Viewing, Creating and Importing Addresses
Last updated
Last updated
Please take note: A bitcoin seed can generate billions of addresses in theory, but Freewallet will only import the first 20 upon seed recovery. Any new addresses (not a part of the original 20) that were created in Freewallet will not automatically load in from the passphrase alone if you log out of Freewallet or lose your device. To recover any additional addresses you created beyond the original 20, simply add them again and they will appear again in the Change Address list. The process for doing this is explained below in this section. Each individual address has its own private key, for any IMPORTED addresses (not created within this deterministic Freewallet seed-phrase combination) you are responsible to write down and maintain the private key of each address if you imported any specific addresses. Any imported address info will be LOST if you log-out or lose your device. Learn more about how to view private keys for each address you own or create at Displaying the Seed Phrase and Private key for your Address(s).
Freewallet starts you off with a "Address #1" Legacy Bitcoin address, but will automatically generate 10 Legacy BTC addresses and 10 Segwit addresses upon wallet creation or import.
Freewallet starts you off on Legacy BTC Address #1. Which you can view by clicking the Address icon in the top right
You can view the rest of the 19 addresses generated by clicking the Address icon on the top right of Freewallet and choosing “Change Address.” Your first 20 addresses are labeled up to #10 for legacy BTC addresses and up to #10 for your Segwit Addresses
When you change your address (by simply double clicking on the address you desire to change to), it will now show you the contents of this address in the Balances tab and on your main screen. If it doesn't at first load up the balances when you change your address, use the refresh button using the gear icon in the upper left, or in the "History" tab in the upper left. This will refresh the data with the new data when you changed account
To add a new address, click the Address Actions tab in the upper right of Freewallet:
Then by clicking the Add New Address button, a pop-up will appear:
Freewallet supports the creation or import of several different kinds of addresses:
Regular Address - P2PKH (Normal or Legacy) - begins with 1
Segwit Address* - Bech32 (Segwit) - begins with bc1q
Taproot Address* - Segwit (also called Ordinals address) - begins with bc1p
Watch Only Address - any address type (no functions are able to be used)
Hardware Wallet Address - Trezor, Ledger and KeepKey supported
*Note that the private key of your default 'Address #1' noted above as a "Regular address" is also the private key for your 'Segwit Address #1' with the only change being that your segwit address has the prefix "p2wpkh:" before the private key.
*It is NOT recommended at this time to store any Ordinal inscriptions or Runes on a Freewallet Taproot address as it may result in a loss of the specific UTXO's (that hold Ordinals or Runes) when sending Bitcoin from this address
P2SH Segwit Addresses (addresses that start with a "3") are not supported by Freewallet at this time
From this popup, you can create any type of address you would like to use as well as the number of addresses you would like to add at this time.
If you already have a private key for an address and you would like to import it into Freewallet for use with Counterparty functions, first navigate to the top right Address Actions icon and click Import Private Keys
Addresses (of any of the supported types) can be imported here and multiple addresses can also be imported at one time. Just make sure to input one private key per line when importing as shown in the Import Private Key popup window:
When any new addresses are added (created or imported) they will now appear on the "Change Address" menu and are able to double click the new address to access it.
With the address currently selected as described above you can also Label your address by clicking the “Settings” icon and navigating to “Wallet” and changed the wallet label under the “Label” entry. This is entirely private, within Freewallet only, and is not shown on the blockchain. It will also be reset when logging out of this seed-phrase.
As for the process of adding a hardware wallet address, it is the same process as described above, but you would select "Add Hardware Address". The current hardware address types supported are: Trezor, Ledger and KeepKey
The process for linking a Trezor wallet has been explained in further detail by Subterranean in a very descriptive Medium article here.
Another aspect to be aware of is that the private keys for your Segwit Address #1 is simply the private key for your Legacy Address #1 but with the prefix "p2wpkh:" before it.
This is simply how Segwit private keys work, is very useful to know and is explained in more depth in the Displaying the Seed Phrase and Private Key of your Address(s) section.
