Bitcoin Forum

I just want you some simple question

1. How many bitcoin address ?
2. If you have lot bitcoin address, why you have/need lot address ?
3. If you have lot bitcoin address, do you put the address on different wallet.dat ?
4. How many address do you think person must have ?

had been forgot

Technically you should be using a new Bitcoin address for every single transaction you make!

If you are using Bitcoin Core then you already have more than 100 bitcoin addresses. You just aren't aware of it.

Bitcoin Core creates 100 addresses that it doesn't tell you about when you run it for the first time.  It then uses a new one of these hidden addresses for the change from your transactions every time you send a transaction.

I have a few Bitcoin Core wallets, so I have a few hundred addresses.

Then, it was recommended by Satoshi Nakamoto that you use a new receiving address for EVERY transaction.  I've done over a hundred transactions, so I have over a hundred receiving addresses.

I've also installed a few other wallets either to try them out or for specific purposes (such as MultiBit, blockchain.info, Mycellium, etc).

I've never counted, but if I had to guess I'd assume that I therefore have somewhere around 1,000 addresses.

For the average user you probably only need a handful, though people may want to use more if they're trying to remain anonyomous. I only have a few so far but have just used the one currently to recieve money.

Wow how do so many people have 50+ addresses?  Surely they cannot be actively using them

Around 200,000. Don't ask why, I was rather naive 3 years ago when I did it. That wallet has a size of over 100 megabytes, so most likely much less than 200k, my other wallet is over 10 megabytes so it has a few Ks of addresses there.

Well, if i do that. I would have >200 address now  ;D


I think it's hard to me, to use 1000 address


Yeah, you're right

1. i just have around 25 - 31 addres
2. because i need it for faucet :D
3. yes i do
4. i dont know :D

I have 2 at present one for saving and other for gambling

I have 127,000,000 Bitcoin addresses.

You have some serious privacy issues there!
One address for saving will make anyone who trades with you aware of your bitcoin fortune!

The question really should be two parts:

1) How many active addresses do you have (addresses with unspent transaction outputs)?

2) How many total addresses have you used?

Everyone should use a different address for every single receive transaction and every change address should be different.  So the answer for the average user should be:

1) 50-100
2) thousands and thousands

Any other answer is bad for the long term viability of Bitcoin, and should be highly discouraged.

If you care about Bitcoin please switch to a wallet which will naturally lead to the correct user behavior and away from wallets that do not.

Good:  bitcoin-qt
Better:  deterministic wallets (Trezor, wallet32, etc.)
Very bad:  blockchain.info using its default behavior

Also, all donation addresses should be handing out a new address to each visitor and all periodic payments should use deterministic key pair generation.  Any use of a static address, whether vanity or not, should not be done and should be hightly discouraged by the entire user base (don't use them, ask for a different address every time when making a payment).

Reason is in my signature.

This behavior is bad not only for your privacy but the privacy of everyone who does transactions with you.  If you (and others in your boat) care at all about the long term viability of Bitcoin you will stop it at once.

I have an address for every single transaction J do.
I care about anonymity

2

But only a fraction of private keys  :D

i just have 10k bit coin address...
because that's i need...

and i've a plan to create 1 million address.. ;D

i only have 1. do we need more than 1 really? i mean why be paranoid idk.

You don't have to take care. You only have to give a new address everytime you are going to receive a payment, and use a wallet that sends change to a new address everytime you make a payment.

People will be able to see your net worth. Besides that, if everyone did the same, people would be able to see who you transacted with, and how much. It would be like publishing your bank movements.

What should I do with used address/private key?
Is there a way to recycle it back to /dev/random if I do not need it anymore?  ;D

so many until i forgot the old one password  ;D

The private keys for all of your old addresses should be kept in your wallet just in case someone sends you more BTC at an old address.  If you delete your old private keys there is a chance someone will send you BTC to an old address.  You do not want to lose those BTC.

They should not be "recycled"

There are more possible addresses than you, I or any human being can really comprehend - if that was your concern.

Why do you all hate Bitcoin so much?  I joke, kind of.  Please consider cleaning up your act.  Every person that behaves this way is a weak link in the Bitcoin system.  And you know what they say about the chain and the weakest link.  You are not just flushing your own privacy down the toilet but the privacy of everyone who sends you BTC and everyone you send BTC to and by extrapolation you are hurting the privacy of everyone who uses Bitcoin and damaging Bitcoin itself.

You do not have to personally keep track of all the addresses you use.  A good wallet will do all that for you.  Just switch to a good wallet.

It was a joke, man! ;D
I've put my used private keys on the web. Let they live free, not in [encrypted] wallet!

Your jokes are funny to experienced users however they may confuse all the noobs in this thread.  Yes, private keys living free and easy, published on the web.  ROTFL here.  Thanks.

Less than one. No option for that?  :-X

I have 2, one with nothing, one with 0.00569927. I have some more invested in btc jam though.

OK, my private keys (18k+) are on site. May I put a link here? Or should we teach all noobs forever in this forum?

I just don't know. It doesn't matter at all.

I have only one currently, I can't grasp the idea of having hundreds of addresses.. Since I use blockchain. Can anyone clarify why you need 100s, and is it better to use an actual program then a site like blockchain?

The advantage to multiple addresses is that it protects your privacy. If you use only one address, then everyone that can associate your address with you knows:

1. how many bitcoins you have,
2. where all your bitcoins have come from, and
3. everyone you have ever sent them to.

I have unlimited addresses.

So, I only currently have a few addresses.


Sounds worthy. But, how do you change the default behavior of the blockchain.info wallet, and how do you manage key backup if each transaction creates a new set of keys?

Nice try IRS  ;D

Just delete the address right away! No way to recycle it.
I have 4 addresses for different source.

Oh, no! Deleting an address is like killing a pet!

blockchain.info is very difficult to use in a privacy protecting way because you have to change your behavior.  You have to tell it to create a new address each time you want someone to sent you BTC (not too bad).  You can use the shared send advanced function (costs a bit more BUT it will automatically generate a new change address for every send and you will be mixing your transaction in with a lot of other transactions and this is great for privacy).  You can generate your own change addressed by hand and set up your transactions to have good privacy behavior in the advanced send tab but you have to do this all by hand.  I really love the blockchain.info wallet and I use it whenever I want to to a coinjoin (shared send) transaction but you have to be very careful how you use it.

Then, here it the real problem with that wallet:  you have to remember to back up the wallet pretty much after every transaction.  I have mine set to send me an email containing my encrypted wallet after every new keypair is created.  Painful.  And because I am using the email system it is not that secure, so I only use it to hold a minimum amount of BTC.

That is why I highly recommend deterministic wallets.  Get yourself a deterministic wallet and you will never look back.  All you have to do is keep the seed safe and secure and then you never have to make another backup again(!) because every receive address and every change address is determined and can be recovered from that single seed.  Very cool.

So, you back up the seed on paper, make a few copies, laminate them, keep one in a safe hidden location in your house, another in an offsite safe location, etc.  You can even be very clever and store half the seed one place and the other half at a different location.

Of the deterministic wallets the Trezor hardware wallet is probably the safest but it costs $120 for the device.  My favorite Android deterministic wallet is "Wallet32".  There are others to choose from just look around for them or I will get a list together and post it if I get time.

Oh wow, I had no idea!! Crazy!

Thanks for the very informative post. 

Trezor looks great, but it would not be practical to carry a giant device around, and it doesn't seem to support the smartphone anyway. Which still means partitioning funds into a smaller mobile wallet.

Would be great to hear your thoughts on the other wallets, when you have the time.

The more you use bitcoin the more addresses you (should) have. Some people might have 1 or 2 while others might have thousands already.

Not possible, there is a limit (which will take a very very long time) to the amount of addresses, but its virtually unlimited.

There is a good reason to use new address for every new transaction. Stop people from peaking into what your spend your coin on.

Probably 1,500 addresses, not counting change addresses.

You are welcome.  Giant?  That is not how I would describe them.  Anyway, they will be supported on Android fairly soon.

There are lot of bitcoin address may be thousand, but you should have to ask like "how many active/used bitcoin address you have?"
some people are used different addresses for their specific purposes like 50-100  same as me but not all of it are actively used.

1. Many... But Addresses with more than 1 btc is no more than three.
2. Mostly QT generated change addresses.
3. Nope.
4. No idea  :o

I got approx 10 address, even though I made transactions above 7 BTC

I see no point in using different address for every transaction. 50+ address is over safety.

I have about twenty addresses, five for every wallet I use.

I feel inadequate.

I have 1 address.

Looking at the poll results, it appears most people are doing the right thing and creating fresh addresses for their transactions.

I predict we will see more coins coming out like CLAMS where you most likely have already been sent some, you just need to scan your Bitcoin wallet.

I have 3 Bitcoin addresses, I have one address for shopping online, one address for my savings and one address to get payments from signature campaign.
I think 3/4 Bitcoin addresses are sufficient, if you don't care about your privacy.

I have just one address but I have just entered in the crypto currencies.

1. I have 6-8 Bitcoin addresses.
2. I think due to security problem we need lot of address.
3.Yes
4. I think at least 5 address.

above 50, there was a suggestion to make a new address for every new transaction, well i did follow it even if i find it a bit too extreme

Literally thousands..... Too much to count them between all my wallets.

That's crazy.  I only have 3.  How do you keep track of them all?  or are some empty and you'll never use them again?

Why do you need to keep track of them? Your wallet keeps track of them.

1. > 2000
2. paper wallets, bitcoin projects, toying around
3. yes/does not apply
4. 0

You may not care about your privacy or that anyone and everyone can know exactly how many BTC you have (your "bank account balance"), where you spend your BTC, what organizations you give to (that donation to wikileaks may come back to bite you in the ass someday), where you get your BTC, etc.

But do you care about the long term viability of the entire Bitcoin project/concept?

If you do please read my previous posts on this subject.  For example:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=744300.msg8418328#msg8418328

This thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=731384.0

Specifically:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=731384.msg8265615#msg8265615
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=731384.msg8265712#msg8265712
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=731384.msg8266003#msg8266003
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=731384.msg8266163#msg8266163

Everyone should be using a different Bitcoin address every single time they receive BTC including periodic payments such as mining income.  Everyone should be asking for a brand new address every time they send BTC to someone else.  If the site/vendor/organization wants your BTC then giving you a unique address every time you send them BTC is not too much to ask.  This is just the baseline good Bitcoin citizen behaviour.  If you really want to go above this baseline "good manners" and help correct the issues caused by those with lax privacy standards then mix your coins whenevery you get the chance.

If you are not doing this then please consider cleaning up your act for the good of the Bitcoin system.  If the wallet you are using does not support this then get another wallet.

Here is an example:

So you have exactly 0.00018911 BTC.  Not a big deal right now but what if you had a larger sum and someone were able to crack through your username and found your real life address, showed up at your door, etc.  

Can you see how it could become a real issue if you publish your entire cash net worth worldwide?

Lol I've transferred so many transactions with one address. I couldn't give a crap about this 16MtvTUvqwwKwV87nayxPLHTJJZNGPa9qw  is my main address and I have one more for mining payouts.

I have 6 in total.