<p>This depends on the wallet (keypath) you are using.</p>

<p>If your wallet is based on BIP44 (most wallets are), sharing the <strong>extended master public key</strong> will not allow the other party deriving pubkeys to monitor incoming funds (because of hardened key derivation). You need to share the specific <strong>account extended public key</strong>. Your fist account is at keypath <code>m / 44' / 0' / 0'</code>, second at <code>m / 44' / 0' / 1'</code>, etc.</p>

<p>Instead of sharing the pure pubkey together with the chaincode, we use "extended public keys". You can identify a such base58check encoded string by the first 4 chars "xpub".</p>

<p>As far as I know there are only a few wallets in the wilde who can do such exports/imports.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-05T12:24:05.797Z
2016-06-05T12:24:05.797Z
Jonas Schnelli
<p>What is the Best way to share the <code>Master Public Key</code> and <code>Master Chain code</code> generated using <code>BIP32</code> in <code>Bicoins</code> with a user that I don't trust ?</p>

<p>I just want the second user to monitor my wallet and not spend coins. What will be the best way to share my <code>Master Keys</code> ?</p>

<transactions><bitcoin-core><multi-signature><bip32-hd-wallets>
Sharing the Master Keys in BIP32
jgm
# Sharing the Master Keys in BIP32

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-06-05)

What is the Best way to share the `Master Public Key` and `Master Chain code` generated using `BIP32` in `Bicoins` with a user that I don't trust ?

I just want the second user to monitor my wallet and not spend coins. What will be the best way to share my `Master Keys` ?

**Tags:** transactions, bitcoin-core, multi-signature, bip32-hd-wallets


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2016-06-05. Score: 1

This depends on the wallet (keypath) you are using.

If your wallet is based on BIP44 (most wallets are), sharing the **extended master public key** will not allow the other party deriving pubkeys to monitor incoming funds (because of hardened key derivation). You need to share the specific **account extended public key**. Your fist account is at keypath `m / 44' / 0' / 0'`, second at `m / 44' / 0' / 1'`, etc.

Instead of sharing the pure pubkey together with the chaincode, we use "extended public keys". You can identify a such base58check encoded string by the first 4 chars "xpub".

As far as I know there are only a few wallets in the wilde who can do such exports/imports.


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