Do you have to "Sweep" Brain/paper wallets?

[TheJacob]

I keep seeing people say that paper/brain wallets must be swept. As I understand it when you send an amount that isn't the full amount of an address it sends a "change" transaction that sends the remaining amount back to the address.

Can you not do this with paper wallets for some reason?

[1715654527]

1715654527

[1715654527]

1715654527

[1715654527]

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[Sukrim]

You can, but since you might assume that the key now has been entered in one way or another on an internet connected device, or tht the seal on your paper wallet has now been tampered with, it might be easier and more secure to just send the funds to a different address (which can be a different brain/paper wallet) instead of keeping it on the old one.

You anyways have to send a transaction and pay for a fee, so it wouldn't be cheaper to re-use too...

[TheJacob]

You anyways have to send a transaction and pay for a fee, so it wouldn't be cheaper to re-use too...

Oh, its two fees if you send to 2 different addresses. But if you are sending money out anyway you'd have to send to a new address and send the funds out of that address anyway. So the fees would be the same if both the new and old address had just 1 incoming transaction right?

[dserrano5]

Oh, its two fees if you send to 2 different addresses.

Fees are per transaction, not per recipient.

[fortunative]

I keep seeing people say that paper/brain wallets must be swept. As I understand it when you send an amount that isn't the full amount of an address it sends a "change" transaction that sends the remaining amount back to the address.

Can you not do this with paper wallets for some reason?

They don't have to be swept, but it's recommended that you sweep rather than import.  Also, never import publicly known private keys: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=216278.5