Wallet - do I delete it?

[KarmaUK]

Hi,

I have created my wallet and encrypted/backed up.

Do I now delete the wallet.dat file?

Thanks

[CIYAM]

Why do you want to delete your wallet?

[KarmaUK]

I don't, I'm asking if you are meant to once you've encrypted it and create backups.

I'm sure I read that it is recommended somewhere whilst investigating bitcoin.

[deepceleron]

You back it up to protect against your computer dying or getting stolen.
You encrypt it so that others can't hack your computer and steal your coins.
You don't delete it, otherwise bitcoin would make a new blank wallet - deleting it is how you lose all your bitcoins (if you don't have a backup).

You should have made a backup after encrypting, and again after every 50 payments you send or addresses you create.

[KarmaUK]

Perfect, thanks deepceleron 

[Liam W]

Hi,

I have created my wallet and encrypted/backed up.

Do I now delete the wallet.dat file?

Thanks

1. Encrypt it
2. Save another copy
3. Encrypt the copy using a program such as AESCrypt
4. Copy it to an external server, pen drives etc.
5. If your computer blows up, you still have your bitcoins

[Stephen Gornick]

I'm sure I read that it is recommended somewhere whilst investigating bitcoin.

What you might have read is that if you have any old backup copies of your wallet.dat prior to protecting the wallet using the passphrase encryption that those old backups could still be used to spend the funds received to those addresses.

Even though you've now encrypted your wallet, the private keys used previously are still stored in the encrypted wallet -- they just are protected with encryption there now.  

So to protect even against the risk of loss due to those old backups, what you can do is spend the funds in your wallet to a brand new address from the same wallet after you've added passphrase encryption.    Then your old backups would not have any addresses that still have any funds on them.