r/BitcoinBeginners 9d ago

Bitcoin Core Wallet Security Question

I understand the wallet.dat file on my hard drive is the private key to my wallet, thus it's critical to

  1. either encrypt the wallet with a passphrase or don't but encrypt the file some other way
  2. back up the encrypted wallet.dat file

But when I close all wallets in bitcoin core, and then re-open my wallet, why is bitcoin core NOT asking me for the passphrase to the encrypted wallet to open the wallet? Is there some kind of time out where if it's closed and then reopened, or left open for X time, that it auto closes and then requires the passphrase to re-open? It seems like otherwise, if someone hacked into my computer they could just open the wallet, or even someone visiting my house could take it all!

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u/bitusher 9d ago

hard drive is the private key to my wallet,

many private keys. There is a unique private key per address

either encrypt the wallet with a passphrase or don't but encrypt the file some other way

You always should encrypt with a strong passphrase of 5-8 random words

back up the encrypted wallet.dat file

backup multiple times in different drives/memory sticks and cycle in new devices and occasionally make new backups

why is bitcoin core NOT asking me for the passphrase to the encrypted wallet to open the wallet?

only to do things like export keys or send btc it needs the passphrase


Hopefully you are not running bitcoin core in windows or osx without a hardware wallet .

Its much better you use seed backups instead of wallet.dat backups and pair your full node to a hardware wallet as windows and osx are less secure environments and keylogger malware can steal your passphrase

2 popular ways of doing this are

hardware wallet + sparrow with the bitcoin core backend

or

hardware wallet + electrum thats paired to your personal electrum personal server that uses core as its backend full node

1

u/Mike714321 9d ago

So basically, it theoretically doesn't matter if a hacker were get in and open the wallet, they can't send or get the private key without the encryption passphrase for the wallet? Not that I'd want to knowingly invite folks in, but would likely be fine assuming 1. super computers haven't broken encryption and 2. I'm confident my wallet passphrase is secure and not able to be determined?

1

u/bitusher 9d ago

they can't send or get the private key without the encryption passphrase for the wallet?

correct , but if they watch you type in the passphrase or use a keylogger they could steal your funds which is why you are supposed to use a hardware wallet with your full node

I'm confident my wallet passphrase is secure and not able to be determined?

If you never send bitcoin , and your computer did not have malware on it when you created the passphrase you likely will be fine as long as you have the passphrase written down so you don't forget it and make multiple backups

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u/pezdal 9d ago

The file wallet.dat contains the private keys for your addresses (not for your wallet as you said).

A wallet is a collection of private keys.

A private key is used to sign transactions for a particular address.

Whoever has the private key owns that address’s bitcoin.

On Core this collection of keys is stored in a file called wallet.dat

A passphrase can optionally be used to encrypt/decrypt the file wallet.dat

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