How many bitcoin address you have ?

[dserrano5]

i only have 1. do we need more than 1 really? i mean why be paranoid idk.

People will be able to see your net worth. Besides that, if everyone did the same, people would be able to see who you transacted with, and how much. It would be like publishing your bank movements.

[amaclin]

What should I do with used address/private key?
Is there a way to recycle it back to /dev/random if I do not need it anymore? 

[BitcoinZombie]

so many until i forgot the old one password 

[BurtW]

What should I do with used address/private key?
Is there a way to recycle it back to /dev/random if I do not need it anymore?  

The private keys for all of your old addresses should be kept in your wallet just in case someone sends you more BTC at an old address.  If you delete your old private keys there is a chance someone will send you BTC to an old address.  You do not want to lose those BTC.

They should not be "recycled"

There are more possible addresses than you, I or any human being can really comprehend - if that was your concern.

[BurtW]

i only have 1. do we need more than 1 really? i mean why be paranoid idk.

i just have 2 bit coin address...
because that's i need...

i'm confuse if i must to take care a lot of addresses..

2

Why do you all hate Bitcoin so much?  I joke, kind of.  Please consider cleaning up your act.  Every person that behaves this way is a weak link in the Bitcoin system.  And you know what they say about the chain and the weakest link.  You are not just flushing your own privacy down the toilet but the privacy of everyone who sends you BTC and everyone you send BTC to and by extrapolation you are hurting the privacy of everyone who uses Bitcoin and damaging Bitcoin itself.

You do not have to personally keep track of all the addresses you use.  A good wallet will do all that for you.  Just switch to a good wallet.

[amaclin]

They should not be "recycled"

It was a joke, man!
I've put my used private keys on the web. Let they live free, not in [encrypted] wallet!

[BurtW]

They should not be "recycled"

It was a joke, man!
I've put my used private keys on the web. Let they live free, not in [encrypted] wallet!

Your jokes are funny to experienced users however they may confuse all the noobs in this thread.  Yes, private keys living free and easy, published on the web.  ROTFL here.  Thanks.

[dompsairs]

Less than one. No option for that? 

[Btcvilla]

i only have 1. do we need more than 1 really? i mean why be paranoid idk.

i just have 2 bit coin address...
because that's i need...

i'm confuse if i must to take care a lot of addresses..

2

Why do you all hate Bitcoin so much?  I joke, kind of.  Please consider cleaning up your act.  Every person that behaves this way is a weak link in the Bitcoin system.  And you know what they say about the chain and the weakest link.  You are not just flushing your own privacy down the toilet but the privacy of everyone who sends you BTC and everyone you send BTC to and by extrapolation you are hurting the privacy of everyone who uses Bitcoin and damaging Bitcoin itself.

You do not have to personally keep track of all the addresses you use.  A good wallet will do all that for you.  Just switch to a good wallet.

I have 2, one with nothing, one with 0.00569927. I have some more invested in btc jam though.

[amaclin]

Your jokes are funny to experienced users however they may confuse all the noobs in this thread.  Yes, private keys living free and easy, published on the web.  ROTFL here.  Thanks.

OK, my private keys (18k+) are on site. May I put a link here? Or should we teach all noobs forever in this forum?

[countryfree]

I just don't know. It doesn't matter at all.

[Hashforfun]

I have only one currently, I can't grasp the idea of having hundreds of addresses.. Since I use blockchain. Can anyone clarify why you need 100s, and is it better to use an actual program then a site like blockchain?

[odolvlobo]

I have only one currently, I can't grasp the idea of having hundreds of addresses.. Since I use blockchain. Can anyone clarify why you need 100s, and is it better to use an actual program then a site like blockchain?

The advantage to multiple addresses is that it protects your privacy. If you use only one address, then everyone that can associate your address with you knows:

1. how many bitcoins you have,
2. where all your bitcoins have come from, and
3. everyone you have ever sent them to.

[kevindurant]

I have unlimited addresses.

[webbrowser]

So, I only currently have a few addresses.

Everyone should use a different address for every single receive transaction and every change address should be different.  So the answer for the average user should be:

1) 50-100
2) thousands and thousands

Any other answer is bad for the long term viability of Bitcoin, and should be highly discouraged.

If you care about Bitcoin please switch to a wallet which will naturally lead to the correct user behavior and away from wallets that do not.

Good:  bitcoin-qt
Better:  deterministic wallets (Trezor, wallet32, etc.)
Very bad:  blockchain.info using its default behavior

Also, all donation addresses should be handing out a new address to each visitor and all periodic payments should use deterministic key pair generation.  Any use of a static address, whether vanity or not, should not be done and should be hightly discouraged by the entire user base (don't use them, ask for a different address every time when making a payment).

Reason is in my signature.

Sounds worthy. But, how do you change the default behavior of the blockchain.info wallet, and how do you manage key backup if each transaction creates a new set of keys?

[xtent]

Nice try IRS 

[chennan]

What should I do with used address/private key?
Is there a way to recycle it back to /dev/random if I do not need it anymore?  

Just delete the address right away! No way to recycle it.
I have 4 addresses for different source.

[amaclin]

Just delete the address right away! No way to recycle it.

Oh, no! Deleting an address is like killing a pet!

[BurtW]

I have only one currently, I can't grasp the idea of having hundreds of addresses.. Since I use blockchain. Can anyone clarify why you need 100s, and is it better to use an actual program then a site like blockchain?

Sounds worthy. But, how do you change the default behavior of the blockchain.info wallet, and how do you manage key backup if each transaction creates a new set of keys?

blockchain.info is very difficult to use in a privacy protecting way because you have to change your behavior.  You have to tell it to create a new address each time you want someone to sent you BTC (not too bad).  You can use the shared send advanced function (costs a bit more BUT it will automatically generate a new change address for every send and you will be mixing your transaction in with a lot of other transactions and this is great for privacy).  You can generate your own change addressed by hand and set up your transactions to have good privacy behavior in the advanced send tab but you have to do this all by hand.  I really love the blockchain.info wallet and I use it whenever I want to to a coinjoin (shared send) transaction but you have to be very careful how you use it.

Then, here it the real problem with that wallet:  you have to remember to back up the wallet pretty much after every transaction.  I have mine set to send me an email containing my encrypted wallet after every new keypair is created.  Painful.  And because I am using the email system it is not that secure, so I only use it to hold a minimum amount of BTC.

That is why I highly recommend deterministic wallets.  Get yourself a deterministic wallet and you will never look back.  All you have to do is keep the seed safe and secure and then you never have to make another backup again(!) because every receive address and every change address is determined and can be recovered from that single seed.  Very cool.

So, you back up the seed on paper, make a few copies, laminate them, keep one in a safe hidden location in your house, another in an offsite safe location, etc.  You can even be very clever and store half the seed one place and the other half at a different location.

Of the deterministic wallets the Trezor hardware wallet is probably the safest but it costs $120 for the device.  My favorite Android deterministic wallet is "Wallet32".  There are others to choose from just look around for them or I will get a list together and post it if I get time.

[DDuckworth]

If you are using Bitcoin Core then you already have more than 100 bitcoin addresses. You just aren't aware of it.

Bitcoin Core creates 100 addresses that it doesn't tell you about when you run it for the first time.  It then uses a new one of these hidden addresses for the change from your transactions every time you send a transaction.

I have a few Bitcoin Core wallets, so I have a few hundred addresses.

Then, it was recommended by Satoshi Nakamoto that you use a new receiving address for EVERY transaction.  I've done over a hundred transactions, so I have over a hundred receiving addresses.

I've also installed a few other wallets either to try them out or for specific purposes (such as MultiBit, blockchain.info, Mycellium, etc).

I've never counted, but if I had to guess I'd assume that I therefore have somewhere around 1,000 addresses.

Oh wow, I had no idea!! Crazy!