Procedure to restore Bitcoin Core backup

0

I am looking for the procedure necessary to restore a backup of Bitcoin Core v0.15.1 official release version.

Assuming I safely exit Bitcoin Core, take a backup of the ~/.bitcoin folder and put it away safely. I use my wallet for possibly many years making many transactions and eventually, my computer dies.

I get my new computer, install (let's assume the same version of) Bitcoin Core and copy my backup back to the correct location. Obviously, it will need to sync with the network once I start it up and, I may need to upgrade to a newer version of Bitcoin Core but; surely the restored backup will not know of my many new addresses used for transactions since the backup when checking for transactions during synchronisation?

Does anybody have the actual steps necessary for this procedure?

Willtech

Posted 2018-01-24T09:27:06.107

Reputation: 2 657

Answers

1

If you are using bitcoin 0.15.1, it will be using a HD (hierarchical deterministic) wallet by default. This means that all addresses it uses are generated from a single master key in a deterministic way. That means that even addresses you generate after the backup will still be recoverable, as will any transactions sent to them. The exception would be if you upgraded to a new wallet version which supported address types that 0.15.1 didn't (at some point in the future), in which case if you send funds to those address types 0.15.1 might not recognize them (although the private keys can probably still be recovered from your HD wallet

MeshCollider

Posted 2018-01-24T09:27:06.107

Reputation: 8 735

Okay, recoverable, thank you. What steps are necessary? – Willtech – 2018-01-24T10:57:23.263

It will automatically find addresses which it supports. Please accept my answer if it satisfied your question btw, so the question doesn't remain "unanswered" – MeshCollider – 2018-01-24T12:40:26.633

So, the process is automatic and no further steps are necessary. I suppose that first upgrading the backup to the newest version before starting it up would also solve that other problem. Thank you. – Willtech – 2018-01-25T07:39:00.183

Asked: 2018-01-24T09:27:06.107

Viewed: 320 times

Active: 2018-01-24T10:21:14.427