Topic: Is Compressed and Uncompressed bitcoin address exchangable? (Read 3640 times)

first of all you are confusing "bit" with "number of characters". a bit is 0 or 1 and you can only count characters as bits if the string you see is written only with 0s and 1s like this: 0111001010100 then you can count and say it is 13 bits.
these strings you posted here are all in Base-58 and their number of characters can vary. it is always fixed for private keys (51 for uncompressed and 52 for compressed encoding) but a private key is fixed 256 bits or 32 bytes.
and it can be from 26 to 35 characters for an address which will always be 160 bits or 20 bytes

First, addresses and private keys may be called "compressed" or "uncompressed", but they are not themselves compressed or uncompressed. It is the public key that is actually compressed or uncompressed.

When an address is described as "compressed" or "uncompressed", it means that it was derived from the compressed or uncompressed form of the public key.

When a private key is described as "compressed" or "uncompressed", it means that its public key is intended to be used in the compressed or uncompressed form.

1. There is nothing about an address that tells you if it is compressed or uncompressed. You can only tell by the pubic key or a flag in a WIF-encoded private key.

2. That is a 256-bit value in hexadecimal (base-16) form. I assume it is a private key.

3. Those are both WIF-encoded 256-bit private keys. An uncompressed private key begins with a "5", and a compressed private key begins with a "K" or "L". The uncompressed private key is encoded with an additional byte so it is typically one character longer.


Read this: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Wallet_import_format

hi
Compressed and uncompressed public keys result in different addresses, but they still come from the same private key. Usually a private key in WIF has a different prefix to tell the wallet whether it should handle the key as one for a compress or an uncompressed address.


They are two different addresses, but they can be spend by the same private key.

E.g. address 1JpyMQDivyYBohM3zoMBXNiVg3u8F4F2PZ and 16sRvCPrJgKu7XBtR417jg6CndQMH7M27R come from the same private key (in hex) 73C89D6C48721B86C683643B094B3222331068A13846AD3475CDBF59394CE065 to tell the wallet which one you are using the uncompressed start with 5 e.g. 5JhH7tGFSnJSgwiqu2nzhvYJVyX2VPA97zzKfr37nPtpxgxMHGp and the compressed start with L or K, e.g. L16n9PGJknwzPJXgpev1hdKAEtTXaGoLqtx1QTSLwN3kgZqwn7Ax

MY QUESTIONS :

1JpyMQDivyYBohM3zoMBXNiVg3u8F4F2PZ & 16sRvCPrJgKu7XBtR417jg6CndQMH7M27R = 34char ,not within 32bits ,why and which one compressed and which one is uncompressed
73C89D6C48721B86C683643B094B3222331068A13846AD3475CDBF59394CE065 = 64chars , in 64bits for sha-512bits ?
5JhH7tGFSnJSgwiqu2nzhvYJVyX2VPA97zzKfr37nPtpxgxMHGp = 51chars , within X-bits why ??
L16n9PGJknwzPJXgpev1hdKAEtTXaGoLqtx1QTSLwN3kgZqwn7Ax = 52chars , within X-bits why ??
Although they both are generated by the same sha-256 bits ecc ,plz explain ? Which one compressed and which one is uncompressed and purpose

ANYONE CAN REPLY IN PLAIN ENGLISH EXPLAINING ME.

You have the private key so you can spend it.

Some of the tools I make can help you with this.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/gocoin/files/?source=directory

First do
.. this will download the balance of your problematic address.

Then use the wallet command to sing a transaction that spends it.
You will however first need to import your private key to it (put the "5..." type of string into file named ".others")

Then broadcast the signed transaction to the network, e.g. using this form: https://blockchain.info/pushtx

Drop me a PM if you need some more help, or just ask here.

Its very old code, I would have no problem using a local copy, verified with the (outdated) PGP key for 8 BTC. In fact I regularly use a local copy (v 3.0.1) I verified for my vanitygen service as well as my paper wallet needs. It was designed to run locally even when visiting the webpage and as mocacinno already said it was checked by a high number of people. It might still be buggy (they are hard to find), but Im certain its not malicious.

The sourcecode is available on github. you're free to download the sourcecode here https://github.com/pointbiz/bitaddress.org, move it to an offline pc, and use if from there.

That being said: i can safely assume the sourcecode has been reviewed by dozens of programmers, and afaik, no malicious code was found...
This does not mean that anybody can give you a 100% guarantee, but i think it's safe to assume the security is OK.

Are you sure bitaddress.org is a reliable service?
I mean what if they give us same address and private key previously generated by themselves? If we fund the address with large amount of bitcoins say 8+ bitcoins and it got stolen then who to blame lol?
Is offline wallet generator of bitaddress.org reliable?

Maybe. Its using the uncompressed by default AFAIK. You can use bitaddress.org to decrypt the BIP key. It will give you both private keys, importing the one that matches your address should resolve the issues with bc.i

Thanks for this.
I used bip38 secuirty on my paper wallet.
On my paper wallet it shows uncompressed address and when i imported my bip38 private key on blockchain.info with entering the passphase.I got the compressed address and not the address that is on my paper wallet.
Is bitaddress.org generared wrong paper address? How can i import the same address that is on my paper wallet to blockchain.info wallet?

Compressed and uncompressed public keys result in different addresses, but they still come from the same private key. Usually a private key in WIF has a different prefix to tell the wallet whether it should handle the key as one for a compress or an uncompressed address.


They are two different addresses, but they can be spend by the same private key.

E.g. address 1JpyMQDivyYBohM3zoMBXNiVg3u8F4F2PZ and 16sRvCPrJgKu7XBtR417jg6CndQMH7M27R come from the same private key (in hex) 73C89D6C48721B86C683643B094B3222331068A13846AD3475CDBF59394CE065 to tell the wallet which one you are using the uncompressed start with 5 e.g. 5JhH7tGFSnJSgwiqu2nzhvYJVyX2VPA97zzKfr37nPtpxgxMHGp and the compressed start with L or K, e.g. L16n9PGJknwzPJXgpev1hdKAEtTXaGoLqtx1QTSLwN3kgZqwn7Ax

Bitaddress.org can convert between the two in the "wallet details" tab.

disclaimer: these keys have been generated as an example and should not be used. Never share your private keys.

Hi guys i use bitaddress.org to generate 1 paper wallet
I get address and private key.
I imported that private key on blockchain.info and i get different address on blockchain.info then on paper wallet so i checked bitaddress.org and saw it was compressed address of that same uncompressed address that was on my paper wallet.
So my question is if is send bitcoins to the address on paper wallet,will i get same bitcoins on the address that got imported on blockchain?
Are compressed and Uncompressed address same thing and exchangable?
Please some technical guy explain this to me