allow pre-HD wallets to switch to HD address generation? #11070

1. 
   dooglus commented at 6:30 pm on August 16, 2017: contributor

   I’ve been using the same wallet.dat since 2011. I’d like to use HD address generation, but with the current implementation that would mean switching to a new wallet and losing all my transaction history.

   Would there be any interest in adding an RPC generatehdseed or some such that would enable HD address generation for old wallets, and switch to a new random HD master key for wallets which already use HD generation? It could optionally regenerate the keypool so that all pooled keys are generated from the new HD seed, but should warn that a new backup is required if the poolkey is regenerated.

2. fanquake added the label Wallet on Aug 17, 2017
3. 
   laanwj commented at 5:46 pm on August 17, 2017: member

   I think this feature would be useful. Would be great to be able to switch to HD key generation ‘from now on’.
4. 
   jonasschnelli commented at 9:11 am on August 18, 2017: contributor

   Yes. That’s possible. Though we need to make sure users know what they do. I could imaging some will switch over the HD and maybe find a way to export the xpriv (via dumpwallet) while they then only keep/backup that key and think they are using HD now.

   Also, with multiwallet, mixed wallets (HD/non HD) could be avoided better while still having a way to access the “old” transaction history.

5. 
   TheBlueMatt commented at 10:12 pm on August 20, 2017: member

   I believe we can do this relatively simply with the existing -upgradewallet infrastructure. Just have to enable writing a new HD master key and writing proper documentation to inform users prior to the upgrade (and then I assume GUI would want to also support this).
6. 
   MarcoFalke commented at 8:46 pm on March 23, 2018: member

   Related pull: #12560
7. 
   instagibbs commented at 1:02 pm on June 12, 2019: member

   can this be closed due to merging of #12560 ?
8. MarcoFalke closed this on Jun 12, 2019

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9. DrahtBot locked this on Dec 16, 2021

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dooglus laanwj jonasschnelli TheBlueMatt MarcoFalke instagibbs

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