Noob Questions about Wallets, Addresses and Transferring Funds

[kittygemm]

Hello! I bought my first bitcoin, or part of one. I don't want to buy a hardware wallet, so I made a paper wallet using bitaddress.org. I transferred my bitcoin to the wallet I made from my exchange, but I am confused about some things:

• Using bitaddress.*** offline, how can I be sure that the generated public key is unique? There have millions of public keys made now, couldn't they overlap?
• When I transfer bitcoin between exchanges, it uses an address just like my wallet? Is this address the same thing as a wallet? Or is it different in some way?
• I plan on holding my bitcoin, BUT! I do not understand how I can transfer it out of cold storage if I ever want to do so? It certainly does not seem as simple as transferring it INTO cold storage was? Am I missing something, or is it actually complicated to transfer out of your wallet?

That is it for now! Thanks a lot!
Kitty

[odolvlobo]

• Using bitaddress.*** offline, how can I be sure that the generated public key is unique? There have millions of public keys made now, couldn't they overlap?

"Millions of keys" is such a tiny fraction of all the possible keys, the likelihood of generating a duplicate key is close to impossible (assuming the software works well).

• When I transfer bitcoin between exchanges, it uses an address just like my wallet? Is this address the same thing as a wallet? Or is it different in some way?

The address is an address in the exchange's wallet. The exchange holds the bitcoins and you have an account.

• I plan on holding my bitcoin, BUT! I do not understand how I can transfer it out of cold storage if I ever want to do so? It certainly does not seem as simple as transferring it INTO cold storage was? Am I missing something, or is it actually complicated to transfer out of your wallet?

To transfer the bitcoins out of cold storage, you must "import" the private key (or "sweep" the bitcoins)  into a wallet that can send bitcoins. Most wallets support that feature. It purposely inconvenient in order to make the bitcoins more difficult to steal.

[kittygemm]

Hello odolvlobo!
Thank yo so much for a reply!  You are a King! I have been trying to get replies from people about Bitcoin and other Crypto, and most people just ignore my pleas.  So first, I REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR HELP.

So to be perfectly clear, from your response I gleam:

1. The addresses generated for paper wallets, and the addresses used by exchanges ARE the same thing (or at least, use the same mechanism to be created, and are same num of digits, etc.), BUT!  The addresses are sooooo huge, they are highly unlikely to to be used more than once?  Right?

2. There is no "check to make sure an address is unique" when it is generated, again because the addresses are sooooo huge, they are highly unlikely to to be used more than once?  Right?

Sorry for these noob questions, but I really want to wrap my head around it all.

Thanks for throwing a new user a bone!

Kitty

[odolvlobo]

Hello odolvlobo!
Thank yo so much for a reply!  You are a King! I have been trying to get replies from people about Bitcoin and other Crypto, and most people just ignore my pleas.  So first, I REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR HELP.

So to be perfectly clear, from your response I gleam:

1. The addresses generated for paper wallets, and the addresses used by exchanges ARE the same thing (or at least, use the same mechanism to be created, and are same num of digits, etc.), BUT!  The addresses are sooooo huge, they are highly unlikely to to be used more than once?  Right?

2. There is no "check to make sure an address is unique" when it is generated, again because the addresses are sooooo huge, they are highly unlikely to to be used more than once?  Right?

Yes and Yes

[kittygemm]

Thank you!