How can you verify if a bitcoin is real?

[Lux Main]

Like in real life, your wallet must be secured. Bitcoin makes it possible to transfer value anywhere in a very easy way and it allows you to be in control of your money.

[Quinn Main]

Such great features also come with great security concerns. At the same time, Bitcoin can provide very high levels of security if used correctly. Always remember that it is your responsibility to adopt good practices in order to protect your money. Read more about securing your wallet.

[gentlemand]

There is no such thing as a 'fake' Bitcoin. Either it is one or it isn't. If it isn't then it won't exist on the blockchain and no wallet will receive or display it. If you're worried about being fed false information by a rogue wallet provider, which I suppose is feasible but I've never heard of it, then run a full wallet and your own node.

[The Scorpion]

If a bitcoin is real? came on, if you have bitcoins on your wallet, it is real, it is impossible to receive/Send fake bitcoins because it is impossible to hack the protocol. So do not worry about it, because if someone tells you that it can, he is lying to you, of course.

[Reid]

Sending p2p without the blockchain is kind of what will scare the government.  
Every transaction that is made will have to enter that field for confirmations.
You cannot send one person your bitcoin without it. Bitcoin is in the blockchain.

You might have seen a lot of people here ranting about the fees. That is because of that. We send bitcoin and we pay. Because it needs to go to the blockchain.

Refers to his last post.

[StaffsLebowski]

<<nowadays you're better off just buying Bitcoin on exchanges such as Bitstamp or Kraken>>

That's my concern. I'm a professional programmer/data specialist and I've been doing it successfully for around 25 years (never been out of work so must be doing something right!?). My first approach whenever I come across a new system/technology is to 'take it apart' to see if it 'holds water'.

A few days ago, Kraken scared the living daylights out of the crypto community when it went 'dark'. Crypto is in it's infancy, it's just like the klondyke era and lot's of companies are trying to get a foothold on the action and learning as they go along, mistakes and all. Sure, the banks I work for are exploring crypto but, there is no way on Gods earth they'd be working with a company like Kracken until it's well established, proven itself and is reliable. That'll take many years. If you don't think it's possible to go tits up, look at Lehamn Brother in 2008 the world-wide crash they caused.

Thanks for your input, much appreciated..

[bitart]

<<nowadays you're better off just buying Bitcoin on exchanges such as Bitstamp or Kraken>>

That's my concern. I'm a professional programmer/data specialist and I've been doing it successfully for around 25 years (never been out of work so must be doing something right!?). My first approach whenever I come across a new system/technology is to 'take it apart' to see if it 'holds water'.

A few days ago, Kraken scared the living daylights out of the crypto community when it went 'dark'. Crypto is in it's infancy, it's just like the klondyke era and lot's of companies are trying to get a foothold on the action and learning as they go along, mistakes and all. Sure, the banks I work for are exploring crypto but, there is no way on Gods earth they'd be working with a company like Kracken until it's well established, proven itself and is reliable. That'll take many years. If you don't think it's possible to go tits up, look at Lehamn Brother in 2008 the world-wide crash they caused.

Thanks for your input, much appreciated..

You can buy bitcoin from exchanges (there are much more exchanges, not only Kraken, and Kraken has already started the business again after the update, so it seems they will survive...) or you can buy it from the people at localbitcoins.
When you buy bitcoin, you have to have a bitcoin wallet to hold the bitcoins, if the bitcoins show up in the wallet, you can be sure that they're real and if you do the necessary safety precautions, they will be yours until the end of time or until you s(p)end them. (you should choose a wallet type that fits your needs, online, offline, paper, hardware, mobile, etc., check google for the differences and details).
You should not keep your bitcoins on exchanges (your opinion is right about exhanges, but they are  improving), so as soon as you exhanged your money to bitcoin, you should send it to your own wallet asap.
Banks won't bother with bitcoin now neither in the future, so they are only interested in the blockchain itself, as a kind of system to cut down the running costs of the international wire transactions... but you should know this better if you're working for banks.

[HeRetiK]

<<nowadays you're better off just buying Bitcoin on exchanges such as Bitstamp or Kraken>>

That's my concern. I'm a professional programmer/data specialist and I've been doing it successfully for around 25 years (never been out of work so must be doing something right!?). My first approach whenever I come across a new system/technology is to 'take it apart' to see if it 'holds water'.

A few days ago, Kraken scared the living daylights out of the crypto community when it went 'dark'. Crypto is in it's infancy, it's just like the klondyke era and lot's of companies are trying to get a foothold on the action and learning as they go along, mistakes and all. Sure, the banks I work for are exploring crypto but, there is no way on Gods earth they'd be working with a company like Kracken until it's well established, proven itself and is reliable. That'll take many years. If you don't think it's possible to go tits up, look at Lehamn Brother in 2008 the world-wide crash they caused.

Thanks for your input, much appreciated..

You're welcome. Don't mistake Bitcoin the technology with the companies that utilize it, as that's a common error of thought when one first comes in touch with cryptocurrencies. If you want to avoid getting Lehman'd simply don't buy financial derivates based on Bitcoin. No need to invest in certificates if you can just buy the real thing.

Bitcoin had it's own little version of the Lehman brothers when MtGox turned out to run on fractional reserves in 2013 and consequently folded. Lesson learned: Keep your coins in your own wallet and spare yourself from counterparty risk. After all this independence from third parties is exactly the value proposition of Bitcoin.

[marcuslong]

Hi All,

First post so please be gentle!. I'm trying to get familiar with crypto currency and understand 'how it works'. I've reached a block and I'm hoping someone can shed some light on a particular point.

I understand the process of using public and private keys, back from the time when Phil Zimmermann created PGP. PGP allowed a user to encrypt a file, eg: an email/file (technically, just a bunch of ones and zeros) so that when the other user decrypted the file, they would see the words/file again. Or, to phrase it another way, the encryption was just a 'wrapper' for the content - ie, the words in my email or the file I sent.

Now, if someone sent me a bitcoin, how would I know what I was looking at? With an encrypted email, once decrypted I would be able to see something (text/file) and realise that I had actually received something. But, if someone sent me a bitcoin, what would I be looking at when I decrypted with my private key? A file filled with ones and zeros? Or maybe a simple text file with words inside saying, "Hey, this is 1 bitcoin!"

Can someone shed some light on what it I actually receive when I purchase a bitcoin and how I can verify that what I have 'in my hands', is actually a bitcoin and not just a bunch of ones and zeros? I understand that the blockchain is supposed to verify what is what but, what if I wanted to pass my bitcoin directly to you without the blockchain. Again, how would I know, what I received - was a bitcoin?

Thank you for your time and patience with my lack of understanding!

Regards,

Staffs Lebowski..

Well, There are lots of Bitcoins that are not true. Maybe in their wallets, These bitcoins are true but, in transferring it to legitimate blockchain wallet, You cannot transfer it. Then it it not a legitimate bitcoin. There are lots of mining site that ables you to earn a lots of bitcoins in just a minute, If you think that it is not good, Its a scam. Well, Always use other wallets like Coinbase and Coins.ph in able for you to verify that you bitcoin is true and not fake.

[NathanielCoins]

Blockchain technology assures that no fake BTC appears in the system. SO no worries! If your wallet is right it will not except fake BTCs.

[vincentong17]

You can use Blockchain.info to track your transaction. or if you do have bitcoin address to send and receive payments then that's legit. you can buy bitcoin in banks atm or convenience near you.

[khaled0111]

Miners are the garantee that Bitcoins you receive or send are real.
Each transaction is linked to the previous one so you can't cheat the system.
AIt is completely different from sending encrypted files, you can't send Bitcoin directly to another user, the transaction should go through the Bitcoin network and should be validated by miners.

[codewench]

Can someone shed some light on what it I actually receive when I purchase a bitcoin and how I can verify that what I have 'in my hands', is actually a bitcoin and not just a bunch of ones and zeros?

When you receive bitcoin, you receive "nothing" on your computer. Instead, the bitcoin gets transferred in the "cloud".

Think of a cosmic post office with 2^160 PO boxes. To receive bitcoin, you pick a box at random, take the key out of the door, and tell your payer the box number. At your leisure, you can walk past your box, and look in the window to see if payment has arrived. When your payer sends payment, they'll hand it to the bitcoin postmaster, provide some postage, and specify that the payment be placed in your PO box. You don't have to be around to receive payment. You can also leave the payment sitting in the PO box "forever". Once you are ready to spend the coin, you'll use your key to open the box, take out the payment, head over to the postmaster, and pay it on to the next recipient(s). Actually, you never handle the payment directly. You give a scrambled version of the key to the postmaster, and they'll retrieve the payment. You know the coin is real because only the postmaster handles it, and everyone is carefully watching the postmaster.

BTW, the name "wallet" is a misnomer. A better name would be "keyring". It holds the keys to each of your chosen "PO boxes". Originally, wallets would have keys to all your randomly chosen boxes. More modern Hierarchical Deterministic wallets only need to be pointed at the first random box. From there they move to new boxes via a formula - e.g. five boxes over and three rows down.

[nightfury]

Bitcoin can never be faked as long as you have a legit bitcoin wallet. Once you buy and received bitcoin or even a chunk of it in your bitcoin wallet, then that's it, it's pure bitcoin already and you will also notice that its market price will go up and down regularly.

[szpalata]

Bitcoin can never be faked as long as you have a legit bitcoin wallet. Once you buy and received bitcoin or even a chunk of it in your bitcoin wallet, then that's it, it's pure bitcoin already and you will also notice that its market price will go up and down regularly.

Since it's a public ledger of transactions on the blockchain and its broadcasted across all the network and verified by the nodes i don't think you can easily send funds to any bitcoin wallet without the knowledge of the network. How can you avoid all these protocols and send funds? It is near impossible.

[YzzyGo]

If you access your wallet and it show you that you have a bitcoin, given that it is confirmed by at least 3-5 nodes, then you definitely have a bitcoin. It can't get any real that that. The blockchain, which is spread accross the world, will have a record of that bitcoin in your wallet so you're good. As long as you have the private key and did not expose it to anyone.

[szpalata]

You can use Blockchain.info to track your transaction. or if you do have bitcoin address to send and receive payments then that's legit. you can buy bitcoin in banks atm or convenience near you.

Exactly, all transactions are recorded in a public ledger which can be verified on the blockchain with just a click on your computer or smartphone and so there's nothing shady about bitcoins and  no new bitcoin can be created or double spent outside the blockchain.

[kiver]

You can use Blockchain.info to track your transaction. or if you do have bitcoin address to send and receive payments then that's legit. you can buy bitcoin in banks atm or convenience near you.

Exactly, all transactions are recorded in a public ledger which can be verified on the blockchain with just a click on your computer or smartphone and so there's nothing shady about bitcoins and  no new bitcoin can be created or double spent outside the blockchain.

yep that has to be one the best features about crypto currencies in general that it cannot be replaced or increased the coin supply not like fiat you make alot of fake money that you even governments sometime cannot tell the fake form the real cash

[Spenjoyere3]

you can do it buy trusting bitcoin blockchain network. or you can do it with yourself.
we have bitcoin full nodes, you can trust them and run SPV wallet or verify every block and run your own bitcoin full node wallet.
after sending bitcoin you can send some bitcoin fees to include your bitcoin in new block and that miners use that money to pay electricity costs.
So that you pay fee miners talk this fee to verify about network and correction all operation.

[mahboob123]

Bitcoin is real because bitcoin pay cash in my hand so it is real and real life of cash money