<p>The Bitcoin would then be whatever addresses your watch only wallet is watching. Bitcoin Core won't just generate a keypair and throw away the private key, that would result in fund loss. In a wallet with private keys disabled, it will only use what has been imported into it in order to create addresses. If nothing has been imported into it, then it won't be able to make new addresses at all.</p>
<p>If the watch only wallet was created by Specter and it imported keys into that wallet, then you should expect to see your Bitcoin in Specter as well.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-29T01:01:41.447Z
Hello Andrew, thanks very much for you response. This is also what I thought, the only reason I asked the question is because, i do not see the address and balance in the specter wallet or in bitcoin core, although core says this is one of the receiving addresses. The other detail that I forgot to write in the OP, is that i imported a trezor nested segwit wallet, but since i generated this address in core with the default setting as bech32, so this is why I think i am not seeing the funds. I already tried importing the native seg from the trezor to specter to try and see it but i still don't.
user112263
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-29T01:27:06.980Z
If you open the RPC console and do `getaddressinfo <address>` where `<address>` is the address in question, you will get a bit more information about the address. You should see a field named `desc`. In the string for that field, you should see something that looks like this: `[e5dbc9cb/84h/0h/0h/0/0]`. You can then look at the keys for each device in specter. You should see a similar string in the key. The device and key that address came from will have a string that is a prefix to the one `getaddressinfo` returned. For example, I see `[e5dbc9cb/84h/0h/0h]`.
Ava Chow
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-29T02:00:18.523Z
when I do this desc does no come up, but it does for other transactions in the wallet. Does this mean the address i used is from some other wallet, possibly an attackers?
user112263
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-29T02:04:49.437Z
Do you see `"ismine": true`? Are you sure you have the right wallet selected?
Ava Chow
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-29T02:09:53.930Z
ismine says false, but so do the other transactions, im very confident it is the right wallet because the payment request in core is that wallet and its the same wallet in the console
user112263
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-29T02:17:49.037Z
What version of Bitcoin Core?
Ava Chow
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-29T02:20:56.433Z
"subversion": "/Satoshi:0.20.0/",
user112263
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-29T02:38:32.937Z
What about addresses that are definitely in your Specter wallet?
Ava Chow
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-29T02:43:43.250Z
are you asking if they say ismine: true, because they say false but i get the full information like desc and all the other stuff, if i getaddressinfo with an address that is in the specter wallet, with the address in question much less info comes up but it shows that it is labeled
user112263
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-29T02:51:59.040Z
In that case, the address probably isn't part of your Specter wallet, or it wasn't imported in the typical way. In that case, it will be fairly difficult to identify where that address came from and where the private key for it is.
Ava Chow
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-29T03:04:49.947Z
The only thing I can think of is because I generated at bech32 address for an imported nested wallet, and perhaps that messed up the way it is imported and means i cannot find it. Either way, it doesnt seem like I can do much about it now, I thank for you taking the time to help though, it is much appreciated.
user112263
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-11-29T00:42:37.320Z
2020-11-29T00:42:37.320Z
Ava Chow
<p>I think I already know the answer to this, but I just want to know for sure whether my funds are lost. I have Specter desktop connected to my Bitcoin Core. But because I also sometimes use the Core wallet as a hot wallet, I accidentally generated the address in the core wallet that is linked to my specter wallet, but the core wallet is a watch-only wallet with the priv keys disabled and then I sent funds to this address and not the address generated by Specter or my default Core hot wallet. But because this is watch-only my Core wallet does not have the priv keys. I doubt that but is there any way for the wallet to know it generated this key by enabling priv key?</p>

<private-key><watch-only>
I accidentally sent BTC to Bitcoin Core watch-only wallet with private keys disabled
user112263
# I accidentally sent BTC to Bitcoin Core watch-only wallet with private keys disabled

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-11-28)

I think I already know the answer to this, but I just want to know for sure whether my funds are lost. I have Specter desktop connected to my Bitcoin Core. But because I also sometimes use the Core wallet as a hot wallet, I accidentally generated the address in the core wallet that is linked to my specter wallet, but the core wallet is a watch-only wallet with the priv keys disabled and then I sent funds to this address and not the address generated by Specter or my default Core hot wallet. But because this is watch-only my Core wallet does not have the priv keys. I doubt that but is there any way for the wallet to know it generated this key by enabling priv key?

**Tags:** private-key, watch-only


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2020-11-29. Score: 2

The Bitcoin would then be whatever addresses your watch only wallet is watching. Bitcoin Core won't just generate a keypair and throw away the private key, that would result in fund loss. In a wallet with private keys disabled, it will only use what has been imported into it in order to create addresses. If nothing has been imported into it, then it won't be able to make new addresses at all.

If the watch only wallet was created by Specter and it imported keys into that wallet, then you should expect to see your Bitcoin in Specter as well.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Hello Andrew, thanks very much for you response. This is also what I thought, the only reason I asked the question is because, i do not see the address and balance in the specter wallet or in bitcoin core, although core says this is one of the receiving addresses. The other detail that I forgot to write in the OP, is that i imported a trezor nested segwit wallet, but since i generated this address in core with the default setting as bech32, so this is why I think i am not seeing the funds. I already tried importing the native seg from the trezor to specter to try and see it but i still don't.  
> **username_1**: If you open the RPC console and do `getaddressinfo <address>` where `<address>` is the address in question, you will get a bit more information about the address. You should see a field named `desc`. In the string for that field, you should see something that looks like this: `[e5dbc9cb/84h/0h/0h/0/0]`. You can then look at the keys for each device in specter. You should see a similar string in the key. The device and key that address came from will have a string that is a prefix to the one `getaddressinfo` returned. For example, I see `[e5dbc9cb/84h/0h/0h]`.  
> **username_0**: when I do this desc does no come up, but it does for other transactions in the wallet. Does this mean the address i used is from some other wallet, possibly an attackers?  
> **username_1**: Do you see `"ismine": true`? Are you sure you have the right wallet selected?  
> **username_0**: ismine says false, but so do the other transactions, im very confident it is the right wallet because the payment request in core is that wallet and its the same wallet in the console  
> **username_1**: What version of Bitcoin Core?  
> **username_0**: "subversion": "/Satoshi:0.20.0/",  
> **username_1**: What about addresses that are definitely in your Specter wallet?  
> **username_0**: are you asking if they say ismine: true, because they say false but i get the full information like desc and all the other stuff, if i getaddressinfo with an address that is in the specter wallet, with the address in question much less info comes up but it shows that it is labeled  
> **username_1**: In that case, the address probably isn't part of your Specter wallet, or it wasn't imported in the typical way. In that case, it will be fairly difficult to identify where that address came from and where the private key for it is.  
> **username_0**: The only thing I can think of is because I generated at bech32 address for an imported nested wallet, and perhaps that messed up the way it is imported and means i cannot find it. Either way, it doesnt seem like I can do much about it now, I thank for you taking the time to help though, it is much appreciated.  

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