Paper Wallet Import

[optimator]

I read that you shouldn't import a paper wallet (the private key) into bitcoin-qt. Why is that?

[HighInBC]

It will send your change to a new address instead of leaving it on your paper wallet.

The trick is to spend what you want then put everything else on a NEW paper wallet.

[optimator]

It will send your change to a new address instead of leaving it on your paper wallet.

The trick is to spend what you want then put everything else on a NEW paper wallet.

Why is that a problem?

Say I have 100 btc spend 5 and 95 gets returned as change to a "reserved" address (1 of the 100 preallocated addresses in my wallet).

Can't I spend the change?

[nobbynobbynoob]

Of course, but the imported wallet is no longer cold, it is part of the live wallet. This may seem obvious to some of us, but one guy on Reddit recently lost about BTC87 by deleting his live wallet because he mistakenly believed the unspent change from the imported cold wallet had been returned to that cold wallet. Cold wallets are single use only after importation.

[HighInBC]

The only problem is when people assume the change is on their old paper wallet.