transfers between wallets

[nakisama]

Hi

New here.
Been reading about bitcoin but still undecided on my first wallet.

I am prefering start with one for laptop/desktop but then I have some questions:

1-can I transfer funds from a desktop wallet into a web based or android one?

2-Can I do it without being connected to the internet?

3-Even if both are under my name, I suppose I would get charged on transfer fees, rigth?

4-what exchanges are the most reliable and do not require a lot of paperwork for KYC?
(the more decentralized the better)

[JavaLove]

Hi, glad to know that you've been reading up on the different types of wallets that exist. It's important to do your research before hand -- otherwise you could end up with big problems. Here are the answers to your questions:

1 - Yes. You can transfer any amount of Bitcoin from one place to another. This is because Bitcoins, no matter which location they are (laptop, web, etc.) are all stored on a Bitcoin address (and its private key). In order to transfer this, just open your wallet on your computer and go to the send section. Then, from whatever destination you'd like, such as web, android, paper, etc. make sure you take one of the addresses that it generates for you and input it on the send section. Then press send. Your coins will have been transferred.

2 - No. You need internet access in order to signify to the Blockchain that you would like a transfer of Bitcoins. Then a miner will process the transaction for you. This is for all wallets, but evidently you won't even be able to access a web wallet without internet access.

3 - It depends. Again, it doesn't matter what is "under your name". Bitcoin is totally anonymous, so all that matters is your wallet address. You can choose whether you wish to attach a transfer fee to the transactions. If you don't assign a transaction fee, it is possible that the transaction will never take place and get stuck in an infinite loop - so be careful. The higher your fee, the faster it gets sent. A fee is only charged ONCE per transaction, BTW.

4 - There are many reliable exchanges out there. For starters, again, Bitcoin is super anonymous. None, that I am aware of, require any personal information. Obviously, Blockchain is completely secure and just using Bitcoin requires no information. If you want to use an online wallet, you can use Xapo or maybe Coinbase - both are secure and don't require info to send and receive. They do require info to deposit but that's obvious because you need a CC or bank account to deposit. An exchange to sell Bitcoin for altcoins is Poloniex. This is my favourite and requires only an email, password and BTC address.

[Alesis]

4 - There are many reliable exchanges out there. For starters, again, Bitcoin is super anonymous. None, that I am aware of, require any personal information. Obviously, Blockchain is completely secure and just using Bitcoin requires no information. If you want to use an online wallet, you can use Xapo or maybe Coinbase - both are secure and don't require info to send and receive. They do require info to deposit but that's obvious because you need a CC or bank account to deposit. An exchange to sell Bitcoin for altcoins is Poloniex. This is my favourite and requires only an email, password and BTC address.

Coinbase has been known to ask for ridiculous amounts of ID, even video identification at times, and can suspend your account if they associate you with activities like gambling.  If you hold all of your Bitcoin on an online wallet, you don't own Bitcoin because they have your Bitcoin and just promise to allow you to use it (they use it on your behalf), so if Coinbase was ever unable to pay it would stop working.  Blockchain.info is more secure but still not ideal.  You should be using desktop wallets if you really value your security or privacy.

[JavaLove]

4 - There are many reliable exchanges out there. For starters, again, Bitcoin is super anonymous. None, that I am aware of, require any personal information. Obviously, Blockchain is completely secure and just using Bitcoin requires no information. If you want to use an online wallet, you can use Xapo or maybe Coinbase - both are secure and don't require info to send and receive. They do require info to deposit but that's obvious because you need a CC or bank account to deposit. An exchange to sell Bitcoin for altcoins is Poloniex. This is my favourite and requires only an email, password and BTC address.

Coinbase has been known to ask for ridiculous amounts of ID, even video identification at times, and can suspend your account if they associate you with activities like gambling.  If you hold all of your Bitcoin on an online wallet, you don't own Bitcoin because they have your Bitcoin and just promise to allow you to use it (they use it on your behalf), so if Coinbase was ever unable to pay it would stop working.  Blockchain.info is more secure but still not ideal.  You should be using desktop wallets if you really value your security or privacy.

That's true and I do not recommend using Coinbase at all. I should rephrase my post by saying those are some examples of exchanges but I do not recommend using Coinbase. However, to clarify, when you first begin using Coinbase you're allowed to send and receive Bitcoin transactions without any problems. I stopped using the service years ago because I've heard of all the cases of stolen BTC, but my account is still totally private. The most info I ever gave was my phone number -- and that was voluntarily.

You're right though when you say that they will suspend your account for "gambling" or other reasons. The reality is that the safest Bitcoin wallet is none at all. So, if you want to be a little safer, just try the desktop version. But I'd recommend to OP that he spreads his BTC to all sorts of different locations on a variety of different platforms. Diversification can really save you some cash.

[LTU_btc]

4 - There are many reliable exchanges out there. For starters, again, Bitcoin is super anonymous. None, that I am aware of, require any personal information. Obviously, Blockchain is completely secure and just using Bitcoin requires no information. If you want to use an online wallet, you can use Xapo or maybe Coinbase - both are secure and don't require info to send and receive. They do require info to deposit but that's obvious because you need a CC or bank account to deposit. An exchange to sell Bitcoin for altcoins is Poloniex. This is my favourite and requires only an email, password and BTC address.

Coinbase has been known to ask for ridiculous amounts of ID, even video identification at times, and can suspend your account if they associate you with activities like gambling.  If you hold all of your Bitcoin on an online wallet, you don't own Bitcoin because they have your Bitcoin and just promise to allow you to use it (they use it on your behalf), so if Coinbase was ever unable to pay it would stop working.  Blockchain.info is more secure but still not ideal.  You should be using desktop wallets if you really value your security or privacy.

Xapo is also may ask user for verification and lock user funds untill identity is verified.. I saw some complaints from users that verification process took week and even more. And it can be really hard to contact Xapo support.

[numismatist]

2-Can I do it without being connected to the internet?

3-Even if both are under my name, I suppose I would get charged on transfer fees, rigth?

First and foremost memorize to password protect / encrypt your wallet. Whatever happens to a local copy this assures the baseline security. Write down that password somewhere else, stored far away.

Now the not so beginner stuff. Backups, backups and backups! Keep a copy on an USB stick. Continually renew that copy since the data can get slightly outdated. Remember those backups are encrypted files. It's not even needed to delete the outdated ones. Try to keep some oversight which one has been the most recently used version.
Never, never never ever loose your wallet. And not the password, too. Never store both at the same location.

Third step: You can transfer the whole wallet.dat from one device onto the other. That is possible without a network connection. You can store that file on any device even without installing the complete bitcoin software. Rigth, no transfer fees.

Pro step: It is technically possible to extract the secret keys, handling and copying them from here to there BUT that's not best practise. Insecure, even. Usually when people start doing that, they break havoc on their Bitcoins.

[odolvlobo]

1. Yes
2. The sender must broadcast the transaction to the network. However, the receiving wallet does not need to be connected to receive, but it must be connected to find out about the transaction.
3. There are no names. You will need to pay a fee when you send from one address to another, regardless of if they are in the same wallet or different wallets.
4. Most exchanges require KYC. Localbitcoins does not. All exchanges, except BitSquare, are centralized.

[dacinka]

hi,
thanks for the info, it was useful for me. As I am aslo a newbie in the forum, can anyone give me an advice for transferring btc from one very old wallet into a newer one. The old is on my p, and the new is blockchain online wallet. I tried sending from one to another, but failed. Please help!

[kolloh]

hi,
thanks for the info, it was useful for me. As I am aslo a newbie in the forum, can anyone give me an advice for transferring btc from one very old wallet into a newer one. The old is on my p, and the new is blockchain online wallet. I tried sending from one to another, but failed. Please help!

You should just be able to send from your old wallet to an address in your new wallet. Did you receive an error when it failed or what happened exactly?

[nakisama]

First of all, thank you very much for your feedback!!!

Now, I like to do some betting.
Without questioning the KYC process, how can an exchange block someone if funds are coming from gambling?

Is there some morality behind those decisions of blocking funds?
It is not money for drugs, porn, or any other illicits activities.

As far as I understood most of the big exchanges are based in USA and they have Las Vegas....

Basically if they have that kind of rule is because in then end there is no decentralisation.

[susila_bai]

First of all, thank you very much for your feedback!!!

Now, I like to do some betting.
Without questioning the KYC process, how can an exchange block someone if funds are coming from gambling?

Is there some morality behind those decisions of blocking funds?
It is not money for drugs, porn, or any other illicits activities.

As far as I understood most of the big exchanges are based in USA and they have Las Vegas....

Basically if they have that kind of rule is because in then end there is no decentralisation.

Immediately they cannot know about the incoming fund to the users account but if they just do some random searching or get any info of the transaction from other sources they can block the account for using gambling funds to use in trading in exchange. But i have never seen any exchange blocking the user account for using gambling funds as the bitcoins transaction are untraceable

[numismatist]

First of all, thank you very much for your feedback!!!

Now, I like to do some betting.
Without questioning the KYC process, how can an exchange block someone if funds are coming from gambling?

Is there some morality behind those decisions of blocking funds?
It is not money for drugs, porn, or any other illicits activities.

As far as I understood most of the big exchanges are based in USA and they have Las Vegas....

Basically if they have that kind of rule is because in then end there is no decentralisation.

Immediately they cannot know about the incoming fund to the users account but if they just do some random searching or get any info of the transaction from other sources they can block the account for using gambling funds to use in trading in exchange. But i have never seen any exchange blocking the user account for using gambling funds as the bitcoins transaction are untraceable

There even is some morality pointing against that decision, unless Coinbase beeing your parents and you are not of age. Honestly, that looks like some moneygrab even from far away.

[kolloh]

First of all, thank you very much for your feedback!!!

Now, I like to do some betting.
Without questioning the KYC process, how can an exchange block someone if funds are coming from gambling?

Is there some morality behind those decisions of blocking funds?
It is not money for drugs, porn, or any other illicits activities.

As far as I understood most of the big exchanges are based in USA and they have Las Vegas....

Basically if they have that kind of rule is because in then end there is no decentralisation.

Coinbase is definitely anti-gambling and they are based in the USA. I think the issues is that gambling legality in the states is pretty complicated and only allowed in certain areas due to certain rules. They tend to not allow online gambling in a lot of areas.

If you plan to gamble and use an exchange, make sure that you either mix your coins using something like bitmixer or use a site that uses a unique address for every transaction and isn't trackable by exchanges. You can also send to an intermediary address of your own to add some extra steps in the transaction history.

[nakisama]

First of all, thank you very much for your feedback!!!

Now, I like to do some betting.
Without questioning the KYC process, how can an exchange block someone if funds are coming from gambling?

Is there some morality behind those decisions of blocking funds?
It is not money for drugs, porn, or any other illicits activities.

As far as I understood most of the big exchanges are based in USA and they have Las Vegas....

Basically if they have that kind of rule is because in then end there is no decentralisation.

Coinbase is definitely anti-gambling and they are based in the USA. I think the issues is that gambling legality in the states is pretty complicated and only allowed in certain areas due to certain rules. They tend to not allow online gambling in a lot of areas.

If you plan to gamble and use an exchange, make sure that you either mix your coins using something like bitmixer or use a site that uses a unique address for every transaction and isn't trackable by exchanges. You can also send to an intermediary address of your own to add some extra steps in the transaction history.

well, coinbase is a no-go for me

and in terms of any other exchanges, does any of you had any problems if you connect with different IP's/VPN?