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In my (unpublished) [code changes](https://github.com/brakmic/bitcoin/commit/0b3ee615491edf6f542631bf6ae6f72eac406550) all raw pointers got replaced with **shared_ptr**s but kept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,
throw JSONRPCError(RPC_INVALID_ADDRESS_OR_KEY, std::string("Invalid Bitcoin address: ") + input.get_str());
            }
            if (!destinations.insert(dest).second) {
                throw JSONRPCError(RPC_INVALID_PARAMETER, std::string("Invalid parameter, duplicated address: ") + input.get_str());
            }
        }
    }
    bool include_unsafe = true;
    if (!request.params[3].isNull()) {
        RPCTypeCheckArgument(request.params[3], UniValue::VBOOL);
        include_unsafe = request.params[3].get_bool();
    }
    CAmount nMinimumAmount = 0;
    CAmount nMaximumAmount = MAX_MONEY;
    CAmount nMinimumSumAmount = MAX_MONEY;
    uint64_t nMaximumCount = 0;
    if (!request.params[4].isNull()) {
        const UniValue& options = request.params[4].get_obj();
        RPCTypeCheckObj(options,
            {
                {"minimumAmount", UniValueType()},
                {"maximumAmount", UniValueType()},
                {"minimumSumAmount", UniValueType()},
                {"maximumCount", UniValueType(UniValue::VNUM)},
            },
            true, true);
        if (options.exists("minimumAmount"))
            nMinimumAmount = AmountFromValue(options["minimumAmount"]);
        if (options.exists("maximumAmount"))
            nMaximumAmount = AmountFromValue(options["maximumAmount"]);