How to get your BTC private keys from blockchain.info using electrum

[chrischen]

With bitcoin forking to bitcoin cash to bitcoin gold and possibly bitcoin2x it's very important that BTC holders have access to their private keys in order to claim their forked coins.

Blockchain.info while a good wallet overall, doesn't seem to have a straight forward way for you to access your private keys.

Here is how I was able to obtain my private keys. There are two guides. The first is if you only have one btc wallet. The second is if you've created more than one wallet. It took me a while to figure out so I hope this saves you some trouble.

Both methods use electrum so you will need to install it, you will also need to have your 12 word recover phrase that was used to create your blockchain.info wallet

If you only have one btc wallet

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1. Find your 12 word recovery phrase. This is also known as BIP39 Mnemonic Phrase which is used as a seed in order to generate your keys.

2. Open Electrum

3. It will ask you to name your wallet. I typed in blockchain.info and hit next.

4. Choose the standard wallet option and hit next.

5. Select the I already have a seed option and hit next.

6. Type your 12 word recovery phrase into the text field.

7. Click options and check the BIP39 seed box and hit next.

8. For Derivation leave it as the default which should be m/44'/0'/0'

9. Strongly recommend encrypting with a password.

10. Once this is done hit View -> Show Addresses

11. Select the Address tab which should list out all the addresses that have been generated and used by blockchain.info

12. If you right click on an address and select private key from the drop down you'll be able to see it.

If you have multiple wallets

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If you have multiple wallets then you will need to create a electrum wallet per seed.

1. Download the bip39-standalone page.

2. Open the webpage and enter your recovery key into the BIP39 Mnemonic field.

3. Under Derivation Path you need to have theBIP44 tab selected

4. For account you take the wallet number and subtract one from it. If this is the second wallet you've created in blockchain.info then you will enter 1 into it. If it is your third you will enter 2 into the account field.

5. Copy the Account Extended Private Key

6. Open electrum.

7. Name your wallet and hit next.

8. Select standard wallet and hit next

9. Select Use public or private keys and hit next

10. Paste Account Extended Private Key that you just copied and hit next.

11. Enter a password and hit next.

12. Now that the wallet is initialized make sure that you can view addresses. View -> Show Addresses

13. You can now right click on an address and select private key to show your private key.

Comments

[hoffmann]

hi,

if you are interested in an electrum wallet please also check out my guide on setting up a multi signature wallet

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