Can I have the same wallet opened in multiple computers?

[RGXDK]

Say I backup wallet in computer A and restore it in computer B, can they both be online and fully synchronized at the same time? Is transaction history kept up to date? Anything that I should be aware of?

Thanks!

 

[UdjinM6]

Technically speaking, yes, you can do that but only until they run out of next 1000 keys from keypool. Then they'll diverge. You can increase keypool before copying wallet to make this effect last longer.
This however is NOT recommended because eventually this will happen and relying on such setup is dangerous. If they diverge and you lose one of them, you will NOT be able to restore funds from addresses which were not in original keypool without recent backup of the one you lost.

 

[RGXDK]

You've been replying to all my posts, thank you. So I want to use a wallet on multiple computers I should only have 1 opened at a time?

 

[UdjinM6]

You've been replying to all my posts, thank you. So I want to use a wallet on multiple computers I should only have 1 opened at a time?

No, you can have them all open, it doesn't matter. What matters is keys inside these wallets. Every time you use new address, another one is created. Since this is NOT deterministic, all other wallets will have no idea about new key and new address. Once initial key set is exhausted, wallets will diverge and things will become dangerous.

 

[slamdunk]

Great information, but let's say I want to switch platforms. Is it OK to use the 1000 keys from keypol temporarily? As a "bridge"? In this way, I am phasing out of one wallet and into another, right?

 

[RGXDK]

No, you can have them all open, it doesn't matter. What matters is keys inside these wallets. Every time you use new address, another one is created. Since this is NOT deterministic, all other wallets will have no idea about new key and new address. Once initial key set is exhausted, wallets will diverge and things will become dangerous.

I am sorry I don't know what a mempool is and I doubt that I'll make 200 transactions this entire year. How would I know that I'm running the risk of "running out of keys" please?

 

[UdjinM6]

Great information, but let's say I want to switch platforms. Is it OK to use the 1000 keys from keypol temporarily? As a "bridge"? In this way, I am phasing out of one wallet and into another, right?

I would just create new wallet on new platform and simply send all funds there. It's not a good idea to move wallet.dat from one platform to another.
Or you could dump all keys into text file using dumpwallet command, move it to new platform and import it via importwallet.

 

[slamdunk]

I used dumpprivkey and importprivkey, is this safe?

 

[RGXDK]

It's not a good idea to move wallet.dat from one platform to another..

May I ask why? Besides this problem of running out of 1000 keys, is there anything else?

 

[UdjinM6]

I am sorry I don't know what a mempool is and I doubt that I'll make 200 transactions this entire year. How would I know that I'm running the risk of "running out of keys" please?

I didn't say "mempool"

Anyway... So wallet works like this. At the very first start wallet.dat is created and populated with 1000 private keys and corresponding addresses. These are "keypool". Every time you use one address from this keypool, it's removed and new random one is created so that keypool already stays at 1000 available keys/addresses. This was made to give user a "window" to use wallet without having to backup it after creation of each new key. When you copy it to another machine, it will create _different_ new random key i.e. your 2 machines will have 999 common key/addresses, 998, 997 etc. When this hits 0, wallets are no longer a "copy", it's 2 completely different wallets and from this point no funds received on yet another new address can be seen/restored by another "copy".

May I ask why? Besides this problem of running out of 1000 keys, is there anything else?

I don't think so. Maybe just the fact that now you have to secure 2 wallets/machines instead of 1.

 

[UdjinM6]

I used dumpprivkey and importprivkey, is this safe?

Kind of. Just as safe as cleartext, so it depends on how you use/send it.

 

[RGXDK]

I didn't say "mempool"

I see. Imagine I stop using them on both computers and keep using it only on one. Will it go back to behave as "Every time you use one address from this keypool, it's removed and new random one is created so that keypool already stays at 1000 available keys/addresses" ? If not is there anything I can do to make it behave like normal again?

I have a masternode configured in this wallet, I don't want to send funds to another wallet and re-configure everything again

 

[UdjinM6]

I see. Imagine I stop using them on both computers and keep using it only on one. Will it go back to behave as "Every time you use one address from this keypool, it's removed and new random one is created so that keypool already stays at 1000 available keys/addresses" ? If not is there anything I can do to make it behave like normal again?

I have a masternode configured in this wallet, I don't want to send funds to another wallet and re-configure everything again

Hold on. Are you going to keep wallets open because you want to set each of them up as a (hot) masternode?
To act as a masternode you have to keep you wallet unlocked 24/7. Keeping unlocked wallet with 1000 DASH online 24/7 is NOT a good idea, I strongly advise against doing things this way. You should instead set them up in a so called hot/cold setup (using masternode.conf), where you only need wallet with funds to be online and unlocked to start your masternodes (or to spend received rewards) and you keep it somewhere safe/offline in all other cases. See masternode guides subforum for more info https://www.dash.org/forum/topic/masternode-guides.66/

 

[RGXDK]

Hold on. Are you going to keep wallets open because you want to set each of them up as a (hot) masternode?
To act as a masternode you have to keep you wallet unlocked 24/7. Keeping unlocked wallet with 1000 DASH online 24/7 is NOT a good idea, I strongly advise against doing things this way. You should instead set them up in a so called hot/cold setup (using masternode.conf), where you only need wallet with funds to be online and unlocked to start your masternodes (or to spend received rewards) and you keep it somewhere safe/offline in all other cases. See masternode guides subforum for more info https://www.dash.org/forum/topic/masternode-guides.66/

I followed Dash's tutorial and there is a server running dash as a masternode. I edited a masternode.conf on my wallet and I can see the masternode server live on the masternodes tab. My understanding is that the server running the masternode is not a "wallet", a "wallet" is only this program that I use on my computer.

Having said that, the wallet on my computer has the 1k DASH + a few ones I use for expenses. Let's say 1050 DASH. I assume every time I want to send some DASH I have to open it on my computer and "unlock" it.

Given this scenario, can you please explain the "Keeping unlocked wallet with 1000 DASH online 24/7 is NOT a good idea"? Is the server running as masternode a "wallet"? I don't think it is because the wallet on my computer has all the DASH, but as you can see I'm a total newbie.

 

[UdjinM6]

I followed Dash's tutorial and there is a server running dash as a masternode. I edited a masternode.conf on my wallet and I can see the masternode server live on the masternodes tab. My understanding is that the server running the masternode is not a "wallet", a "wallet" is only this program that I use on my computer.

Having said that, the wallet on my computer has the 1k DASH + a few ones I use for expenses. Let's say 1050 DASH. I assume every time I want to send some DASH I have to open it on my computer and "unlock" it.

Given this scenario, can you please explain the "Keeping unlocked wallet with 1000 DASH online 24/7 is NOT a good idea"? Is the server running as masternode a "wallet"? I don't think it is because the wallet on my computer has all the DASH, but as you can see I'm a total newbie.

Ah, ok, I guess I made a wrong assumption then, I though you were talking about sending funds to another wallet to setup another masternode, sorry
So yes, server has no funds, and yes, to spend some you need to unlock your wallet.
But why do you want another online wallet then? And how is that "I don't want to send funds to another wallet and re-configure everything again" connected? I don't understand...

 

[RGXDK]

Ah, ok, I guess I made a wrong assumption then, I though you were talking about sending funds to another wallet to setup another masternode, sorry
So yes, server has no funds, and yes, to spend some you need to unlock your wallet.
But why do you want another online wallet then? And how is that "I don't want to send funds to another wallet and re-configure everything again" connected? I don't understand...

Thanks for being so resourceful today. I might be confusing you with my ignorance on the terminology.

When I open Dash-QT on my my "kitchen computer" I see 1050 DASH, so I assume I have 1050 DASH "in my wallet". I used 1000 DASH from this wallet to setup the masternode. Lets say I want to open Dash-QT on my "bedroom computer". What I would do is I would restore the wallet on "bedroom computer", but you said it was a good idea to just setup a new wallet on "bedroom computer" and just send the funds there. However if I do this then I am actually moving DASH from the address of the masternode and I'll have to configure it again (unless I am missing something).

So if I want to open the wallet on another computer, but I don't want to transfer the DASH to another wallet (because it will screw up the masternode), how do I do it?

Thanks again!

 

[UdjinM6]

Thanks for being so resourceful today. I might be confusing you with my ignorance on the terminology.

When I open Dash-QT on my my "kitchen computer" I see 1050 DASH, so I assume I have 1050 DASH "in my wallet". I used 1000 DASH from this wallet to setup the masternode. Lets say I want to open Dash-QT on my "bedroom computer". What I would do is I would restore the wallet on "bedroom computer", but you said it was a good idea to just setup a new wallet on "bedroom computer" and just send the funds there. However if I do this then I am actually moving DASH from the address of the masternode and I'll have to configure it again (unless I am missing something).

So if I want to open the wallet on another computer, but I don't want to transfer the DASH to another wallet (because it will screw up the masternode), how do I do it?

Thanks again!

Now I see

So, I would keep my 1000 DASH wallet as much offline as possible to be safe and would move the rest of funds (50 DASH) to a new wallet which I would then use in a day-to-day transactions, maybe move few DASH to mobile wallet too (if you have Android phone, you can get one). Think of it as of a safe and a pocket wallet. You don't want to open and close your safe every time you need to buy a coffee, same applies here. If you feel like you still want to keep an eye on what's happening with that 1000 DASH (i.e. not moved, received rewards etc.), you can use importaddress command in that new wallet to add masternode address as a watch-only address (i.e. you won't be able to spend it from this wallet but you will be able to see its balance). Or simply use any blockchain explorer to monitor it.

If you actually need to have control over 1000 DASH in 2 different places/wallets no matter what, I would suggest to increase keypool using keypoolrefill command in Console e.g. "keypoolrefill 10000" to make it 10 time larger than default (doing so will take some time, be patient) and then create a copy. This should give you quite a lot of time to use both copies in parallel before they diverge.

 

[RGXDK]

Now I see

So, I would keep my 1000 DASH wallet as much offline as possible to be safe and would move the rest of funds (50 DASH) to a new wallet which I would then use in a day-to-day transactions, maybe move few DASH to mobile wallet too (if you have Android phone, you can get one). Think of it as of a safe and a pocket wallet. You don't want to open and close your safe every time you need to buy a coffee, same applies here. If you feel like you still want to keep an eye on what's happening with that 1000 DASH (i.e. not moved, received rewards etc.), you can use importaddress command in that new wallet to add masternode address as a watch-only address (i.e. you won't be able to spend it from this wallet but you will be able to see its balance). Or simply use any blockchain explorer to monitor it.

If you actually need to have control over 1000 DASH in 2 different places/wallets no matter what, I would suggest to increase keypool using keypoolrefill command in Console e.g. "keypoolrefill 10000" to make it 10 time larger than default (doing so will take some time, be patient) and then create a copy. This should give you quite a lot of time to use both copies in parallel before they diverge.

Thank you UdjinM6! Let's say I did what you recommended and have Wallet A offline with 1000 DASH and Wallet B on my laptop. I now decided to buy another 1000 DASH to start a second masternode. Would you recommend me to transfer the 1000 DASH for the new masternode to Wallet A and have all masternodes in a single wallet? Or maybe transfer to Wallet B, make it offline as Wallet A, and have a Wallet C with my day-to-day funds 50 DASH?

Bonus questions: isnt' it best practice to do the keypoolrefill 10000 command just in case? Diverging wallets seems to be a very bad scenario and I would have no way of knowing it is has happened.

 

[UdjinM6]

Thank you UdjinM6! Let's say I did what you recommended and have Wallet A offline with 1000 DASH and Wallet B on my laptop. I now decided to buy another 1000 DASH to start a second masternode. Would you recommend me to transfer the 1000 DASH for the new masternode to Wallet A and have all masternodes in a single wallet? Or maybe transfer to Wallet B, make it offline as Wallet A, and have a Wallet C with my day-to-day funds 50 DASH?

Bonus questions: isnt' it best practice to do the keypoolrefill 10000 command just in case? Diverging wallets seems to be a very bad scenario and I would have no way of knowing it is has happened.

Having them in one wallet.dat has both pros and cons.
1 offline wallet: easier to manage/backup/secure/vote but all eggs in one basket; many offline wallets: vice versa.
I would say it's ok to have multiple masternodes in one wallet but once you get quite a lot of them I would start to split them among few wallets a bit.

 

[RGXDK]

Having them in one wallet.dat has both pros and cons.
1 offline wallet: easier to manage/backup/secure/vote but all eggs in one basket; many offline wallets: vice versa.
I would say it's ok to have multiple masternodes in one wallet but once you get quite a lot of them I would start to split them among few wallets a bit.

Got it. Thanks again!