<p>It is not so easy to "open" a wallet, because it requires rescanning the blockchain to find the outputs that are relevant. This can take a very lock time, especially if you do not have an SSD. Because the performance is so poor, it would be disappointing for a lot of users to use this hypothetical feature.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-15T16:01:11.240Z
I see.  So is there client software geared toward those running a full node with SSD, many GB RAM and many cores?  I understand this is a different kind of question from the original.
user5652
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-15T16:06:57.797Z
@user5652 you could run an electrum-server like electrs or electrumX and then use any electrum-protocol wallet, and configure it to use your local server. the server will need a few hundred gigabytes to index everything.
Janus Troelsen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-14T23:24:54.550Z
2020-03-14T23:24:54.550Z
Janus Troelsen
<p>In most of computerdom, an app's <code>File</code> dropdown menu has an <code>Import</code> item that permits selection of a file to import into the application.  This would seem to be an obvious feature to include in a Bitcoin GUI, yet when searching for how one imports the <code>wallet.dat</code> file, no such straightforward import option appears.</p>

<p>What is the technical reason for this?</p>

<wallet.dat><private-key-import><private-key-format>
Why isn't importing wallet.dat as straightforward as it seems it should be?
user5652
# Why isn't importing wallet.dat as straightforward as it seems it should be?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-03-11)

In most of computerdom, an app's `File` dropdown menu has an `Import` item that permits selection of a file to import into the application. This would seem to be an obvious feature to include in a Bitcoin GUI, yet when searching for how one imports the `wallet.dat` file, no such straightforward import option appears.

What is the technical reason for this?

**Tags:** wallet.dat, private-key-import, private-key-format


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2020-03-14. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

It is not so easy to "open" a wallet, because it requires rescanning the blockchain to find the outputs that are relevant. This can take a very lock time, especially if you do not have an SSD. Because the performance is so poor, it would be disappointing for a lot of users to use this hypothetical feature.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I see.  So is there client software geared toward those running a full node with SSD, many GB RAM and many cores?  I understand this is a different kind of question from the original.  
> **username_1**: @username_0 you could run an electrum-server like electrs or electrumX and then use any electrum-protocol wallet, and configure it to use your local server. the server will need a few hundred gigabytes to index everything.  

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