<p>No, you cannot. The relationship between parent and child keys is via HMAC-SHA512, not related to ECDSA (the signature algorithm). To ECDSA, the parent and child keys have no relationship, they are both just private keys. So only the child private key can sign for the child public key, not the parent.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-03T09:07:33.393Z
2017-11-03T09:07:33.393Z
meshcollider
<p>like this: </p>

<p>I have a private key <code>P</code>, and via a HDchain, it creates a child address <code>addrChild</code> with a child key pair: <code>priKeyChild</code> and <code>pubKeyChild</code>.</p>

<p>When I create a rawTransaction with the <code>addrChild</code>, I can successfully sign this rawTransaction with the <code>priKeyChild</code>. </p>

<p>the question is: instead of using the <code>priKeyChild</code>, can I successfully use <code>P</code> to sign this rawTranscation ?</p>

<signature><bip32-hd-wallets>
can parent private key sign a transaction created by a child address?
Nevercare
# can parent private key sign a transaction created by a child address?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-11-03)

like this:

I have a private key `P`, and via a HDchain, it creates a child address `addrChild` with a child key pair: `priKeyChild` and `pubKeyChild`.

When I create a rawTransaction with the `addrChild`, I can successfully sign this rawTransaction with the `priKeyChild`.

the question is: instead of using the `priKeyChild`, can I successfully use `P` to sign this rawTranscation ?

**Tags:** signature, bip32-hd-wallets


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2017-11-03. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

No, you cannot. The relationship between parent and child keys is via HMAC-SHA512, not related to ECDSA (the signature algorithm). To ECDSA, the parent and child keys have no relationship, they are both just private keys. So only the child private key can sign for the child public key, not the parent.


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