I’m having trouble understand what should be a simple issue and that is the use of the private key.  I know how public/private key pairs work.

I understand that I kind of need an address for people to send me bitcoin which is associated to a wallet.  But, once I have a bitcoin it is bound to a private key which is nothing but a big long number but I don’t know how to get at that simple number.  All this stuff about seeds for restoration just don’t add up.  Just give me the number so I can take it off line and protect it.   All these things to scan and wallets to maintain just to deal with a simple number, just a string of digits. 

All I need is the private key number,  I roll it out, protect it, get rid of all this wallet stuff until the day in 5 or 10 years when I want to send someone my bitcoin. Then I create a wallet and address and put my private key into it.

How do I get at my private keys.  It’s clear I just don’t understand enough yet and I just can’t commit to a currency system with the just “trust us, it all works”.  I keep reading and just get lost in all the details.