Bitcoin Forum

Hi Guys,

If a wallet has 0.00 balance:

#1 Isn't that a waste of wallet address keys?
#2 Do they have an expiry date?
#3 Can they be destroyed? So someone else can use the key?
#4 Would we have the same problem as IPv4 in future where there is a payment address key scarcity?

Thanks in advance for replies.

i dont believe so

Instawallet keeps creating a new wallet everytime it refreshs. So that's ok? Wouldn't that hog up massive amounts of server space?

1. No, wallets can hold a lot of keys
2. No
3. Yes, and if someone else gets the key they could use it but if it was empty there would be no point
4. The number of addresses along with the matching keys is a very very big number. We will never run out.

That makes no sense.
Does what have an expiry date?
You would never, ever want to use a key that someone else ever had access to.
No.

The security properties of the bitcoin system render all these issues almost literally meaningless.

Either there exists one or more locks that a key opens or not. If such locks exist, then you still need the key and are still using it. If no such locks exist, then the key is just a piece of data sitting on your computer -- it has no effect whatsoever on anyone else.

Ah ok cool. Thanks for clarifying.  ;D

You may find my post on this thread to be helpful. It explains in more detail how addresses are used:
http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=31386.msg399544#msg399544

thanks, friend.