Filter ยท least upkeep
Smallest set to maintain
The reverse of the most addresses page, and a filter aimed at self knowledge rather than at infrastructure. Every set drifts, and the question is how much drift you will actually notice.
Why a set drifts at all
Addresses get retired for reasons nobody outside hears: load, pressure, key rotation, an operational decision. It is routine, it does not reverse, and it happens on no schedule you can predict.
So a copy you saved is accurate on the day you saved it and slowly stops being accurate afterwards. That is true of every set on this site regardless of size.
What size does to the upkeep
| Addresses | Which markets | What upkeep looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Three | Eight of the nine markets here | One line each to compare, easy to eyeball as a block |
| Five | TorZon only | More resilience, more to keep current, more room for one wrong line to hide |
Being honest about this
If you know you will not compare a set every few weeks, a smaller set is not the fix. The fix is a file with dates in it, which takes a minute to start and removes the whole problem for any size. Choosing three addresses to avoid maintaining five is solving the wrong end.
The one minute routine
- One file, one market per block, the date you wrote it beside each.
- Compare against a published set every few weeks, on an ordinary day, never during an outage.
- Delete what falls off instead of archiving it. An address kept in case it returns is one you will paste in six months.
- Never rely on remembering the opening characters. That is the habit forgeries are built around.
Where this filter leaves you
With eight of nine markets, which is barely a filter at all. That is the honest outcome and it points at something useful: address count is close to irrelevant for choosing, and genuinely relevant for how you keep your notes. Filter on the coin you hold or age instead, and fix the notes regardless of which you pick.
What a stale set costs
Nothing at all until the day you use it, and then possibly everything. A retired address usually stops answering, which is harmless. The expensive case is the one where a string you saved months ago is close to but not the same as one currently in circulation, and you paste it without comparing because you recognise the opening.
The file, described exactly
A plain text file. One block per market, the market name, the date you last checked it, then the addresses one per line. Nothing else. It is small enough to read at a glance, which is the whole point, and it turns every check on this site from a memory exercise into a comparison.