Bitcoin Forum

so whenever I press on generate new address, am I getting a new wallet or just new address for receiving coins?

http://imgur.com/a/U605v

The site is meant for creating paper wallets. If you ever send funds there and you click generate address again, your bitcoins will be lost unless the private key was printed before clicking the button. It simply generating a random address and no, this is not a wallet like Multibit HD where each time a new address is generated in order to protect your privacy.

I know that I have to keep private address in order to have a control over the coins.

so what does it generate? entirely new wallet each time? or are those the addresses everyone keeps saying to obtain for each transaction? I am a little bit confused here..

Do I understand correctly that one wallet consists of one Bitcoin Address (Public Address) and one Private Key?

Like in this case we can see 3 different wallets.
https://image.ibb.co/gBjTXF/wallets.jpg

Am I right?

As it is a paper wallet you're just getting confused by the term "wallet". Each address has its own private key and you can send funds to/from them independently. As it's paper you could print them off and put them together in a wallet if you like.

Software wallets let you hold many addresses and you can send funds from the total amount held in all the addresses in the wallet together in one transaction.

A Bitcoin wallet is a collection of ONE OR MORE Bitcoin private keys.

So:

• If you print 10 private keys (and their addresses) each on a separate piece of paper, then you have 10 separate paper wallets each with exactly 1 address.
• If you print 10 private keys (and their addresses) all together on a single piece of paper, then you have one paper wallet with exactly 10 addresses.

Each time you generate new on that website, it generates new private keys and the address for each private key.  It's up to you how many wallets you want to split those addresses into.

Thank you for your informative answer! So a bitcoin wallet is kind of an abstract thing. If I understand correctly, a private key together with an address can be called a wallet, while the same private key and address together with other 10 private keys and addresses is a wallet as well. Right?

Correct.

In addition to storing your private keys for you, software wallets typically offer additional features such as (but not always, and not limited to):

• Adding up all the funds you have control over and displaying it to you as a blanace
• Providing a user friendly method of building and transmitting transactions
• Storing a record of your transactions sent and received
• Providing a user friendly method of generating new addresses for the wallet

However, at it's core, what makes it a wallet is that is has a collection of (or method of re-calculating) one or more Bitcoin private keys.

Thank you all for your answers!

So I've got two keys: public for receiving btc and private for spending them.

How can I see the balance of my wallet/private key? Are there any ways to do that offline, without using 3rd party software?
Also, how do I spend/send my btc using that private key? What's the most basic way? (no software if possible also)

The balance of the private key is the same as the balance of the public key (which is also the same as the balance of the bitcoin address).


You need to know all the transactions that sent you bitcoins, and all the transactions that spent any of those bitcoins. Typically this is handled by scanning through the blockchain to find all the transaction outputs that can be spent with your keys, and all the inputs that spend any of those outputs.  However, if you have reliably stored the information about those transactions somewhere else, you could just refer to your stored list. The sum of those transaction outputs minus the sum of the transaction inputs is the balance.  Generally, acquiring a copy of the blockchain is accomplished with software, and scanning it is also handled with software.  Since Bitcoin is a virtual digital currency, it doesn't really exist outside of software.  I'm not sure what you are trying to ask here.


You create a bitcoin transaction with the appropriate inputs and outputs. Then you connect to Bitcoin peers on the internet and send that transaction to them. This is typically handled for you by wallet software.  The software allows you to enter someone's bitcoin address and the amount you are sending. Then it handles the creation and broadcasting of the transaction.


While it is possible to just give someone your private key (which would then allow them access to ALL of the bitcoins that you ever have received or ever will receive with the associated bitcoin address), that is not a good idea and is not typically acceptable to the person to whom you are sending the bitcoins.

If you are going to send them with an actual bitcoin transaction, then you'll need to learn how to calculate ECDSA signatures by hand.  That's a complicated process. You can start learning a bit about it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_Curve_Digital_Signature_Algorithm#Signature_generation_algorithm

I'm not 100% certain, but if I recall correctly, the ECDSA signature algorithm in bitcoin uses SHA256 for its hash.  If that's true, then you are going to need to learn to calculate SHA256 hashes by hand as well.  That is another complicated process. You can start learning a bit about it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA-2#Hash_standard

You'll also need to know the details of the transactions that sent you the bitcoins that you want to spend.  At a minimum, you'll need to know their transactionID, the index of the output that you want to spend, the script in that output, and the value of that output.

Thank you very much for your informative answer! I am sorry I am not that advanced in this field, so it was difficult to understand the principle.
Please answer me in a newbie way.

Is public key the same as bitcoin address? I though there are only two variables in the game.

When people mean to generate a new address for every new transaction coming in does that mean I will get new both public and private keys?
If so, when people have a lot of transactions do they have endless amount of keys too?

thank you!

No.  The typical bitcoin address (of the type that always starts with a 1) is a hash of the ECDSA public key.

Starting with an ECDSA public key:

• First calculate the SHA256 hash of that value, the result will be a 32 byte value
• Next calculate the RIPEMD160 hash of the result of the SHA256 hash, the result will be a 20 byte value
• After that, add a byte with value 0 in front of the 20 byte RIPEMD160 result
• Finally use base58check encoding to represent that 21 byte value
• The result is the bitcoin address that is associated with the public key

Yes.


One key per transaction that you receive.

Since each private key is only 32 bytes, this means that you can store 31,250 keys with 1 megabyte.

However, most modern wallet software uses an algorithm to generate a series of private keys from a single seed value.  You then only need to store the one seed, and can re-generate any private key in the series as needed.

That is very good explanation about the bitaddress.org address generation.
However it is not exactly wallet but it is skeleton of the same. To make it bitcoin wallet it has to be housed in the supported algorithm say for example, mycelium app or electrum app. They will extract the information embedded into the private key and public address by synchronising with server. Then you will form your most basic wallet. Without these you can not access your funds at all.

Yes you are completely right mate. You can have as many addresses you want but remember to store the generated private key with the paired public address. If you loose the key then you loose all your funds on that particular wallet. If you want access the funds then you can try few of the well known wallets which support opening of wallet by using bitaddress shared keys and private keys. It's always yo print these keys or you can take screenshot as option to save them. 

Am I right that I need my public address only once, just to receive the first and only transaction, so basically I have to remember my private key only?

Only if you only want to use your address once.

Otherwise you want to keep both the address and the private key. That way, you are able to let people send funds to you without having to find the address paired up with the private key which could pose potential security risks. You could possibly go to bitaddress and access it offline every single time with your private key, but it's a hassle to do that.

So for convenience's sake, keep your private key written down, locked in a safe. Keep your public key/address wherever you like because it's not going to let someone else access your balance if they know your bitcoin address.

Thank you for your answer, you really helped me to come closer to understanding!

'Only if you only want to use your address once.' - isn't it how it should be? I mean, satoshi himself recommends obtaining new address (which means gaining new private key too) for each transaction in order to ensure safety and anonymity.

How to do that? I need to go to 'Wallet Details' section and enter private key there? And also, how to check btc balance using public key/bitcoin address?

In this case, you should create a HD wallet, which will generate a new address for every transaction you do.

It's also not mandatory to use multiple addresses. You can use only one if you want.

This will only show the details for the address belonging to that private key.

You can check your balance by going to a blockchain explorer like Blockchain.info (http://Blockchain.info) or live.blockcypher.com (http://live.blockcypher.com) and searching your Bitcoin Address there.

How do I send my BTC to someone if I do not use any p2p btc client and I generate my addresses on bitaddress?

You just have to import your private key into a wallet, that supports importing private keys. Maybe there is also an easier way to send bitcoins from paper or mind wallets

What's the most reliable bitcoin client, which do not disclose any information and does not collect any private information, etc. ?

It is not possible.

Bitcoins exist only as transactions on the shared blockchain.

The only way to "send bitcoins" is to assemble the necessary bytes of data to represent a valid bitcoin transaction and then to share that data with p2p bitcoin clients so that it can be added to a block of data in the blockchain.

You could generate the transaction data without p2p software if you have access to the transaction data that sent you the bitcoins, but at some point you'd have to then get that data to some p2p client somehow.

Most clients don't collect any private information.

They all disclose public keys when transmitting transactions.

Thank you for your answers.

I tried electrum and bitcoin core and bitcoin core looks friendlier to me.
Do I understand correctly that bitcoin core operates in a way in which the client has to download the entire blockchain (which is 122GB as of today) to a computer?

Correct.

nice! is there any way to use bitcoin core without downloading the blockchain to a PC?

One thing I do not quite understand yet is fees. Who sets the btc transaction fee, that the sender pays? is it p2p client-based, is it a fix fee or a floating one?

Not easily.

Bitcoin Core is intended to be a fully participating node on the bitcoin network.

It validates every transaction and block it receives from peers, enforces the protocol rules, and relays valid transactions and blocks to all connected peers.
It also provides to new peers the historical blocks from the blockchain that they need to synchronize when they connect to the network.

There is a feature called pruning that you can turn on with a configuration file so that it won't store all those blocks, but it still needs to download and verify them all. The feature just reduces the amount of storage space you need to have available.


The sender sets it.

The fee is voluntary.  The sender chooses how much of a fee they want to pay based on how many transactions are waiting to be confirmed, the size of those transactions (in bytes), the fee that those transactions voluntarily paid, and how quickly the sender would like the transaction to confirm.

Some well written wallet software (such as Bitcoin Core and Electrum) will monitor the bitcoin network while they are running and collect statistics about the current transactions and blocks (quantity, size, fees, speed of confirmation, etc).  The wallet software will then attempt to recommend a fee to the sender that will get their transaction confirmed in a reasonable amount of time.

Some wallet software leaves the fee decision entirely up to the sender.  Other software implements a mandatory fee and doesn't allow the sender to change it. Still other software will recommend a fee, but allow the sender to alter it if they want to.  The decision on how software will handle the fee decision is left entirely up to the developer of the software.


It is sender based, and wallet software based.


That depends on the software, but in Bitcoin Core and Electrum it is constantly adjusted depending on the size of your transaction (in bytes) and the statistics of recent transactions on the network.

is there any website I can check how much the fee averages for a certain amount of BTC?

I am looking to buy some BTC now, but the seller is asking around 10% which is ridiculous to me.

Are you asking about bitcoin transaction fees? Or are you talking about the profit that a bitcoin seller wants you to pay him when he gives you some of his bitcoins?

Bitcoin transaction fees are "per byte" and NOT "per bitcoin".  You can get a good estimate here:
https://bitcoinfees.21.co/

If you are talking about profit for a seller, then it is up to the two of you to negotiate a price that you both find acceptable. If you cannot agree on a price, then you can look for another seller.


How much more than the generally accepted market price you'll have to pay will depend on a lot of factors.

What markets do you have access to?
How fast do you want the bitcoins?
How convenient do you want the transaction to be?
How much privacy do you want in the transaction?
How much security and/or trust is involved in the transaction?

All of these things have value and have an effect on how much you'll have to pay for bitcoins.

Coinmarketcap https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/ is a good site to watch the prices. It shows all relevant markets.
Yes, that is the point, why you have to pay more than the bitcoin price.



Now back to the topic:
I tried to make a brain wallet on bitaddress, but don't know which words I may put into the seed. Is there a database for seeds?

you can put whatever you want, it just has to be at least certain amount of characters

I got an answer here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2091971
An own password, like you suggested would be much better but didn"t work.

What wallet would you recommend for altcoins?

I have heard exodus and jaxx are good ones, any opinions?

I would choose exodus over jaxx anyday because of the fact that Jaxx has significant security flaws that essentially allows anyone that has physical access to your phone to access your altcoins without any sort of warning. And they seem to be fine with it. Exodus is much slicker in its design, and it has a very nice team of professional bitcoiners, as well as a responsive support. You also have control over your own private keys.

Bitaddress is a good service, albeit not a very convenient one. I would recommend using it but i would use electrum for anything less than 0.05 BTC. Bitaddress is usually used for offline storage, so each time you want to generate a new address you'd have to run the site in offline conditions and type in random characters and all that. As i said, it's a hassle to manage all your addresses if you are going to use them quite often.

Well, you can use their 'bulk wallet' feature and generate as many addresses as you need in a single click ;)

When I generate a paper wallet there, then I also can send their funds. It needn't be online, right?

Okay, so it is possible to generate wallets in an offline mode without ANY connectivity using bitaddress

But how does the system (the blockchain) knows then that this address exists and you can send BTC to that address?

Correct.


The blockchain is just data.  It does not know anything.  It does not need to know anything.

You are now asking questions that require an understanding of the technical details of how bitcoin works.  "Addresses" don't actually exist at the technical level.  Neither does anything that could be called a "bitcoin".  Those are just abstract concepts that we humans use to make it easier to talk about transferring control over value.

Imagine for a moment that I write a note that says that I want to transfer control of my pencil to someone named "John Smith" who lives at the address of "123 Main St." with an ID number of "1S3FH45692".

How does the paper know that this person exists and that I can transfer my pencil to him?

The paper doesn't care.

Now imagine that somehow this note on paper could be made into a binding agreement that I could not change. If the person actually exists, then they could claim the pencil.  If they do not exist, then the pencil would be stuck unclaimed by anybody forever (or at least until that person eventually exists).

Bitcoin operates in a similar manner.

When I send a bitcoin transaction, the transaction has a section of data called the "output".  The output is assigned a value, and then is encumbered with a requirement that someone must meet if they want to be able to spend that output.  The blockchain doesn't care if that requirement can be met or not.  It simply records the fact that the requirement exists.

Then wallet software converts that requirement into a string of letters and numbers that we humans call an "address".

In the case of the typical P2PKH address that you commonly see with bitcoin (the addresses that always start with a 1), the requirement that the output is encumbered with is that the future spender MUST supply a digital signature that can be validated with a specific public key.  The instructions that explain this requirement are called a "script".  That script is then encoded into the address that you use.

When you tell someone your address, and they type it into their wallet software, the software has been programmed to use that type of address to create the appropriate output script that you will be able to satisfy since you control the private key and will be able to generate the necessary digital signature when you later want to spend that output.

If someone uses an "address" that wasn't properly generated from a private key, then the sending wallet software will create a requirement that nobody will be able to satisfy (since nobody will have the private key and therefore nobody will be able to create the necessary signature).

.
The address is generated randomly with a very low chance to hit an existing address. You can recieve payments offline, but you must go online to send Bitcoin. Therefore you can import your private key into a wallet, that supports that. (Simplified answer of a nontechy, Hope it is right)

Thank your for your informative answers!

Is this an analog of bitaddress.org? https://github.com/ryepdx/ethaddress.org

If so, is it as reliable as bitaddress.org ?

In order to use, I just need to download it and run 'index' right?

Use MyEtherWallet instead. I never heard of this paper wallet generator and haven't found anybody suggesting if the generation script it's safe or not (if could be but I honestly just prefer MEW).
You can download the source code here[1], unpack the zip file, open "index.html" (optionally without internet connection) and generate your wallet.

[1] https://github.com/kvhnuke/etherwallet/releases (etherwallet-vx.x.x.x.zip)

and in this way MEW will serve as a cold storage, right?

Yes. If you are offline and your private key/wallet file never leaves the PC or touch the internet, your wallet is as safe as any other kind of cold storage.

When you want to spend your coins, use the "Send offline" tab and follow all the steps to generate a transaction, sign offline and broadcast it.

You are almost new to wallet services and you might make mistakes while generating private keys using these complex steps.
Use Myetherwallet.com, The easiest one oneline ethereum wallet creation hub even newbies feel it easy.
Do not forget to print paper wallet

How is it possible to send coins without connection?
Is this those smart contracts of ETH? That's what they are?

Create the transaction offline (without a connection).

Then copy the completed transaction to something that communicates with Bitcoin peer nodes online.


This was already explained to you earlier in this thread:

---

No.  It's just transporting a transaction physically instead of electronically.

Thanks!
So it is not enough just to use ‘send offline’ tab when using MEW script in order to send coins - I need something that as you said ‘communicate with the network nodes’ right?

If so, then what should I use? Some
Web wallet?

is mnemonic phrase and seed phrase exactly the same things?

Since you are using MEW, you can simple follow the instructions in the "Send Offline" tab to generate your transaction and use the Step 3 to broadcast your transaction to other nodes. Just paste your signed transaction in the last box and press "Send Transaction".

Yes.

Thank you guys for your help here!

Are Monero and IOTA tokens or coins?

How to find out if one is a coin or a token?

Altcoins.

Do your own research about the coin/token. Find the website/ANN thread and look for more informations about it.

CoinMarketCap.com (http://CoinMarketCap.com) is a good place to start looking for this. You can for example, see in each coin/token page if they are a Coin or a Token.

https://talkimg.com/images/2023/05/14/blobffc015a8d3d04575.png