Think I have made a big mistake with my bitcoin wallet, please, please help...

[mr_random]

I am using the Bitcoin qt client and I am very confused and think I have done something wrong.

1. I have two computers A and B both with Bitcoin qt client on. I have made wallets on both computers.

2. After launching Bitcoin qt client for the first time on computer A I created two addresses using the 'new address' button. I then clicked 'Encrypt Wallet' and entered a passcode. Note I only did this process once, even though I created two addresses.

3. I then transfered two test transactions to the wallet on computer A from Bitstamp. These came through as:



(don't know if anything looks wrong in that picture?)

4. I then tried my first ever test transaction and sent it to the address I created on computer B (I have never encrypted this wallet).

5. To my surprise this sent, even though I didn't have to enter any kind of passcode on computer A? Plus my address on computer B isn't even encrypted?

6. Does that mean anyone can use the funds I have in my wallet on computer A, without my passcode?

7. The status of the transaction on computer B is also, 2/unconfirmed? Is this a sign of a mistake. Also the 'from' is marked as unknown.

I'm confused, please advise. Sorry for my ignorance, I am not a technically minded person but trying to adopt bit coins.

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[ehtony]

I'm also new and don't know all that much, but from my understanding someone would need your wallet.dat file. I don't think your public wallet address is enough for someone to use it other then adding funds to it.

Hopefully someone with more insight might be able to elaborate on that. It would also help me out. But my guess is that it uses public/private key encryption.

[brux]

When the wallet is encrypted, you should see a little lock icon in the bottom-right corner of the bitcoin-qt client.

[mr_random]

When the wallet is encrypted, you should see a little lock icon in the bottom-right corner of the bitcoin-qt client.

I don't see this lock but I definitely went through the encryption process once?

[DannyHamilton]

When the wallet is encrypted, you should see a little lock icon in the bottom-right corner of the bitcoin-qt client.

I don't see this lock but I definitely went through the encryption process once?

You shouldn't need to encrypt more than once.  Are you sure you didn't get the two wallets mixed up?  Maybe the wallet on computer B is the one you encrypted?

[Snipes777]

The passphrase should be required for you to send coins. I would attempt to encrypt your wallet again. I am a bit confused as to why this integrated process was difficult. Maybe if you provided some added information as to the steps you take on your second try, then maybe someone can help you more.

You encrypt the wallet, not an address. Any wallet can hold multiple addresses

[mr_random]

When the wallet is encrypted, you should see a little lock icon in the bottom-right corner of the bitcoin-qt client.

I don't see this lock but I definitely went through the encryption process once?

You shouldn't need to encrypt more than once.  Are you sure you didn't get the two wallets mixed up?  Maybe the wallet on computer B is the one you encrypted?

No but I think I have found a bug in the software. My password was extremely long, at least 30 characters. I encrypted the wallets again now with shorter passwords and this time it has worked. I tried to change the passwords to the long one and again it failed.

This makes more sense because now I have to enter a passcode to send the bitcoins.

I have created a new address on computer A AFTER I encrypted the wallet for the last time, as I right in thinking that is now a safe address to receive funds to? It's on a wiped computer. I have sent funds from computer A to computer B after doing this and computer B received the funds, so does everything sound good to go?  

[Stephen Gornick]

I have sent funds from computer A to computer B after doing this and computer B received the funds, so does everything sound good to go?  

Yup.  two caveats.  The first being that you want to keep backups of your wallet.dat.  With two clients running (each with its own wallet) make sure to have some way of identifying which wallet is which (e.g. if backup up to a flash drive, make a unique folder name for both computer A and computer B).

The second ... if your wallet had Bitcoin addresses that were used (i.e., received a payment) prior to performing the passphrase encryption step then you may want to spend those funds (to a new address, even if in the same wallet) so that you have no funds remaining in any Bitcoin addresses that were in use prior to when you did the encrypt step.

For instance, if you have an old backup of the wallet.dat and then you protect your wallet with Bitcoin-Qt's passphrase encryption, the keys in that old backup are still unencrypted and could be used to create a spend transaction.   But as soon as those funds are spent you no longer need to worry about that old wallet.dat floating around somewhere.

[Edit: Incidentally, I see a Question on StackExchange for this topic as well:

How can I tell if my Bitcoin-Qt wallet is protected with encryption?
 - http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/8125 ]