Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin => Bitcoin Discussion => Topic started by: ksd5 on July 11, 2010, 11:27:25 PM



Title: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: ksd5 on July 11, 2010, 11:27:25 PM
Can someone please give me a list of the pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction? It seems very inconvenient to use a new address each time.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: llama on July 11, 2010, 11:52:43 PM
Pros:

-More anonymous (harder for people to associate it with your other addresses, though not impossible unless other precautions are taken)
-Easier to identify who paid you (since every payer is given their own address)

Cons:

-Doesn't prove that you are the owner of the other address, which can be useful in trust applications
-A little bit more hassle.


Anything I'm forgetting?


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: SmokeTooMuch on July 12, 2010, 12:11:01 AM
basically the advantage of making a new address every time is anonymity.

when you don't want anyone (who knows your old address, typically customers or, if you made it public potentially everyone) to recognize you that is a basic step you have to do.

In my opinion there's no disadvantage except for the minimum raised work for clicking "new address".
The only exception here is if you want to run a static account (like when you post the address to get donations), because afaik you can't reuse an address once you got a new one.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: laszlo on July 12, 2010, 12:16:20 AM
The addresses are valid forever unless you lose your wallet.  The only disadvantage is that the address receiving a transaction is visible to all nodes.  It is easy to automatically generate a new address each time a page is refreshed on a donation page using the JSON RPC interface.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: ksd5 on July 12, 2010, 12:37:07 AM
Is anonymity necessary for everyone? llama has his address in his signature. (I don't know if he changes his address though.) Can someone offer me a scenario where changing addresses would be a good idea?


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: llama on July 12, 2010, 01:38:41 AM
KSD5,

Definitely not.  I, for one, do not care about anonymity! ;)

It would be a good idea if you have lots of people sending you the same amount.  By giving them each a different address to send to, you can tell who paid when.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: ksd5 on July 12, 2010, 01:59:30 AM
Ah, okay. It makes a lot more sense now. Thanks, guys.  :)


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: SmokeTooMuch on July 12, 2010, 03:56:40 PM
The addresses are valid forever unless you lose your wallet.
oh, didn't know that.
thanks for the info!


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: EricJ2190 on July 13, 2010, 01:00:30 AM
-More anonymous (harder for people to associate it with your other addresses, though not impossible unless other precautions are taken)

How difficult would to associate one address with your other addresses? What precautions should be taken to protect against this?


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: llama on July 13, 2010, 06:09:31 PM
How difficult would to associate one address with your other addresses? What precautions should be taken to protect against this?

It's not totally easy, but it's possible.  For example, a node could listen on the network and see that you are using the same IP when sending from two of your different addresses, and thus associate those addresses.  To prevent this, you should mask your IP using Tor or similar.

There's also a more fundamental risk in that the chain of ownership of each bitcoin is public knowledge.  So, if you, say, purchased the bitcoin from an exchange and gave your name during that, then the exchange can associate your name with that bitcoin.  There's a really really nice post by Theymos on that here, and the following thread proposes some great solutions (mainly, a "scrambler"):

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=241.0

Even besides these two things, there are some other things that need to be handled.  For example, you should find a way to encrypt your traffic so your ISP can't read your addresses.  Also, you should send out identical traffic regularly, so that your ISP cant associate your addresses using timing alone.

If all of these things are accounted for, I believe you are very close to 100% safe from technical address association.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: throughput on July 27, 2010, 10:04:26 AM
The addresses are valid forever unless you lose your wallet.

The addresses are valid forever until someone else collides with your address.
This is not considered as a risk here. But that is not impossible.
And the more addresses generated, the less it is impossible :)


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: rodin on July 27, 2010, 03:28:21 PM
You could always pregenerate all the keypairs (addresses) you'd ever need and keep them in your wallet. Then you just pull new ones off as needed, reuse old ones as you like, etc. E.g. with every transaction you get to pick the addresses that participate in that transaction. From the network's point of view, this is is indistinguishable from the curent behaviour of generating new addresses every time, but you can backup your wallet once in some really robust fashion and never worry about backups again. You can in fact patch your client to do that right now without affecting anyone else or breaking anything. So, that's a PRO; having to back up after every transaction is silly.

The negative side of pregenerating all the keypairs is that if I steal your wallet, and you don't know about it, I can just sit around for years waiting for a big transaction involving one of your addresses and then burn you. This theft is more insidious than just spending your wallet immediately, because nobody can ever be 100% certain than someone hasn't already done it. It would undermine trust in the network.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Cdecker on July 27, 2010, 10:24:38 PM
I actually stopped thinking of the BitCoin adresses as my Account number, and started considering them a reference number for each transaction :D


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: throughput on July 28, 2010, 01:18:11 PM
As far as I understand, pregenerating all keypairs does not stop someone from using them
if he generates them too, by accident.
That is perceived as unlikely to happen.
But over time the number of generated keypairs will grow...
Yes, still unlikely, but still possible and nobody knows how to mitigate that.
That is an accepted risk of using the system. Just use to it.  :P


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: FreeMoney on July 29, 2010, 11:31:01 AM
As far as I understand, pregenerating all keypairs does not stop someone from using them
if he generates them too, by accident.
That is perceived as unlikely to happen.
But over time the number of generated keypairs will grow...
Yes, still unlikely, but still possible and nobody knows how to mitigate that.
That is an accepted risk of using the system. Just use to it.  :P


I think the number of addresses is like 33^62 (26+26+10?) that's over 10^94. If a trillion people each have a trillion addresses that's 10^24. The odds of picking a taken addy even after all that is so vanishing it's absurd. And no 10^24/10^94 is not 1/4.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: throughput on August 02, 2010, 06:37:40 PM
As far as I understand, pregenerating all keypairs does not stop someone from using them
if he generates them too, by accident.
That is perceived as unlikely to happen.
But over time the number of generated keypairs will grow...
Yes, still unlikely, but still possible and nobody knows how to mitigate that.
That is an accepted risk of using the system. Just use to it.  :P


I think the number of addresses is like 33^62 (26+26+10?) that's over 10^94. If a trillion people each have a trillion addresses that's 10^24. The odds of picking a taken addy even after all that is so vanishing it's absurd. And no 10^24/10^94 is not 1/4.
So, here you have accepted that risk.
You have multiplied the value of the potential damage by the probability of the event.
It is acceptable to you, because that is really low risk, since you take no damage at all.
Some may be concerned if their potential loses are larger than yours, and have not only monetary nature,
but for example, reputational damage. Bank may get slashed by a bank run, if it lose some of it's reputation,
that will be the end for the bank.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: FreeMoney on August 02, 2010, 08:39:31 PM
As far as I understand, pregenerating all keypairs does not stop someone from using them
if he generates them too, by accident.
That is perceived as unlikely to happen.
But over time the number of generated keypairs will grow...
Yes, still unlikely, but still possible and nobody knows how to mitigate that.
That is an accepted risk of using the system. Just use to it.  :P


I think the number of addresses is like 33^62 (26+26+10?) that's over 10^94. If a trillion people each have a trillion addresses that's 10^24. The odds of picking a taken addy even after all that is so vanishing it's absurd. And no 10^24/10^94 is not 1/4.
So, here you have accepted that risk.
You have multiplied the value of the potential damage by the probability of the event.
It is acceptable to you, because that is really low risk, since you take no damage at all.
Some may be concerned if their potential loses are larger than yours, and have not only monetary nature,
but for example, reputational damage. Bank may get slashed by a bank run, if it lose some of it's reputation,
that will be the end for the bank.

You can think of it like that if you want, but it's not a 'low risk'

Driving around town is a low risk because you have a fatality rate of like 0.0000005. We're talking about a much smaller than .0000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 chance of losing the contents of one wallet. It's seriously dumb to call that a risk. It's on the scale of worrying about passing through your chair.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: ByteCoin on August 16, 2010, 04:30:56 PM
I think the number of addresses is like 33^62 (26+26+10?) that's over 10^94. If a trillion people each have a trillion addresses that's 10^24. The odds of picking a taken addy even after all that is so vanishing it's absurd. And no 10^24/10^94 is not 1/4.

I believe that a Bitcoind address is just an encoded RIPEMD160 hash which can take 2^160 values which is about 1.46*10^48. The number of distinct public keys is vastly larger and hence many different public keys have the same address. This isn't as worrying as it sounds though.

ByteCoin


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: grondilu on September 26, 2010, 04:20:56 PM
I think the number of addresses is like 33^62 (26+26+10?) that's over 10^94. If a trillion people each have a trillion addresses that's 10^24. The odds of picking a taken addy even after all that is so vanishing it's absurd. And no 10^24/10^94 is not 1/4.
So, here you have accepted that risk.
You have multiplied the value of the potential damage by the probability of the event.
It is acceptable to you, because that is really low risk, since you take no damage at all.
Some may be concerned if their potential loses are larger than yours, and have not only monetary nature,
but for example, reputational damage. Bank may get slashed by a bank run, if it lose some of it's reputation,
that will be the end for the bank.

You can think of it like that if you want, but it's not a 'low risk'

Driving around town is a low risk because you have a fatality rate of like 0.0000005. We're talking about a much smaller than .0000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 chance of losing the contents of one wallet. It's seriously dumb to call that a risk. It's on the scale of worrying about passing through your chair.


Very funny, some people just can't admit that at some point, small numbers are really virtually zero.

I've read somewhere that the total number of atoms in universe is around 10^80.

10^94 is thousands of billions (10^14) times bigger than that.  So we're talking about odds that are far less likely than picking a specific atom amongst the total number of all atoms in universe.  This is ridiculously small.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: eurekafag on October 09, 2010, 11:12:52 AM
How fast does wallet.dat size grow with creating new addresses? It would be nice feature to physically remove entries from it if I'm pretty sure no one will send coins to that particular address. For example, if would be useful for shops which create one-time addresses to recieve payments. If it's used once it's not needed anymore so the shop engine sends coins from that address to a certain fixed address and removes keys for that temporary one. It will prevent wallet.dat from growing indefinitely. Also note that invisible address is created each time one sends the sum which isn't equal to the sum of a particular address or sum of several addresses so it's divided by two parts: one goes to the recipient and the other goes to your just transparently generated invisible address (you don't see it in your address book but it's in your wallet.dat). If you often send money you'd already have lots of such addresses and some empty ones. AFAIK no automatic garbage collection is done for now and it's right — there is no way to know which address is temporary and which is constant. Another proposal is to make a special «temporary address» flag which may be set on any of your addresses either on its creation or anytime later. Bitcoin checks this flag on transaction and if this (these) address(es) become empty AND the transaction was confirmed by the network (6 confirmations) then it's removed from the wallet. Hence this flag should be set for all «change» (invisible) addresses because they can't be used to receive payments (they aren't displayed anywhere).


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: doublec on October 09, 2010, 11:36:18 AM
It would be nice feature to physically remove entries from it if I'm pretty sure no one will send coins to that particular address. For example, if would be useful for shops which create one-time addresses to recieve payments.

The problem with deleting the address is, if the address was made public, someone can still send money to it. If you delete the address and bitcoins are later sent to it then those bitcoins cannot be recovered (as I understand it).


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: eurekafag on October 09, 2010, 05:13:48 PM
Try to read the post to its end before replying ^_~ Or at least read the second sentence:

Quote
...if I'm pretty sure no one will send coins to that particular address.

More than that, I mentioned cases when it's just impossible (or not needed to) send to an address twice or more times.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: LZ on October 18, 2010, 01:21:04 AM
You could always pregenerate all the keypairs (addresses) you'd ever need and keep them in your wallet.
Satoshi made it (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1414.0) default in SVN 163 (0.3.13.3).


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: davux on November 10, 2010, 12:06:24 AM
I think the number of addresses is like 33^62 (26+26+10?) that's over 10^94.

It's not. It's 62^33, which is slightly over 10^59.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: MoonShadow on November 10, 2010, 12:19:20 AM
The addresses are valid forever unless you lose your wallet.

The addresses are valid forever until someone else collides with your address.
This is not considered as a risk here. But that is not impossible.
And the more addresses generated, the less it is impossible :)


Generating new addresses for each transaction doesn't increase your risks of a collision.  The risk is not simply the risk of a collision alone, but also the maximum potential losses that such a collision could represent.  A single collision with one of your many addresses only exposes the coins associated with that particular address, not the total amount of bitcoins that said wallet.dat can access.  Reuse of addresses may limit your raw risks of a collision, but reuse also increases your maximum potential losses since more bitcoins are concentrated under fewer addresses over time.  Either way, the risks are so small as to be astronomically unlikely.  If a collision were to ever occur, even intentionally, it would be big news if someone could prove that it had occurred.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Cdecker on November 10, 2010, 07:49:57 PM
I think the number of addresses is like 33^62 (26+26+10?) that's over 10^94.

It's not. It's 62^33, which is slightly over 10^59.
How did you arrive to this result?


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: davux on November 10, 2010, 10:21:15 PM
It's not. It's 62^33, which is slightly over 10^59.
How did you arrive to this result?

An address has 33 significant characters, each of which has 62 possible values (10 numbers, 26 uppercase letters, 26 lowercase).
So you have 62 * 62 * ... * 62 possibilities (33 times).

Actually, now that I remember, it's 58 (uppercase i and lowercase L are not included because they look too similar, same for zero and uppercase o).

So there are 58^33 possibles values, which is slightly more than 10^58. Still high, but not quite as high as 10^92.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: theymos on November 10, 2010, 10:40:57 PM
An address has 33 significant characters, each of which has 62 possible values (10 numbers, 26 uppercase letters, 26 lowercase).
So you have 62 * 62 * ... * 62 possibilities (33 times).

Actually, now that I remember, it's 58 (uppercase i and lowercase L are not included because they look too similar, same for zero and uppercase o).

So there are 58^33 possibles values, which is slightly more than 10^58. Still high, but not quite as high as 10^92.

As ByteCoin already explained earlier in the topic, an address contains a non-data check code and version number. There are actually "only" 160 bits of randomness in each address: 2^160, or 1.46x10^48 possible addresses.

Addresses can also be 25-34 characters in length, depending on how numerically large the hash160+check code is (the larger it is, the more base58 characters required).


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: grondilu on November 11, 2010, 02:01:03 AM
How fast does wallet.dat size grow with creating new addresses? It would be nice feature to physically remove entries from it if I'm pretty sure no one will send coins to that particular address. For example, if would be useful for shops which create one-time addresses to recieve payments. If it's used once it's not needed anymore so the shop engine sends coins from that address to a certain fixed address and removes keys for that temporary one. It will prevent wallet.dat from growing indefinitely.

The size of your wallet is very unlikely to be a problem, imo.

If empty addresses realy bother you, you can create a new wallet and put all your bitcoins in it.  You could do that with a VM or using mybitcoin.com as a temporary storage.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Waterfox on December 12, 2010, 10:39:22 PM
No real cons, just pros IMHO, but if you really needed the extra anonymity you could launder the coins.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: opticbit on February 20, 2011, 04:22:36 AM
http://bitcoinwatch.com/http://bitcoinwatch.com/ (http://bitcoinwatch.com/) has some of the info your looking for


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: TimeMoney on February 20, 2011, 06:08:04 AM
Can someone please give me a list of the pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction? It seems very inconvenient to use a new address each time.

warning, I am a newbie...liked the videos presentations, did some research...and tried it.  Bitcoin.exe on an i7 --only application---24/7 x 10 days---on generate mode.  Only successful in the gratuitous .05 BTC from faucet per computer per public ip address.  I had plans to accept Bitcoins on all my websites...hired web developers  ...faced ZERO SUPPORT ANYWHERE. 

So question number ONE.  What happens to the Bitcoin if I don't use it, save it?  I speculate it ONLY serves to increase the value of those users and optimists who are "fan boys".  I have spent too much time...wasting...which cost me more money than I could have possibly made  in two weeks.

Question Number Two.  My PC's were set up by my SYSADMIN's.  After a few bouts of "actvity"....I ended up with 100% CPU on all cores...and the "connect" prompt  says unconnected.  Thats a lot of power and CPU cycles for Nothing...a big fat waste of time.  You want me to be impressed so we can get the concept moving?  Put up simple to understand "NOOB" isms...so that morons like myself...can learn HOW to connect.  If no connect...why the 100% CPU on all cores and NOTHING going on?  FOR DAYS?  I don't have time for games.  When you guys are serious...I'll be back.   I love all the concepts supporting it...but I will not GIVE AWAY valuable product from my websites for coins that have no value TO ME.

Explain it to me ---I want to trust...but I have seen nothing to make me want to trust.  10 MBPS uplink screaming PC's ...for NADA....

I understand the trade concept but who has the coins to buy what I have---real products with value--I even offered a discount to Bitcoin currency...but where is the beef? 



Please expaklin tio tbhis ifdio
Please


Title: The beginning of the beginning of something great
Post by: jgarzik on February 20, 2011, 06:44:53 AM
Can someone please give me a list of the pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction? It seems very inconvenient to use a new address each time.

warning, I am a newbie...liked the videos presentations, did some research...and tried it.  Bitcoin.exe on an i7 --only application---24/7 x 10 days---on generate mode.  Only successful in the gratuitous .05 BTC from faucet per computer per public ip address.  I had plans to accept Bitcoins on all my websites...hired web developers  ...faced ZERO SUPPORT ANYWHERE.

Bitcoin definitely needs to grow some organizations that can offer technical advice and software support for bitcoin itself.  Most major open source projects have one or more companies doing this.  That would help with bitcoin adoption, too.

Quote
So question number ONE.  What happens to the Bitcoin if I don't use it, save it?  I speculate it ONLY serves to increase the value of those users and optimists who are "fan boys".  I have spent too much time...wasting...which cost me more money than I could have possibly made  in two weeks.

Bitcoin is a currency, literally, in its infancy.  The concept (distributed notary service with digital signatures) is, as far as I know, the first of its kind.  It is still being "bootstrapped," meaning that bitcoin does not have a self-supporting economy -- which must, by its nature, encompass mundane things like buying gasoline with BTC, paying rent or mortgage with BTC, buying groceries with BTC.

So, what can you do with the bitcoins you have right now?  Not a lot, if you ignore bootstrapping services (services like currency exchanges or bitcointo.com).  Mostly software services like web hosting, and an odd assortment of tangible goods.

But it seems like most folks in the bitcoin community recognize that we just started construction of a very interesting and unique experiment in currency.  Any endeavour is, unfortunately, very high risk from an investment standpoint.  It might fail for dozens of reasons...  but wouldn't be fun and interesting if it succeeded?

Quote
Question Number Two.  My PC's were set up by my SYSADMIN's.  After a few bouts of "actvity"....I ended up with 100% CPU on all cores...and the "connect" prompt  says unconnected.  Thats a lot of power and CPU cycles for Nothing...a big fat waste of time.  You want me to be impressed so we can get the concept moving?  Put up simple to understand "NOOB" isms...so that morons like myself...can learn HOW to connect.  If no connect...why the 100% CPU on all cores and NOTHING going on?  FOR DAYS?  I don't have time for games.  When you guys are serious...I'll be back.   I love all the concepts supporting it...but I will not GIVE AWAY valuable product from my websites for coins that have no value TO ME.

Step 1: Turn off "Generate coins" option.  It is a waste of time and electricity.

Step 2: Wait for all the blocks to download.  As of this writing, there are 109245 of them.

Step 3: Don't panic, and read the forums.  If you can post specific problems you are seeing after following steps #1 and #2, you can get answers.

Step 4: Hire better SYSADMIN's.  They should be able to answer these basic questions and offer basic support, or not install software that neither you or they understand.



Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: johnieeliang on March 15, 2011, 03:49:10 PM
just a little bit more hassale but its not a biggie


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: CryptikEnigma on March 24, 2011, 02:13:05 AM
I've noticed that my bitcoin client likes to create new addresses by itself, does this happen to anyone else?


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: theymos on March 24, 2011, 02:19:50 AM
I've noticed that my bitcoin client likes to create new addresses by itself, does this happen to anyone else?

It does that when you receive BTC on your active address, to encourage you to use a new one.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: CryptikEnigma on March 24, 2011, 02:26:45 AM
I've noticed that my bitcoin client likes to create new addresses by itself, does this happen to anyone else?

It does that when you receive BTC on your active address, to encourage you to use a new one.

Oh okay, I can still get BTCs sent to any of my old ones though right? No matter which one is in my address bar?


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: theymos on March 24, 2011, 02:41:27 AM
Oh okay, I can still get BTCs sent to any of my old ones though right? No matter which one is in my address bar?

Yes.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: mcandre on March 24, 2011, 06:32:27 PM
Correct me if I'm wrong, but changing the address after each transaction doesn't give you anonymity.

Conducting business with a known party is guilt by association in the eyes of the intelligence community.

A permanent trail of transactions is available, even searchable (http://blockexplorer.com/). Changing the address only makes the trail slightly harder to follow.

Moreover, the transactions are automatically sorted as normal and strange (http://blockexplorer.com/). Block Explorer is doing the FBI's job for them, so they can sit back and watch baddies trade.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: theymos on March 24, 2011, 06:53:01 PM
Correct me if I'm wrong, but changing the address after each transaction doesn't give you anonymity.

Conducting business with a known party is guilt by association in the eyes of the intelligence community.

A permanent trail of transactions is available, even searchable (http://blockexplorer.com/). Changing the address only makes the trail slightly harder to follow.

Moreover, the transactions are automatically sorted as normal and strange (http://blockexplorer.com/). Block Explorer is doing the FBI's job for them, so they can sit back and watch baddies trade.

You're right that it doesn't provide instant anonymity, but it does help. I've actually tracked people through transactions, and the constantly-changing addresses makes it much more difficult to follow. It prevents casual snooping, at least.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Hal on March 24, 2011, 07:05:04 PM
I used to have trouble managing payments to a service that used a new address every time. Seems to conflict with the idea of an address book. Imagine if everyone's phone number changed every call. Not too convenient.

Here's what I do now:

1. Copy the payment address.
2. Choose Send Coins in the client.
3. Choose Address Book in the popup.
4. Choose New Address.
5. Enter a name for this payee, and paste in the Bitcoin address. Use the same name for all payments to this payee. For example, I use MBC for all transfers to my mybitcoin.com account.
6. Click OK in the New Address window.
7. Click OK in the Address Book window.
8. The Pay To field now holds the payment address. Enter the amount and click Send.

This way the transaction in your wallet will show who it's for. It does add some extra steps though. I wish sites would give customers the option to reuse a persistent address.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: ksd5 on April 01, 2011, 08:03:16 PM

I think the number of addresses is like 33^62 (26+26+10?) that's over 10^94. If a trillion people each have a trillion addresses that's 10^24. The odds of picking a taken addy even after all that is so vanishing it's absurd. And no 10^24/10^94 is not 1/4.

Wouldn't it actually be 62^33? I think you got the order wrong.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Jim Hyslop on April 03, 2011, 04:09:42 AM
I used to have trouble managing payments to a service that used a new address every time. Seems to conflict with the idea of an address book. Imagine if everyone's phone number changed every call. Not too convenient.
Yeah, if it's basically a publicly available service, then it makes sense to reuse the same address.

But on the other hand, it might make anonymous donations/payments to that service a little more difficult.

As always, privacy and security trade off against simplicity and ease-of-use :D


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: ctoon6 on April 06, 2011, 06:26:22 AM
you are only ever anonymous on your 1st trade if you actually generated the BTC, after that you are always able to be tracked, but why do you care, and it only makes trading more difficult.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: gigabytecoin on May 05, 2011, 10:17:12 AM

I think the number of addresses is like 33^62 (26+26+10?) that's over 10^94. If a trillion people each have a trillion addresses that's 10^24. The odds of picking a taken addy even after all that is so vanishing it's absurd. And no 10^24/10^94 is not 1/4.

Wouldn't it actually be 62^33? I think you got the order wrong.

Yes. Yes it would.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Pieter Wuille on May 05, 2011, 10:19:07 AM
There are 2^160 addresses, not all characters in the base58 representation are significant, as it also contains a version number and an error detection code.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Veldy on May 07, 2011, 05:11:50 PM
The addresses are valid forever unless you lose your wallet.  The only disadvantage is that the address receiving a transaction is visible to all nodes.  It is easy to automatically generate a new address each time a page is refreshed on a donation page using the JSON RPC interface.


Managing all those addresses in your wallet is a real PITA though.  I wish there was some sorting ability in the address book as well as a method to "hide" addresses that you don't actively use. 

I really should tear apart the client code and write a new app [I would use WPF, but it would target Windows only AND it would steal a little from the GPU if you are running the app on a machine that you are also doing mining on.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: eMansipater on May 10, 2011, 07:51:56 PM
Could this topic be folded into the list at the end of the Introduction to BitCoin (http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7269.0)?  If so, can someone provide a good summary of the important things it contains?  I think for usability's sake having as few stickied topics as possible is desirable.

Is anything missed by linking to it via the question:

"What are the pros and cons of using new bitcoin addresses for each transaction?"



Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Lurk on September 21, 2012, 04:47:27 PM
So if you're not doing anything wrong why are people so worried about being anonymous?  i guess i've never worried about it yet. Why is it such a major part of bitcoin?  just curious.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Aahzman on October 02, 2012, 12:48:46 AM
So, i use about 8 addresses (one for pool mining, one for free-btc-website-scraping, one for "friends", one for Bitcoinary, and a couple others).  basically helps me keep track of what came from where.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: PeteChad on October 02, 2012, 02:34:46 AM
Pros:
  • Secure
  • Higher Anonymity
Cons:
  • Can be time consuming

Several of my clients prefer that I use a new address per transaction. It can be a little more time consuming, but it does improve anonymity.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: giszmo on October 02, 2012, 05:18:03 AM
http://www.drunkard.com/bbs//download/file.php?avatar=13094_1236016317.jpg

Necroposting, yeah!!!! … cause it's cool to resurrect 2 years old threads!!!!

How difficult would to associate one address with your other addresses? What precautions should be taken to protect against this?

It's not totally easy, but it's possible.  For example, a node could listen on the network and see that you are using the same IP when sending from two of your different addresses, and thus associate those addresses.  To prevent this, you should mask your IP using Tor or similar.

There's also a more fundamental risk in that the chain of ownership of each bitcoin is public knowledge.  So, if you, say, purchased the bitcoin from an exchange and gave your name during that, then the exchange can associate your name with that bitcoin.  There's a really really nice post by Theymos on that here, and the following thread proposes some great solutions (mainly, a "scrambler"):

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=241.0

Even besides these two things, there are some other things that need to be handled.  For example, you should find a way to encrypt your traffic so your ISP can't read your addresses.  Also, you should send out identical traffic regularly, so that your ISP cant associate your addresses using timing alone.

If all of these things are accounted for, I believe you are very close to 100% safe from technical address association.

Wallet boundaries are normally not identified by spying on the IP used (which might help but is not necessary) but by the fact that almost always the input of transactions does not fit exactly with the output which is why more than one input is used. Each time more than one input is used, these inputs are guaranteed to belong to the same wallet.

How fast does wallet.dat size grow with creating new addresses? It would be nice feature to physically remove entries from it if I'm pretty sure no one will send coins to that particular address. For example, if would be useful for shops which create one-time addresses to recieve payments. If it's used once it's not needed anymore so the shop engine sends coins from that address to a certain fixed address and removes keys for that temporary one. It will prevent wallet.dat from growing indefinitely. Also note that invisible address is created each time one sends the sum which isn't equal to the sum of a particular address or sum of several addresses so it's divided by two parts: one goes to the recipient and the other goes to your just transparently generated invisible address (you don't see it in your address book but it's in your wallet.dat). If you often send money you'd already have lots of such addresses and some empty ones. AFAIK no automatic garbage collection is done for now and it's right — there is no way to know which address is temporary and which is constant. Another proposal is to make a special «temporary address» flag which may be set on any of your addresses either on its creation or anytime later. Bitcoin checks this flag on transaction and if this (these) address(es) become empty AND the transaction was confirmed by the network (6 confirmations) then it's removed from the wallet. Hence this flag should be set for all «change» (invisible) addresses because they can't be used to receive payments (they aren't displayed anywhere).
In bitcoin, 2 things that take disk space do grow. Wallet and blockchain. Deterministic wallets can avoid the former and pruning can avoid the latter.
I hope that miners some day will reward transactions that allow significant pruning aka merge many addresses. Why should I pay for a transaction of 50kB if after this transaction the blockchain shrinks by 49kB?


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: westkybitcoins on October 02, 2012, 05:36:06 AM
So if you're not doing anything wrong why are people so worried about being anonymous?  i guess i've never worried about it yet. Why is it such a major part of bitcoin?  just curious.

Good question. Don't think of it as people worrying about being anonymous, but rather people just wanting the ability to maintain some privacy if they so choose.

Remember, Bitcoin is money. And the way the system currently works, all transactions are publicly viewable. Ask yourself, if every transaction everyone at your bank ever made with anyone else was viewable by anyone with a few clicks, wouldn't you be a bit more concerned about your privacy, possibly even total anonymity?

Also keep in mind, it doesn't have to be total anonymity. I have public addresses so people can identify spends from me, and so anyone wanting to send me money for whatever reason (debt, gift, purchase, etc.) has at least one reasonably-easy-to-find address they can send it to. And I use BitcoinSpinner, an Android app that only gives you one address that gets constantly reused. But I also have other addresses and wallets that I maintain various degrees of privacy with, for various reasons. Having that be easy to do is always a plus, no matter who you are, or how innocuous your transactions.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: jgarzik on October 02, 2012, 06:48:43 AM
I hope that miners some day will reward transactions that allow significant pruning aka merge many addresses. Why should I pay for a transaction of 50kB if after this transaction the blockchain shrinks by 49kB?

Yes, there are ongoing discussions about choosing metrics which encourage shrinking the UTXO (unspent output) set.



Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Elwar on October 02, 2012, 06:54:43 PM
So if you're not doing anything wrong why are people so worried about being anonymous?  i guess i've never worried about it yet. Why is it such a major part of bitcoin?  just curious.

The jews were doing nothing wrong in 1930s Germany.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: BellaBitBit on January 22, 2016, 06:43:28 PM
pros : More anonymous and hard to detected
cons : Hard to remember the last addresses after transaction, and hard to prove your own wallet
well that is only thing that i can think

What does this mean that it is hard to prove your own wallet and why is it important to remember the last addresses after a transaction? thanks in advance  :)


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Kevin77 on January 23, 2016, 02:31:08 PM
Using new bitcoin address for new transactions is the idea of Satoshi. He mined all the blocks to different addresses.

Using same address will mess up you, with more transactions.
Using different addresses, again mess up with managing more addresses.

Great! It is a good thing for using different addresses for different specific purposes. So we can easily know about the money transacted to our account. Different addresses are specialized for increasing the security of our funds. Do you think any problem will occur by using same address?


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: fortunecrypto on January 23, 2016, 03:24:05 PM
This is one of best feature of bitcoin you create as many address as you want,unlike the other payment processor where you need to confirm your email and identification before you can use a new payment email/wallet,I don't think there are disadvantages using multiple address it's just that you will be confused on where did you use one particular address


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: JeWay on January 23, 2016, 03:35:40 PM
The addresses are valid forever unless you lose your wallet.
oh, didn't know that.
thanks for the info!
How could a "Legedary" don't know about this???


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Erkallys on January 23, 2016, 05:16:40 PM
For me :

Pros :

-anonymity. That's the only one I find.


Cons :

-messy. This will be a big mess in your transaction history. This can also don't help your customers (in my case, as a loan provider, I can no more contact my "clients". Having the same address for all the transactions is better for them, because it's in my OP, so people can find it even without an account).

-fees. If your bitcoins have to be sent from different addresses it will be more expensive.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: BitHodler on January 23, 2016, 05:53:33 PM
Pro :
I use a new address for every transaction - privacy, that is the sole reason for me.

Con :
I once forgot to give my new address to the person that I quite often do business with and he sent the coins to one of my older wallets. Lucky enough it was a very small amount.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: dragonusa9 on January 23, 2016, 06:02:05 PM
pros : More anonymous and hard to detected
cons : Hard to remember the last addresses after transaction, and hard to prove your own wallet
well that is only thing that i can think

What does this mean that it is hard to prove your own wallet and why is it important to remember the last addresses after a transaction? thanks in advance  :)
mean hard to prove that every transaction the address will change
the thing remember the last address is to prove your own wallet sir, because every transaction address changed and we must give new address to do some transaction


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: BruceLee007 on January 23, 2016, 06:05:24 PM
i dont think that there are any pros, the only con that will make you have hard time with it is taht you will have bunch of addresses and wouldnt know which one to use when you will need it


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: MoonShadow on January 23, 2016, 08:16:33 PM
The addresses are valid forever unless you lose your wallet.
oh, didn't know that.
thanks for the info!
How could a "Legedary" don't know about this???

Notice when he posted that. He wasn't legendary then.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Evelyntom on February 06, 2016, 11:15:13 AM
So wonderful about Bitcoins.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: SuperCoinGuy on February 06, 2016, 11:19:29 AM
I love using new addresses for each transaction because it's harder for people to trace back to your main wallet with your stash.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: DimensionZ on February 06, 2016, 12:06:06 PM
I prefer to have a designated address for each website I am dealing with listed under labels and such so I don't need to waste time figuring out which address is for which website. Having a different address for each TX sometimes gets messy if you want to keep track of your bitcoin finances but of course that improves your privacy.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: FABLE on August 14, 2016, 09:05:32 AM
Thank you all for the great answers, very interesting.  :) Is there any suggestions on what may be an all time favorite for some of the Old'Timers here to set up an account & or wallet ?  :)


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: lol1yatme on August 28, 2016, 01:04:42 PM
Can someone please give me a list of the pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction? It seems very inconvenient to use a new address each time.
I think it helps with the security a lot. The chances of someone being able to use one of your previous address to get bitcoin is already impossible. The cons are that you constantly have to check your site if you want to know your current address, even though the previous is still working.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: prtty2gal2 on August 30, 2016, 05:30:34 PM
pros : More anonymous and hard to detected
cons : Hard to remember the last addresses after transaction, and hard to prove your own wallet
well that is only thing that i can think

What does this mean that it is hard to prove your own wallet and why is it important to remember the last addresses after a transaction? thanks in advance  :)
mean hard to prove that every transaction the address will change
the thing remember the last address is to prove your own wallet sir, because every transaction address changed and we must give new address to do some transaction
You don’t need to use a new address every time, that’s not how it works. You can still use the very first address you got and use it to get funds. But using different address every time makes it harder for hackers to get any possible information about you from anywhere they are following you. There is no cons in using multiple address other than getting messy with more addresses.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: phkrudoker on September 01, 2016, 07:43:42 AM
Thank you all for the great answers, very interesting.  :) Is there any suggestions on what may be an all time favorite for some of the Old'Timers here to set up an account & or wallet ?  :)
I think using coinbase would be great for you to learn how to use a wallet. It has a very simple interface and very good reputation for being secure. Try it out, there are even tutorials on how to set up your account! It is super simple!


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Intutan on September 01, 2016, 08:07:54 AM
I actually stopped thinking of the BitCoin adresses as my Account number, and started considering them a reference number for each transaction :D

That is what I think and do. I create new address for every transaction so that I know who I receive the money from.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: redsun114 on September 01, 2016, 08:18:55 AM
I prefer to have a designated address for each website I am dealing with listed under labels and such so I don't need to waste time figuring out which address is for which website. Having a different address for each TX sometimes gets messy if you want to keep track of your bitcoin finances but of course that improves your privacy.
This comes in handy for me too. I like not worrying about updating it as they always send the funds to my wallet, yet it is anonymous enough for me to just hand out to anyone if they wish to pay to that address. But managing multiple address in document as well in wallet is a bit worry here. My multibit wallet becomes slower in responses when ever I open the wallet with many addresses within it.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Doms on September 01, 2016, 09:20:30 AM
It can be a bit of a task if you use a different address each time you do a transaction. If you are the kind of person who deals with other persons a lot, then it might be to your benefit if you use so many of these wallets, just for security. I myself prefer only a few wallets to receive bitcoin, because I still have to transfer them to another master wallet, which entail extra costs on my part.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: ausbit on September 01, 2016, 12:11:26 PM
Thank you all for the great answers, very interesting.  :) Is there any suggestions on what may be an all time favorite for some of the Old'Timers here to set up an account & or wallet ?  :)
What you could do is just write down an old address so that if you ever need to give someone your address it is an old one that will still received BTC to you current wallet. Keeping many address has some proven advantages, still if you do not want mess up thing and you are a just a small bitcoiner with less activities, then few addresses are more than enough.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: vasrasus on September 01, 2016, 12:21:27 PM
I used to have trouble managing payments to a service that used a new address every time. Seems to conflict with the idea of an address book. Imagine if everyone's phone number changed every call. Not too convenient.

Here's what I do now:

1. Copy the payment address.
2. Choose Send Coins in the client.
3. Choose Address Book in the popup.
4. Choose New Address.
5. Enter a name for this payee, and paste in the Bitcoin address. Use the same name for all payments to this payee. For example, I use MBC for all transfers to my mybitcoin.com account.
6. Click OK in the New Address window.
7. Click OK in the Address Book window.
8. The Pay To field now holds the payment address. Enter the amount and click Send.

This way the transaction in your wallet will show who it's for. It does add some extra steps though. I wish sites would give customers the option to reuse a persistent address.

Wow noted on this it will really help alot. Hope everyone can apply it to avoid scam or failures in transactions. Better really is to be responsible and provide self control and have sense of security


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: n691309 on September 01, 2016, 12:31:33 PM
Can someone please give me a list of the pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction? It seems very inconvenient to use a new address each time.

If you want to mange how many bitcoins do you have then you can't check from lots of addresses (checking in blockchain not through the wallet), a bit mess about which address is in which wallet or something like that. The pros is that you are less trackable but not 100%.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: xuan87 on September 01, 2016, 01:07:11 PM
using a lot of address is more secure and harder to track, for security reason generating new address every few transaction is better, the hacker also wont be to excited to try to hack your wallet if you only have few coins in 1 address, the cons is it hard to manage so many address and sometimes when you want to ask somebody to send something to your address you need to check your address again because its too many and too messy


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Intutan on September 14, 2016, 07:46:54 AM
using a lot of address is more secure and harder to track, for security reason generating new address every few transaction is better, the hacker also wont be to excited to try to hack your wallet if you only have few coins in 1 address, the cons is it hard to manage so many address and sometimes when you want to ask somebody to send something to your address you need to check your address again because its too many and too messy

I agree with that. I use one address for each transaction. So the amount in each address is quite small actually.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: stevo401 on September 14, 2016, 08:03:04 AM
I don't use a new address for every transaction, but I do change my address regularly. If you use Coinbase I relieve that it will automatically update your address to a new one, but the old address remains associated with your account so you can still receive any funds which are sent there in future. Of course Coinbase will still know of the link between your accounts, so it's not 100% evasive but harder to track through the blockchain.

The way I look at is that changing addresses is good for privacy, but unless you have a specific reason to try and evade tracing then just changing regularly is more that enough


Title: I've never bought a bit coin or received one from anyone!
Post by: iamgodsgod420 on October 01, 2016, 08:19:06 PM
I'm new to all of the bitcoin scene... I've seen documentaries on it and it caught my eye! as someone new to this whole world is there any advice anyone can give me before i try to receive or buy any coins for myself!! ??? any help would be great thank you!


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: lister storm on October 01, 2016, 10:59:30 PM
I'm new to all of the bitcoin scene... I've seen documentaries on it and it caught my eye! as someone new to this whole world is there any advice anyone can give me before i try to receive or buy any coins for myself!! ??? any help would be great thank you!
just try to buy a small amount of bitcoins and then do trading, you might get a lot of money i think


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: bestluck on October 01, 2016, 11:22:13 PM
The most bigger online wallets like xapo and blockchain recommend to change the address for each transaction for the security so it will be definitely good for us to change the address for each transaction otherwise they would not recommend that for us.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: calkob on October 01, 2016, 11:40:40 PM
using a new address for each transaction is meant to protect the identities of both the sender and the receiver.  satoshi wrote about it.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Backside walkaround on October 01, 2016, 11:47:44 PM
basically the advantage of making a new address every time is anonymity.

when you don't want anyone (who knows your old address, typically customers or, if you made it public potentially everyone) to recognize you that is a basic step you have to do.

In my opinion there's no disadvantage except for the minimum raised work for clicking "new address".
The only exception here is if you want to run a static account (like when you post the address to get donations), because afaik you can't reuse an address once you got a new one.
This.  My phone wallet generates a new address for every transaction, which I think is cool but kind of unnecessary.  I'm not doing anything illegal and thus don't need as much anonymity as some might.  You see the wallet address I have posted in my profile, and I'd be just as happy if that was the only one I ever had to use.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Carlsen on October 02, 2016, 06:02:14 AM
I just have a few addresses I usually always use.
When I generate a new address, does that mean I have to put my funds first on the new address and make the real transaction then?
Would that mean I had to spend the transaction fee two times?


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Intutan on October 15, 2016, 06:01:59 PM
I just have a few addresses I usually always use.
When I generate a new address, does that mean I have to put my funds first on the new address and make the real transaction then?
Would that mean I had to spend the transaction fee two times?

The funds will stay in your old address. You create the new address is to receive the money, not spend.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: krishna1 on October 15, 2016, 06:07:30 PM
if you use new bitcoin address for each new transaction then ofcource you will get privacy protection but it will cost much transaction fees because you have to pay for each address seperatly which in a single address case we pay it only once and lower than those


Title: Re: I've never bought a bit coin or received one from anyone!
Post by: Das on October 15, 2016, 06:40:29 PM
I'm new to all of the bitcoin scene... I've seen documentaries on it and it caught my eye! as someone new to this whole world is there any advice anyone can give me before i try to receive or buy any coins for myself!! ??? any help would be great thank you!
The best way to learn is to learn at your own pace. So take your time, hang around on this forum for like a month or two so you will know your way around in the world of cryptocurrencies.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: requester on October 15, 2016, 06:54:26 PM
Pros
more privacy, helps us to remain undetectable

Cons
it's hard to detect whose address does that belong to
more possibility of getting scammed
more hassle with lot of address


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Superways on October 15, 2016, 07:07:32 PM
I do not know about any harm for using new bitcoin addresses and I think it is much better for security as a number of exchanges and wallets are suggesting for to use new bitcoin addresses for each transactions. So it is for more security and people will not know about your wealth and will not try to hack your wallet.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: PokerFace3 on October 15, 2016, 07:46:12 PM
I do not know about any harm for using new bitcoin addresses and I think it is much better for security as a number of exchanges and wallets are suggesting for to use new bitcoin addresses for each transactions. So it is for more security and people will not know about your wealth and will not try to hack your wallet.
Yes, it has many good aspects on security perspective, one of the cons practically I am facing must be, when I have more address in multibit classic or electrum both the wallets go freezing.
So, managing more bitcoin address would be big challenging. I guess people just create new address and use then forget. But, no clear idea how many people are managing more bitcoin addresses.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: prabowo96 on October 15, 2016, 09:20:28 PM
I really don't like it, any people should have just one bitcoin address, I know a lot of people use it for anonymity but will be nice if someone create an altcoin that you have just one address and can't change it, it will avoid a lot of scams, bs and ponzi schemes.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Colt22 on October 15, 2016, 09:56:49 PM
On xapo when I was picking the address it stated that after a transaction with this address they will change the address which for our bitcoins security so after that it is in my mind that it will be more secure to use different bitcoin addresses.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: olubams on October 15, 2016, 10:04:58 PM
On xapo when I was picking the address it stated that after a transaction with this address they will change the address which for our bitcoins security so after that it is in my mind that it will be more secure to use different bitcoin addresses.

Yes thats is the reason they provide and its not only Xapo but also blockchain.info that I use. It is of the opinion that when  you use just one address for all your transactions it makes it suspectible to hacking as a result of the value of transaction that will be carrying. So when an address is being used to receive Bitcoin, another one is generated for the next receipt but the disadvantage here is one for someone receiving small amounts get to pay more when sending payments because of the small amount spread in the account...


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: zahra4577 on October 15, 2016, 10:07:26 PM
The most bigger online wallets like xapo and blockchain recommend to change the address for each transaction for the security so it will be definitely good for us to change the address for each transaction otherwise they would not recommend that for us.
I dont think there is any advantage of using new address for each transaction.The only reason when you want to keep your amount secret


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Shiroslullaby on October 15, 2016, 10:32:39 PM
I think for most people, using a few addresses is fine.
You can set one for storage, and a couple that you use to send coins in and out of.

The main reason to use only one address would be a charity taking donations or something like that.
You would want to promote the address and not have to change it every time you posted on a site or document.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Doamader on October 15, 2016, 11:21:02 PM
Well i do have around 5 adress that are used, each one is related to something, soo i do know what it is as i had put the reference on them, both adress are into blockchain, soo i dont have to know 5 passwords differents, i do those just to know where the coins are coming, but if you just buy and sell or trade bitcoins one accounts will be enought, its just a question to let a note on the transactions.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: MingLee on October 15, 2016, 11:24:28 PM
Pros: You will give anyone tracking you an incredibly hard time, and they'll be hard-pressed to get a good read on what you're doing with your wallet, so it basically gives you a security advantage.

Cons: It might be hard to organize, depending on the wallet layout. Aside from that I can't think of a ton of cons.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: lumeire on October 16, 2016, 02:39:20 AM
Pros: You will give anyone tracking you an incredibly hard time, and they'll be hard-pressed to get a good read on what you're doing with your wallet, so it basically gives you a security advantage.

Cons: It might be hard to organize, depending on the wallet layout. Aside from that I can't think of a ton of cons.

Actually, it's a lot better to organize. You can just label the address you used for that transaction and set it aside. You can always go back to it if you need it for bookkeeping. Unlike using the same address for multiple transactions, in which bookkeeping is a lot harder.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: clickerz on October 16, 2016, 03:01:29 AM

Actually, it's a lot better to organize. You can just label the address you used for that transaction and set it aside. You can always go back to it if you need it for bookkeeping. Unlike using the same address for multiple transactions, in which bookkeeping is a lot harder.
'

I agree, its a safekeeping or recording issues here. For me Its good to be organized in recording where the funds comes from the disadvantages id that i hate memorizing or scanning for too many wallet address.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: arcanaaerobics on October 16, 2016, 03:37:18 AM
On xapo when I was picking the address it stated that after a transaction with this address they will change the address which for our bitcoins security so after that it is in my mind that it will be more secure to use different bitcoin addresses.

I still don't know why this is more secure, don't know if I'm dumb or what...
At the end they can know "everything"... No?


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: dunfida on October 16, 2016, 06:43:35 AM
Can someone please give me a list of the pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction? It seems very inconvenient to use a new address each time.

2-3 addresses for me is enough already rather than having lots of new addresses because if you do such thing , theres a possibility that you would able to lose one  of your wallets  which is risky but   you could always  list  it regarding  on your wallets information  so that theres no confusion when you need  to log them in.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Mastsetad on October 16, 2016, 06:56:09 AM
The addresses are valid forever unless you lose your wallet.  The only disadvantage is that the address receiving a transaction is visible to all nodes.  It is easy to automatically generate a new address each time a page is refreshed on a donation page using the JSON RPC interface.


Thats right, there are actually some online wallets which changes the address after every transaction such as Xapo, in Xapo, the address of your wallet changes everytime a transaction is done though the previously used address still can be used for receiving bitcoins which means even if someone sends the funds on the address that is not now being shown as your address you will still receive the money in your wallet.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: bitbunnny on October 16, 2016, 08:05:37 AM
Changing address after each transaction is very good from security point of view but it could be a bit confusing for monitoring and tracking transactions. More and more online wallets have this feature to change your transaction address although wallet address stays the same.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: wintermeasures on October 21, 2016, 08:09:37 AM
Can someone please give me a list of the pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction? It seems very inconvenient to use a new address each time.
Pros:-
Don't Reveals Your Identity...
And Give Protection to Your Wallet and Protect Your Bitcoin. from Being Stolen....
Cons:-
So Difficult to Maintain So Many Addressees....
Not Hassle Free....


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: kryptqnick on October 21, 2016, 09:43:34 AM
About the main disadvantage of it OP already said. It really is very inconvenient to use new adress each time. And as for an advantage - it seems to be a safer way if you don't want your money to be stolen or if you are using it for something illegal. I don't use different adresses, because I don't deal with big sums. I would if I did, I guess.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: Betwrong on October 21, 2016, 09:57:40 AM
If you are not doing anything which is illegal and you don't have to hide from authorities I think it's absolutely unnecessary to use a new wallet for each transaction. I find it much more convenient to use the same wallet for many transactions because:
1. I have nothing to hide;
2. I don't have lots of money there anyway;
3. It's much easier to look through the history of your transactions which can be helpful sometimes.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: choppork on October 23, 2016, 04:48:53 PM
The pros are: They can't trace you easily; Each address can be dedicated to a different type of payment; You can separate payments depending on how you want
The cons are: The fee would kind of blow up when you receive a lot of payments everyday, more payment means more transaction fee for you to spend when you move the funds to your main wallet; Doesn't have that much point, honestly, unless you're a scammer.


Title: Re: Pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction?
Post by: wuvdoll on October 24, 2016, 08:07:04 PM
Can someone please give me a list of the pros and cons of using new Bitcoin addresses for each transaction? It seems very inconvenient to use a new address each time.

2-3 addresses for me is enough already rather than having lots of new addresses because if you do such thing , theres a possibility that you would able to lose one  of your wallets  which is risky but   you could always  list  it regarding  on your wallets information  so that theres no confusion when you need  to log them in.
For me, I just need ony 2 addresses, one for usual business with everyone and the other kept privately for myself mostly for security reasons and privacy sake. But do not see any reason why people will be using too many wallet addresses, basically bitcoins offer pseudo anonymous, so no one will be able to track you even you use only one address.