Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin => Development & Technical Discussion => Topic started by: Gol on February 21, 2014, 10:11:03 AM



Title: Sending coins to offline wallet?
Post by: Gol on February 21, 2014, 10:11:03 AM
Hello all,

scenario:
person A have person's B wallet address and he sending him coins.
person B wallet never been online.

1. is it possible? if so how?
2. how person B wallet will hold coins if its offline?

Thanks;
Golan.


Title: Re: Sending coins to offline wallet?
Post by: backtrackit on February 21, 2014, 10:16:59 AM
Yes, the transaction will be on the blockchain and when your wallet goes online it synchronizes with the blockchain and see's the transaction. Think of it like this, your wallet does not store the coins, just gives you access to them.

Someone will probably come along and explain it better than I did but that is the gist of it.


Title: Re: Sending coins to offline wallet?
Post by: Aswan on February 21, 2014, 10:35:28 AM
Hello all,

scenario:
person A have person's B wallet address and he sending him coins.
person B wallet never been online.

1. is it possible? if so how?
2. how person B wallet will hold coins if its offline?

Thanks;
Golan.

The same you can receive money to your bank account without being logged into your online banking. Someone else keeps record of the transactions and shows it to you as soon as you connect.

While in the case of a bank account its your bank keeping the record, with bitcoin it's the other bitcoiners that keep the record in the blockchain. When you connect, they show you all the transaction and there you go - simple as that.

Idk why people have to many problems with that. You can receive emails when you are offline and they will be shown to you when you connect, you can get messages on IMs or on facebook etc and they will be shown to you when you connect...

Why do people have problems understanding it when it comes to bitcoin?


Title: Re: Sending coins to offline wallet?
Post by: Rannasha on February 21, 2014, 10:35:45 AM
It is important to realize that a wallet doesn't contain the actual coins, it contains the keys needed to access your bitcoins. For every Bitcoin address there is a private key that grants access to the coins in that address. So a user could generate a pair of private key and Bitcoin address on an offline machine and print the private key on a paper that he locks up somewhere. He can then have Bitcoins sent to the Bitcoin address and monitor the balance of the address with tools such as the blockchain.info website or wallets that offer a watch-only mode, such as Armory.

When the time comes to spend the coins, the user takes the paper out of safe storage and imports the printed private key into some wallet-software and is then able to spend the coins.


Title: Re: Sending coins to offline wallet?
Post by: Gol on February 21, 2014, 03:31:00 PM
^^^
Thank you all-it's very clear now.