Author: Matt Corallo 2011-07-04 17:52:53
Published on: 2011-07-04T17:52:53+00:00
The article discusses the backward compatibility issues with Wallet encryption in Bitcoin. Version 0.3.23 of Bitcoin dies after writing one unencrypted private key to an otherwise encrypted wallet. Version 0.3.22 and prior versions display transactions but show a total balance only in unencrypted keys, each transaction shows only confirmation count, date, no description, and a debit/credit of 0.00. The article suggests possible solutions to work around Bitcoin's overwillingness to load wallets with keys it has no clue about. One suggestion is to rename wallet.dat for encrypted wallets, which has both advantages and disadvantages. Another option is to do nothing and let old clients get mad. Bitcoin shouldn't continue on as if nothing had happened when faced with unknown keys. In the future, it should prevent this issue.
Updated on: 2023-05-18T16:24:38.475557+00:00