Appreciate your answer, taking my case as example, after being fixed how it is expected to work a wallet that gap? Since it will not fail to "return" the reserved addresses, it will use previous unused change address (from 2 to 44 ? or it will just continue sequentially from the last change address that has been used, in this case 46?

It was imported from an empty wallet so range was [0,999] by default.


No, did not do any testing commands, only thing I did was to simulate a send transaction, just go to send set an address to see which fees was advising and I've did a few times during this mempool crazy high fees period.


Yeah, I've realized that, what I just did is to create a new empty wallet, import the same descriptor and the current candidate is 46 as in sparrow while the "old watch only" is at 110, so I was wondering if there's a way to manually select previous change for the future transactions.

Hello,

I do not understand how bitcoin core chooses the path for the "change" when creating a transaction.

I've realized that since I do a have a bitcoin core watch wallet (created with bitcoin core offline wallet descriptors), I have received and send a few transactions with it and just imported the same descriptor to another wallets (I have tried with Sparrow and Electrum).

Once imported, the balance displayed was not the same as in bitcoin core, so trying to figure out I found that it was one change address missing...checking that address I realized that it was in the path 84'/0'/0'/1/45 and since there is gap limit of 20 it did not show, so by increasing the gap I found the "missing" utxo. So in this wallet I have only used two change addresses one  which it is at path 84'/0'/0'/1/1 and the second at 84'/0'/0'/1/45.

For what reason would not start from 0? (it started at 1) and from there jumped to 45?

So what I try right now is that I create an usigned tx with the same input, output and fee with all the different wallets (Sparrow, Electrum and Bitcoin Core) and here are the results:

Electrum sends the change to the address: 84'/0'/0'/1/0
Sparrow send the change to the address: 84'/0'/0'/1/46
Bitcoin Core to the address: 84'/0'/0'/1/103

I close the wallets and I repeat all the steps and with Electrum and Sparrow it shows the same path for the change address (0 and 46) while in bitcoin core changes each time, now it shows 84'/0'/0'/1/105.

Yes I've read about Changelly on invity "KYC requested in exceptional cases. KYC required for refunds".

About ChangeHero yes, KYC is not required for refunds but be careful with ChangeNow "KYC requested in exceptional cases. KYC may be required for refunds

If any exchange or service uses a chain analysis, they will not care if you have used any coinjoin implementation or any centralized mixer service, they will treat all the same.

That being said, people should not scare or follow their narrative about "clean" or "tainted". Following this logic at the end all coins would be tainted... however I was surprised how absurd situation is becoming when I read on news "Legal Money Laundering: How A German Bank Is Cleaning Tainted", what they do is they buy "tainted" coins stolen from gouv and after doing it, by magic it becomes "legal and clean" again, and can be sold in any exchange 

The transaction link I do not have it anymore it was on telephone and did not save but I saw tx in wallet disappeared.

There's however another user who shared a transaction as you can see, it is a transactions where he sends funds back to himself:
https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/transaction/8348c52fc3580aae8cbd8c640b9f7454665d9266df3d69d83c02c631de3044b7

I do still have however the telegram conversation where he just agrees to send btc and ask me why I did not send USDT, once I've said because has RBF and fees are low that I will send when 1 confirm conversation stops.

Joinmarket


Because if you are not using your own node, you are connecting to someone else node and in order to establish connection they must see your IP. Using tor can help but if you don't use your own server in case of electrum, you are sending all the addresses the connected servers to check balances so even if they do not know your IP they can know all your addresses.

You can also try Blockstream Green, this wallet has tor built in, you just need to activate it in settings.

He is just a scammer, I've contacted him and this is how it works:

He is willing to send BTC first, but he sends with RBF and a very low transaction fee, then he asks you to send USDT and insists a lot, since I've said him to just wait for 1 confirmation and I would send the USDT... chat was over and he used RBF to get back the transaction.

Come on... just saying it increases privacy or fungibility would be enough, money laundering and funding criminal activities are mostly done by using fiat, so please avoid this gouv propaganda 

About logs I do agree, and if you are concerned about this, using a non custodial coinjoin solution would be better than using a bitcoin mixer.

Pour des raisons évidentes? lesquelles svp?

It is not that easy to know if borrowed funds are going to be used to enable a PONZI/HYIP or any other cause you  may dislike, most of the reasons given (that I see in lending thread) are just "personal", which I think it is fine since privacy it is very important, so If I were to lend, I would not ask too much questions either.

But it is obvious that if funds were going to be used for something that I dislike, like a Ponzi, I would not lend.

You are right, just tested and will not find the key.


Refill on-the-fly it is definitely the best solution.

To test it, I edit bitcoin.conf with keypool=3, I generate a wallet, when I type "listdescriptors" it shows range [0,2] and I import the descriptor to a watch only wallet with range [0,999].
With the watch only I create 4 receiving address, with the command "getaddressinfo" the first 3 addresses:
"getaddressinfo" withe the 4th address:
getaddressinfo bc1qqdpe3fq7vqza7z9zquc7fedp7jkgvjruskhlrn

Then I just refill the keypool with "keypoolrefill 10" and type again:
getaddressinfo bc1qqdpe3fq7vqza7z9zquc7fedp7jkgvjruskhlrn

Thanks for the answer, I will close the github issue.

Reading the pull request you mention https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/23417


Does it means that when it will be implemented it will be also easier to create a watch only wallet to create unsigned transactions? For now what I do is create a wallet offline, get the descriptors info with "listdescriptors" and export to the watch only wallet as mentioned here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5392824.0

I was wondering that when taproot descriptors are added for old descriptor wallets I would just repeat the same steps, is that correct or another way to do it will be possible?

Thank you. I've just opened a new issue-feature request: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/24801

I am trying Bitcoin Core v 23.0 RC3,

I create a new wallet and in receiving tab I can choose Bech32m(taproot).

Using a wallet created with descriptors=true with the precedent version 22.0 does not allow me to receive Bech32taproot (which is normal, since by that time "desc": "tr was not present), so I was wondering how could I upgrade the wallet.

I have tried to upgrade with
But it is already updated:

Thank you

Tutorial updated specifying that this command is only available for version 0.22 to avoid confusions, thanks!

This steps can be done with 2 PCs (recommended), or if you only have one PC you can use a linux distribution like tails.

The first step will be to download Bitcoin Core, verify signatures and transfer to a USB Flash Drive (since the second PC or when booting with tails will never be connected to the internet).

-----------------------------------------
Offline PC or with tails
-----------------------------------------
Open Bitcoin-qt with double click which is located in bitcoin-22.0/bin/

Bitcoin-qt will boot and ask us where to store data, just click ok, nothing will be downloaded since we are not even connected to the internet.



Create a new wallet, select encrypt and descriptor wallet:



After creating the wallet, do a backup and store it in a another device like a USB Flash Drive (if you are using tails after shutting down all will be deleted). To do a backup just click File -> Backup wallet

Now we will get the information needed in order to create a watch wallet only.

Open the console (window → console, or Ctrl+T) and type:

note: Tthis command is available since version 0.22



With this command we will get a list of 6 descriptors in total. We will be using those with path derivation 84'/0'/0.(We will be using this derivation for native segwit, bech32).

Copy in a text file both of them and save it to the USB flash drive, in this example my .txt file will look like this:

  
One descriptor has the value internal:false while the other internal:true. Internal false will provide the information needed for the watch-only wallet to generate receiving addresses while internal true is for the change addresses.

We can shutdown the PC/tails.

-----------------------------------------
Online PC.
-----------------------------------------

Your online PC must have bitcoin core installed and synched.

Create a watch wallet only: Select Disable Private Keys, Make Blank Wallet and Descriptor Wallet.



Open the .txt where you saved both descriptors, go to console and import the both descriptors with their timestamp with the command importdescriptors.

In my example command will look like this:

first descriptor:


second descriptor:




This will import the descriptor with an initial keypool of 1000 (which is the default), any new addresses you request will come from their descriptors. If all correct it will return “success”: true

After this our watch wallet only it is fully functional allowing us to receive payments and create unsigned transactions.

Before receive any payment in the watch wallet only please be sure you have the wallet.dat backup of the offline wallet

For this tutorial I have received two transactions as you can see:


Now to spend them, just do as usual, enter the address to pay to, set fees:

click Create Unsigned:

Then click save and you will get a .psbt file which we will copy to a USB Flash Drive in order to sign with the offline wallet.

-----------------------------------------
Offline PC or with tails
-----------------------------------------
If you boot with tails you will have to copy the bitcoin client, copy the backup of the wallet.dat in the bitcoin folder ~/.bitcoin/wallets/wallet.dat

File→Load PSBT from file

Review the information and click sign transaction.

If you are using bitcoin core 0.22 and your wallet is encrypted (which should be if you have followed all the steps in this tutorial) you will get an error (Could not sign any more inputs), passphrase is not even asked. This will be fixed in the next release.

To sign we must unlock wallet first:

window→console and type:

walletpassphrase “mypassprhase” 120

Between “” you enter your passphrase and 120 can be replaced by any number, in this case wallet will remain unlocked for 120 seconds and after that time, it will lock automatically.

After the transaction is signed, click save, and save the signed psbt file to the USB flash drive.


-----------------------------------------
Online PC
-----------------------------------------

File→Load psbt from file


Click Broadcast Tx and done:

That is a great advice!

Another thing would be to use the dedicated offline PC with tails, as far as I know it is not vulnerable to a cold boot attack since RAM is overwritten after shutting it down (assuming PC was not previously compromised).

For seed extraction I thought the old versions were vulnerable to Oled side channel  (ledger was vulnerable but not critical) not allowing seed extraction.

The charlatan has a great blog and he listed all hacks, if you want to check, here is the link:
https://thecharlatan.ch/List-Of-Hardware-Wallet-Hacks/