Easiest way to ensure your private key COULD sign transaction (without signing)?
234 sats \ 5 comments \ @Signal312 25 Apr bitcoin_beginners
What's the best way to do this? Scenario - created some private keys, just playing around, some have small amounts of btc on them, some don't. I've had some anxiety inducing situations with having the wrong script types and that type of thing, and the tool that I was using not being able to find my transactions.
When you "prove" that you have the private key - what are you actually doing? How do I prove to myself that I have what I think I have?
Also I know there was an chatGPT type AI tool trained on bitcoin mentioned here on stacker.news, where potentially technical btc questions can be asked. But I can't find it now. Anyone know what it was?
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34 sats \ 4 replies \ @ChrisS 25 Apr
How did you create your private keys and corresponding public keys and corresponding addresses? And are you talking about individual private keys or an hd wallet with a seed phrase that can create many private public key pairs?
When you create a private public key pair you can sign a message with the private key using the ecdsa or Schnorr algorithm that proves you have the key without revealing it. Anybody with the corresponding public key and signature can verify the message was signed only by someone with the private key. This message could be anything. So one way to prove to your self that you have a private key without sending a bitcoin transaction is to sign any message and then verify it was signed correctly with the public key and signature.
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0 sats \ 3 replies \ @Signal312 OP 25 Apr
Thanks. Is it possible to do this on Sparrow?
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34 sats \ 2 replies \ @ChrisS 25 Apr
Yes. Click tools and then sign/verify message.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Signal312 OP 25 Apr
Looks good, thanks!
Is this better or worse than creating a partially signed bitcoin transaction, signing it, and then just not broadcasting it?
Also - if you had something screwed up like script type or derivation - would that be exposed if you used Tools -> Sign/Verify message?
If anyone else would like a few more details, here's an article with a few more details: Signing Messages with Sparrow Wallet
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ChrisS 26 Apr
It’s exactly the same as signing a psbt. Sparrow makes it easy for the user to not mess up. As long has you write down your seed phrase and derivation path you are good. One thing I like to do is export the wallet in different formats(specter, blue wallet, other software etc..) and saving it as a backup so I can always restore my wallet in another software easily. This helps avoid the problem of having a seed phrase but not belong able to find the addresses with balances. It also helps you restore the wallet if for whatever reason sparrow is not an option anymore. The backups store xpubs and derivation paths so if exposed will be bad for privacy but does not risk losing funds.
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