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authorMarcoFalke <falke.marco@gmail.com>2020-06-02 19:09:57 -0400
committerMarcoFalke <falke.marco@gmail.com>2020-06-02 19:09:39 -0400
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tree2f6af7d6e4a30a69ca584d9050496283883a3c66 /doc/release-notes-16528.md
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-Wallet
-------
-
-### Experimental Descriptor Wallets
-
-Please note that Descriptor Wallets are still experimental and not all expected functionality
-is available. Additionally there may be some bugs and current functions may change in the future.
-Bugs and missing functionality can be reported to the [issue tracker](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues).
-
-0.21 introduces a new type of wallet - Descriptor Wallets. Descriptor Wallets store
-scriptPubKey information using descriptors. This is in contrast to the Legacy Wallet
-structure where keys are used to generate scriptPubKeys and addresses. Because of this
-shift to being script based instead of key based, many of the confusing things that Legacy
-Wallets do are not possible with Descriptor Wallets. Descriptor Wallets use a definition
-of "mine" for scripts which is simpler and more intuitive than that used by Legacy Wallets.
-Descriptor Wallets also uses different semantics for watch-only things and imports.
-
-As Descriptor Wallets are a new type of wallet, their introduction does not affect existing wallets.
-Users who already have a Bitcoin Core wallet can continue to use it as they did before without
-any change in behavior. Newly created Legacy Wallets (which is the default type of wallet) will
-behave as they did in previous versions of Bitcoin Core.
-
-The differences between Descriptor Wallets and Legacy Wallets are largely limited to non user facing
-things. They are intended to behave similarly except for the import/export and watchonly functionality
-as described below.
-
-#### Creating Descriptor Wallets
-
-Descriptor Wallets are not created by default. They must be explicitly created using the
-`createwallet` RPC or via the GUI. A `descriptors` option has been added to `createwallet`.
-Setting `descriptors` to `true` will create a Descriptor Wallet instead of a Legacy Wallet.
-
-In the GUI, a checkbox has been added to the Create Wallet Dialog to indicate that a
-Descriptor Wallet should be created.
-
-Without those options being set, a Legacy Wallet will be created instead. Additionally the
-Default Wallet created upon first startup of Bitcoin Core will be a Legacy Wallet.
-
-#### `IsMine` Semantics
-
-`IsMine` refers to the function used to determine whether a script belongs to the wallet.
-This is used to determine whether an output belongs to the wallet. `IsMine` in Legacy Wallets
-returns true if the wallet would be able to sign an input that spends an output with that script.
-Since keys can be involved in a variety of different scripts, this definition for `IsMine` can
-lead to many unexpected scripts being considered part of the wallet.
-
-With Descriptor Wallets, descriptors explicitly specify the set of scripts that are owned by
-the wallet. Since descriptors are deterministic and easily enumerable, users will know exactly
-what scripts the wallet will consider to belong to it. Additionally the implementation of `IsMine`
-in Descriptor Wallets is far simpler than for Legacy Wallets. Notably, in Legacy Wallets, `IsMine`
-allowed for users to take one type of address (e.g. P2PKH), mutate it into another address type
-(e.g. P2WPKH), and the wallet would still detect outputs sending to the new address type
-even without that address being requested from the wallet. Descriptor Wallets does not
-allow for this and will only watch for the addresses that were explicitly requested from the wallet.
-
-These changes to `IsMine` will make it easier to reason about what scripts the wallet will
-actually be watching for in outputs. However for the vast majority of users, this change is
-largely transparent and will not have noticeable effect.
-
-#### Imports and Exports
-
-In Legacy Wallets, raw scripts and keys could be imported to the wallet. Those imported scripts
-and keys are treated separately from the keys generated by the wallet. This complicates the `IsMine`
-logic as it has to distinguish between spendable and watchonly.
-
-Descriptor Wallets handle importing scripts and keys differently. Only complete descriptors can be
-imported. These descriptors are then added to the wallet as if it were a descriptor generated by
-the wallet itself. This simplifies the `IsMine` logic so that it no longer has to distinguish
-between spendable and watchonly. As such, the watchonly model for Descriptor Wallets is also
-different and described in more detail in the next section.
-
-To import into a Descriptor Wallet, a new `importdescriptors` RPC has been added that uses a syntax
-similar to that of `importmulti`.
-
-As Legacy Wallets and Descriptor Wallets use different mechanisms for storing and importing scripts and keys
-the existing import RPCs have been disabled for descriptor wallets.
-New export RPCs for Descriptor Wallets have not yet been added.
-
-The following RPCs are disabled for Descriptor Wallets:
-
-* importprivkey
-* importpubkey
-* importaddress
-* importwallet
-* dumpprivkey
-* dumpwallet
-* importmulti
-* addmultisigaddress
-* sethdseed
-
-#### Watchonly Wallets
-
-A Legacy Wallet contains both private keys and scripts that were being watched.
-Those watched scripts would not contribute to your normal balance. In order to see the watchonly
-balance and to use watchonly things in transactions, an `include_watchonly` option was added
-to many RPCs that would allow users to do that. However it is easy to forget to include this option.
-
-Descriptor Wallets move to a per-wallet watchonly model. Instead an entire wallet is considered to be
-watchonly depending on whether it was created with private keys disabled. This eliminates the need
-to distinguish between things that are watchonly and things that are not within a wallet itself.
-
-This change does have a caveat. If a Descriptor Wallet with private keys *enabled* has
-a multiple key descriptor without all of the private keys (e.g. `multi(...)` with only one private key),
-then the wallet will fail to sign and broadcast transactions. Such wallets would need to use the PSBT
-workflow but the typical GUI Send, `sendtoaddress`, etc. workflows would still be available, just
-non-functional.
-
-This issue is worsened if the wallet contains both single key (e.g. `wpkh(...)`) descriptors and such
-multiple key descriptors as some transactions could be signed and broadast and others not. This is
-due to some transactions containing only single key inputs, while others would contain both single
-key and multiple key inputs, depending on which are available and how the coin selection algorithm
-selects inputs. However this is not considered to be a supported use case; multisigs
-should be in their own wallets which do not already have descriptors. Although users cannot export
-descriptors with private keys for now as explained earlier.
-
-#### BIP 44/49/84 Support
-
-The change to using descriptors changes the default derivation paths used by Bitcoin Core
-to adhere to BIP 44/49/84. Descriptors with different derivation paths can be imported without
-issue.