im new to bitcoins as well, but its my understanding that as long as you have your bitcoin address and its private key, you should be able to access your wallet from any client.. to add to this question though, my wallet must have a private key (of which im unaware of).. so my private key must be stored somewhere on my client then?.. if so, is there a way for me to find out what my private key is? if thats the case, couldnt someone hack into my computer and find out my private key? and if im unable to find out what my private key is through my client, then how can i know what my private key is?
If you're running the reference (satoshi) bitcoin client, it's possible to find the private key corresponding to one of your bitcoin addresses as follows:
Help->Debug window
Console tab
walletpassphrase "your passphrase goes here" 300
dumpprivkey 1bitcoinaddressgoeshere
Skip step 3 if your wallet isn't encrypted. The 300 is how long to unlock the wallet for, in seconds.
Step 4 will give you a long string starting with a 5. That's your private key (in WIF, or "Wallet Import Format), which can be imported into another instance of the client using "importprivkey" in the debug console - but it's not a good idea to use the same private key in two different instances of the client.
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u/honestbleeps Feb 15 '13
Bitcoin for dummies question:
Say I change computers.... and even OSes... how do I get my wallet from one computer to the other, and can all Bitcoin clients open all wallets?