Bitcoin Forum

Is it standard for one person to have several bitcoin wallets?

I think it's a good thing  :)

if you only have one and your wallet stolen then all balance you have will be lost, you dont have anything else
keep your balance in some places, this minimizes the risk of loss

Wallets are different than addresses. I use blockchain.info as my primary wallet, and I have many addresses. Generally a good idea is generating a new address per transaction and labeling it for reference, accounting, an anonymity.
Welcome to bitcoin!

It's normal and helps you separate your addresses. Also if you keep your coins on multiple devices you'll need to install wallets there. For instance I have a secondary wallet on my phone.

Blockchain.info solves that as well. Same wallet across your phone desktop tablet laptop any device that has a web browser can access it quite well and there is a good app for iPhone an android as well. Plus no need to sync 40gb of the blockchain

Yes very standard.  It is wise to use them for different goals.

For example I would use one as a daily spend.  Easy to get to and send small amounts for what ever you need.  One for purchases of medium price (depends on you on this).  Then one that is a cold storage wallet you treat like fort knox.  With the cold storage you will keep the long term and most money in.

Blockchain.info is also quite risky as we saw a few months back. It is not a good practice to use it storage. If you need a quick access to make some payment by all means use it, but to keep your coins secure use an offline wallet.

Anyone who has a reasonable amount of BTC should maintain a policy of separating their hot and cold wallets at the very least. The cold wallet could be stored on an offline computer, or it could be a hardware wallet, or a paper wallet stored in a safe deposit box. Other than that, it's really a matter of personal preference. For example, you might choose to use Mycelium on your phone, Electrum on your laptop that you carry around with you, and Bitcoin Core on your desktop at home where data usage and resource consumption isn't really a concern.

I can understand how having your coins spread out across multiple wallets could mitigate the risk of losing all of them due to having all or most of your eggs in one basket. Never really thought of it that way. Although a correctly implemented cold wallet should still be very secure.


Assuming you have good computer security, it's much safer than other typical online wallets such as MyBitcoin and Inputs.io though since you actually have control over your private keys.

Yes it's normal i would say, like me a few people here probably try out any new wallet they see with cool features.
I have several btc wallets on my smart phone and computer. Although any large sums would always be kept in cold storage i like playing around with a new wallet, the wallets i have apps for are:
Greenaddress
Blockchain
Coinbase
Wallet32
Btc wallet
Mycelium
and Coinjar just to name a few. I only use one of these as my hot wallet, and that only ever has a max of 0.1btc in it, even then i would rather split in into 2 wallets.

It is not standard, but it is very common.
Most wallet programs generate multiple addresses to manage funds. For example the Bitcoin-QT core wallet creates a change address every time a transaction results in some change BTC.

Also multiple wallet addresses are good from privacy point of view.

But it is not mandatory and you can continue using same address for multiple transactions.

see it kind of as a bank account. you have 1 for bills and other stuff. and 1 for saving and so on.
spreading your coins over several wallets gives you less risk of losing coins due to a corrupt wallet file.

There are many good reasons for having several bitcoin wallets. Spread of risk is the first that comes to mind. You have heard the saying "don't put all your eggs in one basket". Wallet passwords can be hacked or forgotten, wallet files can be corrupted and wallet services can be offline. Have more than one wallet, you lower the risk of loosing all your coins when the unfortunate happens. Trying out different bitcoin clients for the most suitable one for you is another good reason. Some clients offer more security, some offer an easier backup solution and some offer more anonymity.

Pretty much. I've always got at least five 'hot' wallets, certainly wouldn't consider keeping my spending btc in just one client. It's good for organizing your funds, I've have a blockchain.info wallet for gambling (can access it anywhere) and I use Electrum on my home pc for buying games, software keys etc.

it is standard an in fact suggested for one person to have multiple "addresses" not wallets, in fact you would better change your receiving address every transaction.

but about multiple wallets, i myself have just tried out a couple of them to see the best suitable one for my needs.

Multiple Wallets, sure.  Especially if you make several transactions between desktop, mobile, paper, and hardware wallets.

For example, you can have your main wallet addresses on your PC with say Bitcoin Core or Electrum.  Then when you need to spend some say to buy a coffee, you could transfer to your mobile phone's wallet which is say Mycellium or Blockchain wallet for small amounts.  Then when you're ready to backup or secure your wallet stash, you'd create a paper wallet or secure it in a Trezor or Ledger hardware wallet.

All are valid uses and all multiple different wallet variations.  Cheers!

You can have as many wallets you want. There is a one good reason and this is security and mobility. Not all wallets are accesible from your mobile for example.
Generaly I would suggets to have one Cold wallet for storing your main portion of btc secured.
Then have one main wallet in your computer - I would suggets to use Multibit
As online wallets you can choose from Coinbase or Mycelium from mobile. - but do not put there too much btc.

You can be creative as you wish, remeber to do not put all eggs in one basket  ;)

I've used it for 2 years and zero problems. I think its the only web wallet I would trust. I use it primarely and don't use any cold storage wallets. I refrain from keeping things on exchanges but I do keep sometimes up to 1btc right before I am going to sell.

exactly. i've been using it too. and so far not a problem. and i don't know what Fernandez means by "as we saw a few months back"; all i've found out from negetive posts about bc.i was the users fault like using tor, not having 2FA, having keylogger ....

Year, it is. Mostly all Bitcoinusers have more than just one wallet (address).

There was an accident which the developer accidentally changed the 'K' value used for private key and thus it was insecure. This showed that blockchain.info couldn't even take sometime to test out their update before applying it and risked the funds of thousands of user. No one could have prevented that except blockchain.info themselves.

I think the problems Fernandez was talking about was the reused R problems blockchain wallet had, check this thread.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=581411.msg6354731#msg6354731
They have fixed it now but i still see a lot of posts about bc wallet hacks, then agin any wallet will get hacked with weak passwords and no 2fa ect.

You were lucky then. You missed the k problem which happened in the last couple of months.

There are lots of complaints about how they have only one dev and that they don't follow sound practices to cut cost. Best to avoid them.

It's good practice. You can split your stash and minimize loss if you somehow lose the key or if someone got your keys. Make sure to save a hard copy. And use a good, random password with symbols for each. Write them down.

There are no rules set in stone to dictate how many wallets or addresses you should use.

I like to spread my risk, and use several wallet providers for different things. You do not want to lose ALL your coins in one hack, do you?

I even make sure that I do not use online wallets for storing huge amounts of coins at any given time. {I have set my own levels and when they are reached, I would send the excess to cold storage}

So use as many wallets or addresses as you need, but keep the balance low.  ;D ;D 

If you are to use them for gambling or such related purposes, then "yes", it would be a great idea to have several bitcoin addresses to divide and store them in small pieces (and instead make paper wallets and get them out), so that you might be able to overcome your "greed" if it ever becomes a hurdle in hodling your coins, not waiting and throwing them towards wrong side and getting nothing out of it. Gave this advice to not let you put all your balls in their court for them to run away with your BTC.

Most users have one or two wallets max but some have more so that their transactions can't be tracked or they use exchanger websites to hide the transaction that goes in and out of their wallet. They do it for their security. Xapo, Blockchain, Coinbase are few of them which are trustworthy.

blockchain can multiple wallets?

You can create as many wallets as you want on blockchain.info https://blockchain.info/wallet/new. Each wallet will have a unique identifier, and you can log in the one that you want to spend the bitcoin in it.

Separate wallets each for a specific purpose can be useful... but I would probably just boil it down to cold vs hot storage. You can always make new addresses in any wallet.

ooo.. thank you for information friends
I think, blockchain can't multiple wallets.

thanks for the links. i have heard about this problem but i didn't read about it back then.

For now I have two wallets - btc core and blockchain.info , but I heard about blockchain.info being unsafe so I am considering replacing it with some other after I have some meaningfull amount. Just can't decide to what wallet to change..

I use xapo wallet
but I dont know can multiple wallets or no. because I just have 1 wallets.

I highly recommend you to move your coins from that Xapo. You don't have access to private keys, that means, if they stop their service or ran away, you will loose your money. Use wallets like Multibit, Electrum or GreenAddress. If you can't use desktop/mobile wallets, use Blockchain.info

yes, online wallets are just for spending small amounts and when you are using bitcoin day to day but they are not suitable for storing big amounts. for that it is better to use offline wallets

Are you really reffering go wallets or are you talking about addresses? As it's diametraly different thing.

Yeah it's a good idea, like having a wallet to go out with and do groceries and whatnot, then a main wallet to store your main stack.

i saw this xapo wallet on some faucet and tried to register also, but they want a lot of information including full name, address, phone number and all the private stuff. its way too much for an online wallet for faucets  ;D

You don't need it if you are using Xapo wallet only for storing. Information applies to users who want to exchange BTC to X currency.

Yes.  You should have at least 2; one, the "hot" wallet, where you use for everyday spendings.  Only have a small amount of bitcoins in this wallet.  The other one every bitcoin user should have is the cold storage, or the offline wallet.  This is where you store most of your bitcoins and hodl. :)

Yeah blockchain.info have had some problems recently but I'd still recommend them as a hot wallet (for storing small amounts of btc).

Can't go wrong with core as long as you've got enough hd space ;)

What problems did they have recently? Only problems that I know of is sometimes the blocks get a bit behind and don't sync properly. Core is just too slow and 40gb is too much. Also opening up the program is a hassle and I can only use it on my computer.

It is a big problem. If your wallet can't be synced upto-date how are you gonna spend from it?

I can't speak for him, but I think he is referring to the recent (across October and November of the last year) theft of bitcoins from users who had a blockchain.info wallet and accessed it through Tor. Exit nodes, as I understand it, see the traffic unencrypted and could sniff users' passwords to their online wallets...

It ended with Blockchain.info blocking access from Tor exit nodes

thank you guys for your replies. I'm new to this and the info helped.

Blockchain.info too had big problems. I am not too satisfied with their service when I read it. However, it may have changed lately and I still recommend them in "online" wallets.

Reused R values again: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=581411.0;all

Yes of course, it is "standard". This is my personal situation:
at the moment I am using  greenAddress as web-wallet (with greenbits as smartphone wallet) and electrum as desktopWallet. If I am outside and want to buy something or send some bitcoin to a friend it is normal that I will use greenbits, instead if I am at home and want to buy something online I prefer to use electrum.

What is the reason for using tor with blockchain, its not like your IP is logged with every tx you sent.
I never use account based things using tor, its a bad idea and this proves it.

If you ask me, I don't know, since I'm not using either Tor or blockchain.info online storage. Most likely the victims of the theft had been trying to protect their identity, so it looks like buyers and sellers of dark markets were the targets. Or they may have thought that some security is better than no security at all, and it played against them this time...

No, but your wallet identifier is. Blockchain.info can give identifier and it's IP. Some people are afraid of it and use TOR. IMHO you should be super paranoid to achieve it, just using VPN or TOR won't do in the way you think it will.

i think 3 it's better, the hot wallet on your desktop, and two for cold storage, in case one becomes corrupted

True true, if your address in your identifier account is linked to a scam I guess the FBI can ask blockchain. VPN is fine though, just not tor.

So why can't they ask the VPN provider? Even though many VPN provider claims to delete logs, you won't know for sure if they delete the logs. They may even be spying on you.

If they are a trusted VPN logger than I think you won't have the problem of them snooping on you. Also maybe use 2 VPNs in a row, just for that extra anonymity (if 1 of the VPN gives up your IP it will be from the other VPN)

Many VPNs logs are saved but there are a few VPNs which erase after 24 hours. You should check depth-review about the VPN you gonna use.

@funtrory: What if the FBI ask the first VPN provider? AFAIK dedicated VPN with advanced control for the user is secure but you will have to spend some $$$ on it.

Useful website: www.bestvpn.com/
Useful review: www.bestvpn.com/blog/4147/pptp-vs-l2tp-vs-openvpn-vs-sstp-vs-ikev2/

Solution: 100 vpns so the cops have a 1/100 chance of getting it right on the first try  ;D
Use a long trusted VPN with a large history of deleting logs.

You cant really get proofs that they delete logs. That's the problem here. VPNs is a rather expensive option to go for, especially if it's 2 or more. MITM can still happen if an exploit in HTTPS is found or if the server hosting the VPN is compromised.

Well none of those wallets are really safe. Try using offline cold storage wallets.

Then its very safe to have all bitcoins in 1 wallet, however if the wallet is deterministic then its better to use multiple address for anonymity,

there are many free vpn, that offer a good service, like tunnelbear, surfeasy and many others at $4 per month, unlimited data

for anonimity you could use also a vps with a private ip instead of a shared one like those on vpn

Check these:

• https://www.bestvpn.com/blog/11536/5-best-logless-vpns/.
• https://www.bestvpn.com/blog/11535/5-best-vpn-torrent-p2p-filesharing/
• http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/

And importantly, see https://www.goldenfrog.com/take-back-your-internet/articles/7-myths-about-vpn-logging-and-anonymity.

Free VPNs dont offer the best speed or security. If you really want anonymity, you would be looking for a shared IP since all the data are mixed between several users and it would be hard to pinpoint who sent that exact packet to the server.

tunnelbear does i believe, also i mentioned $4 per month, which isn't free you know

shared ip on the other hand are more easy to find, since they are used on multiple servers