While working on this PR https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/18570 I ran into a bit confusing situation where in one function a **CWallet reference** was expected while two others dealt with **CWallet pointers**. My initial reaction was: `let's harmonize them by making them references`. However, not being part of the PR itself I did't change anything and completed the PR first.

Now, after having analyzed the `rpcwallet.cpp` code I came to the conclusion that:

* converting them all into references is not the solution as they're originally **shared_ptr**s
* but also: there is no (visible) reason why every RPC function should begin like this:

```cpp
std::shared_ptr<CWallet> const pwallet = GetWalletForJSONRPCRequest(request);
const CWallet* const pwallet = wallet.get();
```

This clearly defeats the purpose of shared pointers for no obvious reason. *Maybe I am missing something?*

In my (unpublished) [code changes](https://github.com/brakmic/bitcoin/commit/0b3ee615491edf6f542631bf6ae6f72eac406550) all raw pointers got replaced with **shared_ptr**s but kept their original names (that is, *pwallet*). In the end, they're pointers too, so the most of the original code remained untouched.

However, some of the helper functions couldn't be changed because external code is accessing them and I didn't want to make this task "virulent". So I introduced new ("Ref") variants that expect **shared_ptr** parameters, namely: 

```cpp
void EnsureWalletRefIsUnlocked(const std::shared_ptr<CWallet>);
bool EnsureWalletRefIsAvailable(const std::shared_ptr<CWallet>, bool avoidException);
```

I have tested the code, with python and boost-tests, and could not find any errors. 
But before opening a PR I would like to open a discussion about this. 

Is there any reason to keep on working with raw pointers when every function call actually begins with *shared_ptr*s?

Regards,
if (options.exists("minimumSumAmount"))
            nMinimumSumAmount = AmountFromValue(options["minimumSumAmount"]);
        if (options.exists("maximumCount"))
            nMaximumCount = options["maximumCount"].get_int64();
    }
    
    
    pwallet->BlockUntilSyncedToCurrentChain();
    UniValue results(UniValue::VARR);
    std::vector<COutput> vecOutputs;
    {
        CCoinControl cctl;
        cctl.m_avoid_address_reuse = false;
        cctl.m_min_depth = nMinDepth;
        cctl.m_max_depth = nMaxDepth;
        LOCK(pwallet->cs_wallet);
        pwallet->AvailableCoins(vecOutputs, !include_unsafe, &cctl, nMinimumAmount, nMaximumAmount, nMinimumSumAmount, nMaximumCount);
    }
    LOCK(pwallet->cs_wallet);
    const bool avoid_reuse = pwallet->IsWalletFlagSet(WALLET_FLAG_AVOID_REUSE);
    for (const COutput& out : vecOutputs) {
        CTxDestination address;
        const CScript& scriptPubKey = out.tx->tx->vout[out.i].scriptPubKey;
        bool fValidAddress = ExtractDestination(scriptPubKey, address);
        bool reused = avoid_reuse && pwallet->IsSpentKey(out.tx->GetHash(), out.i);
        if (destinations.size() && (!fValidAddress || !destinations.count(address)))
            continue;
        UniValue entry(UniValue::VOBJ);
        entry.pushKV("txid", out.tx->GetHash().GetHex());
        entry.pushKV("vout", out.i);