Bitcoin Forum

Hi

When I send a bitcoin does all of that coin's value travel 1 for 1 or does some of it get used by the system..

Thank you..

In the Bitcoin client, if you click on Settings->Options, you can set the transaction fee you are willing to pay.  Mine is set at zero at the moment.

It retains its value - if I send you 1 bitcoin you will receive 1 bitcoin.

There are some exceptions, however. Take a look at this wiki page (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transaction_fees), but basically very small transactions incur a transaction fee (this is to prevent people "spamming" the network with lots of small transactions) and also you can voluntarily pay a transaction fee as it may make your transaction be processed faster.

i think the intent of the question was more along the lines of "If a wallet is deleted then what happens to the bitcoins stored in it?"

Lost forever

Hey! Newbie here been lurking for a few months. Are they lost forever if you have a printed out version of the keys. In other words, i've seen people recommend this and assume if you hqve paper backup you could reconstruct wallet.dat

Anybody actually tried this or just a persistent myth?

I know!  What a stupid first post but i figured What the heck.

Edited for first post fail. How embarrasing >:(

The bitcoins aren't used up by the system.  The transaction fees are going to other users of Bitcoin who are running mining software that helps find new blocks.  Think of it as subsidizing their electricity/hardware costs, if you will.  But those coins aren't "vanishing".


If you have your wallet.dat then you have your wallet.dat, and you can still get access to the money.  Most people recommend storing an encrypted backup on a USB key though.  I will admit that paper is probably more durable (well, assuming acid-free archival paper anyway), but recovering from that would require a bit more work, either in manual typing or scanning and OCRing, than if you just kept a backup on a USB stick.

If you keep your backup in the same physical location you're still vulnerable to loss by fire and such.  A lot of people recommend strongly encrypting your wallet.dat (I would recommend TrueCrypt for that) and emailing it to yourself.  That way it'll be stored on, say, Google's servers, and it's unlikely that your house will burn down on the same day as Google suffers a catastrophic loss of information, including all of their backups.

Where is the wallet.dat

I looked with a search but could'nt find it

It's a hidden file by default so your cat won't scratch it, er, your possum.

Actually that is a good observation. If Bitcoin computer are lost are those coins lost forever. How do lost coins get back into circulation again?

thx

They don't get back into circulation. Any way to get them back without the keys would be a way to get other people's coins without their keys. At least with Bitcoin you can back up your money.

No, for the popularity of the bitcoin right now in different community its great reason why bit coin will not dis appear.As long many people invest bitcoin it will still alive and be more progressive.

The transaction fee is deducted so i don't think all your bitcoin can go to the receiver as you paid but you can set it higher than the real amount you intend to send

Bitcoins cannot disappear. Whenever you send btc you pay a transaction fee which goes to miners who actually process and confirm that transaction.

The bitcoin that you transact will dependable who will receive and with that it depends too of the value of the bitcoin whether how high is it or not but I'm sure that doing a transaction will be deducted a small value for transaction fee only but still you can benefit of it with no regrets.

I'm a bit ridiculous, it's probably claimed by the direct competitors of bitcoin, bitcoin is still standing and will stand on its feet, I really believe it

the amount you send will be subtracted by the transaction fee.

As i know, when you send your coins, a part of them are rewarded to miners to make the transaction confirmed. Bitcoin is alway in the system even you lost your wallet and if you hold the private keys, you own them.

Yes , all your coins will travel but when it done traveling, it will decrease a little. Why? Because there is a trasaction fee that we called, this fee will automatically deducted your coins when you start sending money.

Bitcoin can not really disappear. I'm sure you know that

however, faster processing. I have seen people recommend this and suppose if you back up the backup paper you can recreate wallet.dat

This is quite ridiculous. How can bitcoin disappear? Bitcoin doesn't disappear its just that when you send Btc, you pay transaction fee which goes to the miners to process and confirm your transaction.

I forget the exact nature of the technology but I believe some of the early coins are more susceptible to being cracked as computers advance, so they would be the first indicator that new tech has arrived.

Also, the price is determined by exchange in the market place, not whether dormant coins will stay dormant. Though knowledge of that might influence buying patterns to a degree.

I think there are a few coins that are actually truly gone for ever. anything sent to the 0 private key i'm pretty sure never come back from the dead without some kind of special exceptions being coded into the protocol.

I think you did not understand on what's the topic means, you should read it first before replying this post.
If you send one bitcoin to someone of course it needs an transaction fees.