Well, it all started yesterday when I received a message in Telegram from this supposed exchange. They told me I received a prize in Bitcoin of approximately 0.38 (about 14 000 USD). The message I received from them told me that it was very easy to withdraw funds: Нow уou can сollect уour winnings? 1.Register аn aсcount оn thе ехchаngеr: http://bit.ly/xlmcahype 2.Gо tо settings 3.Yоu can аctivatе thе рromo cоde on thе «Sеttings» -> «Referral prоgrаm» 4.Withdraw BTС tо your addrеss 5.Dоne But it was not as easy as expected. I can only withdraw funds to external addresses if I make a deposit of 200 USD from that address. It sounded suspicious to me. So, I am not going to make a deposit to try and get that 0.38 BTC because I probably will not get it (but surely they will get my 200 USD). ...let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one. - Matthew 5:37You have been warned! |
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I just now noticed your vanity address in your tagline. That is one LONG vanity address! Do you have access to it? Again just curious.
No. I do not have a private key to that address. |
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Just curious. Is your username a coin address? Or did you just make it to look like one?
It is just a randomly generated username. |
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So my question is this. Does the length of the SALT phrase that I add when generating this Brain Wallet really matter?
Considering your password is truly random: No. Salt will be used like an extension of the password you provided. |
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By considering what most people are saying here, and the developers irresponsibility and inertia, I believe Bitcoin is a lost cause for now. They are not going to change their mind and just treat Bitcoin as their digital gold, rich maker, etc...
When Bitcoin infrastructure collapses due to lack of real world usage you will all be disappointed. If the majority of people really want this for Bitcoin then I can do nothing.
I'm looking for something with a future, with a goal, not just some sort of digital gold. Gold is valuable by itself, but Bitcoin is just a network, which without a sound goal it worth nothing.
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A world where you can send money anywhere and to anyone in the world, instantly and with low fees.
A world where you can buy anything using Bitcoin, from coffees to yatchs.
A world where you can get all the privacy you want.
A world without banks.
A world without old currencies, that only create inflation.
A world where you pay only the taxes you wanna pay and not what you are forced to pay.
I think Satoshi's original view was very revolutionary.
A decentralized payment system and a deflationary currency. A real digital cash.
You've just described Dash, which aims to be (real) digital cash. Anyway, what the OP said makes sense. Bitcoin is going to the wrong direction, yet they do nothing. What you feel when reading this page: https://bitcoin.org/en/innovation ? It feels like false advertising. |
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As a poor citizen of a rich country I can say the OP is right, Bitcoin forgot us completely. It is no longer usable for us, we feel scammed. It is like being welcomed with open arms, and when they got what they wanted just close the door in our face. That is how I feel. Now, I'm considering alternatives. Dash seems like something serious, don't know if they will do the same as Bitcoin, but it is worth a try in my opinion. The poor population is big, I believe Bitcoin is making a big mistake by forgetting us. I'd say wake up, before it is too late. EDIT: And please, update this page: https://bitcoin.org/en/innovation |
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Do you see alts have chances against Bitcoins? It seems like Dash is showing some serious competition. I am starting to see some sites offering Dash as form of payment. If this trend continues, Dash may become popular. It is interesting, I may buy some Dash. Who knows.  |
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I don't think a virtual keyboard (you mean those on screen keyboards, right?) will protect you from anything at all. If you have a keylogger on your machine, the keylogger will get any input data including your on screen keyboard. Even if it couldn't the hackers could simply track your mouse.
If you're concerned about security, try a Linux distro, they are super secure and stable. No need to worry about getting a keylogger onto your machine. You can try dual-booting it.
I can tell this is true, at least I never got any Bitcoin or anything stolen from here and I am not even that paranoid when it comes to security. While on Windows, if you click on a mere link on a webpage you can open doors to hackers anywhere; that is the impression I got when reading from Windows users. This is hard to understand. |
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My mother knew about Bitcoin recently through Whatsapp, she asked me about it if I knew it. I said yes, explained to her.
I created one wallet for her. Sadly, I failed to send her first coins as the network fee is too high and it took days to process and I give up.
It was presented to her as a form of making money, as investment, and the like.
That is how Bitcoin is being presented to common, non technically savvy people. Now she seems not to care about it anymore.
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What to do with the people who don't like Bitcoin?
Respect their decision. |
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The problem is that there's a hidden character we cannot see, probably due to char encoding. But it gets copied and pasted anyway. It is only seen when we analyze in binary: 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
00000000: | 31 44 4A 4A 6F 4A 34 73 78 77 4A 64 77 45 78 54 | 1 D J J o J 4 s x w J d w E x T
00000010: | 73 6F 44 67 C2 AD 38 71 58 4C 31 46 45 6F 7A 44 | s o D g . . 8 q X L 1 F E o z D
00000020: | 47 51 45 46 | G Q E F
Works fine without it: https://blockchain.info/address/1DJJoJ4sxwJdwExTsoDg8qXL1FEozDGQEF |
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however, i've seen some dev's publishing the windows binary long before publising the linux binary...
That is very common, usually in the download section for most things you will find: Download link for Windows: A compiled, ready to run package with binaries, sometimes even an installer. Just unpack and run. Download link for Linux: Source code package for compilation that requires specific knowledge It is frustrating sometimes, especially when you don't know how to compile or dependencies are missing and there is no information available. Windows or Linux for Wallet Software?
If you can afford the problems, take your time to learn how to compile things in Linux, then go Linux. If you can afford the extra cost of Windows, and you are satisfied with it then go Windows. I'm Linux user myself, and I can tell you it is pretty frustrating when you want to run a program and it does not compile and they have it as an installer for the Windows and/or Mac. Note to developers: Please explain what are the dependencies of your program detailed, accurately. What is used to compile and all. PLEASE! |
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If one of your private keys were compromised, then whoever has that private key will be able to figure out the rest of your private keys. All they have to do is go a few billion keys +/- of the one they have and they can get all of the private keys that you will ever use.
BIP32 derivation is vastly superior. In order to figure out all of your private keys, an attacker would need to know the master private key and the derivation paths. This means that if one of your private keys were compromised, your whole wallet isn't compromised. It is far easier to protect one key than it is to protect billions of keys.
OK, we know the risks of getting stolen are higher. But I still believe the benefits outweighs the risks, just be careful. But are there any technical risks? BIP32 seems too complicated, I am looking for something I can calculate in mind without effort. Then can easily obtained by hand, without additional code I may not have access to, and still secure (i.e. not technically exploitable). What if we change the way its range is obtained to a less obvious one, like this. The good thing is that we can set our own simple customized rules: Random key: 0x72401339D3318F8FA1707C21447D220ED03D1086E1D0388F976C8DE223619C77
Random mask: 0xFFFF00FFFFFFFF00FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF00FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF00FFFFFFFFFF
In this case, valid range would be: 0x72400039D3318F00A1707C21447D220E003D1086E1D0388F976C00E223619C77 - 7240FF39D3318FFFA1707C21447D220EFF3D1086E1D0388F976CFFE223619C77
Not sure if one would even bother try the same thing you did with the other to figure out near keys, that is in case any of my keys are stolen. Or we can try more tricky things, yet without loosing simplicity and portability (i.e. can be write down in a piece of paper, easily remembered, easy to execute). Thank you for reading! |
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People said Bitcoin private keys should be random, and generated from a random source. OK, I agree. But I see there is a problem with that kind of usage as losing keys are very easy and remembering all of them is not practical. Deterministic wallets solve the problem, but you still have to rely on complicated parsing of data and software to interpret them. Then why not simply one pick a random private key: 0x72401339D3318F8FA1707C21447D220ED03D1086E1D0388F976C8DE223619C77
And mask it with a random pattern, for example I know I will not use more than 4 294 967 296 addresses in my lifetime then we can do: 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF00000000FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
and
0x72401339D3318F8FA1707C21447D220ED03D1086E1D0388F976C8DE223619C77
------------------------------------------------------------------
0x72401339D3318F8000000001447D220ED03D1086E1D0388F976C8DE223619C77
Then I know all my private keys are within the range: 0x72401339D3318F8000000001447D220ED03D1086E1D0388F976C8DE223619C77 - 0x72401339D3318F8FFFFFFFF1447D220ED03D1086E1D0388F976C8DE223619C77
And this can be applied to most (if not all) coins. A single point of failure, we can even write it down on a piece of paper easily; no need to track thousands of random private keys that can get lost or a big and complicated to parse file you can't write down. I am not saying everyone should adopt this method or anything, this choice is personal. My question is: There are any known problems or risks of using such a method? Is there a weakness somehow for using addresses like that? It is OK "x and x+1" private keys, or should this be avoided? Thank you! EDIT: Probably a less riskier, more realistic, yet simple alternative (about 1 million addresses, which is more than enough for most people): Random key: 0x397263A2C8131ABE3BEF02ECCA92F3AC751C50B7232816A9767B0386710DA6DF
Random mask: 0xFFFFFFF0FFFFFFFFFFFFF0FFFFFFFFFF0FFFF0FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF0FFFFFFFF
Addresses range: 0x397263A0C8131ABE3BEF00ECCA92F3AC051C50B7232816A9767B0380710DA6DF - 0x397263AFC8131ABE3BEF0FECCA92F3ACF51C5FB7232816A9767B038F710DA6DF
It may be a bit inconvenient to generate many addresses, but just a quick script will do that. The important is that you just need one key and one mask, the rest is just simple. |
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Is Dash a better alternative to Bitcoin?
At the moment, I believe there are better alternatives to Bitcoin: Peercoin, Dash, Litecoin, and even Vertcoin. About Dash: It looks like the thing is very serious, just realized it a few days ago. It is on my watch list. I liked its slogan: "Dash is digital cash". |
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The Bitcoins you "own" are not really coins but they are entries in the ledger that you control through the private keys.
The safest way to store private keys (address:privkey): 15gaCbLRQYgcn87rYwPJS5Qn7EAPqKCGBy:L2RXkdt7RwjaMExfhU8LPFSMVn9sxbz3RADmFKXF3axBPehPPGBU
15i7u3YFW93NL9SZqzHcfmVrYCEtaU4hf3:KycjqJGBrPnB8igpCpRnSNGWZHGK78AqTJzKxSxfZkhQPquqpYsw
14vhkqg8t3oPWouSd7LShehjP3q9a9EGnq:L4q5gR7P2KPsJpbbLjzyCJXpuXLphY35JGnSdKBfccGY6eZ6FjqU
I would not trust "wallets.dat" anymore got one corrupted once, then having a plain text (preferably encrypted) backup of private keys seems a good idea. |
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Why do you guys think Bitcoin is declining in popularity?
I believe it is mainly due to arrogance, pride, contentions, and inertness. If it continues like that, destruction is just a matter of time. Competition exists. |
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Nope. I'm out here sometimes paying a $20 fee for a $200 transaction  Yea, that is possible if you have multiple inputs which increases the size of the transaction. And the bigger the transaction is more fee you will have to pay. I used Paypal recently to transfer about $21.46, it cost me $1.89 then I end up with $19.57... And I transferred that $19.57 to my bank account without paying extra fees. With Bitcoin, fee is very expensive now, and you have to pay it whenever you "think" about making a transaction. |
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