Re-backup with Multibit

[bitcoinrocks]

If I make a backup with Multibit, do I ever need to back up again or will that backup always work with that wallet?

[DannyHamilton]

If I make a backup with Multibit, do I ever need to back up again or will that backup always work with that wallet?

https://multibit.org/en/help/v0.5/help_walletBackups.html

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I want my bitcoin to be safe. What do you recommend?
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• Each time a new receiving address is generated a new private key is made which must be backed up.

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Note that it is a good idea to create a new receiving address EVERY TIME you receive a new transaction.  A bitcoin address is not an "account number".  It is more like an invoice number, in that it allows you to uniquely identify a payment for a particular payment request (as long as you create a new address each time and you keep track of what payment the address was generated for).

[bitcoinrocks]

I thought Multibit was an HD wallet which made that unnecessary?

Do I need to re-backup after 100 transactions or under any other conditions?

[DannyHamilton]

I thought Multibit was an HD wallet which made that unnecessary?

Why did you think that MultiBit was a HD wallet?

The quote I posted is straight from the MultiBit website.

Do I need to re-backup after 100 transactions or under any other conditions?

You need to re-backup every time you create a new receiving address.

You should create a new receiving address every time you are requesting a new payment to your wallet.  Therefore, logically you should re-backup every time you are requesting a new payment to your wallet (Unless you generate a buffer of several receiving addresses at a time before you actually need them)

[bitcoinrocks]

You should create a new receiving address every time you are requesting a new payment to your wallet.

Is that for privacy?

[DannyHamilton]

You should create a new receiving address every time you are requesting a new payment to your wallet.

Is that for privacy?

It is a recommended best practice.

It increases security slightly.

It increases your privacy.

It increases the privacy of everyone that you transact with.

It improves the fungibility of bitcoin over all.

It allows you to easily identify who paid you for what and when. If you are expecting a 1 BTC payment from me, and you are expecting a 1 BTC payment from someone else, how do you know which of us paid you if you give us both the same address for our payments?

It discourages people from forming silly (and incorrect) ideas about how bitcoin works.

It was recommended by Satoshi Nakamoto in the original white paper:

https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

a new key pair should be used for each transaction

[shorena]

I thought Multibit was an HD wallet which made that unnecessary?

Multibit HD is still in beta -> https://beta.multibit.org/

I would not recommend using it as your go-to wallet for now. Feel free to test it with small amount to give the devs feedback though.

[DannyHamilton]

Multibit HD is still in beta -> https://beta.multibit.org/

Thanks for the update.  Hadn't realized that MultiBit was in the process of implementing an HD version of their wallet.

If you are using the new HD MultiBit wallet that is in Beta, then you should not need to "re-backup" your wallet unless you import an external private key (does the HD MultiBit wallet even allow importing of external private keys?)

[shorena]

Multibit HD is still in beta -> https://beta.multibit.org/

Thanks for the update.  Hadn't realized that MultiBit was in the process of implementing an HD version of their wallet.

If you are using the new HD MultiBit wallet that is in Beta, then you should not need to "re-backup" your wallet unless you import an external private key (does the HD MultiBit wallet even allow importing of external private keys?)

According to jim you cant. Someone will probably find a way to do it anyway.

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You cannot import a single private key/ address with MBHD no. Being able to recover all your bitcoins from 12/18/24 words is such a win we wanted to keep that functionality - importing individual private keys breaks that.
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[jim618]

Yeah - I expect someone will code up a way to import private keys.
There's nothing intrinisically wrong in doing that - it's just proved problematic in the past.

[virtualx]

If I make a backup with Multibit, do I ever need to back up again or will that backup always work with that wallet?

backup everything: the program, the wallet, the exported keys. Better safe than sorry   You should be ok with only backup your private keys but i recommend to backup everything regulary.