Damaged paper wallet recovery (WIF import string)
Old paper wallets often fail import because some Base58 characters became unreadable, mis-scanned, or copied with visual ambiguity.
What are common damaged paper wallet WIF failures?
- Smudged ink or torn corners around several WIF symbols.
- Camera glare and blur causing OCR substitutions.
- Checksum failure after manual retype from paper.
How can I improve the recovery input from a paper backup?
- Provide best-quality photo plus raw OCR output (if used).
- Mark uncertain character positions explicitly in mask form.
- Share whether any public key/address pair is confirmed from that backup.
What safety rules apply before sharing a damaged WIF?
Never publish full private key material in chats or public threads. For first review, share only a masked WIF and context.