<blockquote>
  <p>Spending bitcoins costs me to sacrifice (i.e. can only be used once) a private/public keypair, am I right?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>No that's not correct. Key pairs can be reused but it is not recommended for privacy reasons. All transactions are public and reusing the same address over and over again make it easy for people to build a profile about you.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Receiving does not use up a private/public keypair, am I right?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>You need an address to receive bitcoins and behind that address is a key pair. But you can reuse it like I said above.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Creating a new address also uses up a private/public keypair, right?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>See above.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>When I spend bitcoins, how is this connected to my address, if it uses a new private/public keypair everytime, that has nothing to do with the original keypair of my address?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>It doesn't use a new key pair everytime.</p>

<p>You need to read up on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-key_cryptography" rel="nofollow">asymmetric cryptography</a>. The gist of it is that the private key and public key are mathematically related. Bitcoin spend transactions are signed by your wallet using the private key and that signature can be verified by everyone using your public key. Private key does not have to be exposed in order to spend or receive bitcoins.</p>

<p>A bitcoin address is a hash of your public key and that hash operation is also repeated by nodes to verify that you indeed own the bitcoins and have the right to spend them. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-07-14T08:24:53.263Z
Privacy and security. A spent output reveals the pubkey, where an unspent one exposes only the hash of the pubkey. If the situation arises that ECDSA is weakened, exposed pubkeys will likely be the ones at immediate risk. Reusing keys is needlessly exposing yourself.
Claris
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-07-14T17:02:59.240Z
@Bitcoin: Ok, then how can I achieve, that a different public key (i.e. a different public/private keypair) is used everytime I spent bitcoins? Do I have to create a new address? And then move the bitcoins somehow to this new address?
erik
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-07-14T07:40:01.157Z
2015-07-14T07:40:01.157Z
Minty
<p>Spending bitcoins <em>costs</em> me to sacrifice (i.e. can only be used once) a private/public keypair, am I right?</p>

<p>Receiving does not use up a private/public keypair, am I right?</p>

<p>Creating a new address also uses up a private/public keypair, right?</p>

<h1>Question</h1>

<p>When I spend bitcoins, how is this connected to my address, if it uses a new private/public keypair everytime, that has nothing to do with the <em>original</em> keypair of my address?</p>

<address><private-key><public-key>
how is the private/public keypair for spent bitcoins connected to the private/public keypair which corresponds to my address?
erik
# how is the private/public keypair for spent bitcoins connected to the private/public keypair which corresponds to my address?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-07-14)

Spending bitcoins *costs* me to sacrifice (i.e. can only be used once) a private/public keypair, am I right?

Receiving does not use up a private/public keypair, am I right?

Creating a new address also uses up a private/public keypair, right?

# Question

When I spend bitcoins, how is this connected to my address, if it uses a new private/public keypair everytime, that has nothing to do with the *original* keypair of my address?

**Tags:** address, private-key, public-key


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2015-07-14. Score: 2

> Spending bitcoins costs me to sacrifice (i.e. can only be used once) a private/public keypair, am I right?

No that's not correct. Key pairs can be reused but it is not recommended for privacy reasons. All transactions are public and reusing the same address over and over again make it easy for people to build a profile about you.

> Receiving does not use up a private/public keypair, am I right?

You need an address to receive bitcoins and behind that address is a key pair. But you can reuse it like I said above.

> Creating a new address also uses up a private/public keypair, right?

See above.

> When I spend bitcoins, how is this connected to my address, if it uses a new private/public keypair everytime, that has nothing to do with the original keypair of my address?

It doesn't use a new key pair everytime.

You need to read up on [asymmetric cryptography](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-key_cryptography). The gist of it is that the private key and public key are mathematically related. Bitcoin spend transactions are signed by your wallet using the private key and that signature can be verified by everyone using your public key. Private key does not have to be exposed in order to spend or receive bitcoins.

A bitcoin address is a hash of your public key and that hash operation is also repeated by nodes to verify that you indeed own the bitcoins and have the right to spend them.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Privacy and security. A spent output reveals the pubkey, where an unspent one exposes only the hash of the pubkey. If the situation arises that ECDSA is weakened, exposed pubkeys will likely be the ones at immediate risk. Reusing keys is needlessly exposing yourself.  
> **username_0**: @Bitcoin: Ok, then how can I achieve, that a different public key (i.e. a different public/private keypair) is used everytime I spent bitcoins? Do I have to create a new address? And then move the bitcoins somehow to this new address?  

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