Same bitcoin address twice? | Bitcointalksearch.org

MoonShadow

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Quote from: samr7 on June 15, 2011, 03:07:50 AM

Quote from: duckfeet on June 15, 2011, 01:34:24 AM

EDIT: so, could I just encrypt wallet.dat, and then save in dropbox. I was reading over the article. I'd need to redo this regularly, or find a way to automatically encrypt wallet.dat, and then set dropbox to save it regularly. I'm thinking...

From reading the code, it would seem that by default, a new wallet contains a pool of 100 unused pre-computed private keys for receiving addresses. If you back up an empty wallet, use some receiving addresses (but less than 100), and then restore the empty wallet over your used wallet, bitcoin will still have your balances, although the names attached to the receiving addresses will be lost.

Correct, and if you use the -keypool=some.bigger.number switch you can make that advanced keypool arbitrarily large enough to backup for a very long time.

samr7

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Quote from: duckfeet on June 15, 2011, 03:19:47 AM

Yeah: I mean, I'm trying to think of it kind of like a bank account, except it weird, if u know what I mean...I'll be buying...and then selling coins out of my wallet, so I need to back it up regularly...but when I read that link, it sounds like if I'm not careful, I could loose BTC for my troubles...I mean, say I get these just uploaded and saved at Dropbox...can I just get them all back...whenever? I think I"m missing something basic...

Correct, if you save your wallet, perform a bunch of transactions, then restore the old wallet, none of your balances will change.

You're not actually uploading all of your bitcoins or even your account balance when you upload your wallet to Dropbox. Just the keys.

The other 450MB of files in the directory with the wallet are the bitcoin block database. Every bitcoin client has a copy of this. It contains all account balances and, for now, the complete transaction record for everyone. To determine your balance, bitcoin searches the database for all transactions associated with your keys.

Because the database is public and replicated, you can check the activity of anyone else's account, see http://blockexplorer.com.

duckfeet

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Quote from: samr7 on June 15, 2011, 03:07:50 AM

Quote from: duckfeet on June 15, 2011, 01:34:24 AM

EDIT: so, could I just encrypt wallet.dat, and then save in dropbox. I was reading over the article. I'd need to redo this regularly, or find a way to automatically encrypt wallet.dat, and then set dropbox to save it regularly. I'm thinking...

From reading the code, it would seem that by default, a new wallet contains a pool of 100 unused pre-computed private keys for receiving addresses. If you back up an empty wallet, use some receiving addresses (but less than 100), and then restore the empty wallet over your used wallet, bitcoin will still have your balances, although the names attached to the receiving addresses will be lost.

Yeah: I mean, I'm trying to think of it kind of like a bank account, except it weird, if u know what I mean...I'll be buying...and then selling coins out of my wallet, so I need to back it up regularly...but when I read that link, it sounds like if I'm not careful, I could loose BTC for my troubles...I mean, say I get these just uploaded and saved at Dropbox...can I just get them all back...whenever? I think I"m missing something basic...

samr7

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Firstbits: 1samr7

Quote from: duckfeet on June 15, 2011, 01:34:24 AM

EDIT: so, could I just encrypt wallet.dat, and then save in dropbox. I was reading over the article. I'd need to redo this regularly, or find a way to automatically encrypt wallet.dat, and then set dropbox to save it regularly. I'm thinking...

From reading the code, it would seem that by default, a new wallet contains a pool of 100 unused pre-computed private keys for receiving addresses. If you back up an empty wallet, use some receiving addresses (but less than 100), and then restore the empty wallet over your used wallet, bitcoin will still have your balances, although the names attached to the receiving addresses will be lost.

duckfeet

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Quote from: MoonShadow on June 14, 2011, 11:22:13 PM

If the transaction is sent without a fee, then it will be ignored by the miners until it's old enough to have the minimum priority level to be included in the free transaction section of the block. With a voluntary fee, the priority is much higher and the miner's will include it into the next block.

Oh, o.k.: I went to 'settings' and set that to the voluntary fee...see how that goes...thankyou!

duckfeet

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Quote from: Dude65535 on June 15, 2011, 12:52:06 AM

Now that you have some bitcoins, have you backed up your wallet?

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Securing_your_wallet

Nope, sure haven't...gotta get on that, I guess...thankyou!

EDIT: so, could I just encrypt wallet.dat, and then save in dropbox. I was reading over the article. I'd need to redo this regularly, or find a way to automatically encrypt wallet.dat, and then set dropbox to save it regularly. I'm thinking...

Dude65535

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Now that you have some bitcoins, have you backed up your wallet?

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Securing_your_wallet

MoonShadow

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Quote from: duckfeet on June 14, 2011, 11:17:10 PM

thankyou guys: I got really panicked: I bought one coin, came thru fine,so I got all excited and bought 10, and then freaked out...I was trying to research it, but I'm o.k. now, and see that it's loading up the blocks...is it always this slow tho, about an hr?

If the transaction is sent without a fee, then it will be ignored by the miners until it's old enough to have the minimum priority level to be included in the free transaction section of the block. With a voluntary fee, the priority is much higher and the miner's will include it into the next block.

duckfeet

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Merit: 10

thankyou guys: I got really panicked: I bought one coin, came thru fine,so I got all excited and bought 10, and then freaked out...I was trying to research it, but I'm o.k. now, and see that it's loading up the blocks...is it always this slow tho, about an hr?

MoonShadow

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Quote from: Dickmoney on June 14, 2011, 10:21:23 PM

Couldn't someone just generate millions of addresses and use up every possible variant?
Theoretically speaking, of course. What would happen if this happened and there literally was't anymore viable addresses left to be generated?

Although the namespace isn't infinite, it's beyond human comprehension. If you set a brand new, high end computer to the task of seeking a collision (what you are describing) you might finish up before the Sun turns into a red giant and engulfs the Earth into heat death. It's unlikely, however, that said time frame is a concern.

Dickmoney

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Couldn't someone just generate millions of addresses and use up every possible variant?
Theoretically speaking, of course. What would happen if this happened and there literally was't anymore viable addresses left to be generated?

MoonShadow

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Yes, it will be fine. Addresses are valid forever, it's just bad for anonimity to use them more than once. Actually, you can receive with them hundreds of times, but it's best not to reuse an address once it's been used to send coins once.

linenoise

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Your wallet can have as many addresses as you wish. You don't have to change addresses each transaction and you can have multiple transactions to and from a single address.

duckfeet

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I just did that: got two coins from different sources...first one came through fine, and without realizing my wallet had changed addresses, I sent seller *first* address. I know you should always changed addresses...but will it get through if I don't? TIA

Topic: Same bitcoin address twice? (Read 8595 times)