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03_3_Setting_Up_Your_Wallet.md
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@ -48,6 +48,34 @@ wallet.dat wallet.dat-journal
As this indicates, each wallet will have its own directory. (The main directory is used if you choose `""` for your wallet name.) Each directory will then have a `wallet.dat` file (which is a SQLite database) and a `wallet.dat-journal` file (which is an SQLite rollback journal).
You can also see details on your wallet with the `bitcoin-cli getwalletinfo` command:
```
$ bitcoin-cli getwalletinfo
{
"walletname": "mainwallet",
"walletversion": 169900,
"format": "sqlite",
"txcount": 0,
"keypoolsize": 3999,
"keypoolsize_hd_internal": 4000,
"paytxfee": 0.00000000,
"private_keys_enabled": true,
"avoid_reuse": false,
"scanning": false,
"descriptors": true,
"external_signer": false,
"blank": false,
"birthtime": 1770319097,
"flags": [
"last_hardened_xpub_cached",
"descriptor_wallet"
],
"lastprocessedblock": {
"hash": "00000010ea21796c6e54101bf757ca1e80d656856d1c71aa18282698edb4b49b",
"height": 290276
}
}
```
> :book: ***What is a Bitcoin wallet?*** A Bitcoin wallet is the digital equivalent of a physical wallet. It stores information on the amount of bitcoins you have and where it's located (addresses), as well as the ways you can use to spend it. Spending physical money is intuitive, but to spend Bitcoin, users need to provide the correct _private key_. We will explain this in more detail throughout the course, but what you should know for now is that this public-private key dynamic is part of what makes Bitcoin secure and trustless. Your key pair information is saved in the `wallet.dat` file, in addition to data about preferences and transactions. For the most part, you won't have to worry about that private key: `bitcoind` will use it when it's needed. However, this makes the `wallet.dat` file extremely important: if you lose it, you lose your private keys, and if you lose your private keys, you lose your funds!
You now have a Bitcoin wallet. But you can't receive funds with a wallet. For that you need an address, which is a specific repository for funds, derived from the private key information in your wallet: its one private key can generate many addresses.
@ -58,7 +86,7 @@ The next thing you need to do is create an address for receiving payments. This
```
$ bitcoin-cli getnewaddress
tb1qmuqycfqfffvkys2h8rwqpgw6n0v6s0uhd235sj
tb1qjjjasex3yzv640pczlwamzmwe0ut42vwvwcrey
```
Note that this address begins with an "tb1", which [means](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/List_of_address_prefixes) that it's a Bech32 address on either signet or testnet. The discussion of different address types in §4.1 will also talk about all of their identifying prefixes.
@ -68,7 +96,62 @@ Take careful note of the address. You'll need to give it to whomever will be sen
> :book: ***What is a Bitcoin address?*** A Bitcoin address is literally where you receive money. It's like an email address, but for funds. It's based on a public key, though different address schemes adjust that in different ways. However unlike an email address, a Bitcoin address should be considered single use: use it to receive funds just _once_. When you want to receive funds from someone else or at some other time, generate a new address. This is suggested in large part to improve your privacy. The whole blockchain is immutable, which means that explorers can look at long chains of transactions over time, making it possible to statistically determine who you and your contacts are, no matter how careful you are. If you keep reusing the same address, then this becomes even easier.
By creating your first Bitcoin address, you've also begun to fill in your Bitcoin wallet. More precisely, you've begun to fill the `wallet.dat` file in your `~/.bitcoin/signet /wallets/{walletname}` directory. With a single address in hand, you could jump straight [§3.5: Receiving a Transaction](03_5_Receiving_a_Transaction.md) and begin receiving funds. However, before we get there, we're going to briefly discuss a few optional wallet commands that you might want to use in the future.
By creating your first Bitcoin address, you've also begun to fill in your Bitcoin wallet. More precisely, you've begun to fill the `wallet.dat` file in your `~/.bitcoin/signet /wallets/{walletname}` directory. With a single address in hand, you could jump straight [§3.5: Receiving a Transaction](03_5_Receiving_a_Transaction.md) and begin receiving funds. However, before we get there, we're going to briefly discuss backing up your wallet and a few optional wallet commands that you might want to use in the future.
## Backup Your Wallet
You can backup your wallet with the `bitcoin-cli backupwallet` command:
```
$ mkdir ~/backups
$ bitcoin-cli backupwallet ~/backups/mainwallet.dat
```
This will create a backup of the SQLite file that you can later restore from with the `bitcoin-cli restorewallet` command. It's probably best used if you'll be backing up your wallet to a secure (encrypted) storage area.
Just having a single backup will be enough to recover your wallet, because it'll contain the seed used to generate the wallet (more on that next chapter). However, it's good to regularly backup your wallet so that you don't lose data about your transactions.
## Optional: Encrypt Your Wallet
You can choose to encrypt your wallet. (It actually just encrypts the private information in your wallet, such as your private keys.) This is done with the `bitcoin-cli encryptwallet` command. Note that this will reset your seed and keys, so *only do it on a fresh wallet*:
```
$ bitcoin-cli encryptwallet "your-great-password"
wallet encrypted; The keypool has been flushed and a new HD seed was generated. You need to make a new backup with the backupwallet RPC.
```
You should _definitely_ encrypt your wallet if you are using `bitcoin-cli` to deal with real money, but you probably shouldn't do it for this course (or any other use of test networks) because it'll just add new hoops to jump through test out funds.
Once you have encrypted your wallet, you'll be required to enter a passphrase in order to do many commands:
```
$ bitcoin-cli walletpassphrase "your-great-password" 3600
```
This will unlock your wallet for a set number of seconds (here, 3600 seconds, which is an hour), after which you'll again be required to enter your passphrase.
If you want to lock your wallet back up earlier than that, you can use `bitcoin-cli walletlock`:
```
$ bitcoin-cli walletlock
```
## Optional: View Your Private Keys
Sometimes, you might want to actually look at the private keys associated with your Bitcoin addresses. Perhaps you want to be able to sign a message or spend bitcoins from a different machine. Perhaps you just want to back up certain important private keys. You can also do this with your dump file, since it's human readable.
```
$ bitcoin-cli dumpwallet ~/mywallet.txt
{
"filename": "/home/standup/mywallet.txt"
}
```
More likely, you just want to look at the private key associated with a specific address. This can be done with the `bitcoin-cli dumpprivkey` command.
```
$ bitcoin-cli dumpprivkey "moKVV6XEhfrBCE3QCYq6ppT7AaMF8KsZ1B"
cTv75T4B3NsG92tdSxSfzhuaGrzrmc1rJjLKscoQZXqNRs5tpYhH
```
You can then save that key somewhere safe, preferably somewhere not connected to the internet.
You can also import any private key, from a wallet dump or an individual key dump, as follows:
```
$ bitcoin-cli importprivkey cW4s4MdW7BkUmqiKgYzSJdmvnzq8QDrf6gszPMC7eLmfcdoRHtHh
```
Again, expect this to require an unpruned node. Expect this to take a while, as `bitcoind` needs to reread all past transactions, to see if there are any new ones that it should pay attention to.
> :information_source: **NOTE:** Many modern wallets prefer [mnemonic codes](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0039.mediawiki) to generate the seeds necessary to create the private keys. This methodology is not used `bitcoin-cli`, so you won't be able to generate handy word lists to remember your private keys.
## Optional: Sign a Message
@ -116,29 +199,7 @@ error message:
Importing wallets is disabled when blocks are pruned
```
## Optional: View Your Private Keys
Sometimes, you might want to actually look at the private keys associated with your Bitcoin addresses. Perhaps you want to be able to sign a message or spend bitcoins from a different machine. Perhaps you just want to back up certain important private keys. You can also do this with your dump file, since it's human readable.
```
$ bitcoin-cli dumpwallet ~/mywallet.txt
{
"filename": "/home/standup/mywallet.txt"
}
```
More likely, you just want to look at the private key associated with a specific address. This can be done with the `bitcoin-cli dumpprivkey` command.
```
$ bitcoin-cli dumpprivkey "moKVV6XEhfrBCE3QCYq6ppT7AaMF8KsZ1B"
cTv75T4B3NsG92tdSxSfzhuaGrzrmc1rJjLKscoQZXqNRs5tpYhH
```
You can then save that key somewhere safe, preferably somewhere not connected to the internet.
You can also import any private key, from a wallet dump or an individual key dump, as follows:
```
$ bitcoin-cli importprivkey cW4s4MdW7BkUmqiKgYzSJdmvnzq8QDrf6gszPMC7eLmfcdoRHtHh
```
Again, expect this to require an unpruned node. Expect this to take a while, as `bitcoind` needs to reread all past transactions, to see if there are any new ones that it should pay attention to.
> :information_source: **NOTE:** Many modern wallets prefer [mnemonic codes](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0039.mediawiki) to generate the seeds necessary to create the private keys. This methodology is not used `bitcoin-cli`, so you won't be able to generate handy word lists to remember your private keys.
_You've been typing that Bitcoin address you generated a _lot_, while you were signing messages and now dumping keys. If you think it's a pain, we agree. It's also prone to errors, a topic that we'll address in the very next section._