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December 18, 2013, 06:45:29 PM |
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Hi all. I'm registering and asking this question to get some of your opinions on backing up your Bitcoin wallet/key pairs.
Let me start out by saying that I understand how the private/public keys in wallets work. I understand that there is a separate key for each wallet address you have, and I understand that when you spend or send Bitcoins, some wallets like Bitcoin-QT will send your change to a separate address, usually out of 100 pre-generated addresses for change.
My big question is, would it be better to back up your entire wallet.dat file, or to create a paper wallet (or simple text document) and send your coins there, then back that up? I am not someone who is getting into Bitcoins to use them as a currency (shameful, I know). I'm probably going to mostly be buying, with maybe sending/selling every once in a while. In this scenario, I think it would make more sense to store my keys as a paper wallet, or as a simple text document in cold storage.
If I did want to send or spend some coins, I could then fire up my Bitcoin wallet of choice, import my keys to the wallet, perform whatever transactions I need to, then send all remaining funds to another paper wallet.
I have a few reasons for thinking this may be the best way to do things. The first is that if I ever wait a long period before sending or spending Bitcoins, such as a few years, it is possible that the wallet client I used is either a newer version that does not support my backed up wallet.dat, or that the client I used may not be available at all. It would be hard to imagine if I was unable to find any copy of Bitcoin QT at all in a few years time even under the worst of circumstances, but it's possible.
The second big reason is the flexibility of choice between wallets. Whether I'm using a freshly wiped Android phone, Macbook, Windows 7 computer, or Linux live CD, most of the wallets I've read about allow the import of key pairs. If all I have backed up is a wallet.dat file, it's not guaranteed that I would have any cross application or platform flexibility.
What are everyone's thoughts? For someone that only needs to send or spend Bitcoins once in a while, I can't help but feeling that importing my keys from paper, doing the spending/sending I need to, then sending the remaining balance to a paper wallet is the simplest and most secure way to do things.
Thanks in advance!
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