Help the newb, how is my bitcoin address tied to me?

[Lightspeed]

I am confused, maybe I am just reallllly tired; i've dedicated my life pretty much to being a geek so feel free to ridicule me if it's an obvious oversight here

how is the number of bitcoins for the address stored?
where is it stored?
how is it secured?
if I format, and lose my address, do I lose all my bitcoin cash?
what the hell stops someone else using my address?
what lets me use my own address?

I am so confused  

edit: I guess I want to know, how do I CONTROL my address; protect my assets so to speak

maybe the whole lack-of-account creation has completely thrown me :/ what generated that address anyway?

thanks guys

[goatpig]

I am confused, maybe I am just reallllly tired; i've dedicated my life pretty much to being a geek so feel free to ridicule me if it's an obvious oversight here

how is the number of bitcoins for the address stored?
where is it stored?
how is it secured?
if I format, and lose my address, do I lose all my bitcoin cash?
what the hell stops someone else using my address?
what lets me use my own address?

I am so confused  

thanks guys

Every transaction is registered in the block chain. You have a wallet, holding pairs of public/private keys. You give your public to people that pay you, they sign their coins to your public key. You then need the matching private key to use the BTC so:

- Your keys are in your wallet, means lose the wallet, lose the BTC. Someone gets your wallet, they can send themselves the BTC.
- Everything else is in the block chain, means you can access your coins wherever you want as long as got your wallet with you. Careful with that though.
- Public addresses are only to send BTC to you. Someone can use it, and you'd be getting free BTC =P
- Right now you are expected to provide security for your wallet on your own. Client based wallet encryption is under dev/testing right now.

[hazek]

Lightspeed, look at https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Accounts_explained and at https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Address

[Lightspeed]

C:\Users\"Lightspeed"\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin\wallet.dat

is this my wallet? the file I guard with my life so to speak? lol

thank you for your help, it makes much more sense now

so is it just a matter of making offline backups of that wallet?
or could I have 2 wallets, one I use online during mining and when I get coins, transfer them to a wallet that is kept on a HDD not connected to the internet?

[goatpig]

or could I have 2 wallets, one I use online during mining and when I get coins, transfer them to a wallet that is kept on a HDD not connected to the internet?

Right now this is the proper way to do things: 1 spending wallet, one savings wallet with angrier protection. Keep in mind that an old backup of your wallet will work only if that wallet is exclusively used to receive coins. Old back ups of spending wallets will most likely not give you access to all your coins, so that kind of wallet needs more aggressive offline back up plans.

[bitdragon]

I make an encrypted version of that file that I store in the cloud, USB stick and so on-
You can definetly send your coins to an offline address. I would test it now and then to be sure and feel comfortable with importing a wallet.