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I have read a few things lately That in order to securely store an account, one should save the json file and private key. I'm wondering If the json file is really needed though. Say I were to lose all traces to my account, and all I could find is the private key:

Could I access my Ether with just the private key?

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marked as duplicate by Afr, Tjaden Hess♦, Joris Bontje, Hudson Jameson, niksmac Feb 24 '16 at 4:04

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  • You hold the asset if you hold the private key! – user19060 Nov 12 '17 at 2:50
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Yes, you can import a plaintext private key into geth with geth account import /path/to/key.prv

Generating a private key is much trickier, though, since none of the main clients allow exporting unencrypted keys.

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  1. Yes, you can access Ether from an account with just the private key.
  2. But you should be careful that you really have the private key to the account and know how to use it.
  3. Whether you sign transactions with the private key, or import the private key into a client such as Geth, it would be recommended that you test your methodology of transferring the Ether with just the private key.
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