Topic: Sweeping paper wallet to Electrum Trezor wallet (Read 200 times)

As Rath mentioned... the format didn't change... new formats were added... all existing formats are still valid and can still be used.

1-type "legacy" addresses
3-type "Pay to Script Hash" addresses (aka "P2SH"), used for MultiSig and "Nested SegWit" amongst other things
bc1-type "bech32" addresses (aka "P2WPKH),  aka "Native SegWit"


You can send from any valid bitcoin address, to any other valid bitcoin address... the type does not matter.

The only time this was an issue was because of badly coded (or old) wallet software or exchanges that did not recognise newer address types as being "valid"... This was a problem when SegWit was first released with some services/wallets marking bech32 addresses as "invalid". It is not so much a problem these days... as the more popular/common wallets and services have been updated etc.

Technically, it hasn't changed. You are not forced to use or switch to a different type of address. If you stick with P2PKH, you just won't be able to gain any benefits from new types of addresses. There are no penalties.


That's not true. When you set up your wallet, you are given a 12/24 word recovery phrase which can be restored in many other popular hardware and software wallets. You can also use your Trezor with Electrum - you won't expose your private keys this way.


Yes, you can. There is no reason why it would ever become impossible.

@ SeriousSam21, Great to hear it worked! Was this performed in Windows 10 or Linux?
I do have Windows 10, no Linux for me because I'm not a techie. I'm planning to send my BTC in the paper wallet to a Trezor because I'm afraid due to changes in software, one day it will not work anymore, even when the private key is ok. For instance, I had never expected that the address format of BTC would change some day from P2PKH to bech32. And such things make me nervous when I'm not a coder.

What happened before and why?
Because Trezor uses a website, you don't have full control. When one day Trezor website stops working, because for instance Trezor company goes bust, then we can't reach anymore our BTC in the Trezor (maybe a coder can, but not me...). To avoid situation that Trezor website stopped working, I parked some BTC in a paper wallet. But it is the paper wallet with old address format P2PKH. Because I do not have a second test paper wallet anymore with a small amount, I am also hesitant to use it and afraid of making mistakes when sweeping (for instance, better sweep full amount at once). I tested the paper wallet system when parking the BTC in a paper wallet a long time ago, this with blockchain.com. At that time, my test paper wallet did send the test amount well on blockchain.com to another address of mine. But blockchain.com hasn't anymore that same page for sending BTC from a paper wallet. So as you see, even after thinking having taken the necessary precautions, even then unexpected things can happen.

Or can I still today send BTC to an old address format P2PKH with the current BTC software from a bech32 address? I still have empty unused P2PKH paper BTC wallets left. Then I can do the test first with a small amount.

fyi using electrum you can sweep to any address not just one in your wallet

Here again to confirm that it worked, thank you!

Thank you for the thorough response Jack, I will proceed with the process described.

1. Protocols can be mixed in electrum so yes that's fine to sweep it
2. If you're planning on using thee trezor online wallet (wallet.trezor.io) then you're better off using nested segwit. If not it doesn't matter but native segwit has slightly lower fees.
3. No you don't have to because you're looking to restore a "1"type address correct? (address beginning with a 1).
4. If you use a high feethen he's the funds will appear in your wallet as unconfirmed and then take 10-60 minutes to confirm. Once you see a 1/6th of the circle shaded your transaction has one confirmation. Confirmations are client independent so 6 confirmations may be enough for binance but one or two is enough for sweeping your paper to yourself to assume the transaction is confirmed. 
5. Yes it would so long as you checked your hologram and you trust trezor. The only way of attack would be while you're sweeping the key and that'll be hard to mitigate.
6. Yes you can transfer to and from the binance account but you have to bpay a fee for each transfer (should be pretty low).  If you have a large amount you want to send to binance I'd recommend doing a test transaction first with a smaller amount just to check it gets there fine.

Hi,

I want to safely sweep BTC from my paper wallet (legacy public address generated with bitaddress.org starting with a "1") , into a Trezor One hard wallet. My plan is to hold most of it on a physical wallet (Trezor) and use Binance for trading smaller quantities.

Since Trezor does not have a function to sweep Private Keys, I thought of using Electrum in conjunction with my Trezor for its safety and low fees:
PAPER WALLET -----> ELECTRUM WALLET w/ TREZOR ---------> BINANCE for trading when needed

I'm hesitant of exposing my private keys by typing them in and not working, would appreciate some help to ensure I get it right:
   - Can I use an Electrum Hardware wallet (connected to Trezor) to sweep the private keys directly?My concern is the different protocols processes involved as my paper wallet is a legacy P2pKH address.
      ○ Which type of address should the Electrum with Trezor wallet be? Nested Segwit or Native Segwit?
      ○ When sweeping the private keys, I have to type in p2pkh:kyzetc…. Correct?
      ○ After that I will choose the transaction fee and all my BTC should be available in the new Electrum Wallet?
   - Would this Electrum wallet in conjunction with Trezor be considered safe since it would always require the PIN entry from the physical device?
   - Would I be able to easily transfer from and to my Binance account?

Appreciate the help as I`m still a noob with physical and online wallets. Would also appreciate suggestions on better ways of doing this