<p>I think, you should consider this example:</p>

<p>I know you maybe join more than one group (example: coffee group, friend group, or study group).</p>

<p>If you want to make some transactions to one of those group, if you use only one address, you will be captured or somebody in some group can know that there is a person in the coffee group who are in study group too.
And someday, somebody can detect who you are.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-16T08:21:27.510Z
2018-08-16T17:28:51.643Z
2018-08-16T17:28:51.643Z
Hạnh Lê Văn
<blockquote>
<p>Why is that so, don't you only need 1 private key to hold all bitcoins and manage them?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sure you could use only one private key and its associated address, but that is not recommended. It is more secure and more private to not reuse addresses. Instead you should use a new address for every transaction you receive and for every change output you make. Thus your wallet will have multiple private keys for the multiple addresses that you are using.</p>
<p>Most modern Bitcoin wallets support a feature known as <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/bip32-hd-wallets">Hierarchical Deterministic addressing</a>, which generates new private keys and corresponding public keys each time you receive cryptocurrency, providing far better privacy.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2017-06-23T18:12:41.533Z
2023-10-25T23:20:17.997Z
2023-10-25T23:20:17.997Z
Ava Chow
<p>I am learning about Bitcoin and when I was about to export my private key from a single electrum wallet, I found that there  were in fact a lot more than one. Why is that so, don't you only need 1 private key to hold all bitcoins and manage them?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-26T00:44:08.273Z
Possible duplicate of [Should I use a different address for every transaction?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/2045/5406)
Murch
<wallet><private-key><electrum><address-reuse>
Why do wallets use multiple private keys instead of one each?
Dedados
# Why do wallets use multiple private keys instead of one each?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-06-23)

I am learning about Bitcoin and when I was about to export my private key from a single electrum wallet, I found that there were in fact a lot more than one. Why is that so, don't you only need 1 private key to hold all bitcoins and manage them?

**Tags:** wallet, private-key, electrum, address-reuse

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Possible duplicate of [Should I use a different address for every transaction?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/2045/5406)  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2017-06-23. Score: 7 | Accepted answer

> Why is that so, don't you only need 1 private key to hold all bitcoins and manage them?

Sure you could use only one private key and its associated address, but that is not recommended. It is more secure and more private to not reuse addresses. Instead you should use a new address for every transaction you receive and for every change output you make. Thus your wallet will have multiple private keys for the multiple addresses that you are using.

Most modern Bitcoin wallets support a feature known as [Hierarchical Deterministic addressing](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/bip32-hd-wallets), which generates new private keys and corresponding public keys each time you receive cryptocurrency, providing far better privacy.


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### Answer by username_2 on 2018-08-16. Score: 2

I think, you should consider this example:

I know you maybe join more than one group (example: coffee group, friend group, or study group).

If you want to make some transactions to one of those group, if you use only one address, you will be captured or somebody in some group can know that there is a person in the coffee group who are in study group too.
And someday, somebody can detect who you are.


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