Bitcoin Exchanges — Options for Newcomers to Bitcoin Now Available on Bitcoin.org

A directory of Bitcoin Exchanges servicing the world’s 20 largest economies, as well as several international options (serving many countries) are now available on Bitcoin.org:
https://bitcoin.org/en/exchanges

Helping People Interested in Bitcoin, Get Bitcoin
This new addition to the site:

• Links to the Find an Exchange button on the Getting Started page and helps many of the new people entering the Bitcoin ecosystem via Bitcoin.org, get bitcoin.
• Improves SEO for Bitcoin.org, because the site can now potentially rank very well for “Bitcoin Exchange” as well as other key phrases that include country names that are contained on the page (i.e. Bitcoin Exchange China, Bitcoin Exchange India, etc.).
• Has unique anchor links for each country that people can share on social media that will allow others to find the bitcoin exchanges that are available for their specific country.
• Allows Bitcoin.org to focus the wallets page on wallets that allow people to maintain full control over their funds (Resolving issue #1109, because custodial wallets that provide exchange services can be moved off of the wallets page to this new page).
• Is also accessible via the Resources dropdown menu.

Questions, Comments & Feedback
Questions, issues, suggestions or feedback are always welcome on Bitcoin.org. If interested in contributing in this regard, please open an issue or submit a pull request:
https://github.com/bitcoin-dot-org/bitcoin.org/issues/new
https://github.com/bitcoin-dot-org/bitcoin.org/compare

Use Discretion when Choosing an Exchange
Bitcoin Exchanges provide varying degrees of safety, security, privacy, and control over your funds and information. Perform your own due diligence and choose a wallet where you will keep your bitcoin before selecting an exchange:
https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

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Interested in getting involved with Bitcoin.org?

Learn how you can participate:
https://github.com/bitcoin-dot-org/bitcoin.org#how-to-participate

Updates to Bitcoin.org Last Month; Looking Ahead to 2017

Last month was a very active month on Bitcoin.org which saw the resolution of approximately 75 issues and pull requests. These came from the many great contributors who help support and improve the site via the Bitcoin community. Bitcoin.org is one of the world’s top 10,000 websites (http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/bitcoin.org), surpassing over 1,200 top ranked websites in traffic in the last three months alone.

The updates last month included several improvements of note.

Updated Instructions for Running a Full Node
Instructions on how to run a full bitcoin node (https://bitcoin.org/en/full-node) have been revamped and updated as of 0.13.1. These instructions allow people who want to help support the network get quickly up and running on Linux, Mac and Windows operating systems. For users with limited disk space availability to store a full copy of the block chain, instructions for how to run a full bitcoin node in pruning mode are available as well.

New Bitcoin Events in 2017
Last month, 17 events were added to the Events page (https://bitcoin.org/en/events). This upcoming year offers many conferences, local events and opportunities to connect with other members of the Bitcoin community. Events can be easily submitted for review and incorporation into the site by opening an issue in the GitHub repository (https://github.com/bitcoin-dot-org/bitcoin.org/issues/new).

HSTS Preloading Option Now Available for Wallets
HSTS is a web security policy mechanism which helps to protect websites against protocol downgrade attacks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_downgrade_attack) and cookie hijacking (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Session_hijacking). It allows web servers to declare that web browsers (or other complying user agents) should only interact with it using secure HTTPS connections. This update distinguishes bitcoin wallets which utilize HSTS preloading so that users can exercise additional discretion when choosing a wallet (https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet).

Removed Circle Pay
Circle Pay was removed from the Wallets Page (https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet) after the company announced that it would no longer be allowing customers to buy and sell bitcoin via their platform. Mentions of bitcoin were also noticeably absent from their web and mobile applications, which were additional factors contributing to the removal because it would be confusing to new users who are looking for a bitcoin wallet who go to a platform with no mention of it.

BitGive added as a Nonprofit Organization
BitGive was added as a nonprofit organization people can go to if they would like to donate some bitcoin, under the Donation section on the Support Bitcoin page (https://bitcoin.org/en/support-bitcoin). BitGive works with well-known nonprofits like Save the Children and The Water Project. BitGive has developed GiveTrack which uses the block chain to allow people to trace transactions to see how funds are spent, ensuring they reach their intended destination.

More Improvements Coming Soon in 2017

A number of features and enhancements are on the horizon and are coming soon to Bitcoin.org.

Bitcoin Exchanges Directory
In the near future, a directory of Bitcoin Exchanges (https://github.com/bitcoin-dot-org/bitcoin.org/pull/1469) will be available to help many of the new people entering the Bitcoin ecosystem via Bitcoin.org who are looking to adopt the technology, get bitcoin. This will also improve SEO for Bitcoin.org, because the site can now potentially rank very well for “Bitcoin Exchange” as well as longer key phrases that include country names that are contained on the page (i.e. Bitcoin Exchange China, Bitcoin Exchange India, etc.). This will also resolve an issue (https://github.com/bitcoin-dot-org/bitcoin.org/issues/1109) on the site for how “bitcoin banks” are categorized.

Updated Translations
Bitcoin.org is now available in over 25 languages. This includes the native display of the site in languages for the world’s 20 largest economies. Coming soon are updates to these languages to make sure that they are completely in sync with the latest content. Also, more languages will be available to users by default as well, under the goal of making the site available to anyone, anywhere in the world, so that they can easily learn about and get started using Bitcoin. Anyone who is interested in being a part of this can help us translate (https://github.com/bitcoin-dot-org/bitcoin.org#how-to-translate).

Documentation Improvements
The Developer Documentation (https://bitcoin.org/en/developer-documentation) is an integral resource in helping new and existing developers entering the Bitcoin ecosystem learn how to get started using Bitcoin. As such, an important goal in 2017 is ensuring that this documentation remains up to date and continues to expand into areas where it is needed most.

Interested in getting involved?

Learn how you can participate:
https://github.com/bitcoin-dot-org/bitcoin.org#how-to-participate

Hello,

Updated instructions for how to run a full bitcoin node (https://bitcoin.org/en/full-node) as of version 0.13.1 are now available on Bitcoin.org. These instructions allow one to quickly get set up and running with a full node on the following operating systems:

• Linux (https://bitcoin.org/en/full-node#linux-instructions)
• MacOS (https://bitcoin.org/en/full-node#mac-os-x-instructions)
• Windows (https://bitcoin.org/en/full-node#windows-instructions)

In addition to the above operating systems, tips on how to configure a full bitcoin node for a local area network and how to tweak the reference client configuration are available.

Why is running a full bitcoin node important?
Full nodes help enforce the consensus rules of the Bitcoin network. When a full node client is running, it downloads every new block and every new transaction and checks them to make sure they are valid. Here are some examples of consensus rules, though there are many more:

• Blocks may only create a certain number of bitcoins.
• Transactions must have correct signatures for the bitcoins being spent.
• Transactions/blocks must be in the correct data format.
• Within the blockchain, a transaction output cannot be double-spent.

Read more about what a full node is, the consensus rules above and other incentives for supporting the network in the Bitcoin Wiki. (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Full_node)

Minimum Requirements
Bitcoin Core full nodes have certain requirements. If you try running a node on weak hardware, it may work — but you’ll likely spend more time dealing with issues. If you can meet the following requirements, you’ll have an easy-to-use node.

• Desktop or laptop hardware running recent versions of Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux.
• 125GB of free disk space (size of the blockchain plus room to grow)
• 2GB of memory (RAM)
• A broadband Internet connection with upload speeds of at least 400 kilobits (50 kilobytes) per second
• An unmetered connection, a connection with high upload limits, or a connection you regularly monitor to ensure it doesn’t exceed its upload limits. It’s common for full nodes on high-speed connections to use 200GB in uploads or more a month. Download usage is around 20GB/month, plus around an additional 100GB the first time you start your node.
• 6 hours/day that your full node can be left running. (You can do other things with your computer while running a full node.) More hours would be better, and best of all would be if you can run your node continuously.
• Note: many operating systems today (Windows, Mac, and Linux) enter a low-power mode after the screensaver activates, slowing or halting network traffic. This is often the default setting on laptops and on all Mac OS X laptops and desktops. Check your screensaver settings and disable automatic “sleep” or “suspend” options to ensure you support the network whenever your computer is running.

What to do if you need help
Please seek out assistance in the community if you need help setting up your full node correctly to handle high-value and privacy-sensitive tasks. Do your own diligence to ensure who you get help from is ethical, reputable and qualified to assist you.

Acknowledgments
Special thanks goes to David Harding (https://github.com/harding) who created the majority of the content comprising the original instructions on Bitcoin.org for running a full node as of version 0.10.0. A great thank you goes to the other contributors (in no preferential order) who have worked to improve this page over time as well:

• Kevin Cooper (https://github.com/kevcooper)
• Joseph Becher (https://github.com/drazisil)
• Jorgeminator (https://github.com/drazisil)
• Gyomu (https://github.com/Gyomu)
• Jonas Schnelli (https://github.com/jonasschnelli)
• cpmx (https://github.com/cpmx)
• anduck (https://github.com/anduck)
• dabura667 (https://github.com/dabura667)
• seusher (https://github.com/seusher)

***

About Bitcoin.org
Bitcoin.org was originally used by Satoshi Nakamoto to host his Bitcoin paper. Soon after, it began linking to downloadable versions of the original Bitcoin software, making it the homepage for the Bitcoin program. New educational content about Bitcoin was added to Bitcoin.org over time, but that home page remained even when the name of the original program was changed to Bitcoin Core.

In the years since, the amount of content on Bitcoin.org has continued to increase. There’s more content about Bitcoin Core than ever before and also more content about other Bitcoin software and resources.

Interested in getting involved?

Learn how you can participate:
https://github.com/bitcoin-dot-org/bitcoin.org#how-to-participate