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diff --git a/doc/release-notes-16528.md b/doc/release-notes-16528.md index 0a7a31cc9d..e69de29bb2 100644 --- a/doc/release-notes-16528.md +++ b/doc/release-notes-16528.md @@ -1,120 +0,0 @@ -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. |