bitcoin address question

[s1ncho]

Hi all,

There is a very simple question in my head about Bitcoin. I will be glad if someone can answer this.

Its about the Bitcoin address. It is stated that :

A Bitcoin address is similar to a physical address or an email. It is the only information you need to provide for someone to pay you with Bitcoin. An important difference, however, is that each address should only be used for a single transaction.

If each address can only be used for a single transaction how does one can receive more than one payments to his address.

Lets say I have a blog and I want to receive bitcoin donations to the address that I specified. Do I have to update the 30character code everytime that I receive a payment?

How does this work? Can somebody please explain.

Cheers

[1715231459]

1715231459

[okthen]

Where did you get that from?
Your address works exactly like your email address, you can use it as many times as you want without changing it.

[ranochigo]

Hi all,

There is a very simple question in my head about Bitcoin. I will be glad if someone can answer this.

Its about the Bitcoin address. It is stated that :

A Bitcoin address is similar to a physical address or an email. It is the only information you need to provide for someone to pay you with Bitcoin. An important difference, however, is that each address should only be used for a single transaction.

If each address can only be used for a single transaction how does one can receive more than one payments to his address.

Lets say I have a blog and I want to receive bitcoin donations to the address that I specified. Do I have to update the 30character code everytime that I receive a payment?

How does this work? Can somebody please explain.

Cheers

The key word here is 'should' it isn't necessary to change BTC address after receiving transactions. It is mainly used for promoting anonymity. A bitcoin address can be resused as much as you want if you have the corresponding private key.

[s1ncho]

Hi all,

There is a very simple question in my head about Bitcoin. I will be glad if someone can answer this.

Its about the Bitcoin address. It is stated that :

A Bitcoin address is similar to a physical address or an email. It is the only information you need to provide for someone to pay you with Bitcoin. An important difference, however, is that each address should only be used for a single transaction.

If each address can only be used for a single transaction how does one can receive more than one payments to his address.

Lets say I have a blog and I want to receive bitcoin donations to the address that I specified. Do I have to update the 30character code everytime that I receive a payment?

How does this work? Can somebody please explain.

Cheers

The key word here is 'should' it isn't necessary to change BTC address after receiving transactions. It is mainly used for promoting anonymity. A bitcoin address can be resused as much as you want if you have the corresponding private key.

Hey Thanks for the quick answers.

So how can I change my address in the wallet application? What happens to my previous address if I change after receiving a transaction?

Is it possible for a wallet application to hold several addresses?

[krigger]

Hey Thanks for the quick answers.

So how can I change my address in the wallet application? What happens to my previous address if I change after receiving a transaction?

Is it possible for a wallet application to hold several addresses?

Yes it is. You can use MultiBit.
https://multibit.org

[avatar_kiyoshi]

Actually you can take many transaction you want per address.
Are you used wallet which change if the transaction get max? What your wallet is?

[medUSA]

A Bitcoin address is similar to a physical address or an email. It is the only information you need to provide for someone to pay you with Bitcoin. An important difference, however, is that each address should only be used for a single transaction.

How does this work? Can somebody please explain.

When Satoshi designed bitcoin, he envisioned bitcoin addresses to be used only once.

There is a technical reason behind it: The security of an address is lowered after you have made an outgoing transaction from that address. A more knowledgeable member here can explain how exactly, but I believe it is about releasing a hash of your private key when you make transactions. To uphold the maximum security of an address, it is best that addresses are used only once.

Even with this "lowered security", your coins are still extremely safe from private key bruteforcing.

[NeuroticFish]

An important difference, however, is that each address should only be used for a single transaction.

Actually this is only helpful for bigger security and anonymity (if you do a lot of transactions), it's not a must.
Indeed, I heard about the possibility of exploits exactly for the case the same wallet is used many times.


I also use Multibit and never had issues.

Just make sure:

you save (print?) your public and private key somewhere (very) safe.
-or-
you save your .wallet file somewhere (very) safe.



A lot of people seem to forget to do this and cry half a year later when they cleanup, format or upgrade their computer.

[mlferro]

Hey Thanks for the quick answers.

So how can I change my address in the wallet application? What happens to my previous address if I change after receiving a transaction?

Is it possible for a wallet application to hold several addresses?

Yes it is. You can use MultiBit.
https://multibit.org

surely the multbit wallet is great for this.

[neurotypical]

What exchanges do in order to provide more anonymity and don't have a single address is generating random addresses when you click "deposit btc" so no one knows if you are depositing it in an exchange or sending it to someone other person or whatnot.

I would like something similar to receive donations.

[ranochigo]

An important difference, however, is that each address should only be used for a single transaction.

Actually this is only helpful for bigger security and anonymity (if you do a lot of transactions), it's not a must.
Indeed, I heard about the possibility of exploits exactly for the case the same wallet is used many times.


I also use Multibit and never had issues.

Just make sure:

you save (print?) your public and private key somewhere (very) safe.
-or-
you save your .wallet file somewhere (very) safe.



A lot of people seem to forget to do this and cry half a year later when they cleanup, format or upgrade their computer.

The security part is pretty wrong. There is no advantages of reusing addresses for security, it is more for privacy. Also, I assume you are talking about the possibility of quantum computers breaking Bitcoin's ecdsa but it would be useless as the SHA256 would still be secure. Even if it is developed, we can still fork to another algorithm. There are other better things to do than to attack Bitcoins when quantum computers are built.

[NeuroticFish]

The security part is pretty wrong. There is no advantages of reusing addresses for security, it is more for privacy. Also, I assume you are talking about the possibility of quantum computers breaking Bitcoin's ecdsa but it would be useless as the SHA256 would still be secure. Even if it is developed, we can still fork to another algorithm. There are other better things to do than to attack Bitcoins when quantum computers are built.

No, I know that you need huge power for that and not achievable.
I talked about the fact that ECDSA requires a random number for each signature. If this random number is ever used twice with the same private key it seems that it can be recovered.

[fildza]

I want to receive bitcoin donations to the address that I specified.

You said want to use that address for receive donation right ? So it better only use same address and if you want make it more fun, you can use changetip donation button. They have add-on that you can put on your blog that show how many tip you already earn

[yenzae0215]

Lets say I have a blog and I want to receive bitcoin donations to the address that I specified. Do I have to update the 30character code everytime that I receive a payment?

changing BTC address often is not required it is just for security reasons.. you can use a single address for 1 year if you want or until you quit using BTC as currency, depends on the likes of you

[ajareselde]

Hi all,

There is a very simple question in my head about Bitcoin. I will be glad if someone can answer this.

Its about the Bitcoin address. It is stated that :

A Bitcoin address is similar to a physical address or an email. It is the only information you need to provide for someone to pay you with Bitcoin. An important difference, however, is that each address should only be used for a single transaction.

If each address can only be used for a single transaction how does one can receive more than one payments to his address.

Lets say I have a blog and I want to receive bitcoin donations to the address that I specified. Do I have to update the 30character code everytime that I receive a payment?

How does this work? Can somebody please explain.

Cheers

Nobody is forcing you to change address each time you use it, i know i dont. Any transaction that is made to your address will be credited without exception, it is only advised that
you dont use the address multiple times due to privacy issues, but if ure running a blog , there is no need to hide your transactions.

It is best, imho, to use different addresses for various different incomes, so that you know statistics of your earning, and to keep track of transactions easier, but each and every transaction, to any of the addresses will be credited to your main balance.
Hope that explains a bit.

cheers

[leex1528]

You can reuse the same address as many times as you want.  One thing that confused me when I started was doing certain transactions will actually create a Bitcoin address for you depending on your wallet you use.  I was using Coinbase at the time and I was really scared that someone was actually creating the address for me and had access to my account.  This is not the case if you run into that, it is perfectly normal.

[fildza]

You can reuse the same address as many times as you want.  One thing that confused me when I started was doing certain transactions will actually create a Bitcoin address for you depending on your wallet you use.  I was using Coinbase at the time and I was really scared that someone was actually creating the address for me and had access to my account.  This is not the case if you run into that, it is perfectly normal.

If talk about coinbase I still remember the early time I use bitcoin at coinbase. The address keep changing and make me scare if the btc go to the old address and I lost it

[MegaHustlr]

When bitcoin was designed/Created  by Satoshi , the main purpose was to anonimity , so if you use it once , it's better .
But you can always use it as amany times you like or just have many address's in a single wallet .
You can also label each BTC address seperately as per your need

[manwithat]

You can use it many times.

[okthen]

OP, where did you get the info from?
Just thinking it might erroneously inform others, would be nice if it was changed.

[pedrog]

You can use an address as many times as you want, you can use bitcoin your entire life everyday and use only one address, but if you want your finances private you should change addresses often.

[ChuckBuck]

You can reuse the same BTC address as many times as you wish, I do it for several I own.  It's convenient.

The only reason you don't use only 1 is then a random person can just look up that address on Blockchain.info and see your remaining wallet balance.  If you juggle several wallet addresses instead of just 1, it shouldn't be a problem though.

Lastly and most importantly...any would be hacker/attacker would need to access your private keys, so if you secure these correctly, then nothing to worry.

[Amph]

better to use different address everytime for anonymity purpose, and to split your income(security reason)

but for some amount you can just use one address(your wallet will remain with the same size for a longer time, so you don't need to backup it often)

[Gisado]

You are encouraged to use an address only once, but nothing prohibits from using it several times.

[leex1528]

An important difference, however, is that each address should only be used for a single transaction.

It recommended you to only use an bitcoin address for a single transaction to keep privacy & separate your bitcoin so you can manage your bitcoin easier.
But, you can use it multiple times if you want to

Some wallet like electrum & bitcoin wallet(android) are doing this
So, it's up to you now

Why is it important to only use it once to keep privacy?  On this forum tons of people have their address posted everywhere. Can you elaborate a little bit of why that would keep your privacy?

[sgk]

So how can I change my address in the wallet application? What happens to my previous address if I change after receiving a transaction?

You just have to click a button to create a new address. You all previous addresses are kept intact in your wallet program, so they're not lost. Any future Bitcoins you receive to your 'old' address are received just fine.

Is it possible for a wallet application to hold several addresses?

All wallet programs can hold several hundred of addresses, or more.

[Gebbit]

From a privacy perspective it makes sense to only use an address one time. From a security point of view, the longer you use a wallet the more prone you are due to human error to make that address vulnerable.

[Muhammed Zakir]

Is it possible for a wallet application to hold several addresses?

All wallet programs can hold several hundred of addresses, or more.

It depends on your computer. If you have a low-end CPU and low RAM, your wallet will be very slow if you have several addresses.

   -MZ

[Herbert2020]

Is it possible for a wallet application to hold several addresses?

All wallet programs can hold several hundred of addresses, or more.

It depends on your computer. If you have a low-end CPU and low RAM, your wallet will be very slow if you have several addresses.

   -MZ

also on in lightweight wallets like Electrum for example, the more addresses and the more transactions you have, the slower the application gets.

[Anillos2]

Hi all,

There is a very simple question in my head about Bitcoin. I will be glad if someone can answer this.

Its about the Bitcoin address. It is stated that :

A Bitcoin address is similar to a physical address or an email. It is the only information you need to provide for someone to pay you with Bitcoin. An important difference, however, is that each address should only be used for a single transaction.

If each address can only be used for a single transaction how does one can receive more than one payments to his address.

Lets say I have a blog and I want to receive bitcoin donations to the address that I specified. Do I have to update the 30character code everytime that I receive a payment?

How does this work? Can somebody please explain.

Cheers

Bitcoin addresses are disposable, but You can use them forever if You want.

If you are using a paperwallet, remember that if you spend money from that address, I will have a lower security, because It won't be 100% offline.

[ranochigo]

Hi all,

There is a very simple question in my head about Bitcoin. I will be glad if someone can answer this.

Its about the Bitcoin address. It is stated that :

A Bitcoin address is similar to a physical address or an email. It is the only information you need to provide for someone to pay you with Bitcoin. An important difference, however, is that each address should only be used for a single transaction.

If each address can only be used for a single transaction how does one can receive more than one payments to his address.

Lets say I have a blog and I want to receive bitcoin donations to the address that I specified. Do I have to update the 30character code everytime that I receive a payment?

How does this work? Can somebody please explain.

Cheers

Bitcoin addresses are disposable, but You can use them forever if You want.

If you are using a paperwallet, remember that if you spend money from that address, I will loose a bit of security.

All addresses are secured by SHA256, RIPEMD-160 and ECDSA, once you make the first transaction, you broadcast your public key which leaves you with ECDSA to secure your wallet. True that quantum computer could break ECDSA but it wouldn't be the first target. If you look at some wallets for example onchain dice, they always reuse address and never get hacked. The other security concern is weak RNG which could be exploited once you make a transaction.

[Mikestang]

Is it possible for a wallet application to hold several addresses?

That's all a wallet is, a collection of addresses.  Contrary to popular misconception, no coin is stored in the wallet.   All that's there are addresses.