How do my bitcoins and my wallet work together?

[hankyban]

Hey there,

I'm really trying to figure out how these two very important things work together (the bitcoin account and the wallet). I bought some bitcoins at the bitcoin.de marketplace. I can see the amount of coins in my account. So, how do I really use a wallet in combination with these bitcoins I just bought? When I install an app like breadwallet on my iPhone, how do the bitcoins find their way from my account in my wallet? Of course, when I' trying to buy something by scanning the receivers QR code, the wallet says "not enough funds" or something similar. But I definitely do have enough.

Can somebody please explain to me the way I can spend the bitcoins (bought at the german bitcoin.de marketplace) by using my wallet app (scanning the receivers QR code)? That would help me a lot! Thank you very much! I'm really looking forward working with this great invention.

All the best
Hanky

[1715072526]

1715072526

[1715072526]

1715072526

[nicole7852]

From the wallet breadwallet you check the receiving address starting with number 1, which is used to withdraw Bitcoin from Bitcoin.de market place! I suggest you only withdraw a small amount of Bitcoin to try it out!

[torusJKL]

Welcome to bitcoin!

Each wallet has addresses.
Each Address has a public and a secret key.
The public key starts with 1.

You will need to send yourself the bitcoins from the homepage to one of your addresses that breadwallet has created for you.

Please make sure that you can recreate your breadwallet wallet in case the iPhone get's lost or corrupt.
There are many people who lost their bitcoins because they where not able to do so.

Never disclose the private key are the means to recreate the wallet with anyone because they could steal your bitcoins and there is no way to get them back.

[OnkelPaul]

The bitcoins you bought at bitcoin.de are still in bitcoin.de's wallet. Your account shows a positive balance because you essentially bought the right to withdraw that amount. This is comparable to having some amount of money in a bank account. You can't spend it at any place where cash is needed but you can withdraw cash at an ATM.

To get the bitcoins into your wallet, you need to transfer them to a receiving address generated by your wallet. I don't know how bitcioin.de accounts work, but I suppose you can send bitcoins from there to any bitcoin address. So first you create a receiving address, then you create a transaction at bitcoin.de to send bitcoins from your account to your wallet.

In most cases, this transaction will be processed within a reasonably short time. Your wallet will probably see it within a few seconds as an unconfirmed transaction. Depending on your wallet, you might not be able to spend the bitcoins from that transaction before it has a number of confirmations.

You might also be able to send from bitcoin.de directly to some bitcoin recipient. However, since this transaction does not come from a wallet under your control, you might be unable to prove that you initiated the payment (in some situations, it is desirable to sign a message with the address from which bitcoins were sent, to prove that you are the owner of that address.)

Is this explanation clear enough?
If you speak german, you might also ask in the german subforum, there are a number of knowledgeable and helpful people there.

Onkel Paul

[jeanne0012]

I suggest you learn some knowledge about Bitcoin before you deal with the real Bitcoin! Coz Bitcoin is not perfect yet and the security and utility are not that good enough to protect its holders as the fiat money system! Once you made a small mistake, you will forever lose them! Just google it , you can get a lot of information! You can read Bitcoin.org to get the rough idea about it!

[hankyban]

Hey guys! Thank you very much for your help! I now understand it better. The transaction was successful and I transfered some btc to my wallet. Even sending BTCs from my wallet works fine. Perfect! THANK YOU!