Me, myself, and my Bitcoin Address :) How does it know its me?

[RyanRed]

I am just wondering how my initial bitcoin address that was assigned to me within my bitcoind wallet came about.

The reason that Im wondering this is to futher my knowledge of the system design, and understand how this all works.

I understand I need to backup my wallet from time to time, and keep it i a safe place. But what would happen if I formatted my computer, and restored my wallet. Would my address be the same? Or what would happen if I installed my wallet on a completely different computer like my laptop. Take it one step further, and what would happen if I changed ISP's. That comes to mind because Im leaving on a trip in 3 weeks out of state. I actually was going to demo some my gained knowledge to my friend about bitcoins when we meet up. It will be on my laptop though. But does my IP even matter?

The reason that makes me wonder all of this is because currently right now Im on my laptop. I was just messing around online a second ago, and figured I swing by dailybitcoin to snag a small little bitcoin freebie. Love that place! Anyways. When I put in my address to it from my laptop it says I already received coins today. But that place allows you to get coins every hour. I walk over to my desktop and try it, and it worked just fine. They were sent. But I cant ever get it work when Im 3 feet away on my laptop. It always come back "I received coins for the day" even if I haven't even been there for 12 hours +. Its no big deal. I'm just trying to understand why it comes back saying that. I also tried giving it my blockchain.info wallet address. Same thing. Same message saying I got some already when I know for a fact I have not tried to get any for hours. I walk to my PC, type in my blockchain address. BAM it works..

See that's what makes me wonder how it recognizes me. I don't have the slightest clue where any of these address come from, and why it works when I try it on my computer, but not my laptop.

If anyone would be so kind to respond, and clear this up for me it would be much appreciated. I still have a lot to learn, but I'm loving every second of it! Still trying to figure out what to buy for mining. Leaning towards the ASIC's I guess. But Im finding out they aren't as much of a God send as people make them out to be. To my understanding once they are released, you could compare a jalapeno to what 350Mhash is now based on returns. But I suppose I got to start somewhere.

Thanks again!
-Ryan

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[Jermainé]

The feds gave you up that's how they know   

[casascius]

Your wallet was generated from random (unpredictable) numbers.  If you generate a new wallet on a new computer, or even the same computer, the random numbers used to generate it will be completely different, and it won't be the same wallet.

Right now, every bitcoind node knows about EVERY bitcoin transaction worldwide, that's why it has a data directory over 1GB and constantly growing.  So naturally, when your node learns about a transaction that belongs to one of the addresses in your wallet, it knows it's "yours" and displays it.  As Bitcoin scales, the way it works will change, because it's not sustainable for every computer to know about every pack of bubblegum anyone in the world buys anywhere.  For now though, that's how it works.

[DeathAndTaxes]

DailyBitcoin =/= Bitcoin.
DailyBitcoin uses cookies and stuff like that to keep you from cheating.


Bitcoin (the network/protocol) doesn't know or care who you are.  Your wallet.dat contains the private keys for "your" addresses.  Whoever has the private key has control of the funds.   Bitcoin doesn't "know" your address is yours.  It only cares that a tx spending coins from your address is properly signed with the right private key.  Nothing more.  If I have your private key the network will see the tx spending "your coins" from "your address" as equally valid.

Keep your wallet.dat file regularly backed up and secure stored.

[eb3full]

But what would happen if I formatted my computer, and restored my wallet. Would my address be the same?

All of your addresses are stored in the wallet. New addresses are generated and appended to the wallet.

Or what would happen if I installed my wallet on a completely different computer like my laptop. Take it one step further, and what would happen if I changed ISP's. That comes to mind because Im leaving on a trip in 3 weeks out of state. I actually was going to demo some my gained knowledge to my friend about bitcoins when we meet up. It will be on my laptop though. But does my IP even matter?

Your network connection doesn't matter, and you can install the wallet on another computer (but you won't keep them in sync, so any new addresses you create may not be available on your other computer). Try to keep one wallet per computer (it's cheap to move bitcoins around anyway).

The reason that makes me wonder all of this is because currently right now Im on my laptop. I was just messing around online a second ago, and figured I swing by dailybitcoin to snag a small little bitcoin freebie. Love that place! Anyways. When I put in my address to it from my laptop it says I already received coins today. But that place allows you to get coins every hour. I walk over to my desktop and try it, and it worked just fine. They were sent. But I cant ever get it work when Im 3 feet away on my laptop. It always come back "I received coins for the day" even if I haven't even been there for 12 hours +. Its no big deal. I'm just trying to understand why it comes back saying that.

I'm confused by your issue but it sounds like the website's behavior, not yours.

[RyanRed]

Well thanks all! You all were very very helpful! Very much appreciated!

Yeah that who Dailybitcoin thing is what threw me off. It make me start to wonder But Im sure your right. I would have to assume the issue is on their end.

Again thank you all!