Collects questions about deterministic wallets i.e. wallets that derive all private keys in a predictable way from a seed. Deterministic wallets have better backup properties than unrelated random private keys.
Questions tagged [deterministic-wallets]
63 questions
21
votes
1 answer
Derivation of parent private key from non-hardened child
Quote from BIP 32:
One weakness that may not be immediately obvious, is that knowledge of a parent extended public key plus any non-hardened private key descending from it is equivalent to knowing the parent extended private key (and thus every…
meshcollider
- 11,695
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11
votes
1 answer
Is the Electrum seed compatible with other wallets?
Apologies if this is a simple question - a newbie here!
I'm trying to understand backups. If I use Electrum to make a back up (including the 12 word seed password), will I then need to use Electrum to restore my BTC/ or can I use a different piece…
Nag
- 113
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- 4
10
votes
1 answer
How do deterministic wallets know how many keys to generate?
Say I backup the "seed/key" for a deterministic wallet. I then create 10,000 transactions, resulting in 10,000 new addresses being generated.
Say I then lose the wallet file and I restore from the "seed/key". How does the deterministic wallet know…
bitboy99921232323
- 101
- 3
9
votes
2 answers
BIP32 recommends a 256 bit seed. Why do most Bitcoin wallets only use a 128 bit seed?
According to BIP32's "Master key generation" section, "256 bits is advised".
See https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0032.mediawiki#Master_key_generation
Why did BIP32 consider 256 bits to be the recommended seed size, and why did the…
knaccc
- 143
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- 6
8
votes
2 answers
Electrum: "restoring" a wallet from a seed
Suppose I set up a wallet with a deterministic seed passphrase. I then use it, moving bitcoins around, sending some change to change addresses. Electrum will apparently create more addresses when required; suppose it does so.
I later on 'restore'…
occulus
- 214
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8
votes
3 answers
At what point is a new wallet known by the Bitcoin network?
I was just showing a deterministic wallet to a friend who asked "At what point is the wallet known to the network?" and I could only guess by saying that it is known only when a transaction is broadcast and confirmed... But I don't think that is the…
T9b
- 1,334
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7
votes
1 answer
Determining xprv from xpub and child private key
I'm confused by the wording in BIP0032:
One weakness that may not be immediately obvious, is that knowledge of
a parent extended public key plus any non-hardened private key
descending from it is equivalent to knowing the parent extended
…
maletor
- 173
- 5
7
votes
1 answer
How does the client know the number of keys and coins when recovering from a seed?
When I have a seed and use it to recover my keys, how does a client find out which keys I had and their respective amounts?
To clarify, I understand how a deterministic key works and that we can generate more keys from it. What I'm not sure is how…
Daniel
- 267
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7
votes
2 answers
HD / Deterministic Wallets and public key
I understand the basic concept of generating an unlimited number of public key addresses from a master public key. What I won't understand is how to get the wallet balance. Do I have to query unspent outputs for every public key in the wallet that I…
Matt
- 520
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6
votes
3 answers
Is it possible to check if a bitcoin address "belongs to" a master public key from a deterministic wallet?
Let's say I have a Master Public Key (MPK) and have a derived some addresses from it.
How can I check later if a given address was derived from my MPK?
Robert-Reinder Nederhoed
- 186
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6
votes
1 answer
How secure are current deterministic wallets?
Can someone explain how secure the deterministic wallet implementations of Electrum and Armory are? As far as I know, Electrum uses a 128-bit seed to generate all the addresses. I don't get this because since even a single bitcoin address consists…
Kent748484
- 61
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5
votes
1 answer
How do hierarchical deterministic wallets work transaction-wise?
As far as I know (and as explained here) hierarchical deterministic wallets keep a master key pair (private and public). When using them the public key is newly generated in every transaction. I understood that child keys are generated by elliptic…
Pisuke Soramame
- 51
- 2
5
votes
1 answer
Derive new public keys from a public key?
This article says you can generate new public keys from an already generated public key. How is this possible?
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/deterministic-wallets-advantages-flaw-1385450276
I thought you could only generate new public keys…
Magritte
- 51
- 1
5
votes
2 answers
How to recover a deterministic wallet offline?
I know that in the case of electrum there is a gap limit and it will keep generating addresses until it finds a number of consecutive empty addresses equal to the gap limit.
What about if I want to recover my wallet using my seed offline, suppose…
ka lin
- 123
- 5
4
votes
1 answer
Is mainline Bitcoin planning on switching to deterministic wallets?
Deterministic wallets enable reliable backups but the mainline client doesn't use them. I was told that bitcoind and Bitcoin-QT are planning on switching to deterministic wallets by default, is this correct? Any idea of when?
Indolering
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