<p>If you're running Bitcoin Core as your wallet, then the graphical interface is handling your wallet's total balance already, which includes the balance of every address within your wallet.</p>

<p>If you prefer the command line method, use <code>bitcoin-cli getbalance</code> to get the total sum of all transactions in your wallet. That command basically balances your wallet transaction history like a checkbook, so including deposits and debits, and delivers you the final balance.</p>

<p>The balance shown in the Bitcoin Core GUI is the same as the balance displayed with <code>bitcoin-cli getbalance</code>.</p>

<p>To answer your second question, as far as I can tell there is no downside to creating unique addresses for every transaction, and in fact it is highly recommended in order to aid in anonymity. The fact that you own all of the Bitcoin associated with a particular wallet is harder to determine when more than 1 address is used to receive funds.</p>

<p><strong>However</strong>, spending the entire balance of multiple addresses <strong>in a single transaction</strong> could negate any protection you were hoping to have by using multiple addresses in the first place, since an attacker could then determine, using that single transaction ID, that the total balance of the multiple addresses was associated with the same wallet.</p>

<p>Hope this helps</p>

<p><strong>EDIT</strong></p>

<p>One important note when creating many unique addresses is, if using the Bitcoin Core wallet, backups would need to be created more frequently because new private/public keypairs are generated when creating a new address, and previous backups will not contain the new keypairs. Therefore, if you create a backup of your wallet, then create a new address and receive 1BTC at that address, then your wallet backup will <strong>not</strong> contain the address that received 1BTC. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-01-21T12:24:08.917Z
I think I wasn't clear enough in mye question. I have done a edit of the question.
BufferOverflow
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-01-21T14:05:41.033Z
I think the secondary part of my answer addresses that concern already.

"[Using a unique address for each transaction] is highly recommended in order to aid in anonymity. The fact that you own all of the Bitcoin associated with a particular wallet is harder to determine when more than 1 address is used to receive funds."
maff1989
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-01-21T01:35:20.837Z
2016-01-21T15:06:15.473Z
2016-01-21T15:06:15.473Z
maff1989
<blockquote>
  <p>If I create a new public key (Bitcoin Address) for every transaction I'm receiving, is there some way to find my total balances of my wallet/private key?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The addresses in the blockchain are only related if you <em>use</em> them together in a transaction. For example if you make a payment to someone and you use bitcoins from 3 addresses (A, B and C) from your wallet a third person can assume that all these addresses are from the same wallet/person (which is not necessarily correct!) ... and add the remaining to get the balance from those 3 addresses. If later you make another payment that uses addresses (B, C, D and E) a third party will deduce that D and E are probably also your addresses and add them to your total balance. Outputs can also be used for this but I won't expand to avoid over-complicating it. Statistical analysis can find most relations but requires dedicated people. That is why <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/42221/what-is-the-cheapest-fee-based-bitcoin-altcoin-mixing-service-to-keep-myself-a/42263#42263">mixing</a> is so difficult.</p>

<p>So, it can be done but it does require quite some work for trustworthy results.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>And are there any downsides with creating unique addresses for every transaction?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Nowadays, most wallets are <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Deterministic_wallet" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Deterministic Wallets</a> (by the way, bitcoin core wallet is not). That means that they use some kind of <em>seed</em> to create all future key-pairs from. Having that seed you can recreate all key-pairs that you have or could possibly create in the future. You can backup that seed and be certain that you have a final backup for that wallet. Thus, no downsides for Deterministic (or Hierarchical Deterministic) wallets.</p>

<p>However, in a non-deterministic wallet (like bitcoin core wallet, aka shatoshi client) if you take a backup today and tomorrow you create a couple of new addresses those new address will <strong>not</strong> be in the backup. Thus the downside for non-deterministic wallets is that you need to create backups frequently to ensure that you have a backup of all your private keys.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-01-21T07:46:44.793Z
2016-01-21T15:15:59.543Z
2017-04-13T12:47:36.707Z
karask
<p>If I create a new public key (Bitcoin Address) for every transaction I'm receiving, is there some way to find my total balances of my wallet/private key?</p>

<p>And are there any downsides with creating unique addresses for every transaction?</p>

<p>Just to make it clear. I'm not talking about total balances in the wallet's GUI. I'm asking if there is some way for thirdpart who is watching transactions on blockchain.info to calculate my total balances in the wallet.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-01-21T12:02:39.173Z
Are you asking for a specific wallet or in general?
karask
<wallet><public-key>
Multiple public keys - Total received funds
BufferOverflow
# Multiple public keys - Total received funds

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-01-20)

If I create a new public key (Bitcoin Address) for every transaction I'm receiving, is there some way to find my total balances of my wallet/private key?

And are there any downsides with creating unique addresses for every transaction?

Just to make it clear. I'm not talking about total balances in the wallet's GUI. I'm asking if there is some way for thirdpart who is watching transactions on blockchain.info to calculate my total balances in the wallet.

**Tags:** wallet, public-key

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Are you asking for a specific wallet or in general?  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2016-01-21. Score: 1

If you're running Bitcoin Core as your wallet, then the graphical interface is handling your wallet's total balance already, which includes the balance of every address within your wallet.

If you prefer the command line method, use `bitcoin-cli getbalance` to get the total sum of all transactions in your wallet. That command basically balances your wallet transaction history like a checkbook, so including deposits and debits, and delivers you the final balance.

The balance shown in the Bitcoin Core GUI is the same as the balance displayed with `bitcoin-cli getbalance`.

To answer your second question, as far as I can tell there is no downside to creating unique addresses for every transaction, and in fact it is highly recommended in order to aid in anonymity. The fact that you own all of the Bitcoin associated with a particular wallet is harder to determine when more than 1 address is used to receive funds.

**However**, spending the entire balance of multiple addresses **in a single transaction** could negate any protection you were hoping to have by using multiple addresses in the first place, since an attacker could then determine, using that single transaction ID, that the total balance of the multiple addresses was associated with the same wallet.

Hope this helps

**EDIT**

One important note when creating many unique addresses is, if using the Bitcoin Core wallet, backups would need to be created more frequently because new private/public keypairs are generated when creating a new address, and previous backups will not contain the new keypairs. Therefore, if you create a backup of your wallet, then create a new address and receive 1BTC at that address, then your wallet backup will **not** contain the address that received 1BTC.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I think I wasn't clear enough in mye question. I have done a edit of the question.  
> **username_2**: I think the secondary part of my answer addresses that concern already.  "[Using a unique address for each transaction] is highly recommended in order to aid in anonymity. The fact that you own all of the Bitcoin associated with a particular wallet is harder to determine when more than 1 address is used to receive funds."  

---

### Answer by username_1 on 2016-01-21. Score: 0

> If I create a new public key (Bitcoin Address) for every transaction I'm receiving, is there some way to find my total balances of my wallet/private key?

The addresses in the blockchain are only related if you *use* them together in a transaction. For example if you make a payment to someone and you use bitcoins from 3 addresses (A, B and C) from your wallet a third person can assume that all these addresses are from the same wallet/person (which is not necessarily correct!) ... and add the remaining to get the balance from those 3 addresses. If later you make another payment that uses addresses (B, C, D and E) a third party will deduce that D and E are probably also your addresses and add them to your total balance. Outputs can also be used for this but I won't expand to avoid over-complicating it. Statistical analysis can find most relations but requires dedicated people. That is why [mixing](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/42221/what-is-the-cheapest-fee-based-bitcoin-altcoin-mixing-service-to-keep-myself-a/42263#42263) is so difficult.

So, it can be done but it does require quite some work for trustworthy results.

> And are there any downsides with creating unique addresses for every transaction?

Nowadays, most wallets are [Deterministic Wallets](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Deterministic_wallet) (by the way, bitcoin core wallet is not). That means that they use some kind of *seed* to create all future key-pairs from. Having that seed you can recreate all key-pairs that you have or could possibly create in the future. You can backup that seed and be certain that you have a final backup for that wallet. Thus, no downsides for Deterministic (or Hierarchical Deterministic) wallets.

However, in a non-deterministic wallet (like bitcoin core wallet, aka shatoshi client) if you take a backup today and tomorrow you create a couple of new addresses those new address will **not** be in the backup. Thus the downside for non-deterministic wallets is that you need to create backups frequently to ensure that you have a backup of all your private keys.


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