<blockquote>
  <p><strong>can I run bitcoin core with public key only</strong></p>
</blockquote>

<p>That would be a watch-only wallet - usually achieved by importing an externally derived address.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><strong>deploy bitcoin core online with public key only that I believe should be enough to generate new addresses</strong></p>
</blockquote>

<p>In principle you can derive addresses from a public key but, as far as I know, Bitcoin core doesn't provide any way to import a public key and derive addresses from it. But I haven't tried.</p>

<p>See </p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/77564/13866">How to import an extended public key into bitcoin core 0.16</a></li>
<li><a href="https://bitcoincore.org/en/doc/0.16.0/rpc/wallet/importpubkey/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://bitcoincore.org/en/doc/0.16.0/rpc/wallet/importpubkey/</a></li>
</ul>

<p>You could always generate addresses from a public key externally and <em>then</em> use the Bitcoin core API to import those addresses. There are many Bitcoin libraries for popular programming languages.</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/50289/13866">How bitcoin addresses are generated?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://godoc.org/github.com/btcsuite/btcutil#NewAddressPubKey" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://godoc.org/github.com/btcsuite/btcutil#NewAddressPubKey</a></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-01T12:50:11.217Z
2018-10-01T13:01:51.053Z
2018-10-01T13:01:51.053Z
RedGrittyBrick
<p>I'm looking a way for secure setup of web site that accepts bitcoin payments. Ideally I'd like to create wallet off-site and be able to deploy bitcoin core online with public key only that I believe should be enough to generate new addresses and watch for incoming payments</p>

<bitcoin-core><wallet><public-key>
can I run bitcoin core with public key only
wikisky
# can I run bitcoin core with public key only

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-10-01)

I'm looking a way for secure setup of web site that accepts bitcoin payments. Ideally I'd like to create wallet off-site and be able to deploy bitcoin core online with public key only that I believe should be enough to generate new addresses and watch for incoming payments

**Tags:** bitcoin-core, wallet, public-key


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-10-01. Score: 0 | Accepted answer

> **can I run bitcoin core with public key only**

That would be a watch-only wallet - usually achieved by importing an externally derived address.

> **deploy bitcoin core online with public key only that I believe should be enough to generate new addresses**

In principle you can derive addresses from a public key but, as far as I know, Bitcoin core doesn't provide any way to import a public key and derive addresses from it. But I haven't tried.

See

* [How to import an extended public key into bitcoin core 0.16](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/77564/13866)
* <https://bitcoincore.org/en/doc/0.16.0/rpc/wallet/importpubkey/>

You could always generate addresses from a public key externally and *then* use the Bitcoin core API to import those addresses. There are many Bitcoin libraries for popular programming languages.

* [How bitcoin addresses are generated?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/50289/13866)
* <https://godoc.org/github.com/btcsuite/btcutil#NewAddressPubKey>


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