I am a relatively experienced miner, started with BTC in GPU days ~2010 and yet I am absolutely butt-fucked as to what a WIF PRIVATE KEY is for steem. I have followed the mining guides and searched for clues to how exactly I uncover my WIF however all that I discover is crazy, batshit circular logic.!!!

In my config.ini file,

name of miner and its private key (e.g. ["account","WIF PRIVATE KEY"] )

Now we all know our account data, which can be proven by using as witness. WHat I cannot get is the bastard-son WIF PRIVATE KEY from any of my STEEM profile details nor the original hash which is used to generate all the others. Yes, the hash you are told to keep because STEEM will not / cannot regenerate it.

Some scuttle butt indicates it should start with a 5. Yes, there are a few hashes in my profile that start with a 5 but none of them allow mining when put into the config file.

So I have used;

1. Original STEEM hash > P.........Z
2. All of my profile hashes > S.......? and 5.......?

So, now can some enlightened STEEM genius please show me either;

1. WTF am I doing wrong with my WIF key which I think is the original STEEM key as per #1 above, or
2. WTF exactly is the WIF key? In my profile...pray to the STEEM Gods for generation using some obsure code...?