Descriptors Wallet (Bitcoin Core)

Descriptor wallets have been the default since Bitcoin Core 23.0. Since Bitcoin Core 30.0 (October 2025) BDB legacy wallets can no longer be created or loaded — they must be migrated. Current as of Bitcoin Core 31.1 (July 2026).

Create

bitcoin-cli createwallet "hot" \
  disable_private_keys=false \
  blank=false \
  passphrase="" \
  avoid_reuse=false \
  descriptors=true \
  load_on_startup=true

Options:

disable_private_keys=true for watch-only.
blank=true to create without auto-generated descriptors (you'll import yours).
passphrase (SQLite-level encryption).
descriptors has defaulted to true since 23.0; since 30.0 it must also be true — false errors with descriptors argument must be set to "true"; it is no longer possible to create a legacy wallet.

Default descriptors

When created with blank=false, Core auto-generates:

pkh() (legacy) — receive + change.
sh(wpkh()) (P2SH-segwit) — receive + change.
wpkh() (native segwit) — receive + change.
tr() (Taproot) — receive + change.

Each at standard BIP44/49/84/86 paths under a fresh internal master.

Import descriptors

For watch-only wallet importing an xpub:

[
  {
    "desc": "wpkh([d34db33f/84h/0h/0h]xpub6CV2.../<0;1>/*)#chk",
    "active": true,
    "internal": false,
    "range": [0, 999],
    "next_index": 0,
    "timestamp": "now"
  }
]

active: marks the receiving descriptor. internal: change chain (alternate path). range: scan window. timestamp: now (no rescan) or unix timestamp (rescan from then).

For a signing wallet, use the privkey form:

{"desc": "wpkh([fp/84h/0h/0h]xprv.../<0;1>/*)#chk", ...}

Inspecting

bitcoin-cli -rpcwallet=hot listdescriptors
bitcoin-cli -rpcwallet=hot listdescriptors true   # show private keys
bitcoin-cli -rpcwallet=hot getdescriptorinfo "<desc>"

Multipath descriptors (BIP389)

wpkh([fp/84h/0h/0h]xpub.../<0;1>/*)#chk

<0;1> = receive (0) and change (1). One descriptor handles both chains. Modern wallets prefer this over two separate descriptors.

MuSig2 descriptors (BIP390)

tr(musig([fp1/...]xpub1.../<0;1>/*,[fp2/...]xpub2.../<0;1>/*))
tr(musig([fp1/...]xpub1...,[fp2/...]xpub2...)/<0;1>/*)

musig(KEY,...) aggregates the participants into one BIP327 key, so both the output and the spend look like ordinary single-sig Taproot. Core allows musig() only inside tr() and rawtr(), never nested in another musig(), and sorts the participant keys after derivation and before aggregating, so the order they are written in does not change the address — but the descriptor string keeps the written order, so participants who write the keys in different orders hold descriptors with different #chk checksums. Derivation steps written after musig(...) run on the BIP328 synthetic xpub, must be unhardened, and are only legal when no participant key is itself ranged. Multipath is the same either/or: <0;1> may sit on the participant keys or after musig(...), never on both.

Never auto-generated: import it, each participant importing the same descriptor with only their own key in private form.

Support, as of Bitcoin Core 31.1 (July 2026):

30.0 (October 2025): descriptor parsing and address derivation (getdescriptorinfo, deriveaddresses), plus the BIP373 PSBT fields PSBT_IN_MUSIG2_PARTICIPANT_PUBKEYS (0x1a), PSBT_IN_MUSIG2_PUB_NONCE (0x1b), PSBT_IN_MUSIG2_PARTIAL_SIG (0x1c) and PSBT_OUT_MUSIG2_PARTICIPANT_PUBKEYS (0x08).
31.0 (April 2026): the wallet can receive and spend — nonce generation and partial signing inside walletprocesspsbt (PR #29675, merged 2025-10-14).

Neither the 30.0 nor the 31.0 release notes mention MuSig2 at all, so check doc/descriptors.md and test/functional/wallet_musig.py in the tag you actually run rather than the notes.

Signing takes two walletprocesspsbt passes per participant, one per MuSig2 round:

# Round 1 - every participant wallet adds its public nonce
n1=$(bitcoin-cli -rpcwallet=p1 walletprocesspsbt "$psbt" | jq -r .psbt)
n2=$(bitcoin-cli -rpcwallet=p2 walletprocesspsbt "$psbt" | jq -r .psbt)
nonces=$(bitcoin-cli combinepsbt "[\"$n1\",\"$n2\"]")

# Round 2 - every participant adds its partial signature
s1=$(bitcoin-cli -rpcwallet=p1 walletprocesspsbt "$nonces" | jq -r .psbt)
s2=$(bitcoin-cli -rpcwallet=p2 walletprocesspsbt "$nonces" | jq -r .psbt)
sigs=$(bitcoin-cli combinepsbt "[\"$s1\",\"$s2\"]")
bitcoin-cli finalizepsbt "$sigs"

decodepsbt reports musig2_participant_pubkeys, musig2_pubnonces and musig2_partial_sigs, which is how you tell which round is short. Secnonces are held in memory only and never serialized to the wallet file.

Multisig

bitcoin-cli -rpcwallet=ms createwallet "ms" \
  disable_private_keys=true descriptors=true blank=true

bitcoin-cli -rpcwallet=ms importdescriptors '[
  {"desc":"wsh(sortedmulti(2,[fp1/48h/0h/0h/2h]xpub1.../<0;1>/*,[fp2/48h/0h/0h/2h]xpub2.../<0;1>/*,[fp3/48h/0h/0h/2h]xpub3.../<0;1>/*))#chk",
   "active":true,"internal":false,"range":[0,999],"timestamp":"now"},
  {"desc":"wsh(sortedmulti(2,[fp1/48h/0h/0h/2h]xpub1.../<0;1>/*,[fp2/48h/0h/0h/2h]xpub2.../<0;1>/*,[fp3/48h/0h/0h/2h]xpub3.../<0;1>/*))#chk",
   "active":true,"internal":true,"range":[0,999],"timestamp":"now"}
]'

Or use <0;1>/* and only one entry.

Receiving addresses

bitcoin-cli -rpcwallet=hot getnewaddress         # next external
bitcoin-cli -rpcwallet=hot getrawchangeaddress   # next internal
bitcoin-cli -rpcwallet=hot deriveaddresses "<desc>" '[0,9]'   # range

Building / signing PSBT

# Build PSBT funded with appropriate inputs and change
bitcoin-cli -rpcwallet=hot walletcreatefundedpsbt \
  '[]'  '[{"bc1q...": 0.001}]'  0  '{"feeRate": 0.00001}'

# Sign
bitcoin-cli -rpcwallet=hot walletprocesspsbt "<psbt>"

# Or fully build and broadcast in one go (signing wallet only)
bitcoin-cli -rpcwallet=hot sendtoaddress bc1q... 0.001

For multisig coordination across separate wallets:

# Wallet A signs partial
psbt_a=$(bitcoin-cli -rpcwallet=signA walletprocesspsbt "$psbt" | jq -r .psbt)
# Wallet B signs partial
psbt_ab=$(bitcoin-cli -rpcwallet=signB walletprocesspsbt "$psbt_a" | jq -r .psbt)
# Combine + finalize
final=$(bitcoin-cli combinepsbt "[\"$psbt_ab\"]")
hex=$(bitcoin-cli finalizepsbt "$final" | jq -r .hex)
bitcoin-cli sendrawtransaction "$hex"

Migrating legacy → descriptors

Pass the wallet name (or address it through the -rpcwallet= endpoint); the wallet does not need to be loaded — since 30.0 it cannot be:

bitcoin-cli migratewallet "legacywallet"
bitcoin-cli migratewallet "legacywallet" "<passphrase>"   # if encrypted

Core opens the BDB file read-only inside the call, writes a backup named <wallet name>-<timestamp>.legacy.bak into that wallet's directory, and replaces the wallet with a descriptor one. Restore that backup with restorewallet if the migration went wrong.

Result fields: wallet_name, backup_path, plus watchonly_name and solvables_name when the legacy wallet held watch-only or solvable-but-unwatched scripts that get split into their own wallets.

Legacy RPCs removed in 30.0

Gone, with no descriptor-wallet equivalent under the same name: addmultisigaddress, dumpprivkey, dumpwallet, importaddress, importmulti, importprivkey, importpubkey, importwallet, newkeypool, sethdseed, upgradewallet. The bitcoin-wallet tool also dropped its -legacy, -descriptors and -withinternalbdb options.

Port old scripts to importdescriptors (import), listdescriptors (export, true for private keys) and createwalletdescriptor (add a script type to an existing wallet).

Common bugs

Forgetting range on import → only address index 0 generated.
timestamp: 0 → triggers full chain rescan (slow).
Mixing [fp/path] formatting (e.g., missing ]) → checksum mismatch on import.
Importing both wpkh and sh(wpkh) for same xpub but treating as separate accounts → in fact same key, different script type.
Multisig with multi (unsorted) but signers in different order across wallets → completely different addresses.
Restarting bitcoind between the two MuSig2 rounds → the in-memory secnonces are gone and every participant must re-nonce.

bitcoin-core-descriptors-wallet