58 sats \ 0 replies \ @AyCaramba 30 Aug 2023 \ on: Need help recovering wallet from 2010 bitcoin
If you have your private key in the format you say, in order to import your key into bitcoin core, you need to convert your key into "WIF" format first.
I guess if you exclude the question marks, you should have 66 characters. However a private key has 64 characters.
One question:
What are the first 2 digits of your key? (Do not tell me of course)
If the first 2 digits are "80" (eighty) there might be a chance your key is a private key that you prepended 2 digits (80) to it.
For the process of converting to WIF, the first step is adding that number at the beggining.
These are the links I found:
Convert private key to WIF:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Wallet_import_format
Encoding to base58:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Base58Check_encoding
Finally, importing WIF to bitcoin core:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Help:How_to_import_private_keys_in_Bitcoin_Core_0.7%2B#Run_Import_Command_in_Debug_Window