Gemini seems to suggest there is a way to do this conversion actually, which is making sense as both keypairs use secp256k1.
Basically you remove the version byte and checksum, which should leave you with a 32 byte raw hex key to use as an nsec.
It also tells me there's online tools to do this but of course...they're online...
Converting from a compressed pubkey looks to just involve dropping the prefix byte.
I'm even seeing that there's tools for seedsigner to derive this automatically.
Disclaimer: AI may be retarded too.
Cykros
npub1lc…63apw
2026-01-28 11:25:10 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…u6wm
Author Public Key
npub1lcetwt8hcd9gagdytu4e35ufykxek0elfvx8q3spugmgj9x0ev0q363apwSeen on
wss://nostr.overmind.lolPublished at
2026-01-28 11:25:10 UTCEvent JSON
{
"id": "76839f2f65c8a2175813179662f784a8457719e1a84714972ce2c14b934c7844",
"pubkey": "fe32b72cf7c34a8ea1a45f2b98d389258d9b3f3f4b0c704601e2368914cfcb1e",
"created_at": 1769599510,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"alt",
"A short note: Gemini seems to suggest there is a way to do this ..."
],
[
"e",
"74520d5d3c2444002ffc3eb99abbb6292fed69dace8b0ad4c808f37f34f5c32f",
"wss://relay.damus.io/",
"root",
"ae4c17620c9b3a0413fd019fd7e983da43b2081e7169abecb7764c333a9bfff1"
],
[
"e",
"7276bab89700a6002536da1fdc545cb3d9284c42a41205c41e477cb47489fa99",
"wss://relay.damus.io/",
"reply",
"fe32b72cf7c34a8ea1a45f2b98d389258d9b3f3f4b0c704601e2368914cfcb1e"
],
[
"p",
"1989034e56b8f606c724f45a12ce84a11841621aaf7182a1f6564380b9c4276b",
"ws://bugman.mguy.net:4848/"
],
[
"p",
"45904b28ffe0e5cb9132f9a08e976ed7f0fc57d8387781ea9c80f256c412c1b4",
"wss://premium.primal.net/"
],
[
"p",
"ae4c17620c9b3a0413fd019fd7e983da43b2081e7169abecb7764c333a9bfff1",
"wss://premium.primal.net/"
],
[
"p",
"fe32b72cf7c34a8ea1a45f2b98d389258d9b3f3f4b0c704601e2368914cfcb1e",
"wss://relay.damus.io/"
]
],
"content": "Gemini seems to suggest there is a way to do this conversion actually, which is making sense as both keypairs use secp256k1.\n\nBasically you remove the version byte and checksum, which should leave you with a 32 byte raw hex key to use as an nsec.\n\nIt also tells me there's online tools to do this but of course...they're online...\n\nConverting from a compressed pubkey looks to just involve dropping the prefix byte.\n\nI'm even seeing that there's tools for seedsigner to derive this automatically.\n\nDisclaimer: AI may be retarded too.",
"sig": "5617f64f58da71b97415c866927bae4cb7733307e3cf4d8b692d6cab3f4e27f1c94ab62e7f59fef2abb7c875966d0d1333eddf16bcb83717b41742181a5594c3"
}