<p>On almost any Bitcoin-QT tutorial I notice people recommending to: <BR></p>

<p>(step 1) back up your wallet.dat before adding a passphrase. <br> 
(step 2) Add a passphrase and copy your new wallet.dat to a USB ....<br> 
(step 3) Write down on a piece of paper the used passphrase .</p>

<p>Isn't (step 1) problematic? </p>

<p>Say I copied wallet.dat prior to adding a passphrase and just dumped it somewhere on my computer or god forbid on a USB and the USB gets lost or computer is hacked,  wouldn't an obtained wallet.dat prior to adding a passphrase, will grant access to the new (and thought to be passphrase secured) wallet?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-13T22:21:06.917Z
Where did you read this?
Luca Matteis
<wallet><bitcoin-core><wallet.dat>
Bitcoin-QT wallet.dat prior to adding passphrase
Ami
# Bitcoin-QT wallet.dat prior to adding passphrase

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-11-13)

On almost any Bitcoin-QT tutorial I notice people recommending to:

(step 1) back up your wallet.dat before adding a passphrase.   
(step 2) Add a passphrase and copy your new wallet.dat to a USB ....  
(step 3) Write down on a piece of paper the used passphrase .

Isn't (step 1) problematic?

Say I copied wallet.dat prior to adding a passphrase and just dumped it somewhere on my computer or god forbid on a USB and the USB gets lost or computer is hacked, wouldn't an obtained wallet.dat prior to adding a passphrase, will grant access to the new (and thought to be passphrase secured) wallet?

**Tags:** wallet, bitcoin-core, wallet.dat

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Where did you read this?  

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## 0 answers

