Bitcoin Forum

Is wallet the only proof one has of his bitcoin?
Can it be owned or kept in any other way? Like in literal or real rather than currently available only virtual way?
So all the bitcoin one owns is actually the wallet/s he has?

A wallet is just a software or service that helps you manage your private keys. If you prefer the private keys to be etched in wood you can do that.

bitcoin is not stored in the wallet but on a private key, the private key is basically everything if you lose it you lose bitcoin, wallets just organize the private keys and let you transfer bitcoin easily. As shorena said you can keep private key wherever you like. But I think you meant to ask if there is a real bitcoin, well no there is no physical coin its all virtual.

One can also prove he/she have a certain amount of bitcoins by signing a message from a bitcoin address with balance. Some websites are doing this to prove they have funds in their cold wallet, i.e. bitcoins stored offline to prevent hackers getting them.

Since it designed as digital currency, there's no way to proof you have bitcoin, apart you do a signature message with your bitcoin address, your private keys is the thing which storing your coins.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Private_key

I think you mean private keys, if so, yes... that is the only way the represent to others that you own that/those bitcoins.
You can print them out, write them down or just keep them digital.

This thread reminds me of my early days when learning about Bitcoin was exciting and new.

Good Nostalgia.  Thank you.

(A reminder to me that it's not just all about blockchain fighting and mining domination.)

The wallet contains your private keys. Each private key enables you to spend one of the unspent outputs waiting out there on the blockchain.

The wallet file can be stored in any way you want: hardware wallets (like Trezor), digital files, paper copies (as text, barcode or braille!), wood engravings (as someone mentioned), encrypt with a password and store on dropbox or email to self ... you get the idea. There are also physical 'coins' available that arrive with a concealed key so you can spend as you like.

You can obviously prove you own certain outputs by spending them, but you can also prove you own them by signing a message with the corresponding private keys.

Bitcoins are purely virtual (all so-called physical bitcoins are just containers for the private key)

And all of them mined till now are being kept in the blockchain. In this respect, you can think of the blockchain as a bank vault containing a number of safe deposit boxes. Each box is a wallet with an address, and your private keys are keys to the boxes that belong to you. There are no duplicates or a master key, so if you lose your key, no one will be able to access the contents of your box...

http://media.safebee.com/assets/images/2014/10/shutterstock_88700569.jpg.838x0_q67_crop-smart.jpg

At least, until someone finds a similar key (brute-forces your wallet) or discovers a master key (compromises the hashing algorithm behind Bitcoin)

Well, you could always buy Casascius physical bitcoins, also called Casascius coins, which is physical metal coins or even create your own

coins, if you cannot rid yourself with the concept of not having physical in your hand to represent your money. As of Nov 27, 2013, Mike

Caldwell {creator of Casascius coins } suspended sales of items that contain digital bitcoins. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network

(FinCEN), a branch of the Treasury Department, informed him before, that minting physical bitcoins qualifies him as a money transmitter

business, which means he needs to register at the federal level and probably get state licenses too.  ::)

So all the bitcoin worth is actually the Private keys of our wallets.
Another question arises though it may differ from the topic, can we move our private keys to another wallet? Or are they attached with a particular wallet only? The wallet that generates those keys?
And can anyone please elaborate on what is the signature message? Is it different from private keys? Where can we access our signature message? And what is its use?

A wallet is a digital representation of what you have, and it compares that information against the blockchain and verifies that information, giving an exact value. If you want to, you can store Bitcoin where-ever else you want, like on a numismatic coin or something. You can't really prove it, but if you can prove it via the blockchain, then it is acceptable.

The Bitcoin transaction are all stored in the blockchain. When you are sending a transaction, you are providing proofs that you are the owner of the Bitcoins and you can control it.
You can definitely, the wallets today are all compatible with one another.
Signing message basically provides a way to prove that the person that owns the Bitcoin address is saying something. This is done by taking advantage of ECDSA since when you have the message and the signature, you can calculate the public key. If the public key can be derived, it can be converted into a Bitcoin address. If the address that is converted matches the address that you expect, the message is confirmed to be from the owner of that address.

This function can be found in lots of wallets.

i think we can move our private keys to another wallet but i don't know for sure because i am not yet trying it. maybe other members can explain this.

i think as long as we keep our private keys into safe place, other people can not elaborate our wallet but its different if other people know our private keys, then they can see what inside of our wallet and our amount could be stolen by that person.

No,bitcoin can be printed.You don`t always need a wallet.

Why are you asking such question?

If you ask me,i don`t want to keep btc on my PC.I can lose them if the PC gets broken. :(

- Better to say private key of the bitcoin address is the only proof anyone will have for bitcoin in that bitcoin address.

- If you want to keep it in physical form you can print out paper wallet and send bitcoin to that bitcoin address, spend it when you want importing it to web wallet.

- Bitcoin will always be a virtual currency so the one who hold private key which is required to move bitcoin from address is considered to be the one who own that bitcoin.

bitcoin is a digital tool that has a price, I guess there is no way to prove other than demonstrated wallet you have. I am not so sure if it can be in print, but it could possibly be. you can prove that you have a bitcoin bitcoin by showing that you have in your wallet in your smarthphone

The real proof you can have is the private key. That's where Bitcoin is being stored. Wallets are the ones just making your job easier and smoother - they provide you an user interface that will let you spend and receive easily. It's like a PC operating system - you can use Linux, but if you want everything to be fast and work within just a few clicks, you might need Windows.