Wallet backup safety....

[Zenone]

Hello...

Sorry for this newbie question but then again I am quite ''new'' to Bitcoin as you will soon gather .....

I've just downloaded Bitcoin core ...the most recent version... and have encrypted and backed up my wallet.

Now my main question is if someone was to gain access to my wallet.dat file back-up could they then just place it into a new fresh wallet and steal my coins or is it the case the .dat file is also now encrypted because of the encryption I carried out on the actual main wallet...?.

and my other question is whether it is necessary to carry out a wallet back up every time coins move in and out of a wallet..?...so in other words if I have hard drive failure in a months time will the month old wallet.dat backup I've just done still be able to give me a completely accurate up to date wallet despite transactions having occurred in the meantime...?.

Any help really appreciated.

Zenone.   

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[11inches]

Hi There,

If your backup is encrypted, then whoever stole a copy of it would have to know the password in order to use it. There is no way around it.

For your second question: as long as you don't add any new key pairs to your wallet (generate new addresses), then you only need one back-up. It doesn't matter how old it is. However, you will have to create a new back-up if you generate any new addresses in your client.

[cp1]

Your wallet.dat file is your wallet.  You need to re-back it up about every 100 transactions.  Earlier is better.

[Zenone]

Thank you for your replies...

So when the actual main wallet is encrypted with a passphrase this encryption and same passphrase is automatically applied to the wallet.dat back up that the user then makes.

Only one encryption needs to be done...because the wallet.dat file ...*is*...the wallet.

Back ups need to be carried out preferably before 100 transactions have been completed...is this regardless of whether or not I change my address to receive coins though..?

Have I understood the above correctly can you tell me please

[DannyHamilton]

Thank you for your replies...

So when the actual main wallet is encrypted with a passphrase this encryption and same passphrase is automatically applied to the wallet.dat back up that the user then makes.

As long as the backup occurs AFTER the encryption, yes.

Only one encryption needs to be done...because the wallet.dat file ...*is*...the wallet.

Yes.

Back ups need to be carried out preferably before 100 transactions have been completed...is this regardless of whether or not I change my address to receive coins though..?

With the default settings, the wallet pre-generates the next 100 addresses that it will use.  Those addresses are hidden from you, but are all stored in the wallet.dat (and already encrypted if you encrypted before backing up the wallet.dat).

Your wallet retrieves one of these 100 addresses every time you tell the wallet that you want a new receiving address.

Your wallet also uses one of these 100 addresses every time you send any transaction from the wallet (the address is kept hidden from you, but used to send change from the transaction back into the wallet).

Each time the wallet uses one of these 100 addresses, it generates a new address to be used later and adds it to the end of the pre-generated list.

This means, once you've gotten through 100 addresses, you will be using addresses that weren't included in the backup that you made previously.

It is also a good idea to keep a few recent backups just in case the most recent backup is damaged or otherwise unusable.

I generally suggest keeping an estimate of approximately how many new receiving addresses you've generated and how many transactions you've sent since the last backup.

Whenever the sum of those two values is approximately 25, create a new backup.  Then keep the 3 most recent backups on 3 different devices in 3 separate locations.

That way, you'll have 3 copies that can all be used to recover your entire wallet if you encounter a problem, and you'll have a little tolerance built in if you count the addresses and sent transactions incorrectly.

[Zenone]

Thank you Danny for the very clear reply.......and thanks to everyone else too...

I've printed out the thread for future reference.

Now I understand....