Address reuse

Address reuse refers to the use of the same address for multiple transactions. It is an unintended practice, reducing the privacy and security of the participants of the transactions.

Most wallets use deterministic keychains and mask the generation of new addresses from the user making it easy and safe to maintain privacy.

Problems

Privacy

Address re-use can impact user privacy, allowing anyone who sends or receives money to or from a particular address to see all of the transactions it is part of.

Security

Security is also a concern as a thief only needs to gain access to a single key in order to compromise a wallet.

Attribution

This content is based on content sourced from https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Address_reuse under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0. Although it may have been extensively revised and updated, we acknowledge the original authors.