<p>I'd like to give a general answer that can apply to any wallet. As long as you have the private key, you can get the public key easily.</p>

<p>You can convert any private key to a public key using <a href="https://github.com/vbuterin/pybitcointools" rel="nofollow">pybitcointools</a>. After you install pybitcointools using <code>pip install pybitcointools</code>, simply run <code>python</code> and issue the following commands:</p>

<pre><code>import bitcoin
bitcoin.privtopub('57c617d9b4e1f7af6ec97ca2ff57e94a28279a7eedd4d12a99fa11170e94f5a4')
</code></pre>

<p>Of course, you will have to replace your private key in the above statement.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-04T18:01:41.187Z
2014-11-04T18:01:41.187Z
dionyziz
<p>And the answer is:</p>

<ol>
<li>copy the address in question from your "Receive" address list</li>
<li>Help -> Debug window -> Console</li>
<li>type: <code>validateaddress &lt;address&gt;</code></li>
</ol>

<p>where <code>&lt;address&gt;</code> is the address you copied in step 1.</p>

<p>The command <code>validateaddress</code> will output a number of key-value pairs, one of them being <code>"pubkey"</code>.</p>

<p>Edit: bitcoin-qt creates compressed keys (as you can check in the <code>iscompressed</code> key-value). If you need uncompressed keys you can use something like <a href="https://coinb.in/" rel="noreferrer">https://coinb.in/</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-17T08:41:51.893Z
2014-01-21T05:54:11.353Z
2014-01-21T05:54:11.353Z
ktorn
<p>With the probable increase in demand for multi-sig (P2SH) addresses, and since the procedure for creating such addresses requires that each participant provides the uncompressed public key for an address under their control, I find it surprising hard to find documentation on how to export the public key of a bitcoin address.</p>

<p>So for the benefit of future searches: How exactly to you get the public key for an existing address for which you have a private key in bitcoin-qt?</p>

<bitcoin-core><public-key>
How to export public key for an address in bitcoin-qt?
ktorn
# How to export public key for an address in bitcoin-qt?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-01-17)

With the probable increase in demand for multi-sig (P2SH) addresses, and since the procedure for creating such addresses requires that each participant provides the uncompressed public key for an address under their control, I find it surprising hard to find documentation on how to export the public key of a bitcoin address.

So for the benefit of future searches: How exactly to you get the public key for an existing address for which you have a private key in bitcoin-qt?

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


---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_0 on 2014-01-17. Score: 6 | Accepted answer

And the answer is:

1. copy the address in question from your "Receive" address list
2. Help -> Debug window -> Console
3. type: `validateaddress <address>`

where `<address>` is the address you copied in step 1.

The command `validateaddress` will output a number of key-value pairs, one of them being `"pubkey"`.

Edit: bitcoin-qt creates compressed keys (as you can check in the `iscompressed` key-value). If you need uncompressed keys you can use something like <https://coinb.in/>


---

### Answer by username_1 on 2014-11-04. Score: 1

I'd like to give a general answer that can apply to any wallet. As long as you have the private key, you can get the public key easily.

You can convert any private key to a public key using [pybitcointools](https://github.com/vbuterin/pybitcointools). After you install pybitcointools using `pip install pybitcointools`, simply run `python` and issue the following commands:

```
import bitcoin
bitcoin.privtopub('57c617d9b4e1f7af6ec97ca2ff57e94a28279a7eedd4d12a99fa11170e94f5a4')

```

Of course, you will have to replace your private key in the above statement.


---

