<p>Most wallets have indeed only one main secret, but they use it to generate many different addresses.</p>
<p>When you receive a payment in Bitcoin, the sender locks up funds with a locking script that can only be spent using your private key. The locking scripts are deterministically derived from your public key and visible to all other users on the network. If you were to use only a single key pair, any observer on the network could assume that all the corresponding funds belong to the same user and could easily <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Privacy#Address_reuse" rel="nofollow noreferrer">cluster all your payments</a>.</p>
<p>Wallets generally steer the user towards using a new address for every payment they receive, to decouple funds and achieve some financial privacy. However, if all of those keys were unrelated, we'd have to make a new wallet backup after every payment, so today's wallets generally work by having one main secret from which any number of sub-keys are <a href="https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0032.mediawiki" rel="nofollow noreferrer">derived</a> for the individual payments.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-03T07:56:11.923Z
Thanks a lot! so practically a wallet could have only one key pair but for the sake of privacy it generates more key pairs from that initial first key pair?
Andre
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-03T12:35:08.827Z
Yes, pretty much that.
Murch
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-14T02:09:26.960Z
so does it mean we need to keep multiple private keys safe to keep our money? if I lose any private key, I lose money associated with it? For example, wallet has 10 key pairs but somehow I lost 1 and now I have 9. This would happen if I am managing paper based or some other wallet mechanism.
Umair A.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-14T14:58:23.940Z
Hi Umair, no, most wallets only have a single main secret and derive all the other keys from that. As long as you have a backup of the main secret, you can recover all funds. If that didn’t answer your question, please consider creating a new topic to ask your question.
Murch
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-02T14:51:35.400Z
2021-08-02T14:59:16.770Z
2021-08-02T14:59:16.770Z
Murch
<p>first of all we need to understand which wallet you are talking about i.e blockchain or bitcoin core or some other wallet. but in all cases wallet owner have the option to import more than one private keys in a single wallet that is why you see more than one pair or private public keys in the wallet</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-02T14:35:52.127Z
for starters lets go with something simple like Bitcoin core (i guess that's fairly simple because they're only compatible with bitcoin chain?)
Andre
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-02T13:21:57.980Z
2021-08-02T13:21:57.980Z
Muhammad Adnan Alam
<p>I was looking into wallets and the information that they contain. I found this post:</p>
<p><a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/3173/120768">What information does a wallet contain?</a></p>
<p>I thought that wallets have only one key pair. Why is there more than one key pair in a wallet?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-02T14:31:00.690Z
Hey Andre, am I understanding right that you're asking why wallets have more than one key?
Murch
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-02T14:34:40.460Z
So far I understood every Wallet has a Wallet Adress which is a algorthmic version of the Public Key und a Private Key, but if read that it is possible for a wallet to have more then one private public key pair?
Andre
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-02T14:39:29.520Z
I have edited your question to more clearly express what I think you are asking. Please feel free to edit it further if I didn't capture your intent.
Murch
<wallet><address-generation><address-reuse>
Why do wallets have more than one key pair?
Andre
# Why do wallets have more than one key pair?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-08-02)

I was looking into wallets and the information that they contain. I found this post:

[What information does a wallet contain?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/3173/120768)

I thought that wallets have only one key pair. Why is there more than one key pair in a wallet?

**Tags:** wallet, address-generation, address-reuse

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Hey username_0, am I understanding right that you're asking why wallets have more than one key?  
> **username_0**: So far I understood every Wallet has a Wallet Adress which is a algorthmic version of the Public Key und a Private Key, but if read that it is possible for a wallet to have more then one private public key pair?  
> **username_1**: I have edited your question to more clearly express what I think you are asking. Please feel free to edit it further if I didn't capture your intent.  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-08-02. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

Most wallets have indeed only one main secret, but they use it to generate many different addresses.

When you receive a payment in Bitcoin, the sender locks up funds with a locking script that can only be spent using your private key. The locking scripts are deterministically derived from your public key and visible to all other users on the network. If you were to use only a single key pair, any observer on the network could assume that all the corresponding funds belong to the same user and could easily [cluster all your payments](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Privacy#Address_reuse).

Wallets generally steer the user towards using a new address for every payment they receive, to decouple funds and achieve some financial privacy. However, if all of those keys were unrelated, we'd have to make a new wallet backup after every payment, so today's wallets generally work by having one main secret from which any number of sub-keys are [derived](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0032.mediawiki) for the individual payments.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks a lot! so practically a wallet could have only one key pair but for the sake of privacy it generates more key pairs from that initial first key pair?  
> **username_1**: Yes, pretty much that.  
> **username_2**: so does it mean we need to keep multiple private keys safe to keep our money? if I lose any private key, I lose money associated with it? For example, wallet has 10 key pairs but somehow I lost 1 and now I have 9. This would happen if I am managing paper based or some other wallet mechanism.  
> **username_1**: Hi username_2, no, most wallets only have a single main secret and derive all the other keys from that. As long as you have a backup of the main secret, you can recover all funds. If that didn’t answer your question, please consider creating a new topic to ask your question.  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2021-08-02. Score: 0

first of all we need to understand which wallet you are talking about i.e blockchain or bitcoin core or some other wallet. but in all cases wallet owner have the option to import more than one private keys in a single wallet that is why you see more than one pair or private public keys in the wallet

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: for starters lets go with something simple like Bitcoin core (i guess that's fairly simple because they're only compatible with bitcoin chain?)  

---

