How to "test" a private key? - page 2.

501

newbie

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Quote from: deepceleron on November 20, 2013, 04:34:01 AM

What you should be doing is testing the methodology used to create multiple keys, not testing a particular key.

Spending money sent to an offline address removes the associated security

I know, I don't want to actually spend any of the money associated with the paper wallet. I just want to check that I encoded and printed the private key correctly, so that in the future when I want to spend the money I don't discover that I made a mistake and the money is lost.

I think Patel and Dabs' solutions will both work, I'm going to test them today.

deepceleron

legendary

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What you should be doing is testing the methodology used to create multiple keys, not testing a particular key.

Spending money sent to an offline address removes the associated security:

The private key must be put on an online computer system in order to spend the money, where it may be compromised, and,
Spending from an address reveals it's public key, which may reduce cryptography robustness.

Generate multiple paper wallets at the same time using the same method. Spend a test amount of bitcoins sent to one wallet (and discard it), ensuring that your creation and spending method is not flawed.

Dabs

legendary

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The Concierge of Crypto

Use bitcoin-qt.
Use offline computer.
Run bitcoin-qt.
Use importprivkey with the unencrypted private key.
Check the address if it's there.
Securely erase or wipe wallet.dat of offline computer.

501

newbie

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Quote from: Patel on November 19, 2013, 07:04:06 PM

Download bitaddress.org save html file, go on offline computer, go to wallet details tab, enter private key, see if address matches what you have

Thanks, that sounds like it will work.

@daoneway I meant testing the private key. I know the public address is correct because I didn't encode that.

Patel

legendary

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Download bitaddress.org save html file, go on offline computer, go to wallet details tab, enter private key, see if address matches what you have

daoneway

full member

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send small amount of btc?

501

newbie

Activity: 28

Merit: 0

I am currently keeping 90% of my BTC in cold storage on paper wallets. Now I want to start generating my paper wallets with encrypted private keys (just using a cipher of my choice to encode the key before printing it out). However, I'm a little nervous that I'll make a mistake when encoding it, and then the funds I send there will be lost.

I was wondering if there would be a way to test the private key to see if I've actually written it down correctly, but without connecting to the network while doing this (because I want these wallets to remain pure cold storage). Just for my own peace of mind.

Is there any way to do this?

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