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Author Topic: Is there any problem with running 2 clients with identical wallets?  (Read 1177 times)
sgravina (OP)
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March 10, 2013, 02:59:42 AM
 #1

If I turn on two clients each with the same wallet file will I have any problems?  I don't need to do this.  I just thought of it because I move a wallet from one computer to another.

Sam
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March 10, 2013, 03:24:33 AM
 #2

It will be no problem until your clients start to generate new addresses. Obviously they going to be different and your clients will be showing different balance. Merging them will be kind difficult.
justusranvier
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March 10, 2013, 03:26:49 AM
 #3

It's not a problem is you use a client that has deterministic wallets.
Gavin Andresen
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March 10, 2013, 07:34:12 PM
 #4

It is a problem if you send a transaction from one of the copies of the wallet while it is catching up with the blockchain. You can easily accidentally double-spend yourself, and end up with a transaction that will never confirm.

Deterministic wallets don't solve that problem.


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justusranvier
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March 10, 2013, 07:36:14 PM
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I don't know about the other clients but Armory won't let you spend until it's caught up with the blockchain.
btcven
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March 10, 2013, 11:18:02 PM
 #6

As Gavin said, in the case of Electrum if you're using one server in one client synced and other in other client then one of the servers could lag and cause a double spend due to the two wallets not being synced

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March 11, 2013, 12:06:14 AM
 #7

It will be no problem until your clients start to generate new addresses. Obviously they going to be different and your clients will be showing different balance. Merging them will be kind difficult.

Your client starts generating new addresses immediately to replace those used from the reserve pool. You must replace the wallet copy with the original again and again before there is any possibility of a new pool addresses being used.

You will of course lose information if you add addresses to the address book or label addresses in the wallet copy and then replace the copy with the one from the original computer - you can't use it for the basic functions you would want in a wallet.

The alternative is to never copy them, then both wallets will become independent and eventually will have their own unique addresses. Change sent back to one wallet may not be spendable in the other, the balance of one wallet may suddenly drop.

TL;DR - a bad idea.
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