(Not) Hacked and can not recover (solved)

[bfever]

If you had to tell two different people to send coins to you, you would not want to give them both the same address.

All they would see would be each other's address and that they had more or less paid the same guy at the same time. They would have to verify it with me, what was going on, unless the guys knew each other's addresses and could connect the address personally to the "other" guy.

Consider this for a moment: the blockchain is publicly available to everyone, so every transaction done is publicly visible (that is how it can work decentralized).
So if you decide to use only one bitcoin address for all your transactions, once somebody knows your address (like the people that are paying you some coins), that somebody can see all your transactions. It's like making public your whole bank account !

For that reason, you should give different people different bitcoin addresses, unless you want your private transactions known to the whole world.

Of course, you are free to reuse any "old" address. The client keeps track of all your addresses (that's the wallet.dat file). Just beware of the consequences.

Thilo

[FreeMoney]

Ok, but do you understand you weren't hacked?

The client generates new addresses automatically. It's going to do that regardless of whether you get a new wallet or not.

The bitcoins you currently own are in the original wallet file that was in that directory. So do not delete or lose that file.

No. I have been involved with BTC for a while and never heard of a wallet changing its address. My question remains... how do people know where to send money to me ( or anyone else ) if the address is changing?

I looked in the blockchain... and there is no connection with the new address.

It doesn't 'change' its address, it shows you a different one for convenience, that's all. As long as you keep wallet.dat you will have all the addresses it ever shows (and 100 more already made btw that you can't see).

[Draino]

Re-use addresses at your own risk.

which would be fine—if it were up to me—but the default client is more pushy than a banker and decides it wants to complicate my life for me

gee, thanks, papa bitcoin


here's a hint OP:  the satoshi client has so many examples of horrible interface design that i'm getting red in the face just thinking about it

try blockchain.info/wallet

if i were a betting man, i'd say the satoshi client scares off at least 5 people for every 1 that sticks around, and that one still gets pissed off

[Raoul Duke]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=15918.0

[mobile4ever]

All they would see would be each other's address and that they had more or less paid the same guy at the same time. They would have to verify it with me, what was going on, unless the guys knew each other's addresses and could connect the address personally to the "other" guy.

That's more than enough. Consider:

1) Some guy on the Internet owes me 2 Bitcoins for a Steam game. I give him my address. He knows my forum identity which leads him to my real name and address.

2) I sell my house for 15,000 Bitcoins. I give the buyer my address.

3) The guy on the Internet now knows I control 15,000 Bitcoins and he knows I haven't yet spent them. He has two tough guys show up at my real address with a wrench. Once they compel me to transfer the Bitcoins, chances of recovery are near zero. And I can't even really link the tough guys to the guy who bought the Steam game.

Re-use addresses at your own risk.

Yeah, this is a good example. Thanks.

[mobile4ever]

Consider this for a moment: the blockchain is publicly available to everyone, so every transaction done is publicly visible (that is how it can work decentralized).
So if you decide to use only one bitcoin address for all your transactions, once somebody knows your address (like the people that are paying you some coins), that somebody can see all your transactions. It's like making public your whole bank account !

For that reason, you should give different people different bitcoin addresses, unless you want your private transactions known to the whole world.

Of course, you are free to reuse any "old" address. The client keeps track of all your addresses (that's the wallet.dat file). Just beware of the consequences.

Thilo

Its definitely safer to have more than one address. I dont have anything to hide in my transactions, but at the same time having everyone in the world know what I do with my money is not attractive as well.

[mobile4ever]

It doesn't 'change' its address, it shows you a different one for convenience, that's all. As long as you keep wallet.dat you will have all the addresses it ever shows (and 100 more already made btw that you can't see).

I wish I had known that earlier. Perhaps other people will not have to make a thread like this one in the future.

Now that I know, and for the record - - → I was not hacked.

[FreeMoney]

It doesn't 'change' its address, it shows you a different one for convenience, that's all. As long as you keep wallet.dat you will have all the addresses it ever shows (and 100 more already made btw that you can't see).

I wish I had known that earlier. Perhaps other people will not have to make a thread like this one in the future.

Now that I know, and for the record - - → I was not hacked.

You can and should edit the title of the original post now. At least just add [Not actually hacked] to it.

[mobile4ever]

You can and should edit the title of the original post now. At least just add [Not actually hacked] to it.

Done. Thanks for the help.