[Ethereum] Export Parity private key

go-ethereumparity

Good afternoon all. Been searching around for an answer to this question and can't seem to find the exact solution I need.

I have an ETH account on my Parity node that I want to move to Ethereum Wallet (geth). I have the key file from Parity which contains the JSON of the account in question. However, geth does not like this format for importing accounts and seems to be expecting a keyfile with a plaintext private key.

Specifically, the error I get importing the Parity key file in geth is:

Fatal: Failed to load the private key: encoding/hex: invalid byte: U+007B '{'

Using Parity, how can I decrypt the JSON keyfile to gather the private key for importing into geth? I could not find a command-line option within Parity, nor in the Parity WebGUI, that allows for exporting private keys in plain text.

Thank you in advance.

Best Answer

Head over to the following path (according to your operating system) to access your Ethereum key(s).

  • Mac OS X: ~/Library/Application\ Support/io.parity.ethereum/keys/ethereum/
  • Linux: $HOME/.local/share/io.parity.ethereum/keys
  • Windows 7/10: %HOMEPATH%/AppData/Roaming/Parity/Ethereum/keys

Your private key(s) are to be found in the keystore files, format: UTC--created_at UTC ISO8601-UUID, e.g. UTC--2017-07-06T16-51-28Z--ff3836db-760c-120f-e43a-00c243c5b9ea. Private keys are encrypted with the password you set for each particular account in Parity.

Accessing the private key: With the View Wallet Info function on MyEtherWallet, for instance, you can access your accounts by unlocking the UTC/JSON keystore files. Use your private keys to import your accounts in Geth.

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