Bitcoin Forum

I don't understand why I must sync network in my bitcoin wallet client, and also, why do I need to download bitcoin wallet when I'm mining at a pool, and then I can send bitcoin directly to my mtgox account, and then I can sell it, so why need a bitcoin wallet for?

Because you downloaded a full node client  :)

You can send the bitcoins directly from the pool to the mtgox account, just pay attention with the addresses.

You need to sync your Bitcoin wallet client to the Bitcoin network for you to have a local copy of the Bitcoin block-chain. It's a public record of all the transactions that occured on the Bitcoin network that you need to constantly sync/update as Bitcoin is a decentralized peer to peer currency.

You'll need to have a Bitcoin wallet when you're mining at a pool only if you want to transfer your bitcoin earnings to your Bitcoin wallet. When something bad happens to your pool (like getting all of their bitcoins hacked), you'll loose your bitcoins if you haven't transferred it to your Bitcoin wallet.

Again, if you plan to send your bitcoin earnings from pool mining to your mtgox account, if mtgox got compromised and got its bitcoins stolen, then your bitcoins would be doomed if you haven't stored some or all of those to your Bitcoin wallet.

With a Bitcoin wallet like Bitcoin-QT, you can view your transactions and generate new addresses that you can use for various Bitcoin services out there.

ok, now it's very clear why must have a bitcoin wallet, thanks you guys so much.
And my other question, I don't know why my bitcoin wallet cannot sync network, always 0.00% done, I try to disable my Avira anti virus program but no luck, any help?

yeah ok....but ya don't really need to download and run the bitcoin client at all really do you...
Ya don't need a local wallet.
You can use an online version of a wallet like coinbase or similar... right? :) and as you say, mine from a pool and then arrange to have bounty sent straight to the online wallet address.
You only really [u]need[/u] the local Bitcoin client running ( or even installed for that matter) if you intend to mine solo ...OR am i missing some critical piece of information here ?
I agree .... re-syncing the block chain every couple of days is bloody annoying and if what we are saying here is correct ...a waste of time  :)
However, I wonder what would happen  if nobody downloaded the application and nobody used it to complete transactions anymore??
Would that mean that mining efforts would start to come up empty handed ?...would there be no more blocks to solve if the base system transactions just stopped? 
Isnt that what the algorithm in the bitcoin client is doing ...verifying transactions across the network?

That would work, but it is a bit risky.  When you use an online wallet like that you are turning complete control of your bitcoins to someone else, and hoping that they'll honor any requests you make in the future to access those bitcoins.


Well you're ignoring issues related to risk and control of your bitcoins, but basically you're right.


There are lightweight clients you can look into that don't require you to maintain the blockchain, but that still give you full control over your bitcoins.

Look into Electrum, MultiBit, and https://blockchain.info/wallet


Transactions might take longer to propgate through the network since there would be less peers to relay.  The influence necessary to make changes to the core behavior of bitcoin would be reduced as well (every full node peer enforces the core behavior of bitcoin even if they are not mining).


They'd still get the block subsidy, but there wouldn't be any transaction fees to collect.  At the moment, the block subsidy is more than 90% of mining income, so it wouldn't hurt the miners much.  In the future the subsidy will be reduced and eventually (decades from now) miners will depend on transaction fees for revenue.


Miners create blocks, and there is always one transaction available (the one that pays the block subsidy to the miner).  After 2140, when the block subsidy becomes 0, miners would lose the incentive to mine if nobody is engaging in any transactions.  On the other hand, if bitcoin isn't being used for lots of transactions by 2140, it will have long since died out entirely.


The algorithm is simply calculating a SHA-256 hash of a block header.  The block header has a "merkle root" generated from the list of transactions that the miner chooses to include in the block, so the miner generally needs at least one transaction to create that "merkle root".  Fortunately the protocol provides every miner with 1 transaction that they use to pay themselves the block subsidy.  Any transactions that the miner includes after that are entirely voluntary on the part of the miner.

thanks danny  :), very informative!!

You don't need the bitcoin client, but you are exposing your bitcoins to unnecessary risk in the time between mining and selling your bitcoin, unless you are constantly moving your mined BTC to Mt.Gox and then selling.

Using Armory.

It is very complex, and it requires Bitcoin-qt (which kills my net...ugh) to run, but encryption and safety is great asset. Armory trounces Bt-qt and pretty much any other local wallet. I wouldn't send BTC straight to on-line wallets. Bad idea which was pointed out above. Never assume that on-line service is indestructible. When using services like Mt.gox never send more than you have too.

Trust is good between real people in real life. On the net NEVER trust anyone. Certainly not with money. Simple enough motto, don't you think.

Actually, unless everyone never moved their money out of their wallets, online or otherwise (or at most moved virtual bitcoins within a thirdparty's service, depending on how the service does it in the backend), there would still be the possibility of transaction fees.

Blocks would only really go empty if people stopped using Bitcoin entirely (using Bitcoin in name only, by having someone else other than the blockchain say who owns how much, obviously doesn't really count as using Bitcoin).