Research corpus PrivacyBLC-STUDY-0217

Passphrase-protected private key

BIP 38, Passphrase-protected private key. A method is proposed for encrypting and encoding a passphrase-protected Bitcoin private key record in the form of a 58-character Base58Check-encoded printable string.

Official external source only
Design paper
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Record

Authors: Mike Caldwell
Date: 2012
Publisher: Mike Caldwell
Version: Source cited by the 2012 study. The study is the reading. This page does not add a second essay.
Document ID: BLC-STUDY-0217
DOI: None recorded
Last reviewed: 1 October 2026
Licence: No licence recorded. Rights status under review.

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Direct answer

Where to read

Official source — BIP 38
Blockchain Lab study, the canonical readingOriginal commentary. Not a transcription of the paper.

Metadata and commentary only. The reading is the study page.

Full text

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What changed

Status in the source: Deployed. A reading of the public specification, not a copy of it and not a certification.

Relationships

Canonical readingBIP 38 study
Related paperGroth16
Related paperBulletproofs
Related paperTaproot

Cite this record

These citations point at the source document. They are not a licence to copy it.

Author–date

Caldwell, M. (2012). Passphrase-protected private key. Mike Caldwell. https://bips.dev/38

BibTeX

@techreport{bip382012,
  title = {Passphrase-protected private key},
  author = {Mike Caldwell},
  year = {2012},
  institution = {Mike Caldwell},
  url = {https://bips.dev/38},
  note = {Rights status: Official external source only. Blockchain Lab record: https://blockchainlab.com/research/corpus/papers/bip-38}
}

RIS

TY  - RPRT
TI  - Passphrase-protected private key
AU  - Mike Caldwell
PY  - 2012
PB  - Mike Caldwell
UR  - https://bips.dev/38
N1  - Rights status: Official external source only
ER  -

CSL-JSON

[
  {
    "type": "report",
    "id": "BLC-STUDY-0217",
    "title": "Passphrase-protected private key",
    "author": [
      {
        "literal": "Mike Caldwell"
      }
    ],
    "issued": {
      "date-parts": [
        [
          2012
        ]
      ]
    },
    "publisher": "Mike Caldwell",
    "URL": "https://bips.dev/38",
    "note": "Rights status: Official external source only. Not a licence to republish the paper."
  }
]

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Rights record

Source status: Official source
Use status: Metadata and commentary only. The reading is the study page.
Rights: Official external source only
Training and retrieval: Not permitted from this site. There is no rights-cleared full text to retrieve or to train on.

Rights and licensing Corrections