That is a common misconception. The supply of bitcoins is not halved. It is constantly increasing until the last new satoshi is created.

No. The halving does not cause the price to double.

WTF? NO! That is wrong.

OMG! NO! That is wrong.

Why do people write this this crap? Oh, right! They are spamming the forums in order to pump up their post count.

1.  Blocks are produced at the rate of one every ten minutes on average, and there is no reason why a miner couldn't produce a block 30 seconds after including your transaction.

2.  People might use Coinbase over Bitstamp even though it is more expensive because it can be more convenient, or because they don't know about Bitstamp and other exchanges.

3.  A wallet holds one or more private keys. It may use a seed to generate those private keys. A public key is derived from a private key. A Bitcoin address is derived from a public key -- it is not the same a public key. A transaction that sends from several addresses generally does mean those addresses are in the same wallet. That is the main technique used to associate addresses.

4.  The user's value that you see is calculated from your rating, the ratings given by the users you trust, and the ratings given by default trust users.

5.  Transactions send fixed amounts of bitcoins (too long to explain here), so your wallet will create a new "change" address to send the leftover bitcoins to.

6.  In simplest terms, an output typically specifies the address that bitcoins are sent to, and an input specifies where the bitcoins come from.

But more precisely: An output holds bitcoins and specifies the requirements for a transaction to claim them. An input references the output of a previous transaction. A transaction transfers bitcoins from the outputs referenced by its inputs to its own outputs.

7.  The primary reason to run a full node is to ensure the security of your bitcoins and your transactions. However, more full nodes and more interconnections between full nodes also result in a more reliable and secure network.

8.  An "anyone can spend" output is just that -- anyone can spend it. However, in a soft fork, such an output looks like an "anyone can spend" output only to old software.

9.  A hard fork is a change in the validation rules that causes the chain to split into two branches. The new rules extend one branch, and the old rules extend the other branch. It is assumed that economic factors would motivate everyone to abandon the branch with the old rules.

That is a common myth.

It is possible for some to mine bitcoins profitably with a single device. The major factor is cost of electricity. Other factors are the cost of the equipment, cooling, and noise. While there might be some economies of scale in mining with 1000 machines, it is not a major factor.


That is another common myth.

Even back in the days of CPU and GPU mining, mining was unprofitable for most users because the value of the mined bitcoins was so low.

I assume it is per day.

There currently 300 k transactions per day. If the typical transaction sends bitcoins to a new address plus a new change address, then 600 k new addresses per day seems reasonable.

Your premise is mistaken. Unless all the bots are operating in unison, their competition and frequent trading only serve to add liquidity and reduce volatility.

One might lose less than the other, but I doubt that either would be profitable. Sorry, for being so negative, but some newbies are so naive, thinking they can earn money with no knowledge and no skill.

On the other hand, what if you look at pets.com. webvan, etoys.com, @home, kozmo.com, flooz.com, boo.com, mvp.com. go.com, kibu.com, and govworks.com?

Many said that they were undervalued, and then they failed.

I don't think your comparison is any more "fair" and any less arbitrary than the comparison of the values of 95,084,257,000,000,000,000,000 atoms of gold to 100,000,000 satoshis. Maybe that is your point.

I think the comparison of the total value of all the bitcoins ($34,460,900,000) vs. the total value of all the gold ($8,943,770,600,000) might be more useful.

The more people expect the price to continue rising, the more it is likely to crash.

The generation of new coins by a miner is part of the validation rules. Any miner can change the rules locally, but that will result in their exclusion by everyone else.

An alt coin can have whatever rules its developer wishes.

Here is the best advice you will get here:

You know very little about those coins. Don't invest in something you don't understand.

It depends on the level of security you are looking for. Bitcoin is nearly instantaneous if you don't require any confirmations.

If you do require confirmations, keep in mind that it takes many Ethereum confirmations to equal the security of a single Bitcoin confirmation.

You must send the full amounts of the inputs. If you don't actually want send all of it, the remainder must be sent somewhere. Your wallet creates a new ("change") address and sends the leftover amount to that.

It's a Spoonerism for "hold", originally used in this drunken rant's title: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=375643.0

Or more recently, a backronym for "Hold On for Dear Life".

There is no "settling" and no balance. The balances your wallet shows you are computed by the wallet for your convenience. The balance for an address is simply the sum of the outputs using that address that have not yet been used as inputs.

Time is not relevant. Your 0.75 BTC transaction will be the same whether it is made immediately after the two 0.5 BTC transactions or 100 years later (assuming there are no others in between).

Transactions work with inputs and outputs. The output of one transaction becomes an input of another transaction.

Here is a long example:

Let's say that somebody sends you 0.5 BTC twice, for a total of 1 BTC, and you want to send 0.75 BTC to somebody. Your wallet will construct this transaction:

Inputs: 0.5 BTC, 0.5 BTC
Outputs: 0.75 BTC, 0.2499 BTC
(fee paid is 0.0001 BTC)

After that transaction, your wallet has 0.2499 BTC (the "change" from the previous transaction).

Now, you want to send 0.1 BTC. The wallet constructs this transaction:

Inputs: 0.2499 BTC
Outputs: 0.1 BTC, 0.1498 BTC
(fee paid is 0.0001 BTC)

Your wallet now holds 0.1498 BTC. Then someone sends you 0.1 BTC, so you have 0.2498 BTC.

Now, you want to send 0.2 BTC. You wallet constructs this transaction:

Inputs: 0.1498 BTC, 0.1 BTC
Outputs: 0.2 BTC, 0.0497 BTC
(fee paid is 0.0001 BTC)

The address shown by Mycellium is always new and unused. If bitcoins are sent to that address, Mycelium will then generate a different new and unused address.

If you need two new addresses at the same time or the mixed bitcoins are being returned to the same wallet, then you can set up a second account inside Mycelium (go to the accounts page). The second account is just like a second wallet.

I just feel that mixing coins provides little benefit in most cases. It depends on the level of anonymity you desire.

A trend describes the past. It cannot predict the future, except ...

Some people believe that a trend does predict the future, so they follow the trend and they help prolong it.

Unfortunately, most of those people will lose money in the end. It is like they are playing a hand of poker where everyone is bluffing and everyone knows that everyone is bluffing. The trend ends when enough people no longer believe in the trend and the price corrects. That's called a bubble.

For any kind of reasonable answer, we need to know which wallet you are using. Different wallets work differently.

A wallet stores your private keys and/or your seed in a file somewhere. Some wallets store that information in a file named wallet.dat. It is important to ensure that this information is both encrypted and backed up.

Some wallets encrypt the data by default with a password that you provide. BTW, a password is not the same as a seed or a private key. If the wallet you use does not store the information securely, you should use a different wallet.

Some wallets (such as Bitcoin Core) have a backup feature. It might be better to use that feature to back up the wallet's information rather than doing it manually.

I recommend Airbitz. It is designed to be both secure and easy to use. It has a lot more features than breadwallet and is easier to use than Mycelium.