The reason concerned when you share your public key to the application is your privacy would be harmed. The application might collected and share the personal information they get from you e.g. email address, password, IP address, your Bitcoin balance etc, they could even sell it without your knowing. It's better if you setup your own financial tracking by using trusted and open source spreadsheet.
Good point. Do you know what spreadsheets are known for being private and secure?
Where is my public key located? Is this a file? (this app only asks for the address)
Do I have any reason to be concerned about giving this app my bitcoin address?
As long as its only a public key you should be safe. (
not your private key or seed phrase). The only thing you should be worried is the fact that if these data will be compromised, hackers knows exacly how much money you have and where it is. If you used your email to register, the same email you used somwhere else with your personal data (like phone number, name, surname, address - like when you buy in online store) its possible it was already compromised and traded in big leaked files on darknet. They can now attach more sensitive data (your net worth) to old packages and continue to trade it on the darknet. Guess who will be intterested in buying such database (mr XX yy, home address zzzz, net worth >...... ).
This worries me. Is the seed phrase the same thing as the password used to encrypt my wallet in btc core?
I'm sorry, but am I the only one who recognizes danger beyond handing over private keys? If an app asks you to write a private key, it's a scam. Period. That should be taken for granted. But that doesn't mean you should hand over your addresses to any stranger, just because he can't take your money.
I'd neither trust a closed-source (I presume) app that requests my Bitcoin activity for obvious reasons: privacy violation. Why would an app need my addresses to determine my portfolio? Can't I just type that myself, without sharing any addresses?
My initial thought was purely for convenience - to have the sum total of all my assets automatically updated, and in one place. However, I like this philosophy better.
Should I create a new address for this purpose?
I use bitcoin core
It's entirely up to you and your personal preferences. As I mentioned previously, one option to consider is manually entering your amounts without providing too much of your personal information to the app.
If I make a new address per transaction, is it possible for someone to see that all these transactions came from the same wallet?
I've got a financial tracking app that can keep track of my net worth. I can add a bitcoin address and it will keep track of my BTC, and include it in the total.
Do I have any reason to be concerned about giving this app my bitcoin address? Will it only be able to view my wallet total/transactions?
Should I create a new address for this purpose?
Is it good practice to delete addresses after I've used them?
I use bitcoin core
There's no risk of sharing publick address to anyone. It is meant to be shared.
But you must know that everyone who knows your public address will be able to see how much BTC you hold.
So when you share your public address to this app, you are basically giving it the right to see how much balance you hold.
Also, this app will be able to track you using this address and identify you as the owner of this address.
This decreases your anonymity. You can go ahead if you don't really care about privacy that much.
If I delete an address from bitcoin core that I've previously shared with someone, does this mean that this person can no longer see my wallet balance?
