Watch-Only Wallets

A watch-only wallet is a Bitcoin wallet that can view the balance and transaction history of an address — but cannot spend from it.

Here’s why this matters.

Every time you open your hardware wallet software to check your balance, you’re using an internet-connected application that communicates with the network. This is generally safe — the private key stays on the hardware device — but it does involve software with network access.

A watch-only wallet allows you to monitor your holdings entirely independently of your hardware wallet. You import your public key — not your private key, just the read-only version — into a wallet app. The app can show your balance, incoming transactions, and address history. It cannot move funds. It has no access to your private key.

This is useful for several reasons.

Dayto-day monitoring: check your balance from your phone without ever connecting your hardware wallet. The private key stays in its secure offline storage unless you’re actually making a transaction.

Privacy: some watch-only wallets connect to the network through your own node or a privacy-preserving protocol, rather than querying a third-party server with your address history.

Inheritance: share a watch-only wallet with a trusted family member or executor, so they can monitor the holding without having access to move the funds.

Well-regarded watch-only wallet apps include Sparrow Wallet on desktop and Sentinel on mobile. Both are free and open-source.

Not an essential tool for everyone. But a useful one for people who want to monitor holdings without introducing unnecessary exposure.

Tomorrow: Bitcoin privacy basics — why your address history matters.

— The Daily Bit