone know how to get the private keys?
2. is there any way of claiming bitcoin gold using my electrum wallet seed only, and not the private key?
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