Bitcoin Forum

I have bitcoins distributed over different address majority of small quantity. Can i send all my bitcoins to single address. If so should i do it.

Sure, you can.

Is it from a dedicated wallet (e.g. Electrum), and not exchanges? The private key (only from dedicated wallets) matters most if youre storing huge amounts because that's the only access to your Bitcoin storage.

Coins are from multiple sources. It is getting difficult to track. So i want to merge all in one address on bitcoin core wallet.

You can definitely do that. It's as easy as creating a receiving address in the new wallet you set up. Then go to each stash and send the coins to the newly created wallet.

Here is an informative thread about consolidating your inputs/coins.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2848987.0

Of course you can. But I would make it dependent on how many Bitcoins you have. If it's a small value (of course it's always subjective, so everyone has to decide for themselves), then I'd store it on one address, because it's much easier to handle. If you have Bitcoin with a larger value, then I would distribute them to several addresses. If you make a mistake and one of your private keys is stolen, only a part of your Bitcoins is affected and not all of them.

Yes. If you think that you can't because some wallets changes the receive addresses after every transaction, then no, it doesn't work that way. Past addresses used on your wallet can be re-used, though not really recommended for privacy reasons, hence why they added such a feature on wallets in the first place.

I mean if you are sending all your Bitcoins to an address, is the receiving address from a personal wallet?

Say you have BTC from site A, B and C. All of them are sent to your wallet address. Is that single wallet address from an exchange (e.g. Binance) or personal (e.g. Electrum)?

This article may help you out: https://coinsutra.com/private-key-import-vs-sweep-difference/

Would be good if you can provide more details. Which wallet are you using etc. That way people can give you more targeted advice.

OP said that he wants to merge it on bitcoin core wallet. I think that answers your question. Am I wrong?

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@monica_roth, btw, you can do that. Just make sure to back up your wallet (secure your private key/wallet.dat).

You can do that, yes, but be advised that if you have many small inputs it could be costly to move them. Depending how small those inputs are it might not be worth paying the fees to move the funds. You should follow the advice that Steamtyme gave you and consolidate all your inputs.

Of course you can. Whether you should is a different matter. Keep in mind, there are privacy implications to consolidating outputs. You're tying all the outputs together into one identity. Let's say someone or some agency is studying your blockchain activity. You'd be giving them all your wallet address clusters and transaction history on a silver platter. If that doesn't matter to you, then you could send all outputs in one big transaction to one address and it wouldn't matter.

It matters to me, though. I consolidate outputs that come from a single source (like my signature campaign), but that's it. Otherwise, I have many different wallets and I don't mix together coins from different sources. For privacy purposes, each wallet represents a disparate identity. If anyone is watching me, I'm hoping they haven't figured out where all my coins are hidden. :)

Make sure the both sender and recipient address format is correct (e.g. starting with 1, 3, b).

Are you sending BTC from an exchange?

I  also want to combine btc from multiple wallet to single address, but I am getting strange error while sending from bitcoin core wallet. I have checked I have sufficient balance to pay fee. error i got is Signature must be zero for failed check multi sig operation. Have anyone idea what can be the issue and how to resolve it.

Signature(?) is invalid.

You sure your bitcoin core is updated, and you're not trying to broadcast a transaction that is incorrectly build / is spending outputs that are no longer valid? Or using conflicting versions(?)

Looks like it could be a number of things.
Look through these, and see if any of the issues are recognizeable to you,
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1680640.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2059223.0
https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/61030/got-64-non-mandatory-script-verify-flag-signature-must-be-zero-for-failed-chec/61040
https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/78092/mandatory-script-verify-flag-failed-signature-must-be-zero-for-failed-checkmu
https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/50176/16-mandatory-script-verify-flag-failed-non-canonical-der-signature-code-26

If none of the above brings you any closer to a solution, maybe try to do a simple reinstall, or export your keys to electrum?

You suggested a valid point, I think my bitcoin core is outdated, let me try with updated version. Will I have to download whole blockchain again ? or old will work, actually it takes very long time to download entire blockchain.

Since you are using bitcoin core you might send all of your bitcoin to single address. Even you won 21 million and you can store them only single address. But you have to create address with private key. If you like to store large amoumt then I will suggest to use hard wallet like trezor nano ledger. It's more safe more than others wallet. But don't forget to use wallet with private key if you are using professionally.

That depends. As far as i am aware, you'll only have to update the txindex(which =/= the entire blockchain/chainstate) if you're updating from below 0.17, and that is if you're even using it in the first place, which, correct me if i'm wrong, you don't unless you run a node?

and you only have to download the full blockchain if you're upgrading from 0.7-0.8 to 0.17.
Although;
not sure if that's fixed in 17.1..

See;

And

Yes, you can do this but if the value is small, it is best to move it to different addresses But keep in mind that there are specific implications for the integration of outputs And in this subject are useful things about integrating your currencies https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2848987.0

Yes, I can do, but it is not ery safe, as if someone hack you,he receive access to all your bitcoins, so it will be better don't save a big amount on 1 address.

Not if the address belongs to a cold wallet, no "hacker" could touch that (if the seed words/private key are not online either).

This doesn't make sense.

Noone can 'hack an address'.

Either someone compromises your computer / mobile / wherever you store your private keys.. then he has access to ALL private keys stored there. Doesn't matter if you have your coins on 1 or multiple addresses.
Or someone gains access to your seed (which you have stored on a piece of paper (e.g. evil maid) / on your computer (very bad practice) / etc..). In this case the attacker also gains access to all of your coins. Regardless how they are split between multiple adresses.

With small amounts on a lot of addresses, you are increasing the size of the transaction. The more inputs are consumed, the bigger the transaction is.
And the bigger it is, the more fees you have to pay.


Bittrex is currently holding ~128.000 BTC in their cold wallet - on 1 address: https://live.blockcypher.com/btc/address/385cR5DM96n1HvBDMzLHPYcw89fZAXULJP/ (https://live.blockcypher.com/btc/address/385cR5DM96n1HvBDMzLHPYcw89fZAXULJP/).