Move to different wallet

[Thomasio]

When I got started, I downloaded the simple desktop wallet from wallet.bitcoin.com and I haven't taken any further security measures, simply because there's no need securing 0.001 BTC

Now that I'm getting serious with it, I want to move things to an external harddisk, or better, I've setup a VM in Virtualbox, that shall hold nothing but my crypto wallets, where I can backup the entire harddisk in once and physically detach it from the computer when not needed.
For this one I've downloaded and installed Bitcoin Core.

Now the (newbie) question: What do I have to do to move my account from the simple wallet on my desktop, to the core wallet on the VM?

I do have all the data, like seed and private key, I just don't know how to get it into the core wallet.

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[ranochigo]

Using a VM on an insecure computer does nothing. Some malwares can also escape the VM to your host computer. If anything, you should be looking to format your computer and install a new copy of your OS. With a backup of course.

I would really recommend for you to just send the coins to an address in the Core wallet. It's not really worth it for you to send 0.001BTC around though. If you'd like to import the private key, go to Help>Debug Window> Console, and key in:

Code:

 importprivkey PRIVATEKEY

. Replacing the PRIVATEKEY with your own of course. Core does not support importing of seeds.

[Thomasio]

I am aware that moving to a VM itself doesn't do anything for security.
But installing the VM on an external harddisk and DETACH that from the computer, that's like the XXL version of a hardware wallet.

Either way, thanks for the info, I'll try that.

[aleksej996]

I am aware that moving to a VM itself doesn't do anything for security.
But installing the VM on an external harddisk and DETACH that from the computer, that's like the XXL version of a hardware wallet.

Either way, thanks for the info, I'll try that.

Not really. Malware usually is stealthy, it will wait for you to attach it again, or will simply grab your wallet before you detach it.

[LoyceV]

But installing the VM on an external harddisk and DETACH that from the computer, that's like the XXL version of a hardware wallet.

Not really. A hardware wallet keeps the private keys away from the online computer. In your setup, your wallet has been online, and any malware can patiently wait for to fund your private keys after they are stolen.

It's not needed to backup your entire partition, all you have to do is backup your wallet.dat.

Note that Bitcoin doesn't have "accounts", it has "wallets".

[Thomasio]

I have no problem making a backup of an existing wallet and restore that wallet into the same software after a fresh installation.
My question was basically how to move from the simple to the core wallet.

Also I do NOT have any kind of concerns about malware, I'm a coder, I know what I'm doing with my computer, so spare me those security hints.
The main reason for wanting the wallets on a VM and that on an external harddisk is that due to my job, I'm permanently messing up my main system with coding experiments, meaning I frequently reinstall my main OS from scratch and while that's no big deal for the system itself, I don't see why I should redownload the entire blockchain for a dozen wallets from BTC to Doge.
I want this installed once, separate from the system I'm working with, where all I have to do is launch Virtualbox to have all my wallets up.
And if I'm already doing this once and for all, then I will not use the simple, but the core version of the wallets.

[Jet Cash]

Doesn't the Bitcoin.com wallet support both Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. Is there any danger in importing an address from a dual coin wallet into a core wallet? I'd be tempted to try a zero fee transaction into a new address in the core wallet. I gather that now is a good time to try that.

[Thomasio]

Doesn't the Bitcoin.com wallet support both Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. Is there any danger in importing an address from a dual coin wallet into a core wallet? I'd be tempted to try a zero fee transaction into a new address in the core wallet. I gather that now is a good time to try that.

Yes, I was thinking about that too, but (as you might imagine) the few coins I have come from faucets, where I had to register with my wallet address and on some of these that cannot be changed.
That's why I would rather keep my receiving address while moving from light wallet to core wallet.

[HCP]

I have no problem making a backup of an existing wallet and restore that wallet into the same software after a fresh installation.
My question was basically how to move from the simple to the core wallet.

I want this installed once, separate from the system I'm working with, where all I have to do is launch Virtualbox to have all my wallets up.
And if I'm already doing this once and for all, then I will not use the simple, but the core version of the wallets.

Given how "disk intensive" Bitcoin Core can be, I would recommend NOT putting the blockchain on an external disk... unless you're happy with super long sync times... and super long wait time for Bitcoin Core to validate blocks on disk etc. Putting it inside a VM on an external disk would be even worse. Not to mention that virtualised CPUs are not as fast as actual CPUs... further slowing things down.

If you main concern is needing to re-download the blockchain after messing up your OS after a coding hiccup, then simple use a "non-system" disk as the location for your Bitcoin Core data directory. It prompts, during first run, where to save the data to... so you can specify wherever you like. For instance, your external drive drive.

After a reinstall of the OS+application, you simply point it to the same data directory and it will find all the block data and run with it. Without having to fully download the blockchain data again.

Honestly, reinstalling the Bitcoin Core application itself takes only a few minutes at most, and I would think that the time savings of running it (and having your block data) outside of the VM would be fairly substantial.

Doesn't the Bitcoin.com wallet support both Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. Is there any danger in importing an address from a dual coin wallet into a core wallet? I'd be tempted to try a zero fee transaction into a new address in the core wallet. I gather that now is a good time to try that.

Not even sure you can still broadcast zero fee transactions. Most nodes will reject it with the "66: mempool min fee not met" error message. Not all nodes will reject it, but the vast majority probably will. Given how few transactions there actually are at the moment... a small fee of only 40-50 sats/byte almost guarantees next block confirmation. And 10+ sats/byte will allow the use of ViaBTC which isn't that overloaded any more.

And theoretically... ALL "Legacy" Bitcoin addresses (ie. "1" and "3" type addresses) are "dual coin"... As they will be valid on the BCH network.

[Thomasio]

After a reinstall of the OS+application, you simply point it to the same data directory and it will find all the block data and run with it. Without having to fully download the blockchain data again.

Now THAT's a usefull advice, thank you very much, sounds like just what I want.

[bob123]

After a reinstall of the OS+application, you simply point it to the same data directory and it will find all the block data and run with it. Without having to fully download the blockchain data again.

Now THAT's a usefull advice, thank you very much, sounds like just what I want.

Also I do NOT have any kind of concerns about malware, I'm a coder, I know what I'm doing with my computer, so spare me those security hints.

But installing the VM on an external harddisk and DETACH that from the computer, that's like the XXL version of a hardware wallet.

Disclaimer: I don't want to attack you in any way. Neither expertise-wise, nor in any other way.

If you didn't contemplate to store the data on a non-os drive, i really think you underestimate malware and blackhats.
Its not like you need to download asian porns to get malware.

The fact, that you think a detached HD is a XXL hardware wallet makes me think you aren't into IT-security at all.


If you are serious about bitcoin (and are storing more than like 100$ or whatever amount which you can't afford to lose) your approach is wrong.
1) (Again, no offense) Most professional coder don't know anything about security. They know how to code, yes. But Security-by-design seems to be a foreign word to 90%+.
Especially the majority of programmer older than 30 years don't have any clue. Its just a different world than 10 years ago.

2) There are a ton of exploits available (especially for windows). All of your coding-expertise won't help you at all.
Even if you are on linux, if someone finds out that you own a reasonable amount of BTC's, its just a matter of time until they get stolen if not protected right. Thats a fact.

My advice:
If you want to store larger amounts follow one of the following tips:

• Use a paper wallet
• Get a hardware wallet
• Use a dedicated offline pc