Using a Watch-Only Wallet with Ethereum in Bitcoin Core
As a user of the popular Bitcoin Core (BTC) client, you may have noticed that it allows you to create watch-only wallets for secure and private transactions. In this article, we’ll explore how to use a watch-only wallet created using the bitcoin-cli
command-line tool with Bitcoin Core v23.0.
Step 1: Create a Watch-Only Wallet
To begin, you need to create a watch-only wallet using the following command:
$ bitcoin-cli -regtest createwallet "test" true
This command creates a new watch-only wallet named test
and sets the disable_private_keys
option to true
.
Step 2: Verify the Watch-Only Wallet Creation
After creating the wallet, verify that it was created successfully:
$ bitcoin-cli -regtest listwallets | grep test
The output should show the newly created watch-only wallet with the name test
. You can also use the -regtest
option to get more detailed information about the wallet.
Step 3: Import the Watch-Only Wallet into Bitcoin Core
Once you’ve verified that your new wallet is working, it’s time to import it into Bitcoin Core. To do this, follow these steps:
- Open a terminal or command prompt.
- Start a new session in Bitcoin Core by running:
$ bitcoin-cli -regtest start
This will launch the Bitcoin Core client and create a new instance of the wallet.
- From within the Bitcoin Core session, go to Settings > Wallets and select your newly created watch-only wallet:
test
.
Step 4: Create a New Transaction
Now that you have your watch-only wallet imported into Bitcoin Core, you can create a new transaction using the following command:
$ bitcoin-cli -regtest sendfrom "test" < path/to/transaction/file
Replace
with the location of your transaction file. This will initiate a new transaction from the test
wallet to a specified recipient.
Step 5: Verify the Transaction
To verify that the transaction was successful, you can use the following command:
$ bitcoin-cli -regtest sendfrom "test" < path/to/transaction/file > /dev/null
This will output confirmation that the transaction was processed successfully.
That’s it! With these steps, you’ve successfully used a watch-only wallet created with Bitcoin Core v23.0 to create and verify a new transaction.
Tips and Variations
- If your wallet is not showing up in the
regtest
list, try restarting Bitcoin Core or checking for any issues with your internet connection.
- To view more detailed information about your wallet, you can use the
-regtest
option with additional flags, such as--listwallets
to display all wallets in the system.
- You can also import a watch-only wallet from an existing Bitcoin Core session by using the
-regtest
option and specifying the path to the imported wallet file.