True or False? Bitcoin Core No Longer Supports Private Key Import?
Over the weekend, after BTC broke through 64k and bottomed out locally, it started to slowly recover above 64k. Talking about “buying the dip” is easy, but actually doing it might still be a rare feat. After all, getting trapped in a bottom-fishing attempt happens often, making “buying the dip” akin to a monstrous task for many.
A few days ago, I wrote two articles introducing the process of manually creating a BTC cold wallet. One was “Where Can You Buy a Cold Wallet? The Answer Will Surprise You!” on June 12, 2024, and the other was “Creating a Bitcoin Private Key Generator with Less Than 100 Lines of Code, No Third-Party Libraries!” on June 14, 2024.
The articles received a warm response. Some readers asked if the latest version of the Bitcoin Core client no longer supports private key import, then does this manually created private key have no way to be imported into Bitcoin Core for use?
Today, I’ll briefly answer this question.
As we all know, Bitcoin Core is a client software inherited from Satoshi Nakamoto, primarily functioning as a Bitcoin node. It also comes with a wallet function, which you can consider a software wallet. However, this wallet is quite “independent,” relying on its node to download the entire blockchain data to operate, without depending on other third-party data services.
Some hardcore players use this wallet software. The obvious advantage is independent verification of everything. The downside is also clear: initialization requires one to two weeks (depending on your network speed) and several hundred gigabytes of disk space to download and verify all the ledger data from 2009 to now, before it can function normally.
For general users who just want to import a private key and transfer all BTC to an exchange to sell, this “small need” might not be worth the long wait.
The reason I split the “BTC hoarding” process into two steps: 1. Hoarding coins; 2. Moving coins, is to achieve complete manual operation in the first step, with the private key not relying on or contacting any software, hardware, or internet. When the time comes to move coins, whether it’s 20 or 30 years later, we can use the latest and best software available then to import the private key for operation. Presumably, the software and hardware wallets 20 or 30 years from now will be much more advanced and different from today’s.
Another benefit of splitting the process is that the coin-moving step does not necessarily require using such a hardcore full-node wallet! Why? Because from importing the private key to clearing the address and transferring to an exchange, it might only take 10 to 30 minutes. This is the longest time the private key would be online, no more than half an hour.
The possibility of a hacker discovering and stealing from the address in less than half an hour is relatively small. The time window is short, and they might not act in time. (Of course, you can also use a cold-hot wallet separation method, with two machines operating together to further prevent the possibility of a hacker pre-installing malware on your online computer.)
For this less than half-hour coin-moving step, waiting one to two weeks to sync the entire blockchain is probably not something many people want to do.
This is why in my October 20, 2020 article “How to Use Private Keys to Store Bitcoin,” I used lightweight wallet software Electrum for the “moving coins” operation.
As for Bitcoin Core, this “orthodox” client software, it has not yet fully implemented the so-called SPV (Simplified Payment Verification) wallet function mentioned in Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper. Implementing SPV should not be too difficult with some effort. With SPV functionality, ordinary users would not need to download, verify, and store the entire blockchain data, only needing to download block headers, greatly reducing the data size of the user’s wallet and significantly shortening the initial synchronization time (from tens of minutes to a few hours?).
In my opinion, until Bitcoin Core officially implements SPV functionality, ordinary users do not need to use it for “moving coins.”
Now, let’s look at what the issue of “Bitcoin Core no longer supporting private key import” is all about.
Since version 0.17, Bitcoin Core has started supporting a new technology called “Output Descriptor.” This makes it easier to indicate which type of address users need to use in their wallet. As I’ve mentioned before, a private key is just a number, and the same private key can correspond to different address formats, each not interoperable with the others.
For example, the private key manually generated in the June 14, 2024 article:
5KQ2upQdz2wPfYCT2MfXdgmqZKZtFPDmzm8ubXimR76pYMANUdM
It can be converted into a compressed format private key: L4CfS8FLEjZ536hXrzD4CvYuKex9CV5Pbwou9QbM3PvgqKzLhMBb
Its corresponding normal address is: 13cuZK94jvtCBPDoXd86MiiFTyMnQWkCS6 (also called an uncompressed format address)
It can also correspond to a compressed format address: 1D9UhcTvw9vsJ9SjHoAHT1kGcvojWVnfVp
It can also correspond to a SegWit address (p2sh format): 3EdGz1omVRGPoZqXsiWSg6pGqpQdz1c2Gb
It can also correspond to a SegWit bech32 address (p2wpkh format): bc1qs5alt3n7jyarufd4j2d0gsd6pa4mgqt6g43lcr
It can also correspond to a Taproot address (bech32m, p2tr format): bc1ptc0q350pdglal7t2zwcefed6yx9tj7jqz8wfsfxmuukyms4lj0cqht8kuk
Are you dizzy already? Yes, it’s that dazzling. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, just one private key without even involving mnemonic phrases, etc.
New technologies emerge one after another. Don’t blindly pursue new ones. Achieving your goals and suitability for use is the best. This is one of the reasons why I still use regular addresses.
Until today, there are still many wallet software that do not well support bech32 addresses, let alone Taproot addresses. Moreover, the loose mnemonic standards mean different wallet software and hardware have made some “customizations,” resulting in incompatibility. You write down one wallet’s mnemonic, and years later, when the software is gone or upgraded, you import the mnemonic into new software or another wallet, only to find that the restored addresses are completely different! The BTC stored in the original addresses are nowhere to be found!
Friends around me have experienced such painful lessons.
All these advanced new technologies are essentially layered on the most basic private key-address structure. One layer, two layers, three layers… The more layers, the greater the possibility of encountering recovery difficulties in the future. Because these layers of shells are too difficult for you to master completely, they are almost like a black box. Even if open-source, not every ordinary user can fully understand it.
If you’re not a technical expert, returning to the simple and plain basics might be the best way to maintain happiness!
Back to the topic, after Bitcoin Core wallet software switched to creating descriptor wallets by default instead of the old format wallets, the new format wallets no longer support the old private key import commands like importprivkey, but instead require using descriptors for import.
Title: True or False? Bitcoin Core No Longer Supports Private Key Import?
Tags: Bitcoin, Wallet, Security
Difficulty: Beginner
Meta Description:
This article discusses BTC market dynamics and the challenges of the “buy the dip” strategy, and addresses readers’ concerns about Bitcoin Core client no longer supporting private key import. It concludes that Bitcoin Core still supports private key import, just requiring new methods.
Over the weekend, after BTC broke through 64k and bottomed out locally, it started to slowly recover above 64k. Talking about “buying the dip” is easy, but actually doing it might still be a rare feat. After all, getting trapped in a bottom-fishing attempt happens often, making “buying the dip” akin to a monstrous task for many.
A few days ago, I wrote two articles introducing the process of manually creating a BTC cold wallet. One was “Where Can You Buy a Cold Wallet? The Answer Will Surprise You!” on June 12, 2024, and the other was “Creating a Bitcoin Private Key Generator with Less Than 100 Lines of Code, No Third-Party Libraries!” on June 14, 2024.
The articles received a warm response. Some readers asked if the latest version of the Bitcoin Core client no longer supports private key import, then does this manually created private key have no way to be imported into Bitcoin Core for use?
Today, I’ll briefly answer this question.
As we all know, Bitcoin Core is a client software inherited from Satoshi Nakamoto, primarily functioning as a Bitcoin node. It also comes with a wallet function, which you can consider a software wallet. However, this wallet is quite “independent,” relying on its node to download the entire blockchain data to operate, without depending on other third-party data services.
Some hardcore players use this wallet software. The obvious advantage is independent verification of everything. The downside is also clear: initialization requires one to two weeks (depending on your network speed) and several hundred gigabytes of disk space to download and verify all the ledger data from 2009 to now, before it can function normally.
For general users who just want to import a private key and transfer all BTC to an exchange to sell, this “small need” might not be worth the long wait.
The reason I split the “BTC hoarding” process into two steps: 1. Hoarding coins; 2. Moving coins, is to achieve complete manual operation in the first step, with the private key not relying on or contacting any software, hardware, or internet. When the time comes to move coins, whether it’s 20 or 30 years later, we can use the latest and best software available then to import the private key for operation. Presumably, the software and hardware wallets 20 or 30 years from now will be much more advanced and different from today’s.
Another benefit of splitting the process is that the coin-moving step does not necessarily require using such a hardcore full-node wallet! Why? Because from importing the private key to clearing the address and transferring to an exchange, it might only take 10 to 30 minutes. This is the longest time the private key would be online, no more than half an hour.
The possibility of a hacker discovering and stealing from the address in less than half an hour is relatively small. The time window is short, and they might not act in time. (Of course, you can also use a cold-hot wallet separation method, with two machines operating together to further prevent the possibility of a hacker pre-installing malware on your online computer.)
For this less than half-hour coin-moving step, waiting one to two weeks to sync the entire blockchain is probably not something many people want to do.
This is why in my October 20, 2020 article “How to Use Private Keys to Store Bitcoin,” I used lightweight wallet software Electrum for the “moving coins” operation.
As for Bitcoin Core, this “orthodox” client software, it has not yet fully implemented the so-called SPV (Simplified Payment Verification) wallet function mentioned in Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper. Implementing SPV should not be too difficult with some effort. With SPV functionality, ordinary users would not need to download, verify, and store the entire blockchain data, only needing to download block headers, greatly reducing the data size of the user’s wallet and significantly shortening the initial synchronization time (from tens of minutes to a few hours?).
In my opinion, until Bitcoin Core officially implements SPV functionality, ordinary users do not need to use it for “moving coins.”
Now, let’s look at what the issue of “Bitcoin Core no longer supporting private key import” is all about.
Since version 0.17, Bitcoin Core has started supporting a new technology called “Output Descriptor.” This makes it easier to indicate which type of address users need to use in their wallet. As I’ve mentioned before, a private key is just a number, and the same private key can correspond to different address formats, each not interoperable with the others.
For example, the private key manually generated in the June 14, 2024 article:
5KQ2upQdz2wPfYCT2MfXdgmqZKZtFPDmzm8ubXimR76pYMANUdM
It can be converted into a compressed format private key: L4CfS8FLEjZ536hXrzD4CvYuKex9CV5Pbwou9QbM3PvgqKzLhMBb
Its corresponding normal address is: 13cuZK94jvtCBPDoXd86MiiFTyMnQWkCS6 (also called an uncompressed format address)
It can also correspond to a compressed format address: 1D9UhcTvw9vsJ9SjHoAHT1kGcvojWVnfVp
It can also correspond to a SegWit address (p2sh format): 3EdGz1omVRGPoZqXsiWSg6pGqpQdz1c2Gb
It can also correspond to a SegWit bech32 address (p2wpkh format): bc1qs5alt3n7jyarufd4j2d0gsd6pa4mgqt6g43lcr
It can also correspond to a Taproot address (bech32m, p2tr format): bc1ptc0q350pdglal7t2zwcefed6yx9tj7jqz8wfsfxmuukyms4lj0cqht8kuk
Are you dizzy already? Yes, it’s that dazzling. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, just one private key without even involving mnemonic phrases, etc.
New technologies emerge one after another. Don’t blindly pursue new ones. Achieving your goals and suitability for use is the best. This is one of the reasons why I still use regular addresses.
Until today, there are still many wallet software that do not well support bech32 addresses, let alone Taproot addresses. Moreover, the loose mnemonic standards mean different wallet software and hardware have made some “customizations,” resulting in incompatibility. You write down one wallet’s mnemonic, and years later, when the software is gone or upgraded, you import the mnemonic into new software or another wallet, only to find that the restored addresses are completely different! The BTC stored in the original addresses are nowhere to be found!
Friends around me have experienced such painful lessons.
All these advanced new technologies are essentially layered on the most basic private key-address structure. One layer, two layers, three layers… The more layers, the greater the possibility of encountering recovery difficulties in the future. Because these layers of shells are too difficult for you to master completely, they are almost like a black box. Even if open-source, not every ordinary user can fully understand it.
If you’re not a technical expert, returning to the simple and plain basics might be the best way to maintain happiness!
Back to the topic, after Bitcoin Core wallet software switched to creating descriptor wallets by default instead of the old format wallets, the new format wallets no longer support the old private key import commands like importprivkey, but instead require using descriptors for import.
First, obtain the descriptor’s checksum information using the getdescriptorinfo command:
$ bitcoin-cli getdescriptorinfo "pkh(5KQ2upQdz2wPfYCT2MfXdgmqZKZtFPDmzm8ubXimR76pYMANUdM)"
{
"descriptor": "pkh(04e510bfa12225bbc2044a1847eda44a26e8a842cbf45c11d74ade893e506fc9e209c7c0044c5321ea22edf9dc1d8e45bed3663ed7c637eb564a7dd0a23ca8e45c)#afvrzgrk",
"checksum": "8rrz94h2",
"isrange": false,
"issolvable": true,
"hasprivatekeys": true
}
Then import the private key using the importdescriptors command:
$ bitcoin-cli importdescriptors '[{"desc":"pkh(5KQ2upQdz2wPfYCT2MfXdgmqZKZtFPDmzm8ubXimR76pYMANUdM)#8rrz94h2","timestamp":"now"}]'
[
{
"success": true
}
]
Now, we can see the newly imported address using the listreceivedbyaddress command:
```shell
$ bitcoin-cli listreceivedbyaddress 1 true
…
{
“address”: “13cuZK94jvtCBPDoXd86MiiFTyMnQWkCS6”,
“amount”: 0
statement:
This article is reproduced from [Liu Jiaolian], the copyright belongs to the original author [Liu Jiaolian], if you have any objection to the reprint, please contact the Gate Learn team, and the team will handle it as soon as possible according to relevant procedures.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article represent only the author’s personal views and do not constitute any investment advice.
Other language versions of the article are translated by the Gate Learn team and are not mentioned in Gate.io, the translated article may not be reproduced, distributed or plagiarized.
Related articles
BTC and Projects in The BRC-20 Ecosystem
What Is Fundamental Analysis?
What Is Ethereum 2.0? Understanding The Merge
True or False? Bitcoin Core No Longer Supports Private Key Import?
Over the weekend, after BTC broke through 64k and bottomed out locally, it started to slowly recover above 64k. Talking about “buying the dip” is easy, but actually doing it might still be a rare feat. After all, getting trapped in a bottom-fishing attempt happens often, making “buying the dip” akin to a monstrous task for many.
A few days ago, I wrote two articles introducing the process of manually creating a BTC cold wallet. One was “Where Can You Buy a Cold Wallet? The Answer Will Surprise You!” on June 12, 2024, and the other was “Creating a Bitcoin Private Key Generator with Less Than 100 Lines of Code, No Third-Party Libraries!” on June 14, 2024.
The articles received a warm response. Some readers asked if the latest version of the Bitcoin Core client no longer supports private key import, then does this manually created private key have no way to be imported into Bitcoin Core for use?
Today, I’ll briefly answer this question.
As we all know, Bitcoin Core is a client software inherited from Satoshi Nakamoto, primarily functioning as a Bitcoin node. It also comes with a wallet function, which you can consider a software wallet. However, this wallet is quite “independent,” relying on its node to download the entire blockchain data to operate, without depending on other third-party data services.
Some hardcore players use this wallet software. The obvious advantage is independent verification of everything. The downside is also clear: initialization requires one to two weeks (depending on your network speed) and several hundred gigabytes of disk space to download and verify all the ledger data from 2009 to now, before it can function normally.
For general users who just want to import a private key and transfer all BTC to an exchange to sell, this “small need” might not be worth the long wait.
The reason I split the “BTC hoarding” process into two steps: 1. Hoarding coins; 2. Moving coins, is to achieve complete manual operation in the first step, with the private key not relying on or contacting any software, hardware, or internet. When the time comes to move coins, whether it’s 20 or 30 years later, we can use the latest and best software available then to import the private key for operation. Presumably, the software and hardware wallets 20 or 30 years from now will be much more advanced and different from today’s.
Another benefit of splitting the process is that the coin-moving step does not necessarily require using such a hardcore full-node wallet! Why? Because from importing the private key to clearing the address and transferring to an exchange, it might only take 10 to 30 minutes. This is the longest time the private key would be online, no more than half an hour.
The possibility of a hacker discovering and stealing from the address in less than half an hour is relatively small. The time window is short, and they might not act in time. (Of course, you can also use a cold-hot wallet separation method, with two machines operating together to further prevent the possibility of a hacker pre-installing malware on your online computer.)
For this less than half-hour coin-moving step, waiting one to two weeks to sync the entire blockchain is probably not something many people want to do.
This is why in my October 20, 2020 article “How to Use Private Keys to Store Bitcoin,” I used lightweight wallet software Electrum for the “moving coins” operation.
As for Bitcoin Core, this “orthodox” client software, it has not yet fully implemented the so-called SPV (Simplified Payment Verification) wallet function mentioned in Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper. Implementing SPV should not be too difficult with some effort. With SPV functionality, ordinary users would not need to download, verify, and store the entire blockchain data, only needing to download block headers, greatly reducing the data size of the user’s wallet and significantly shortening the initial synchronization time (from tens of minutes to a few hours?).
In my opinion, until Bitcoin Core officially implements SPV functionality, ordinary users do not need to use it for “moving coins.”
Now, let’s look at what the issue of “Bitcoin Core no longer supporting private key import” is all about.
Since version 0.17, Bitcoin Core has started supporting a new technology called “Output Descriptor.” This makes it easier to indicate which type of address users need to use in their wallet. As I’ve mentioned before, a private key is just a number, and the same private key can correspond to different address formats, each not interoperable with the others.
For example, the private key manually generated in the June 14, 2024 article:
5KQ2upQdz2wPfYCT2MfXdgmqZKZtFPDmzm8ubXimR76pYMANUdM
It can be converted into a compressed format private key: L4CfS8FLEjZ536hXrzD4CvYuKex9CV5Pbwou9QbM3PvgqKzLhMBb
Its corresponding normal address is: 13cuZK94jvtCBPDoXd86MiiFTyMnQWkCS6 (also called an uncompressed format address)
It can also correspond to a compressed format address: 1D9UhcTvw9vsJ9SjHoAHT1kGcvojWVnfVp
It can also correspond to a SegWit address (p2sh format): 3EdGz1omVRGPoZqXsiWSg6pGqpQdz1c2Gb
It can also correspond to a SegWit bech32 address (p2wpkh format): bc1qs5alt3n7jyarufd4j2d0gsd6pa4mgqt6g43lcr
It can also correspond to a Taproot address (bech32m, p2tr format): bc1ptc0q350pdglal7t2zwcefed6yx9tj7jqz8wfsfxmuukyms4lj0cqht8kuk
Are you dizzy already? Yes, it’s that dazzling. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, just one private key without even involving mnemonic phrases, etc.
New technologies emerge one after another. Don’t blindly pursue new ones. Achieving your goals and suitability for use is the best. This is one of the reasons why I still use regular addresses.
Until today, there are still many wallet software that do not well support bech32 addresses, let alone Taproot addresses. Moreover, the loose mnemonic standards mean different wallet software and hardware have made some “customizations,” resulting in incompatibility. You write down one wallet’s mnemonic, and years later, when the software is gone or upgraded, you import the mnemonic into new software or another wallet, only to find that the restored addresses are completely different! The BTC stored in the original addresses are nowhere to be found!
Friends around me have experienced such painful lessons.
All these advanced new technologies are essentially layered on the most basic private key-address structure. One layer, two layers, three layers… The more layers, the greater the possibility of encountering recovery difficulties in the future. Because these layers of shells are too difficult for you to master completely, they are almost like a black box. Even if open-source, not every ordinary user can fully understand it.
If you’re not a technical expert, returning to the simple and plain basics might be the best way to maintain happiness!
Back to the topic, after Bitcoin Core wallet software switched to creating descriptor wallets by default instead of the old format wallets, the new format wallets no longer support the old private key import commands like importprivkey, but instead require using descriptors for import.
Title: True or False? Bitcoin Core No Longer Supports Private Key Import?
Tags: Bitcoin, Wallet, Security
Difficulty: Beginner
Meta Description:
This article discusses BTC market dynamics and the challenges of the “buy the dip” strategy, and addresses readers’ concerns about Bitcoin Core client no longer supporting private key import. It concludes that Bitcoin Core still supports private key import, just requiring new methods.
Over the weekend, after BTC broke through 64k and bottomed out locally, it started to slowly recover above 64k. Talking about “buying the dip” is easy, but actually doing it might still be a rare feat. After all, getting trapped in a bottom-fishing attempt happens often, making “buying the dip” akin to a monstrous task for many.
A few days ago, I wrote two articles introducing the process of manually creating a BTC cold wallet. One was “Where Can You Buy a Cold Wallet? The Answer Will Surprise You!” on June 12, 2024, and the other was “Creating a Bitcoin Private Key Generator with Less Than 100 Lines of Code, No Third-Party Libraries!” on June 14, 2024.
The articles received a warm response. Some readers asked if the latest version of the Bitcoin Core client no longer supports private key import, then does this manually created private key have no way to be imported into Bitcoin Core for use?
Today, I’ll briefly answer this question.
As we all know, Bitcoin Core is a client software inherited from Satoshi Nakamoto, primarily functioning as a Bitcoin node. It also comes with a wallet function, which you can consider a software wallet. However, this wallet is quite “independent,” relying on its node to download the entire blockchain data to operate, without depending on other third-party data services.
Some hardcore players use this wallet software. The obvious advantage is independent verification of everything. The downside is also clear: initialization requires one to two weeks (depending on your network speed) and several hundred gigabytes of disk space to download and verify all the ledger data from 2009 to now, before it can function normally.
For general users who just want to import a private key and transfer all BTC to an exchange to sell, this “small need” might not be worth the long wait.
The reason I split the “BTC hoarding” process into two steps: 1. Hoarding coins; 2. Moving coins, is to achieve complete manual operation in the first step, with the private key not relying on or contacting any software, hardware, or internet. When the time comes to move coins, whether it’s 20 or 30 years later, we can use the latest and best software available then to import the private key for operation. Presumably, the software and hardware wallets 20 or 30 years from now will be much more advanced and different from today’s.
Another benefit of splitting the process is that the coin-moving step does not necessarily require using such a hardcore full-node wallet! Why? Because from importing the private key to clearing the address and transferring to an exchange, it might only take 10 to 30 minutes. This is the longest time the private key would be online, no more than half an hour.
The possibility of a hacker discovering and stealing from the address in less than half an hour is relatively small. The time window is short, and they might not act in time. (Of course, you can also use a cold-hot wallet separation method, with two machines operating together to further prevent the possibility of a hacker pre-installing malware on your online computer.)
For this less than half-hour coin-moving step, waiting one to two weeks to sync the entire blockchain is probably not something many people want to do.
This is why in my October 20, 2020 article “How to Use Private Keys to Store Bitcoin,” I used lightweight wallet software Electrum for the “moving coins” operation.
As for Bitcoin Core, this “orthodox” client software, it has not yet fully implemented the so-called SPV (Simplified Payment Verification) wallet function mentioned in Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper. Implementing SPV should not be too difficult with some effort. With SPV functionality, ordinary users would not need to download, verify, and store the entire blockchain data, only needing to download block headers, greatly reducing the data size of the user’s wallet and significantly shortening the initial synchronization time (from tens of minutes to a few hours?).
In my opinion, until Bitcoin Core officially implements SPV functionality, ordinary users do not need to use it for “moving coins.”
Now, let’s look at what the issue of “Bitcoin Core no longer supporting private key import” is all about.
Since version 0.17, Bitcoin Core has started supporting a new technology called “Output Descriptor.” This makes it easier to indicate which type of address users need to use in their wallet. As I’ve mentioned before, a private key is just a number, and the same private key can correspond to different address formats, each not interoperable with the others.
For example, the private key manually generated in the June 14, 2024 article:
5KQ2upQdz2wPfYCT2MfXdgmqZKZtFPDmzm8ubXimR76pYMANUdM
It can be converted into a compressed format private key: L4CfS8FLEjZ536hXrzD4CvYuKex9CV5Pbwou9QbM3PvgqKzLhMBb
Its corresponding normal address is: 13cuZK94jvtCBPDoXd86MiiFTyMnQWkCS6 (also called an uncompressed format address)
It can also correspond to a compressed format address: 1D9UhcTvw9vsJ9SjHoAHT1kGcvojWVnfVp
It can also correspond to a SegWit address (p2sh format): 3EdGz1omVRGPoZqXsiWSg6pGqpQdz1c2Gb
It can also correspond to a SegWit bech32 address (p2wpkh format): bc1qs5alt3n7jyarufd4j2d0gsd6pa4mgqt6g43lcr
It can also correspond to a Taproot address (bech32m, p2tr format): bc1ptc0q350pdglal7t2zwcefed6yx9tj7jqz8wfsfxmuukyms4lj0cqht8kuk
Are you dizzy already? Yes, it’s that dazzling. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, just one private key without even involving mnemonic phrases, etc.
New technologies emerge one after another. Don’t blindly pursue new ones. Achieving your goals and suitability for use is the best. This is one of the reasons why I still use regular addresses.
Until today, there are still many wallet software that do not well support bech32 addresses, let alone Taproot addresses. Moreover, the loose mnemonic standards mean different wallet software and hardware have made some “customizations,” resulting in incompatibility. You write down one wallet’s mnemonic, and years later, when the software is gone or upgraded, you import the mnemonic into new software or another wallet, only to find that the restored addresses are completely different! The BTC stored in the original addresses are nowhere to be found!
Friends around me have experienced such painful lessons.
All these advanced new technologies are essentially layered on the most basic private key-address structure. One layer, two layers, three layers… The more layers, the greater the possibility of encountering recovery difficulties in the future. Because these layers of shells are too difficult for you to master completely, they are almost like a black box. Even if open-source, not every ordinary user can fully understand it.
If you’re not a technical expert, returning to the simple and plain basics might be the best way to maintain happiness!
Back to the topic, after Bitcoin Core wallet software switched to creating descriptor wallets by default instead of the old format wallets, the new format wallets no longer support the old private key import commands like importprivkey, but instead require using descriptors for import.
First, obtain the descriptor’s checksum information using the getdescriptorinfo command:
$ bitcoin-cli getdescriptorinfo "pkh(5KQ2upQdz2wPfYCT2MfXdgmqZKZtFPDmzm8ubXimR76pYMANUdM)"
{
"descriptor": "pkh(04e510bfa12225bbc2044a1847eda44a26e8a842cbf45c11d74ade893e506fc9e209c7c0044c5321ea22edf9dc1d8e45bed3663ed7c637eb564a7dd0a23ca8e45c)#afvrzgrk",
"checksum": "8rrz94h2",
"isrange": false,
"issolvable": true,
"hasprivatekeys": true
}
Then import the private key using the importdescriptors command:
$ bitcoin-cli importdescriptors '[{"desc":"pkh(5KQ2upQdz2wPfYCT2MfXdgmqZKZtFPDmzm8ubXimR76pYMANUdM)#8rrz94h2","timestamp":"now"}]'
[
{
"success": true
}
]
Now, we can see the newly imported address using the listreceivedbyaddress command:
```shell
$ bitcoin-cli listreceivedbyaddress 1 true
…
{
“address”: “13cuZK94jvtCBPDoXd86MiiFTyMnQWkCS6”,
“amount”: 0
statement:
This article is reproduced from [Liu Jiaolian], the copyright belongs to the original author [Liu Jiaolian], if you have any objection to the reprint, please contact the Gate Learn team, and the team will handle it as soon as possible according to relevant procedures.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article represent only the author’s personal views and do not constitute any investment advice.
Other language versions of the article are translated by the Gate Learn team and are not mentioned in Gate.io, the translated article may not be reproduced, distributed or plagiarized.
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