Sppliting/merging wallets

[caveden]

Hello,

Isn't there an easy way to split or merge different wallets?

I know I could transfer to myself, but that's laborious, and, well, there are the transaction fees somebody just pointed me in another topic.

Merging might be useful for someone that intends to use more than one computer to mint for bitcoins.

Splitting could be useful in order to protect your bitcoins. If you keep all of them in the same wallet and an attacker has access to it, he gets all your money! If you had split it and backed up your coins in different medias that are not connected to the internet, that reduces the risk.

Talking about protection, is built-in password protection for your wallet planned to be developed for the default client? It could be helpful too.

Thank you.

[BitLex]

dont care about transaction fees, i havent payed any so far (but i was lucky to get some) and did a lot of transactions.
just send them back and forth as u like, i doubt there's any way to "merge" wallet-files.

[Insti]

There is not currently any way to split/merge wallet files.

I think that eventually someone will write the code to export/import Bitcoin address private keys and then you'll be able to split/join as much as you like.

Password protecting the wallet file is discussed in some threads here and will probably happen.

If you want to see either of these things happen soon either:
a) Code them yourself and contribute a patch
b) Set up a bounty (in BTC) for someone who will.
c) Wait.

(We probably need a public bug tracking/feature request system.)

[lfm]

Isn't there an easy way to split or merge different wallets?

I know I could transfer to myself, but that's laborious, and, well, there are the transaction fees somebody just pointed me in another topic.

Merging might be useful for someone that intends to use more than one computer to mint for bitcoins.

Splitting could be useful in order to protect your bitcoins. If you keep all of them in the same wallet and an attacker has access to it, he gets all your money! If you had split it and backed up your coins in different medias that are not connected to the internet, that reduces the risk.

I just run a simple script once per minute if the balance is above zero send the balance to my central wallet/machine. works fine.

[racerx]

I just run a simple script once per minute if the balance is above zero send the balance to my central wallet/machine. works fine.

Mind posting it up? guessing its just a  if ./bitcoind getinfo | grep blah then bitcoind ....


Cheers!

[lfm]

I just run a simple script once per minute if the balance is above zero send the balance to my central wallet/machine. works fine.

Mind posting it up? guessing its just a  if ./bitcoind getinfo | grep blah then bitcoind ....


Cheers!

Code:

(
    while sleep 60
    do
        a=`../bin/bitcoind getbalance`
        if [ 0 -ne `echo "$a * 100 / 1" | bc` ]
        then
            ../bin/bitcoind sendtoaddress \
                      1LcDW5G7YfayfGJtGAqc7D3DGXThnnqJ5R  $a
        fi
    done
) &

just change the address for your own central machine or you will be sending your bitcoins to me.

[racerx]

Thanks lfm,  I ended up making my own in the interim

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1431.0

Code:

42 * * * * root if [ $(/usr/local/bin/bitcoind getbalance) = 0.00000000 ]; then echo "No Coins Generated"; else /usr/local/bin/bitcoind sendtoaddress 1AVgSRgQ4dF8Fwi3hfvFZ1uhnWoWGT25sR $(/usr/local/bin/bitcoind getbalance) $HOSTNAME $HOSTNAME; fi

[bitcool]

Saw another discussion on a different thread: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=426.0
I am wondering if this feature has been considered for new releases.

[Gavin Andresen]

(We probably need a public bug tracking/feature request system.)

The public bug tracking/feature request system is at:
 https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues

Vote up issues/bugs that are important to you there.

[bitcool]

great, looks like this feature has been covered under: Treat wallet as a generic keystore
definitely will vote yes on this one.

[Hal]

People talk about moving keys/addresses, but also it is important to move the transactions. Bitcoin is a transaction based system. Your keys authorize (sign) payments, but the payments actually come from the transactions you have received and which are in your wallet. If you're splitting off some keys into another wallet, you need to move the transactions that fund those keys, or they won't be able to do anything. (Should move address book and account entries too.)

[BitterTea]

Really? I was under the impression that the transactions were in the block chain, and as long as you had the keys to those transactions you could claim them.

[davout]

People talk about moving keys/addresses, but also it is important to move the transactions. Bitcoin is a transaction based system. Your keys authorize (sign) payments, but the payments actually come from the transactions you have received and which are in your wallet. If you're splitting off some keys into another wallet, you need to move the transactions that fund those keys, or they won't be able to do anything. (Should move address book and account entries too.)

Move is probably not the right word, what you mean is covered by the -rescan switch, which will be available from 3.20