multibit HD, wallet words and addresses

[vlom]

Hi

please help me understand this.

1. during the installation of multibit HD i wrote down the so called "wallet words".
2. with this wallet word i can restore my wallet.
Q1: if i forget the password of the wallet i can restore it with the wallet words?

3. to every BTC-Address there is a pair of keys.
Q2: is this correct?

4. i have a wallet and within this wallet i can have any number of addresses.
Q3: correct?
Q4: all these addresses are restorable with the wallet words?
Q5: which part/files do i have to backup exactly?

and the last question.
Q6: if know the wallet words. i make a backup today. tomorrow i generate a new address to receive a payment. then my pc gets lost. can i claim the BTC a received with the address generated after the i made the backup?


thanks a lot.

[cr1776]

You might try moving this into here since that is the multibit section.  ;-)

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=99.0

Hi

please help me understand this.

1. during the installation of multibit HD i wrote down the so called "wallet words".
2. with this wallet word i can restore my wallet.
Q1: if i forget the password of the wallet i can restore it with the wallet words?

3. to every BTC-Address there is a pair of keys.
Q2: is this correct?

4. i have a wallet and within this wallet i can have any number of addresses.
Q3: correct?
Q4: all these addresses are restorable with the wallet words?
Q5: which part/files do i have to backup exactly?

and the last question.
Q6: if know the wallet words. i make a backup today. tomorrow i generate a new address to receive a payment. then my pc gets lost. can i claim the BTC a received with the address generated after the i made the backup?


thanks a lot.

[shorena]

Hi

please help me understand this.

1. during the installation of multibit HD i wrote down the so called "wallet words".
2. with this wallet word i can restore my wallet.
Q1: if i forget the password of the wallet i can restore it with the wallet words?

Yes.

3. to every BTC-Address there is a pair of keys.
Q2: is this correct?

Yes, there is a public key and a private key for every address.

4. i have a wallet and within this wallet i can have any number of addresses.
Q3: correct?

Correct, a very high number of address (>10k) might slow things down though

Q4: all these addresses are restorable with the wallet words?

Yes.

Q5: which part/files do i have to backup exactly?

There are several types of backups, see here -> https://multibit.org/en/help/hd0.1/backups.html

and the last question.
Q6: if know the wallet words. i make a backup today. tomorrow i generate a new address to receive a payment. then my pc gets lost. can i claim the BTC a received with the address generated after the i made the backup?

Yes. The wallet words cover all possible future addresses derived from them. If you have a working backup you also have the wallet words (in an encrypted version)

thanks a lot.

[vlom]

ok very fine. so i only need the wallet words and i can lose or destroy all my hardware.

but how is this possible?
at the beginning the wallet words are created and everything is connected to these. how are future addresses linked to these words?
i really can't imagine how this is possible.

can you explain this to me too?

[shorena]

ok very fine. so i only need the wallet words and i can lose or destroy all my hardware.

Well you will need some hardware to run MBHD on to use the wallet words, but yes.

but how is this possible?
at the beginning the wallet words are created and everything is connected to these. how are future addresses linked to these words?
i really can't imagine how this is possible.

can you explain this to me too?

The wallet words or the seed is the source of all private keys, because from it you create the 1st private key and from the 1st private key you create the 2nd private key and so on. Each key in this chain has a child that is also a private key and can also have a child. Besides the initial seed there is no randomness involved, thus the private keys you derive from the seed are identical every time you do it.

For every private key there is a public key that is used to create the address.

Its actually a bit more complicated[1] than that, its my best shot at a high level answer that assumes no prior knowledge.

[1] You can find the details here: https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0032.mediawiki

[cr1776]

This is a nice explanation of HD wallets:

http://codinginmysleep.com/hd-wallets-in-plain-english/

And this has a bit more:
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/deterministic-wallets-advantages-flaw-1385450276

[vlom]

Besides the initial seed there is no randomness

ahh, thats the point.

you can explain things like that very well.

and now i try to understand things on github.

but before i will read this:

This is a nice explanation of HD wallets:

http://codinginmysleep.com/hd-wallets-in-plain-english/

btw and offtopic: the atmosphere is really friendly outside the ALS-subs.

[shorena]

Besides the initial seed there is no randomness

ahh, thats the point.

you can explain things like that very well.

and now i try to understand things on github.

btw and offtopic: the atmosphere is really friendly outside the ALS-subs.

Thanks, maybe try the links by cr1776 first. I just skimmed them, but it seems they are easier to understand than the full BIP.