Looking for Bitcoin Q/A - Please contribute

[newIndia]

I'm a big fan of this FAQ:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Myths

CoinLearn actually replied about this Wiki before...

There's already a good FAQ available from the bitcoin website: https://bitcoin.org/en/faq

Yah, I checked it and https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Faq is also a good one. But I dont want to copy-paste. Those can be presented in a less technical and interesting way for newbies. And I'm looking for some interesting Q/A as well. Here is an example...

Q. I heard someone bought 2 Piza for 10,000 BTC. Is it true ?

A. Yes, it absolutely is. The order was placed on May 18, 2010 and was executed on May 22, 2010. Those were the early days of bitcoin. You may find the details here.

[BitCoinDream]

I'm a big fan of this FAQ:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Myths

I also like this. It would be great if those Q/A can be edited and published in an interesting way...

[jonald_fyookball]

CIA is not happy with the current protocol as they are unable to track anything. Hence they are trying push different changes in the protocol level through Gavin including 3rd party security certificate verification.

Is that your opinion or do you have any evidence?

[BitCoinDream]

CIA is not happy with the current protocol as they are unable to track anything. Hence they are trying push different changes in the protocol level through Gavin including 3rd party security certificate verification.

Is that your opinion or do you have any evidence?

Chances are low that CIA will leave any evidence

[BitCoinDream]

Q. Is not it possible that a same address is being generated by 2 clients ?

^^^ I'd like to see this Q is added in your site as I see a LOT of newbie ask the same Q again and again.

Here is a related discussion while I asked this Q months ago: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=560557.0

[BitCoinDream]

Q. What are online & offline wallets ?

A.

The definitions of "online wallet" and "offline wallet" are confused. They mean different things to different people.

Generally, "offline wallet" means the same as "cold storage", or a wallet that is not connected to the internet. Some people use the term to mean a wallet that runs directly on a device -- phone, tablet, computer, etc.

Then you would expect that "online wallet" means a wallet that is connected to the internet -- the same as a "hot wallet", but that's not how most people use the term. Generally, when people refer to an "online wallet", they mean a wallet that is accessed through a web site, and sometimes more specifically an account at a web site that is not really a wallet. This may also be called "web wallet" or "hosted wallet".

I try to avoid using the terms "online" and "offline" because of the confusion.

Cold storage is the safest because someone needs physical access to the wallet to steal the bitcoins. Holding bitcoins in an account on a web site is generally unsafe. Bitcoins in accounts are easily and frequently stolen.

[qwerty555]

What are the top practical uses of bitcoin

Top 5 potential uses which are available and gaining momentum.

1 remittance abroad 540 Billion/yr market .. faster and cheaper in most cases particularly in Africa.

2 Business travelers save money when using Xapo compared to a credit/ debit card in 90% of cases

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=736643.msg8554196#msg8554196

3 Allowing the unbanked to buy on line and avail of large discounts and wider choice and giving merchants a better deal

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237026

4 allowing all and particularly the unbanked the convenience of paying bills online/via sms

https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=paying+bills+with+bitcoin&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb&gfe_rd=cr&ei=0KEKVK_TLc-CmAL_4YE4

5 Storing value in countries with high inflation rates/banking crises and political instability  eg Ukraine/ Argentina/Cyprus.

and remember bitcoin is still very much in its infancy.

[BitCoinDream]

Q. What happens in a mining operation ?

A.

A bitcoin block hash is a sha256 (32 bytes). The hashed data contains several things, including the current time, the previous block hash and a random "nonce". Also there's a "target" (depending on the total bitcoin hashrate) value being calculated and which gives the number of zeroes your block must start with to be valid. If your block hash doesn't starts with enough zeroes, then you should try again with another nonce.

OR

hi i never understood bitcoin mining and wnat to ask here
is bit coin mining is done by programmers?
and does this need any experiecne?
please explain for a newbie who dont nknow naything

You might like to read the following to understand Bitcoin mining in simple terms...


What a miner is doing when it's running is generating millions of hashes every second. A hash looks something like 00000000000000000b8cd4a8a7752ff8785f66232359273f619f6a6cb28d4644. A hash is always 64 characters long. Each block has a 'target' hash, which looks similar to the string of characters above. When the hash that your miner generates has a lower value than the target hash, you win the block. An example with smaller numbers would be a target hash of 0017b5 (note that this isn't an actual hash for bitcoin as it isn't 64 characters long, this is just an example). If your miner generates the hash 0017a5, you win the block. However, if it generates the hash 0017c5, you don't win the block. The order of the 'value' of the characters from lowest to highest value are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, a, b, c, d, e, f (which is actually hexadecimal no. system). As the difficulty increases, the 'value' of the target hash becomes lower, as more zeroes are added on to the beginning. This makes it harder for your miner's hash to have a lesser value than the target hash, so it gets harder to win the block. Notice how the example target hash above had 17 zeroes at the beginning, while the target hash of the first ever mined block had only 10 zeroes at the beginning.

Details: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block_hashing_algorithm

[newIndia]

Q. Will the difficulty of mining keep on going up forever?

A.

Mining difficulty is determined by the amount of time it takes to solve 2016 blocks. Every 2016 blocks, the nodes calculate how long it took since the previous adjustment.

If it took less than 20160 minutes, then the blocks are coming too fast (faster than an average of one every 10 minutes). The nodes then increase the difficulty by the same percentage as the excess speed. This increase in difficulty makes it so that if there is no additional hash power added to the network, the next 2016 blocks will take 20160 minutes.

If it took more than 20160 minutes, then the blocks aren't coming fast enough (slower than an average of one every 10 minutes).  The nodes then decrease the difficulty by the same percentage as the missing speed.  This decrease in difficulty makes it so that if there is no additional hash power added to the network, the next 2016 blocks will take 20160 minutes.

Since miners are always trying to increase their income, they keep adding hash power to the network.  This increase in hash power speeds up the blocks and causes the next adjustment to increase the difficulty.  Eventually it will reach a point where the miners are spending more on hash power than they are earning from mining.  At that point mining is no longer profitable for those who have the highest expenses per hash.  Many of them will shut down their equipment, which will reduce total hash power on the network and difficulty will drop.  This could happen in a few months, or it may not happen for a few decades.  Regardless, when it does happen, the difficulty will increase and decrease as miners add and remove hardware to try to maintain profitability.  Eventually an equilibrium will be reached, at which time difficulty will slowly increase in response to incremental advancements in technology leading to cheaper hashing.

[BitCoinDream]

Q. What is the possible biggest free transaction in bytes ?

A.

The largest transaction size that will be relayed by a standard node is 100,000 bytes. For it to be free as well, it would need to destroy at least 400 Bitcoin days (e.g. spend 100 Bitcoins that were received 576 confirmations, about 4 days, ago).

A standard miner will only include up to 50,000 bytes of free/low-fee transactions, but the question was about relaying, not mining (besides, I expect most miners use non-standard implementations, and hopefully someone will include that in a block once it's relayed to them).

[RocketSingh]

Q. What is a colored coin ?

A. A colored coin is effectively a coin that has been turned into a token representing something else, be that a stock, property, whatever you want it to be. Once the coin has been transferred to another person so has the ownership of the item it represents.

Related video...

i. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzIzXgGbUfg

ii. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmFjmvwPGKU