Wallet question

[Buo]

Quick question, if I send some btc from my wallet, then my old backup wallet.dat files are obsolete or they will work?

I ask this because I read about the paper wallets, they can be used only once then they are empty.

[Baitty]

The wallet.dat will always work even if your balance changes.

[CEG5952]

It will always work for the private keys that are included in the back-up. But remember, if you regularly create new addresses, make transactions, etc, you must back up your wallet regularly. Otherwise, new private keys generated may not be included in your original back-up.

[Buo]

It will always work for the private keys that are included in the back-up. But remember, if you regularly create new addresses, make transactions, etc, you must back up your wallet regularly. Otherwise, new private keys generated may not be included in your original back-up.

Thanks, yes this is the point, how many transaction can be done before the old wallet.dat must be updated?

[Tammy Chan]

It will always work for the private keys that are included in the back-up. But remember, if you regularly create new addresses, make transactions, etc, you must back up your wallet regularly. Otherwise, new private keys generated may not be included in your original back-up.

Thanks, yes this is the point, how many transaction can be done before the old wallet.dat must be updated?

It depends on your wallet client and your setting about your keypool size.
If you are using bitcoin-qt with default setting, you would have 100 unused keys in your keypool, so your backup wallet file contains all your existing private keys and your next 100 private keys to be "generated".

[knight22]

It will always work for the private keys that are included in the back-up. But remember, if you regularly create new addresses, make transactions, etc, you must back up your wallet regularly. Otherwise, new private keys generated may not be included in your original back-up.

Thanks, yes this is the point, how many transaction can be done before the old wallet.dat must be updated?

Deterministic wallets allow you to create unlimited amount of addresses with the same original backup.

[nabeton]

It will always work for the private keys that are included in the back-up. But remember, if you regularly create new addresses, make transactions, etc, you must back up your wallet regularly. Otherwise, new private keys generated may not be included in your original back-up.

Thanks, yes this is the point, how many transaction can be done before the old wallet.dat must be updated?

Hi, I'm using armory. There is clearly stated how many addresses are "pre calculated" and how many already used.

btw, I always backup once a week, no matter how much tx proceed.

[Nagato4]

It will always work for the private keys that are included in the back-up. But remember, if you regularly create new addresses, make transactions, etc, you must back up your wallet regularly. Otherwise, new private keys generated may not be included in your original back-up.

Thanks, yes this is the point, how many transaction can be done before the old wallet.dat must be updated?

Deterministic wallets allow you to create unlimited amount of addresses with the same original backup.

+1.
It is very easy to make backups with deterministic wallets (like Armory and Electrum) as you only need to backup the seed.
Plus, the seed would be enough to generate all the addresses you created and to be created in the future.

[Bitsaurus]

It will always work for the private keys that are included in the back-up. But remember, if you regularly create new addresses, make transactions, etc, you must back up your wallet regularly. Otherwise, new private keys generated may not be included in your original back-up.

Thanks, yes this is the point, how many transaction can be done before the old wallet.dat must be updated?

Deterministic wallets allow you to create unlimited amount of addresses with the same original backup.

+1.
It is very easy to make backups with deterministic wallets (like Armory and Electrum) as you only need to backup the seed.
Plus, the seed would be enough to generate all the addresses you created and to be created in the future.

Also adding to this, once you have a paper backup of your wallet with the seed, you can restore the wallet anytime even if you forget your passphrase on the wallet.dat file.  So many people post here stating they forgot their password or must have entered it wrong.