Bitcoin Forum

I am very new to bitcoin. I have a blockchain a mtgox acct and I check it at blockchain. I've been going to free bitcoin sites and I've been getting a few bytecoins but it seems as though there is a lot going out and I'm not sending them. I looked at the "reverse taint" that shows where they are going and click on the "who is" link and it always seems to go to a site Hurricane Electric. Can anyone explain this to me?

First ponder this question:
  This morning I deposited a $20 at my bank.  Later in the day a friend of mine withdrew cash and got that exact same $20 bill (let's say I had written down the note's serial number).  Is my money at my bank disappearing?


When you have a hosted (shared) EWallet, like what Mt. Gox provides, you do not own that Bitcoin address.  Instead the EWallet provider (Mt. Gox in this case) owns it, and they simply credit your account each time a new payment arrives at that address.

Once those funds are credited, the coins themselves might be moved to a consolidation account, or used for a withdraw by another account holder at Mt. Gox.

The only way to know your balance at Mt. Gox is from the Mt. Gox user interface (or API), and not by monitoring the Blockchain.

OK, I would like to help you, but I don't rally understand your problem.


Do you mean you have a MTGox account and using this as your wallet?


If so, how do you know your send address? And MTGox is using your receive address only to identify the coins as yours and after that sending them probably to an cold wallet to put them save. As long as your account balance stays stable you don't need to worry.

The BTC are not send to Hurricane Electric.

Hurricane Electric is probably just a hoster and therefore you see their IP (But I don't know for sure what they are).

Yes I'm using Mtgox as my wallet. I tried to download the bitcoin.org exe but the system crashed about 3/4 of the way through with an error: error loading blkindex.dat. I guess a couple questions come to mind. Should I be using another wallet? I thought blockchain was real time? If there is nothing to worry about why does it seem like "fractions of a bitcoin" are leaving my account through the blockchain. Sorry true nubie.

This morning I deposited a $20 at my bank.  Later in the day a friend of mine withdrew cash and got that exact same $20 bill that I had deposited (let's say I had written down the note's serial number).  Does that mean "money is leaving my account" at my bank?  If not, then why not?

Your account at Mt. Gox is just like the account at a bank.  It records deposits and withdrawals and shows a balance.  The blockchain cannot be used to monitor your balance of your Mt. Gox account.

Here's a n00b question from a Mt Gox semi-n00b, just to confirm:

If I make a BTC transaction from my Mt Gox a/c to a Bitcoin address that happens to match another Mt Gox a/c, Mt Gox simply transfers the funds "internally" to that a/c without making a transaction on the BTC blockchain unless I specifically select the "Open transaction (6 confirmations)" option? Or is this just bunk, and you have to use redemption codes to make Gox-Gox transfers of funds? Not that it matters a huge deal, just curious.

You can withdraw bitcoins from your Mt. Gox account and if the address is the deposit address for another Mt. Gox account then nothing will appear in the blockchain.

Obviously, for over-the-counter trading where the blockchain is used for evidence of having made a payment should there end up being a dispute, this didn't work 100% of the time, so Mt. Gox added a checkbox labeled "Open Transaction".  When you withdraw and you mark that checkbox, then the transaction will always be sent on the blockchain, regardless if the recipient of the payment also uses Mt. Gox.

So you had it correct -- mark the block "Open Transaction" if you are using your Mt. Gox EWallet account as a bitcoin wallet and might want to track the withdrawal transaction using the blockchain.

The redeemable code / voucher is another method of doing account-to-account transfers but because they are bearer codes (redeemable by anyone who knows the code), they might not be the best tool for when performing over-the-counter trading.

Bunny The Bear I'm Scared Now!!!!!!!!!!!