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I'm new to BitCoin but a friend of mine was recently stung when a bunch of his coins were stolen. Naturally, I'm now very cautious. I've password protected my MultiBit wallet and, to test the security of this, I have copied the .wallet file to another computer and opened in a new installation of MultiBit. However, I was not asked for my password and I can see my transactions in there. Can someone explain what the password does if it doesn't stop you accessing the wallet?

Thanks in advance.

PG9

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I don't know about Multibit specifically, but in bitcoin-qt the password does not protect your addressbook and transaction list, only the private keys; and a prompt for password appears when you try to send coins. So without the password people can still see what you've been up to, but cannot steal your coins.

If you want to put the wallet file in a public place you should place an additional level of encryption.

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  • Well, people know what you've been up to anyways, just by watching the block chain.
    – PyRulez
    May 8, 2016 at 15:43
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    @PyRulez: People know what your addresses have been up to, but they don't know that they're your addresses.
    – Meni Rosenfeld
    May 8, 2016 at 20:29
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The password is required to spend the coins. This is the purpose of the password.

Multibit does not consider it to be a security problem if people who steal your wallet can see the balance. If you have a problem with that, you should encrypt your wallet with a program such as TrueCrypt.

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