<blockquote>
<p><strong>I have rarely gotten valid addresses trying to alter strings of a previously obtained WIF Private Key</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Wallet Interchange Format (WIF) has a four byte checksum within it. This means that almost all alterations will fail a checksum test, making the altered string not valid WIF.</p>
<p>The entire purpose of WIF is to detect and prevent the use of such alterations, i.e. to detect transcription errors.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-05-06T10:09:22.083Z
2024-05-06T10:17:02.937Z
2024-05-06T10:17:02.937Z
RedGrittyBrick
<p>I understand the sha256 64 string hexadecimal &quot;manually&quot; can be altered, but in case of WIF Private Key the generate one must have very specific strings, and it is really difficult to alter these strings yourself, but not impossible, I mean that I have rarely gotten valid addresses trying to alter strings of a previously obtained WIF Private Ke</p>

<private-key><wallet-import-format>
What determines the validity of the Private Key in WIF format?
Dan Gonzalez
# What determines the validity of the Private Key in WIF format?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-05-06)

I understand the sha256 64 string hexadecimal "manually" can be altered, but in case of WIF Private Key the generate one must have very specific strings, and it is really difficult to alter these strings yourself, but not impossible, I mean that I have rarely gotten valid addresses trying to alter strings of a previously obtained WIF Private Ke

**Tags:** private-key, wallet-import-format


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2024-05-06. Score: 0

> **I have rarely gotten valid addresses trying to alter strings of a previously obtained WIF Private Key**

The Wallet Interchange Format (WIF) has a four byte checksum within it. This means that almost all alterations will fail a checksum test, making the altered string not valid WIF.

The entire purpose of WIF is to detect and prevent the use of such alterations, i.e. to detect transcription errors.


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