Can I have the same wallet in two computers?

[blisscan]

I installed armory and a stored a backup of the wallet.

Does it make any sense to install armory in a second computer and import the wallet so that I can spend my bitcoins in any of the two computers?

Thanks in advance ...

[Shallow]

I think you can do it but why would you? It just means that you now have to look after two devices.

[blisscan]

Well, the reason is that I have a computer at work and one at home. I try to have everything replicated.

I am aware that having the wallet replicated increases the chances of theft. As my directories are encrypted and the wallet is encrypted, I think that theft would not be a big issue.

[kokjo]

...I think that theft would not be a big issue.

...and they are gone!

[blisscan]

...I think that theft would not be a big issue.

...and they are gone!

What do you mean kokjo?

Even if someone steals one of my computers with the encrypted wallet inside an encrypted folder, they cannot get the bitcoins (I hope).

I can always recover my bitcoins with my paper backup.

I don't have that many bitcoins anyway. Even if they were stolen it wouldn't be a big deal.

Back to my original question:
Is it possible at all to use the same armory wallet in two different computers?

[kokjo]

...I think that theft would not be a big issue.

...and they are gone!

What do you mean kokjo?

Even if someone steals one of my computers with the encrypted wallet inside an encrypted folder, they cannot get the bitcoins (I hope).

I can always recover my bitcoins with my paper backup.

I don't have that many bitcoins anyway. Even if they were stolen it wouldn't be a big deal.

Back to my original question:
Is it possible at all to use the same armory wallet in two different computers?

once you think that security is no problem, it becomes a problem.

[jaime]

once you think that security is no problem, it becomes a problem.

He is not asking about security.

It is not a good idea. Each time you do a transaction the wallet uses or creates new addresses and keys for the change. If you go ahead you would have to sync both wallets before you use them and besides, you could not use them at the same time.

This is with the bitcoinqt, don't know if the sames applies to armory.

[blisscan]

Gracias Jaime

I know that the reference client uses random addresses and therefore it is not a good idea. But armory is different. Let's see if some armory expert chimes in.

[Puppet]

AFAIK, bitcoind creates 100 addresses in reserve when it creates the wallet. So unless you create more than 100 reception addresses in the client,  you should be ok and the wallets should be in sync.
Dont know if armory does it, I thought it used bitcoind, but if you manually create enough spare addresses to receive coins on before hand, and then copy the wallet, it should be ok.

[blisscan]

Thanks Puppet. I believe armory uses deterministic address. Which means that there is no longer that 100 addresses limit. That's precisely the reason I asked specifically about armory

[Carlton Banks]

You're right that public key determinism is a better fit for syncing, but it still sounds like a difficult setup to manage. You might get a good working methodology if you had only one copy of the wallet file, kept on USB storage, and set the config files in Armory to scan that disk for it's default wallet location. Otherwise the 2 separate wallet files wouldn't be in the same state all the time. It's possible that this doesn't matter though, I'm not sure how/if Alan has accounted for such cases as this.

[blisscan]

Thanks for your insights.

[picobit]

There are absolutely no problems having the same Armory wallet on two computers.  The same bitcoin-qt wallet would be a disaster, since they would create different addresses.  But Armory is completely deterministic, so the only minor inconvenience is that notes added to transactions will not syncronize.

As other mentioned, it doubles the risk of theft.  But hopefully you are well protected against malware and such.  If the risk on one computer is acceptable, then hopefully double that risk is acceptable too

[blisscan]

Thanks for your answer and good advise. Right now I am running armory in a dedicated NATted old computer with a clean ubuntu LTS installation . The computer stays offline most of the time, as I turn it on only when I want to access my wallet. At some point I should move to the next level of security and start using an offline wallet.

To be honest, these security measures are an overkill for the little money that I have. But I do like following the best practices, even if it is not strictly necessary

[xcsler]

There are absolutely no problems having the same Armory wallet on two computers.  The same bitcoin-qt wallet would be a disaster, since they would create different addresses.  But Armory is completely deterministic, so the only minor inconvenience is that notes added to transactions will not syncronize.

As other mentioned, it doubles the risk of theft.  But hopefully you are well protected against malware and such.  If the risk on one computer is acceptable, then hopefully double that risk is acceptable too

If the wallets are online watching only wallets I don't think there is any risk of theft. Those don't have the private keys.