Topic: Trying to import a multi signature wallet in Bitcoin core (Read 221 times)

For clarification to those who will find this topic on search engines, please specify the Bitcoin Core version that you've used.
E.g.: latest version 28.0, old version, etc.

And, specify the exact steps that you've used to create the wallet.

Those are important information to guarantee that the provided instructions will work on a specific Bitcoin Core version.

Hello everyone,

This is how I managed to import a multi signature address which I had used to store some BTC in a Cryptolator physical coin.

1.   Downloaded Bitcoin Core and allowed the whole blockchain to download (approximately 730GB)
2.   Went to https://www.bitaddress.org/ and disconnected from the internet
3.   Clicked on Brainwallet and entered the 1st password I had created (my personal password) and which is shown on the Cryptolator certificate that was sent to me by Cryptolator.
4.   Copied the Private Key produced and clicked on Wallet Details tab (this private key will also be used in step 9)
5.   In the Wallet Details tab I pasted the private key in the Enter Private Key field and hit View details
6.   Copied the Public Key (130 characters [0-0A-F]) as we will use it in Bitcoin Core later.
7.   Repeated steps 3 to 6 for the 2nd password (or passphrase) which is hidden under the hologram on the Cryptolator coin.

We now have both 130 Character Public Keys generated from the two passwords.

After Bitcoin Core completes the download and is ready to be used click on Create new wallet.  Encrypt it with a password and remember it.

8.   Go to Console and enter the following command:

addmultisigaddress 2 '[ "1st password 130 character Public Key" , "2nd password 130 character Public Key" ]' cryptolator

hit enter

9.   Still In the console type the following two commands:

Importprivkey PrivateKeyProducedFrom1stpasswordOnBrainwallet false

hit enter

Importprivkey PrivateKeyProducedFrom2ndPasswordOnBrainwallet true

hit enter

Bitcoin Core will now start scanning the blockchain and after about 3 hours the BTC from the multi signature address will be visible in the newly created wallet in Bitcoin Core

You will now be able to spend the BTC

All this would not have been possible without the support I received in this forum and from Jonathan who created the Cryptolator coins himself

Thanks to all!!

That's a start.
You can try to follow the "watch-only" part in my instructions above to check if you can restore the correct address and if you have a synced (not pruned) Bitcoin Core, you can scan for transactions (balance).

You may try it multiple times depending on the number of public keys you have.
Based from your feedback, you might have two; (1) your uncompressed public key and (2) the public key from the "physical bitcoin coin" (Casascius S2) which should be available somewhere
since you can't create a MultiSig address associated with that coin without it.
If not available, calculate its private key first using any reputable brainwallet tool that can be used offline, then its pair public key using any compatible offline private key tool.
This fork of original Brainwalet can do both, but you must only use it on an Air-Gap machine: https://github.com/brainwalletX/brainwalletX.github.io

E.g.: For two pubKeys, try a sh(sortedmulti(2,,)) descriptor or even a sh(sortedmulti(1,,)) if the former failed to restore the correct address.
Or try different arrangements of the public keys with sh(multi(2,,)) and sh(multi(2,,)), then each's single required signature variants; sh(multi(1,....

Let's see.

1. That refers to P2SH address.
2. Both "04" prefix and 130 total character indicate it's uncompressed public key. But since we talk about multi-sig address, there should be more than 1 public key.
3 and 4. I agree with LoyceV reply.

The hard part is finding software which can generate P2SH multi-sig address from uncompressed public key. You probably have to follow @nc50lc reply.

As per DaveF's post, the password under the hologram is a brainwallet. You can use for instance bitaddress.org (offline of course) to turn it into a private key.

Thank you for the answer.

Here is my feedback

1. The BTC address where the BTC is stored starts with a 3... and is 30 characters long in total

2. The public key:  04de... 130 characters long in total

3. The passphrase I used as a first password: @2... This is a personal password 18 characters long in total

4. The second password which was hidden under a hologram on a physical Bitcoin coin: ELG... 30 characters long in total


Private keys were not given to me.

There is only one public key that I gave to Cryptolator after I created my personal password and, if I remember correctly, his online tool online produced it after I used it and entered my password it in.

After sending the public key to him he created the wallet and printed the second password and inserted it behind the hologram.

This public key along with my password is printed on a certificate I have and the only missing piece of information should have been the password on the back of the hologram.

That's all the info I have.  Therefore I believe that there is only one public key and two required signatures.  But could be public key be used in combination with the two different passwords to derive a private key using his tool or another tool?  To be honest I do not think so because as he wrote in the email he sent to me:

"and when you want to redeem it, you either do it with the Bitcoin-QT or through my website. "

Importation is rather simple actually; Short version: Create a new wallet in Bitcoin Core, Open the console window, import it as a sh(multi()) descriptor.
The complication here is if you can't remember the setup if the public keys are specifically arranged, how many consigners are there and the number of required signature(s).
As well as the reliability of those information, specifically, you need "private keys" and "public keys", no old passwords required.
Please describe those information like starting characters, alpha-numberic/hex/decimals and how many characters each has.

Here're the instructions if you can identify which is which:

• Before that, create a MultiSig descriptor based from your public keys, refer to this documentation: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/descriptors.md
  For example, your "10 year old MultiSig Address" should be a P2SH MultiSig descriptor which should be in this format: sh(sortedmulti(2,publicKey1,publicKey2))
  Note: refer to the documentation for the full example with public keys, the "2" in the descriptor indicates how many signatures it requires,
  and the number of public keys on it indicates how many cosigners it has; yours should be set according to your original setup.
  
  
• To import: Create a watch-only wallet in Bitcoin Core with "File->Create Wallet..." and tick "Make Blank Wallet" and "Disable Private Keys" in the advanced options, set a wallet encryption passphrase via "Encrypt Wallet".
• Open the console in "Window->Console" and enter the command getdescriptorinfo "" and take note of the checksum, e.g.: "sc8q9v0f"
• Then import it to the newly created wallet (the correct wallet should be selected in the console's drop-down menu above it if you have more than one wallet),
  Use the command importdescriptors "[{\"desc\": \"#its_checksum\",\"label\": \"your_label\",\"timestamp\": \"0\"}]"
• Open "Window->Receiving Addresses" and see if the address with that label is correct, then let Bitcoin Core rescan (sync of not synced) and see if your bitcoins will appear.

If the address is wrong, the MultiSig setup is incorrect with either wrong public keys arrangement (use "multi" instead of "sortedmulti" to specify specific arrangement),
Or the number of signature required (2) isn't correct
Or you're missing some more public keys.

On the other hand, if the correct address is restore and the transactions appeared, do the same steps on an Air-Gap (offline) machine
but do not tick "Disable Private Keys" and use your WIF private keys instead of public keys in the descriptor.
Then, use the menu (you can easily see the buttons): Create an unsigned transaction in the watch-only Bitcoin Core using "Send", Save that PSBT (Partially Signed Bitcoin Transaction) file/txt,
import the PSBT to the offline Bitcoin Core, Sign it there, export the Signed PSBT file back to the watch-only wallet, then Broadcast.

I read conflicting information:

If you figure it out, can you post (exactly) what you did to redeem this coin? I'd love to add it to my [overview] Recover Bitcoin from any old storage format.

Hello,

Indeed the long hexadecimal is 130 characters long

The code under the hologram starts with ELG......+27 more characters

The BTC address starts with 3

Thanks!!

Are you sure there are 135 characters in between, and not 130 in total?

Does it start with "S"?

I'm thinking of a combination of a vanity split wallet and a mini-private-key. Does the Bitcoin address start with "1" or with "3"?

The whole story is the following:

I contacted Jonathan Leonard on the 21st October 2014 who is the founder of Cryptolator physical bitcoins and he sent me this email:

********************************

Hi !
(Je ne sais pas si tu parles français alors je vais écrire en anglais / I dont know if you speak french so I’ll write it in english )

I’ll make you coins tomorrow, I was wondering if you prefer Multi-Signature or Single-Signature ?

Multi-Signature is a bit more complex to redeem, they are safer since you have a secret password on your side and I put the second under the hologram. You need to create a certificate on your side (Using a link I provide) and when you want to redeem it, you either do it with the Bitcoin-QT or through my website.

If you chose this option here is the link for creating your passphrase or password and public key that you will give me (You give me only the public key, not the password)

You need to keep the passphrase since it will be needed to print your own certificate and will be needed when you want to redeem.

https://dashboard.cryptolator.com/#generate

Single-Signature is the same as Casascius and Lealana, one secret code under the hologram and you can redeem it almost anywhere easily.

So, as soon as I have your response, I’ll create the coin and ship it to you at the latest Wednesday !

Thanks !

Jonathan


********************************

So after this communication I asked him to prepare 4 coins with multi signature wallets.

I followed the link in his email above in order to generate the certificate which I have with my passphrase/password (a custom password of mine) along with the public key which I supplied to him.  The public key is a long hexadecimal which starts with 04d*** and ends with ***d1 and has another 135 characters in between.

I supposed he used the public key in some way to generate the second passphrase which I uncovered yesterday under the hologram which I peeled off.

The code under the hologram consists of 30 characters.

(his website is no longer active by the way)

I wish I had opted for the single signature wallets...

Is this any clearer for you?

Thanks again for any advice

Without showing image of the coin or other secret/private information, can you tell us brand and type of your physical Bitcoin? The creator or someone else might have created guide how to spend or restore access from that physical coin.

Did you try to import the Bitcoin address? That doesn't work.

I assume you mean private keys, right?

Try this:
Get Electrum, create a new Wallet > choose a name > Multi-signature wallet > 2 cosigners > I'm not sure how to continue. I wrote a post on recovering Forkcoins out of multisig using Electrum (Forks). See if it's any use.

Unfortunately Electrum only allows importing a multi-signature wallet as a watch only one.

I cannot spend the BTC shown though.

When I do try to do that I see a QR code with the following message:

"Transaction created. Present this QR code to the signing device"

The problem is that I do not have any signing devices.  I only have two passwords written down.

I would ideally like to complete this task within Bitcoin Core.

In case anyone has done this before please advise.

Thanks

Isn't this much easier to do in Electrum? It's been a while since I've tried, so I can't recommend a specific tutorial, but they're easy to find: just Google "Electrum multisig". And don't trust PMs you may receive.

Hello,

10 years ago I sent 0.01 BTC to a multi-signature address which requires two passwords

I am now trying to import this wallet in Bitcoin Core but I am not able to.

The information I have is:

The BTC address where the BTC is stored
The public key
The passphrase I used as a first password
The second password which was hidden under a hologram on a physical Bitcoin coin
Can anyone guide me as to how to do it?

I am now downloading the whole Bitcoin Core along with the blockchain.

Thank you!