Bitcoin Forum

Hello guys I'm new to this. I found the bitcoin.org site (is it official?) to be a bit lacking for a beginner.

Bitcoins sounds like a revolutionary push for new currency, but I have a few questions before I actually go any further.

• I heard bitcoin was opensource, but what prevents me from giving myself 999 (or anyone else) bitcoins?
• How long does it take for me to download all the stuff in the software? It's been sitting at 1% for quite a while.
• Is there a list of businesses accepting bitcoin? What can I do with it?

Please mind my name, if you're a redditor, you'll know someone that goes by "I_RAPE_CATS". I thought it would be funny if I claimed this name before anyone else.

Anyway, thanks!  ;)

[Edit: What is mining? I heard I could make some money with my computer, how?]

The bitcoin wiki is a good place to start:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Introduction

A non-comprehensive list of businesses that accept bitcoin:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade

Welcome.

Ok, so I've read "Basic Concepts", but doesn't using bitcoin make it fall into both a currency and a bank? I can keep money the software wallet, and I can get the money wherever I go.  ???

The wallet contains a list of private keys for each of your bitcoin addresses.  As long as you control the private key of an address, you can sign a transaction and send bitcoins to another address.  People can send you money, if you give them an address. 

The bitcoin client lets you send and receive money (bitcoins).  This is only one of the functions of a bank.

Could you explain what a private key is?

Private keys include your bitcoin wallet address where people can send you bitcoins if you provide them with that, and there are also transaction keys, that verify whether or not you had a certain transaction.

https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=%22a+private+key+is%22+bitcoin

Mining is basically like actual mining (in its simplest form)

You basically "mine" for blocks of bitcoins, which get distributed out to the miners.

Kinda like mining for gold.

Is I understand mining is what makes it impossible to grant yourself 999 bitcoins even when you have access to the source code of the client. Mining is a process of solving a problem by brute force. The difficulty of the problem is automatically adjusted so that it takes on average 10 min to produce a block. Whoever gets lucky to solve the problem, gets privilege of generating a next block and 50 bitcoins bonus. A block is a list of transactions considered as valid.

So if you try to add yourself 999 bitcoins, it will be a random person who will validate your transaction. And then his/her validation will be followed by 3-6 validations by next randomly selected miners.

side note: a very colourful nickname/username, i was imagining how could someone rape a bitcoin

its nice seeing this people helping newbie :D like me thanks for all the info =)