How can I control which coins to spend in a transaction?

Question

When creating a bitcoin transaction, you have to choose which coins to use in them. The standard client does this in a way to avoid unconfirmed inputs and minimize the number of inputs and amount of change involved. Since not all coins are created equal, I may have other preferences (like spend unconfirmed coins first to get rid of them, or not cross inputs between different trading partners). Is there any way I can have more control over the process?

I suppose a workaround/partial solution is to use multiple wallets. Then you can keep coins apart, but also cannot make "large" spends. — Thilo, Jan 11 '12 at 04:54
related: What does Bitcoin Core's "Coin Control Features" do and how do I use it? — Murch, Nov 10 '15 at 11:21

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited Jan 13 '12 at 20:47

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Currently this is not possible with the standard client, other than making separate wallets. There is a patch for coin selection on github, which was very promising. So this feature may make it into a future version.

edited Jan 13 '12 at 20:47

Josh

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answered Jan 11 '12 at 05:52

nanotube

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This answer is outdated. Bitcoin Core has had a Coin Control feature for more than five years which allows manual input selection. – Murch Sep 18 '20 at 19:27

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 03 '16 at 16:27

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Old question, so answers are outdated. Anyone reading this now: bitcoin-qt has coin control features that let you choose whichever txin you want to use.

answered Apr 03 '16 at 16:27

Jannes

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 11 '12 at 08:12

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Check out Armory, a new client that

uses an algorithm for coin selection which can be optimized for anonymity or minimal transaction fees.

answered Jan 11 '12 at 08:12

ripper234

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armory looks pretty awesome. still pre-alpha though. – nanotube Jan 11 '12 at 20:23

How can I control which coins to spend in a transaction?

3 Answers3

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