<blockquote>
  <p><strong>Let's suppose I have lost everything except this extended master key. How can I setup a new fresh computer and retrieve all my bitcoins just with this key?</strong></p>
</blockquote>

<p>According to <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/50244/13866">How to get xpub or mpk(bip32) for my bitcoin core wallet?</a></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>you can export the xpriv with dumpwallet </p>
</blockquote>

<p>According to <a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3866008.0" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3866008.0</a></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Bitcoin Core does not have a way to directly import [master] private keys.
  You could derive a bunch of private keys in WIF from the xpriv and import them all at once, but you can't import the xprv directly.</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-25T14:44:33.620Z
Thanks for your answer. Everything is very confuse for me. I will do a test : i will take 2 computers. Whats commands should i type on both computer in order to « transfert » my account from first to second computer
Bob5421
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-25T17:23:31.763Z
@Bob5421: That's a different question. See https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Backingup_your_wallet - Copy the wallet.dat file from the old wallet and use it to overwrite the wallet.dat file of a newly installed empty wallet on a different computer.
RedGrittyBrick
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-24T13:10:21.317Z
2019-08-24T13:10:21.317Z
RedGrittyBrick
<p>This is the private key that allows you to spend Bitcoin which is sent to the corresponding address.</p>

<p>If you run both of those commands twice, you will generate a new key pair and a new address each time, which will be different.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-23T15:11:39.277Z
Okay but i have another private key somewhere which is global for my account ?
Bob5421
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-23T15:21:03.590Z
yes, each key pair is derived from a master key, see https://bitcoincore.org/en/doc/0.18.0/rpc/wallet/dumpwallet/ it will be at the top of the output file.
JBaczuk
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-23T15:33:29.177Z
Thanks, i can see an "extended" master key. What is the difference between extended and not extended master key (which i cannot see) Thanks
Bob5421
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-23T15:56:36.360Z
It is used for hierarchical deterministic key derivation, see https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0032.mediawiki
JBaczuk
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-23T17:21:39.030Z
I see on dumpwallet command a lot of lines with addr What is it (the account is blank, i have do nothing)
Bob5421
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-24T05:11:28.990Z
Let's suppose i have lost everything except this extended master key. How can i setup a new fresh computer and retreive all my bitcoins just with this key
Bob5421
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-10T11:27:07.033Z
@Bob5421 did you ever figure this out. I'm trying to do the same thing.  I have a wallet on my phone and want to use that master private key to import into Bitcoin Core. I don't want to create a new wallet on Bitcoin Core and transfer everything from current wallet to BC wallet.
pcantalupo
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-23T15:07:34.340Z
2019-08-23T15:07:34.340Z
JBaczuk
<p>I goal is to understand. I do not want to earn money with mining.
(I have a server without GPU)</p>

<p>Here is what i've done:</p>

<p>I have downloaded, maked and installed bitcoin sourcecode from github.</p>

<p>It seems to work because i can interact with bitcoind with bitcoin-cli command.</p>

<p>I know this is not a good practice but i want to "see" my private key.</p>

<p>I have read several documentation and tutorials and they said i need to generate an address first, then call dumpprivkey method.</p>

<p>Like this:</p>

<pre><code>$ bitcoin-cli getnewaddress
xxxxxxx

$ bitcoin-cli dumpprivkey xxxxxxx
</code></pre>

<p>I do not understand but if i repeat twice this operation, i get 2 differents private keys.</p>

<p>So this is not the private key i am looking for... What is those privates keys ?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<wallet>
Fetch my private key
Bob5421
# Fetch my private key

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-08-23)

I goal is to understand. I do not want to earn money with mining.
(I have a server without GPU)
Here is what i've done:
I have downloaded, maked and installed bitcoin sourcecode from github.
It seems to work because i can interact with bitcoind with bitcoin-cli command.
I know this is not a good practice but i want to "see" my private key.
I have read several documentation and tutorials and they said i need to generate an address first, then call dumpprivkey method.
Like this:
$ bitcoin-cli getnewaddress
xxxxxxx

$ bitcoin-cli dumpprivkey xxxxxxx

I do not understand but if i repeat twice this operation, i get 2 differents private keys.
So this is not the private key i am looking for... What is those privates keys ?
Thanks

**Tags:** wallet


---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2019-08-24. Score: 1

> **Let's suppose I have lost everything except this extended master key. How can I setup a new fresh computer and retrieve all my bitcoins just with this key?**

According to [How to get xpub or mpk(bip32) for my bitcoin core wallet?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/50244/13866)

> you can export the xpriv with dumpwallet

According to <https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3866008.0>

> Bitcoin Core does not have a way to directly import [master] private keys.
> You could derive a bunch of private keys in WIF from the xpriv and import them all at once, but you can't import the xprv directly.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks for your answer. Everything is very confuse for me. I will do a test : i will take 2 computers. Whats commands should i type on both computer in order to « transfert » my account from first to second computer  
> **username_1**: @username_0: That's a different question. See https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Backingup_your_wallet - Copy the wallet.dat file from the old wallet and use it to overwrite the wallet.dat file of a newly installed empty wallet on a different computer.  

---

### Answer by username_2 on 2019-08-23. Score: 0

This is the private key that allows you to spend Bitcoin which is sent to the corresponding address.

If you run both of those commands twice, you will generate a new key pair and a new address each time, which will be different.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Okay but i have another private key somewhere which is global for my account ?  
> **username_2**: yes, each key pair is derived from a master key, see https://bitcoincore.org/en/doc/0.18.0/rpc/wallet/dumpwallet/ it will be at the top of the output file.  
> **username_0**: Thanks, i can see an "extended" master key. What is the difference between extended and not extended master key (which i cannot see) Thanks  
> **username_2**: It is used for hierarchical deterministic key derivation, see https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0032.mediawiki  
> **username_0**: I see on dumpwallet command a lot of lines with addr What is it (the account is blank, i have do nothing)  
> **username_0**: Let's suppose i have lost everything except this extended master key. How can i setup a new fresh computer and retreive all my bitcoins just with this key  
> **username_3**: @username_0 did you ever figure this out. I'm trying to do the same thing.  I have a wallet on my phone and want to use that master private key to import into Bitcoin Core. I don't want to create a new wallet on Bitcoin Core and transfer everything from current wallet to BC wallet.  

---

