bitaddress.org - wallet question

[karsyla]

so whenever I press on generate new address, am I getting a new wallet or just new address for receiving coins?

[1714800161]

1714800161

[1714800161]

1714800161

[1714800161]

1714800161

[OmegaStarScream]

The site is meant for creating paper wallets. If you ever send funds there and you click generate address again, your bitcoins will be lost unless the private key was printed before clicking the button. It simply generating a random address and no, this is not a wallet like Multibit HD where each time a new address is generated in order to protect your privacy.

[karsyla]

The site is meant for creating paper wallets. If you ever send funds there and you click generate address again, your bitcoins will be lost unless the private key was printed before clicking the button. It simply generating a random address and no, this is not a wallet like Multibit HD where each time a new address is generated in order to protect your privacy.

I know that I have to keep private address in order to have a control over the coins.

so what does it generate? entirely new wallet each time? or are those the addresses everyone keeps saying to obtain for each transaction? I am a little bit confused here..

[karsyla]

Do I understand correctly that one wallet consists of one Bitcoin Address (Public Address) and one Private Key?

Like in this case we can see 3 different wallets.


Am I right?

[TheQuin]

Do I understand correctly that one wallet consists of one Bitcoin Address (Public Address) and one Private Key?

Like in this case we can see 3 different wallets.


Am I right?

As it is a paper wallet you're just getting confused by the term "wallet". Each address has its own private key and you can send funds to/from them independently. As it's paper you could print them off and put them together in a wallet if you like.

Software wallets let you hold many addresses and you can send funds from the total amount held in all the addresses in the wallet together in one transaction.

[DannyHamilton]

Do I understand correctly that one wallet consists of one Bitcoin Address (Public Address) and one Private Key?

Like in this case we can see 3 different wallets.
- snip -

Am I right?

A Bitcoin wallet is a collection of ONE OR MORE Bitcoin private keys.

So:

• If you print 10 private keys (and their addresses) each on a separate piece of paper, then you have 10 separate paper wallets each with exactly 1 address.
• If you print 10 private keys (and their addresses) all together on a single piece of paper, then you have one paper wallet with exactly 10 addresses.

Each time you generate new on that website, it generates new private keys and the address for each private key.  It's up to you how many wallets you want to split those addresses into.

[karsyla]

Do I understand correctly that one wallet consists of one Bitcoin Address (Public Address) and one Private Key?

Like in this case we can see 3 different wallets.
- snip -

Am I right?

A Bitcoin wallet is a collection of ONE OR MORE Bitcoin private keys.

So:

• If you print 10 private keys (and their addresses) each on a separate piece of paper, then you have 10 separate paper wallets each with exactly 1 address.
• If you print 10 private keys (and their addresses) all together on a single piece of paper, then you have one paper wallet with exactly 10 addresses.

Each time you generate new on that website, it generates new private keys and the address for each private key.  It's up to you how many wallets you want to split those addresses into.

Thank you for your informative answer! So a bitcoin wallet is kind of an abstract thing. If I understand correctly, a private key together with an address can be called a wallet, while the same private key and address together with other 10 private keys and addresses is a wallet as well. Right?

[DannyHamilton]

Thank you for your informative answer! So a bitcoin wallet is kind of an abstract thing. If I understand correctly, a private key together with an address can be called a wallet, while the same private key and address together with other 10 private keys and addresses is a wallet as well. Right?

Correct.

In addition to storing your private keys for you, software wallets typically offer additional features such as (but not always, and not limited to):

• Adding up all the funds you have control over and displaying it to you as a blanace
• Providing a user friendly method of building and transmitting transactions
• Storing a record of your transactions sent and received
• Providing a user friendly method of generating new addresses for the wallet

However, at it's core, what makes it a wallet is that is has a collection of (or method of re-calculating) one or more Bitcoin private keys.

[karsyla]

Thank you all for your answers!

[karsyla]

So I've got two keys: public for receiving btc and private for spending them.

How can I see the balance of my wallet/private key? Are there any ways to do that offline, without using 3rd party software?
Also, how do I spend/send my btc using that private key? What's the most basic way? (no software if possible also)

[DannyHamilton]

So I've got two keys: public for receiving btc and private for spending them.

How can I see the balance of my wallet/private key?

The balance of the private key is the same as the balance of the public key (which is also the same as the balance of the bitcoin address).

Are there any ways to do that offline, without using 3rd party software?

You need to know all the transactions that sent you bitcoins, and all the transactions that spent any of those bitcoins. Typically this is handled by scanning through the blockchain to find all the transaction outputs that can be spent with your keys, and all the inputs that spend any of those outputs.  However, if you have reliably stored the information about those transactions somewhere else, you could just refer to your stored list. The sum of those transaction outputs minus the sum of the transaction inputs is the balance.  Generally, acquiring a copy of the blockchain is accomplished with software, and scanning it is also handled with software.  Since Bitcoin is a virtual digital currency, it doesn't really exist outside of software.  I'm not sure what you are trying to ask here.

Also, how do I spend/send my btc using that private key? What's the most basic way?

You create a bitcoin transaction with the appropriate inputs and outputs. Then you connect to Bitcoin peers on the internet and send that transaction to them. This is typically handled for you by wallet software.  The software allows you to enter someone's bitcoin address and the amount you are sending. Then it handles the creation and broadcasting of the transaction.

(no software if possible also)

While it is possible to just give someone your private key (which would then allow them access to ALL of the bitcoins that you ever have received or ever will receive with the associated bitcoin address), that is not a good idea and is not typically acceptable to the person to whom you are sending the bitcoins.

If you are going to send them with an actual bitcoin transaction, then you'll need to learn how to calculate ECDSA signatures by hand.  That's a complicated process. You can start learning a bit about it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_Curve_Digital_Signature_Algorithm#Signature_generation_algorithm

I'm not 100% certain, but if I recall correctly, the ECDSA signature algorithm in bitcoin uses SHA256 for its hash.  If that's true, then you are going to need to learn to calculate SHA256 hashes by hand as well.  That is another complicated process. You can start learning a bit about it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA-2#Hash_standard

You'll also need to know the details of the transactions that sent you the bitcoins that you want to spend.  At a minimum, you'll need to know their transactionID, the index of the output that you want to spend, the script in that output, and the value of that output.

[karsyla]

So I've got two keys: public for receiving btc and private for spending them.

How can I see the balance of my wallet/private key?

The balance of the private key is the same as the balance of the public key (which is also the same as the balance of the bitcoin address).

Are there any ways to do that offline, without using 3rd party software?

You need to know all the transactions that sent you bitcoins, and all the transactions that spent any of those bitcoins. Typically this is handled by scanning through the blockchain to find all the transaction outputs that can be spent with your keys, and all the inputs that spend any of those outputs.  However, if you have reliably stored the information about those transactions somewhere else, you could just refer to your stored list. The sum of those transaction outputs minus the sum of the transaction inputs is the balance.  Generally, acquiring a copy of the blockchain is accomplished with software, and scanning it is also handled with software.  Since Bitcoin is a virtual digital currency, it doesn't really exist outside of software.  I'm not sure what you are trying to ask here.

Also, how do I spend/send my btc using that private key? What's the most basic way?

You create a bitcoin transaction with the appropriate inputs and outputs. Then you connect to Bitcoin peers on the internet and send that transaction to them. This is typically handled for you by wallet software.  The software allows you to enter someone's bitcoin address and the amount you are sending. Then it handles the creation and broadcasting of the transaction.

(no software if possible also)

While it is possible to just give someone your private key (which would then allow them access to ALL of the bitcoins that you ever have received or ever will receive with the associated bitcoin address), that is not a good idea and is not typically acceptable to the person to whom you are sending the bitcoins.

If you are going to send them with an actual bitcoin transaction, then you'll need to learn how to calculate ECDSA signatures by hand.  That's a complicated process. You can start learning a bit about it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_Curve_Digital_Signature_Algorithm#Signature_generation_algorithm

I'm not 100% certain, but if I recall correctly, the ECDSA signature algorithm in bitcoin uses SHA256 for its hash.  If that's true, then you are going to need to learn to calculate SHA256 hashes by hand as well.  That is another complicated process. You can start learning a bit about it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA-2#Hash_standard

You'll also need to know the details of the transactions that sent you the bitcoins that you want to spend.  At a minimum, you'll need to know their transactionID, the index of the output that you want to spend, the script in that output, and the value of that output.

Thank you very much for your informative answer! I am sorry I am not that advanced in this field, so it was difficult to understand the principle.
Please answer me in a newbie way.

Is public key the same as bitcoin address? I though there are only two variables in the game.

When people mean to generate a new address for every new transaction coming in does that mean I will get new both public and private keys?
If so, when people have a lot of transactions do they have endless amount of keys too?

thank you!

[DannyHamilton]

Is public key the same as bitcoin address? I though there are only two variables in the game.

No.  The typical bitcoin address (of the type that always starts with a 1) is a hash of the ECDSA public key.

Starting with an ECDSA public key:

• First calculate the SHA256 hash of that value, the result will be a 32 byte value
• Next calculate the RIPEMD160 hash of the result of the SHA256 hash, the result will be a 20 byte value
• After that, add a byte with value 0 in front of the 20 byte RIPEMD160 result
• Finally use base58check encoding to represent that 21 byte value
• The result is the bitcoin address that is associated with the public key

When people mean to generate a new address for every new transaction coming in does that mean I will get new both public and private keys?

Yes.

If so, when people have a lot of transactions do they have endless amount of keys too?

One key per transaction that you receive.

Since each private key is only 32 bytes, this means that you can store 31,250 keys with 1 megabyte.

However, most modern wallet software uses an algorithm to generate a series of private keys from a single seed value.  You then only need to store the one seed, and can re-generate any private key in the series as needed.

[ss890]

Do I understand correctly that one wallet consists of one Bitcoin Address (Public Address) and one Private Key?

Like in this case we can see 3 different wallets.
- snip -

Am I right?

A Bitcoin wallet is a collection of ONE OR MORE Bitcoin private keys.

So:

• If you print 10 private keys (and their addresses) each on a separate piece of paper, then you have 10 separate paper wallets each with exactly 1 address.
• If you print 10 private keys (and their addresses) all together on a single piece of paper, then you have one paper wallet with exactly 10 addresses.

Each time you generate new on that website, it generates new private keys and the address for each private key.  It's up to you how many wallets you want to split those addresses into.

That is very good explanation about the bitaddress.org address generation.
However it is not exactly wallet but it is skeleton of the same. To make it bitcoin wallet it has to be housed in the supported algorithm say for example, mycelium app or electrum app. They will extract the information embedded into the private key and public address by synchronising with server. Then you will form your most basic wallet. Without these you can not access your funds at all.

[Ctn]

Do I understand correctly that one wallet consists of one Bitcoin Address (Public Address) and one Private Key?


Like in this case we can see 3 different wallets.




Am I right?

Yes you are completely right mate. You can have as many addresses you want but remember to store the generated private key with the paired public address. If you loose the key then you loose all your funds on that particular wallet. If you want access the funds then you can try few of the well known wallets which support opening of wallet by using bitaddress shared keys and private keys. It's always yo print these keys or you can take screenshot as option to save them. 

[karsyla]

Do I understand correctly that one wallet consists of one Bitcoin Address (Public Address) and one Private Key?


Like in this case we can see 3 different wallets.




Am I right?

Yes you are completely right mate. You can have as many addresses you want but remember to store the generated private key with the paired public address. If you loose the key then you loose all your funds on that particular wallet. If you want access the funds then you can try few of the well known wallets which support opening of wallet by using bitaddress shared keys and private keys. It's always yo print these keys or you can take screenshot as option to save them. 

Am I right that I need my public address only once, just to receive the first and only transaction, so basically I have to remember my private key only?

[hello_good_sir]

Do I understand correctly that one wallet consists of one Bitcoin Address (Public Address) and one Private Key?


Like in this case we can see 3 different wallets.




Am I right?

Yes you are completely right mate. You can have as many addresses you want but remember to store the generated private key with the paired public address. If you loose the key then you loose all your funds on that particular wallet. If you want access the funds then you can try few of the well known wallets which support opening of wallet by using bitaddress shared keys and private keys. It's always yo print these keys or you can take screenshot as option to save them. 

Am I right that I need my public address only once, just to receive the first and only transaction, so basically I have to remember my private key only?

Only if you only want to use your address once.

Otherwise you want to keep both the address and the private key. That way, you are able to let people send funds to you without having to find the address paired up with the private key which could pose potential security risks. You could possibly go to bitaddress and access it offline every single time with your private key, but it's a hassle to do that.

So for convenience's sake, keep your private key written down, locked in a safe. Keep your public key/address wherever you like because it's not going to let someone else access your balance if they know your bitcoin address.

[karsyla]

Only if you only want to use your address once.

Thank you for your answer, you really helped me to come closer to understanding!

'Only if you only want to use your address once.' - isn't it how it should be? I mean, satoshi himself recommends obtaining new address (which means gaining new private key too) for each transaction in order to ensure safety and anonymity.

You could possibly go to bitaddress and access it offline every single time with your private key, but it's a hassle to do that.

How to do that? I need to go to 'Wallet Details' section and enter private key there? And also, how to check btc balance using public key/bitcoin address?

[TryNinja]

'Only if you only want to use your address once.' - isn't it how it should be? I mean, satoshi himself recommends obtaining new address (which means gaining new private key too) for each transaction in order to ensure safety and anonymity.

In this case, you should create a HD wallet, which will generate a new address for every transaction you do.

It's also not mandatory to use multiple addresses. You can use only one if you want.

You could possibly go to bitaddress and access it offline every single time with your private key, but it's a hassle to do that.

How to do that? I need to go to 'Wallet Details' section and enter private key there? And also, how to check btc balance using public key/bitcoin address?

This will only show the details for the address belonging to that private key.

You can check your balance by going to a blockchain explorer like Blockchain.info or live.blockcypher.com and searching your Bitcoin Address there.

[karsyla]

How do I send my BTC to someone if I do not use any p2p btc client and I generate my addresses on bitaddress?