[bitcoin-qt] Securing a Cluttered Wallet

[Haberdasher]

Heya,

So after playing around with things for quite a while I've decided to take this a little more seriously. I've got a bunch of copies of my wallet.dat file scattered to the wind as it hasn't ever had enough in it to worry about. Now I'd like to secure it and get it backed up.

My intention was to use Armory and create an entire new offline wallet, but it looks like they're having resource usage problems with the latest version, so I'll skip that for now. Using bitcoin-qt instead, I went ahead and and encrypted the current wallet, then created a new receiving address. I sent my total wallet balance to this new address and now am racking up confirmations on that transaction.

My two questions are:

• Assuming bitcoin-qt works like I'd expect and the new address's private key is only exists in the encrypted wallet.dat file, I should be safe to back this file up wherever I please, right?
• And since the transaction has several confirmations now, I don't really need to worry about tracking down every wayward copy of the unencrypted version of the wallet file, yeah?

Hopefully the right people will see this in the newbie forum, but thanks for the help either way!

[loudpete]

yes, although I would be paranoid and still back up the old wallet (the file is very small anyway)

[DannyHamilton]

Heya,

So after playing around with things for quite a while I've decided to take this a little more seriously. I've got a bunch of copies of my wallet.dat file scattered to the wind as it hasn't ever had enough in it to worry about. Now I'd like to secure it and get it backed up.

My intention was to use Armory and create an entire new offline wallet, but it looks like they're having resource usage problems with the latest version, so I'll skip that for now. Using bitcoin-qt instead, I went ahead and and encrypted the current wallet, then created a new receiving address. I sent my total wallet balance to this new address and now am racking up confirmations on that transaction.

My two questions are:

• Assuming bitcoin-qt works like I'd expect and the new address's private key is only exists in the encrypted wallet.dat file, I should be safe to back this file up wherever I please, right?
• And since the transaction has several confirmations now, I don't really need to worry about tracking down every wayward copy of the unencrypted version of the wallet file, yeah?

Hopefully the right people will see this in the newbie forum, but thanks for the help either way!

Yes.  If you generated the new address after setting the password, then the address does not exist in the unencrypted copies of the wallet that are scattered.  Now that all coins have been sent to this address, they should be safe from anyone who might get their hands on one of your old wallet.dat files.  Of course if anyone re-uses any of your old receiving addresses that were generated prior to you setting a password, then those bitcoins could potentially be stolen before you could sweep them to your new address.

[Haberdasher]

Of course if anyone re-uses any of your old receiving addresses that were generated prior to you setting a password, then those bitcoins could potentially be stolen before you could sweep them to your new address.

Ah yes, good thought. That hadn't crossed my mind, but I doubt it will be a problem.

Thanks for the warning though.

[JungleBook]

Heya,

So after playing around with things for quite a while I've decided to take this a little more seriously. I've got a bunch of copies of my wallet.dat file scattered to the wind as it hasn't ever had enough in it to worry about. Now I'd like to secure it and get it backed up.

My intention was to use Armory and create an entire new offline wallet, but it looks like they're having resource usage problems with the latest version, so I'll skip that for now. Using bitcoin-qt instead, I went ahead and and encrypted the current wallet, then created a new receiving address. I sent my total wallet balance to this new address and now am racking up confirmations on that transaction.

My two questions are:

• Assuming bitcoin-qt works like I'd expect and the new address's private key is only exists in the encrypted wallet.dat file, I should be safe to back this file up wherever I please, right?
• And since the transaction has several confirmations now, I don't really need to worry about tracking down every wayward copy of the unencrypted version of the wallet file, yeah?

Hopefully the right people will see this in the newbie forum, but thanks for the help either way!

koll stuff here

[BitshireHashaway]

Yes you would be safe to back it up wherever you please. I would also back up your old wallet, it takes an extra 10 seconds or so and may be able to provide you with some extra security. I would also recommend using armory if they get their service up and running again. Lastly, I would try and delete any versions of your old wallet that you don't need as they can pose an unnecessary risk.

[RogueLeader]

Hey, good plan... I just executed it myself.  Been meaning to beef up wallet security ever since btc went from fun hobby to booming commodity.