Hi Guys
If you want to be paid by Bitcoin, then:
- What information do you have to give to who is paying you? Is it just a Bitcoin address?
Correct. The only information that you need to give to someone that is sending you bitcoins is the bitcoin address.
- What information becomes publically available after payment has been made? I understand that the Bitcoin blockchain is a public ledger, so what information about your transaction (and you) becomes available after you receive the payment?
Thanks
When the payment has been made, it will be permanently publicly known exactly how many bitcoins were received at that address. It will also be publicly know which previously unspent outputs were used as inputs to fund the transaction. If the transaction included more than one output (paid more than the one address), then the exact amount of bitcoins sent to each additional output will also be known. Eventually, when you spend those bitcoins that you received, any other unspent outputs that you include to fund the transaction will be known.
Depending on how you structure the transactions that you spend, and how you use the addresses where you receive bitcoins, it might be possible for the public to make an educated guess about what other addresses are likely under control of the same person. Depending on how many unique peers you are connected to, and what information they are sharing about the connections they have established, it might be possible when you spend those bitcoins for some people to determine the IP address that was used to initially broadcast the transaction.
Depending on how well you protect your privacy, and how much information you (or anyone you transact with) publicly share about any of your addresses or transactions, it might be possible for some people to determine more about you.