Treat wallet as a generic keystore about bitcoin

[cdecker]

We already have generic keystores on Linux machines, why not adapt Bitcoin to use them and provide a really simple one for systems that do not provide their own?

[gavinandresen]

See my python bitcointools for code that can read and write the key/value pairs in wallet.dat (fixwallet.py reads the wallet and writes out a new wallet, leaving out any keys that seem to be mis-formatted).

Merging wallets is hard because you have to teach bitcoin to re-scan the block chain for transactions to or from keys you just imported.

[cdecker]

Just delete all the block data and redownload the block chain.

[davout]

Deletion is not necessary,
doesn't it already happen anyway when wallet is replaced ?

[mndrix]

Easy import and export of keys would make it easier for trusted vendors to sell Bitcoin stored-value cards (USB sticks, mini CDs, etc) with a private key on them. The buyer then just imports the private key from the card.

Easy import/export also addresses parts of issue #2

[gasteve]

Easy import/export is an important feature for the day when transactions are no longer free on the network. People won't want to pay transaction fees when consolidating or moving btc value between different wallets they own. Also, easy import/export should be treated like moving (rather than copying) to prevent keys from ending up in multiple, concurrently active wallets (backup should be used for ensuring you don't lose keys).

I think I'll create a separate issue for this (since it is straying from this topic).

As for treating the wallet as a generic key store or using existing key store solutions, I think it's better to stay away from that in the short term. That could pose quite a few technical and integration challenges, and if not done very carefully, could pose a security risk (you would be putting bitcoin users at the mercy of third party key storage solutions that may or may not be very well implemented).

[alexwaters]

#220 wallet import and export should resolve this issue, please contribute to that thread.