Bitcoin Stack Exchange
Bitcoin Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [wallet]

A wallet manages a user's private keys. Wallet software is used to send and receive Bitcoin. It also keeps track of the user's transactions, addresses, and balance.

This tag should be used for questions pertaining to Bitcoin wallet software. Wallet software handle users' keypairs, addresses, and transactions as well as allowing for the sending and receiving of Bitcoin.

This tag can also be used for wallet files (the files containing the wallet's information), their contents, formatting and any other related topics.

This tag should not be used for any questions relating to the traditional definition of the word, such as "Where can I buy a wallet with bitcoins?"

2393 questions
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What's the difference between a wallet and an address?

Bitcoin seems to have the concept of a wallet and an address. Are they the same thing? If not, how do they differ?
Colin Dean
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Where are the user's bitcoins actually stored?

On the person's computer? On bitcoin.org? :) Where does that information reside that tells others and me how much bitcoins I have? I assume it can't be on my PC because I could easily hack the file that contains that data and get myself more…
Alex
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2 answers

What is the coin selection algorithm?

When creating a transaction in the standard client, what is the algorithm used to determine which unspent outputs will be used as inputs? Has this changed since the first version? What different algorithms are used by alternative clients? Does the…
Andrew Jones
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What do the different .dat files contain?

What data do different Bitcoin .dat files contain? How about the other files in the same folder? The wallet.dat file is somewhat documented and there are some ways to convert it to human-readable form, but I don't think the same can be said about…
ThePiachu
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How can I keep my wallet secure?

The standard Bitcoin client does not encrypt wallet files, so any malicious user that gains access to this file will be able to transfer all the coins to their own wallet. Furthermore, if I lose the wallet file then I lose access to those coins. …
Michael McGowan
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Can I use my wallet on different computers?

I'm used to synchronize my data on different machines. Depending on the data I use SVN, Dropbox or SSH (Unison). Is this possible with the bitcoin wallet, too?
Thor
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Who gets Bitcoin transaction fees?

Whenever I send bitcoins from one wallet or one exchange to the next there is always a fee. This makes sense with the exchange sites, they are just collecting the fee so they can make a living. What about the open source wallets that I've installed…
Albert Renshaw
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What is a deterministic wallet?

It sounds as if it's a process that enables a wallet to be rebuilt from a passphrase, or from several fragments scattered about. Could someone provide a detailed technical explanation?
Gary
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How can I restore my wallet?

I just purchased a new laptop and I want to decommission my old one. I have a back-up of my wallet.dat file copied to my new PC. What do I need to do to restore it to my Bitcoin (Windows) client? Please note, this is a wallet.dat file that is…
RLH
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How can I combine all the tiny amounts I've received to minimise transaction fees, and do I need to?

Important parts in bold, for those who don't want to read the detail! I've received lots of tiny transactions, in amounts sometimes as low as 0.000003BTC. Even though I've also received (relatively) larger amounts, I'm worried that when I want to…
Highly Irregular
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How is a wallet's balance computed?

I am wondering on how a wallet's balance is computed. Basically, from what I've read I assume that you look back at all transactions involving all the keypairs of a given wallet. Adding up all the transactions' balances (negating a transaction…
marcus
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Is there some way to merge two wallets or to import/export addresses?

I've got one wallet.dat from my laptop and another on my desktop, each containing various (different) receiving addresses that I use pretty often. I'd like to merge them into a single wallet.dat so I can see all my balances in one place. If there…
David Perry
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Why is the disappearance of Mt Gox a problem?

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, I'm not a bitcoin user and may lack important information. My understanding was that each bitcoin user has a wallet on his harddrive or wherever, where he stores his bitcoins with the transaction history…
mart
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What is the wallet "word seed" that is commonly used in popular wallets clients and what does it do?

I've been using a pretty old version of Multibit classic and recently decided to upgrade. I tried out Multibit HD and Electrum and noticed that both have me set up a wallet with a "word seed". It's just a string of random words that is apparently…
frеdsbend
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How secure is blockchain.info?

How secure is using a wallet on blockchain.info? How do you evaluate the different sites that provide wallets?
B Seven
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