Question about how bitcoin wallets and backups work

[cdog]

So I have a wallet installed on one machine, I encrypt it with a password, and then backup the wallet.dat to a USB stick

Now I take that USB stick to a new machine, install bitcoin-qt and drag the wallet.dat from the USB stick and replace the default wallet

NOW I change the password on this new machine. So now the same wallet has 2 passwords which can access it?

[1714938421]

1714938421

[1714938421]

1714938421

[DeathAndTaxes]

The copy on the 2nd computer is now encrypted with the NEW password.
The copy of the USB drive is still encrypted with the OLD password.

Each copy can only be unlocked by the singular, correct password for that copy.  Changing one copy doesn't change any other copies.

[cdog]

Thanks D&T, so you can have two passwords for the same wallet. Interesting.

[DannyHamilton]

Thanks D&T, so you can have two passwords for the same wallet. Interesting.

Except they aren't the "same" wallet.  It's two completely separate wallets that just happen to share some of the same private keys.

[deepceleron]

I like doing this:

So:

1. You had a bitcoin wallet.dat running on windows with password #1,
2. you copy the Bitcoin wallet to an Ubuntu machine,
3. on the Ubuntu machine you change the password to password #2,
4. you are surprised that when you boot back into Windows and the password is still #1?

It is not a good idea to use the same wallet.dat on multiple computers, they will go out-of-sync after many transactions or as soon as you start adding labels. A good way to lose money, as eventually one wallet won't have addresses that are in the other.

Deepceleron's razor #17: If something is worth saying to a noob, deepceleron has probably already said it.