Author: Roy Badami 2013-02-22 23:08:51
Published on: 2013-02-22T23:08:51+00:00
The Bitcoin community is discussing the possibility of providing tools to help users manage key compromise and key retirement. Currently, if a user suspects that their keys may be compromised, they would have to create a new wallet and transfer their coins from the old wallet to the new one. This process can be tedious, and the user loses their address book and transaction history. Additionally, if someone makes a payment to one of the old addresses, the user is stuck unless they keep the old wallet around. There are various scenarios where users may want to retire their keys or suspect a risk of compromise. It would be beneficial for Bitcoin to have a big key compromise button that would automatically transfer all coins to newly generated addresses. Optionally, retired addresses could be marked with a flag so that if someone sends coins to the address, bitcoind immediately generates a transaction to transfer the coins to good addresses. While deterministic wallets have many proponents, some users prefer having a bag of keys. Over time, old keys should be retired, and their balances should automatically transfer to newly generated keys. If someone manages to crack the passphrase on an old wallet backup, it would be nice to minimize the damage they could do. Finally, some users want a panic button that allows them to automatically transfer all their coins to new addresses if they suddenly do something stupid like accidentally typing their passphrase into their IRC window. The Bitcoin community is interested in developing this functionality within the official client, but the first step would be to specify exactly what functionality is wanted.
Updated on: 2023-06-06T10:12:23.805485+00:00