Topic: I am lost in bitcoin wallet and private key - page 3. (Read 3831 times)

Yes, you can upload the wallet.dat into any other client and the balance will be there.

or may be I am wrong,
may be the private key can generate the same wallet again even if it on different eWallet provider?

I am little confused.

One more thing:

It seems to me that the private key is not required to finish a transaction, once you log on to the wallet then put in the (merchant) wallet address then you can simply make a transaction, am I correct?

and if the above is true, then the only need for the private key is to recover your wallet in case you lost it, based on the idea that the wallet address is generated from the private key its self, am I correct?

and if both of the above is correct, then no one can steal my wallet unless:
Either 1- someone get my log on info and log onto my wallet and transfer my coins to his/her address.
Or 2- someone steal my private key, now in this case if they steal my wallet private key, they can't actually recover my wallet, but they can only use the private key to move the money to another wallet address. which means that the process is not actually "recover" the original wallet rather than using the private key to transfer the money to another wallet with different address, which also means this is a faster way rob someone since all someone needs is the private key (no username or password), am I correct?


Again sorry, but I am just trying to learn all this in simple words.


Thank you again for all the help.

Dear Hilariousandco,

Now you made me happy, I kinda understand what's going and what to do and how to back it up without even being a tech guy, I want thank you very much very very very much for your help.

I made an email back up, a also backed it up in my desktop, I only need to back it up on usb and I will be good to go.


I don't know how to thank you, but you saved me a lot of trouble and helped me so much.


Thank you again.

You just need to back up the wallet.dat file really. Just make sure you have it safe on a usb and/or CD-r etc.

Make sure you set up 2 factor auth and a second password on your BC account. Then you'll be pretty safe.

thank you very much for your reply.

I followed your advice and opened a new wallet on blockchain.info, I moved the coins from the exchange website to the new blockchain wallet, I do have an identifier which there was a convenient way to back it up to my email, i was able to find my address easily, I just got my coins and things look good.

here are couple questions:

1- what type of files I need to back up from there and how?

2- how do I get my private key and store it somewhere else just in case?


Thanks a lot in advance.

Hello all,

I am very new to bitcoin, please try to consider that when you answer my question, i am not a tech guy, i just double click, open and close but not really bad.

I read and watched videos about bitcoins, I thought I got it, so I purchased some, then I decided to move them to a wallet, I downloaded MultiBit (not sure if it is a good one or not), anyway, there I got lost!
I can't understand all these file extensions.
once i open the MultiBit, I did:  File > new wallet> I chose the destination of where the file go > I named it > save and end of story!

Now I want to see how the wallet address looks like:
the wallet was already in the client, however let's say I closed it, so I did:    File > open wallet > chose the file desination > and opened it
Then the only way to see the wallet address (for me as a non tech guy) is to go to "request" tab, that's where I see the wallet address, I copied it to clip and then pasted on a Microsoft word and saved it, it looked like 30 to 40 figures that started with number 1

Now I wanted to see the how the private key looks like, there is no way to see it, so I decided to export private key to the desktop, so I did:  Tools > export private key > chose the file destination and saved it.
Then I opened the file with Microsoft word (I am not sure which extension opens it), anyway on Microsoft word it looked divided on 3 lines: one long figures line, then 3 figures line and then a little over half line of figures

Now I assume that is the key?


Questions are
1- am I doing things above right?

2- What type of wallet am I using? is it a desktop wallet? that i have to back it always?

3- the QR code in that wallet, I see no way extract out and print it on paper!

4- let's give an example here: if I have the wallet address written down, and I have the private key written down. Then somehow for some reasons my computer crash and is done and I lost my wallet, then I buy a new computer. Can I get a new wallet, then type in the private key and get my coins back in the new wallet?
I know i look stupid, I am sorry, but if I still can get back my coins as long as I have the private key in the example above, can I just type it? or I always have to export a file?

Please be patient with me, I am very noob and I am sorry.


I thank you a lot in advance for helping me and I appreciate every input as long as it is easy to understand and to the point.