How To Convert BTC to Cash

[RealT]

Once a person buys BTC, how can they convert it to cash if they decide to not store the passphrase online?  Is the address key (password) necessary to do this?

[balanghai]

go to localbitcoins.com , you'll be surprised that your neighbor has more bitcoins than you have. 

[RealT]

go to localbitcoins.com , you'll be surprised that your neighbor has more bitcoins than you have. 

I am more interested in the process of putting it onto an exchange.  Do you have to give the exchange the blockchain address password at some point?

[nahtnam]

go to localbitcoins.com , you'll be surprised that your neighbor has more bitcoins than you have. 

I am more interested in the process of putting it onto an exchange.  Do you have to give the exchange the blockchain address password at some point?

All you have to do is create an account and transfer the bitcoins the address generated. Then you can sell it for the market price. I recommend coinbase if you are in america.

[RealT]

go to localbitcoins.com , you'll be surprised that your neighbor has more bitcoins than you have. 

I am more interested in the process of putting it onto an exchange.  Do you have to give the exchange the blockchain address password at some point?

All you have to do is create an account and transfer the bitcoins the address generated. Then you can sell it for the market price. I recommend coinbase if you are in america.

Where does the offline passphrase play into this?

[nahtnam]

go to localbitcoins.com , you'll be surprised that your neighbor has more bitcoins than you have. 

I am more interested in the process of putting it onto an exchange.  Do you have to give the exchange the blockchain address password at some point?

All you have to do is create an account and transfer the bitcoins the address generated. Then you can sell it for the market price. I recommend coinbase if you are in america.

Where does the offline passphrase play into this?

I don't understand what you mean by passphrase. Are you talking about a password that you have to enter to get access to your bitcoin or the private key?

[DannyHamilton]

Where does the offline passphrase play into this?

What "offline passphrase" are you talking about?  You haven't explained what you're trying to do.

I assume you have a "paper wallet", and you're trying to figure out what to do with the private key when you want to use (spend or sell) the bitcoins, but I'm not sure.

[RealT]

Where does the offline passphrase play into this?

What "offline passphrase" are you talking about?  You haven't explained what you're trying to do.

I assume you have a "paper wallet", and you're trying to figure out what to do with the private key when you want to use (spend or sell) the bitcoins, but I'm not sure.

As of now I don't have anything, but you are right.  My questions is exactly what you stated.  Do you need the private key to spend or send the BTC?  Does the paper wallet private key have to go online in order to do this?

Thanks

[beetcoin]

Where does the offline passphrase play into this?

What "offline passphrase" are you talking about?  You haven't explained what you're trying to do.

I assume you have a "paper wallet", and you're trying to figure out what to do with the private key when you want to use (spend or sell) the bitcoins, but I'm not sure.

As of now I don't have anything, but you are right.  My questions is exactly what you stated.  Do you need the private key to spend or send the BTC?  Does the paper wallet private key have to go online in order to do this?

Thanks

i think you may be confusing some things.

you send your bitcoins to the address on the exchange you wish to use.. it functions as your wallet. so let's say you have some coins in your blockchain.info wallet.. you would need to transfer them to your bitcoin exchange (localbitcoins.com, btc-e.com, mtgox, or whatever) wallet. this wallet is created once you open up an account.

[RealT]

Where does the offline passphrase play into this?

What "offline passphrase" are you talking about?  You haven't explained what you're trying to do.

I assume you have a "paper wallet", and you're trying to figure out what to do with the private key when you want to use (spend or sell) the bitcoins, but I'm not sure.

As of now I don't have anything, but you are right.  My questions is exactly what you stated.  Do you need the private key to spend or send the BTC?  Does the paper wallet private key have to go online in order to do this?

Thanks

i think you may be confusing some things.

you send your bitcoins to the address on the exchange you wish to use.. it functions as your wallet. so let's say you have some coins in your blockchain.info wallet.. you would need to transfer them to your bitcoin exchange (localbitcoins.com, btc-e.com, mtgox, or whatever) wallet. this wallet is created once you open up an account.

This is not exactly the question.  Danny Hamilton had it right in his previous post.  The question is:  With an offline "paper wallet" and "passkey" does the "passkey" have to be used to send or spend the BTC?  Does this mean that eventually the "passkey" will need to go online?

[DannyHamilton]

Where does the offline passphrase play into this?

What "offline passphrase" are you talking about?  You haven't explained what you're trying to do.

I assume you have a "paper wallet", and you're trying to figure out what to do with the private key when you want to use (spend or sell) the bitcoins, but I'm not sure.

As of now I don't have anything, but you are right.  My questions is exactly what you stated.  Do you need the private key to spend or send the BTC?  Does the paper wallet private key have to go online in order to do this?

Thanks

i think you may be confusing some things.

you send your bitcoins to the address on the exchange you wish to use.. it functions as your wallet. so let's say you have some coins in your blockchain.info wallet.. you would need to transfer them to your bitcoin exchange (localbitcoins.com, btc-e.com, mtgox, or whatever) wallet. this wallet is created once you open up an account.

This is not exactly the question.  Danny Hamilton had it right in his previous post.  The question is:  With an offline "paper wallet" and "passkey" does the "passkey" have to be used to send or spend the BTC?  Does this mean that eventually the "passkey" will need to go online?

Please take just a few seconds to at least try to learn the right terminology.  You'll get better answers and you'll get them faster. You are creating confusion by taling about passphrases and passkeys.

You want to know about the private key.  So ask about the private key.

Now, the answer to your question.

You have to use your private key to create a transaction.  This can be done on a computer that is not connected to the internet if you have set up armory or have taken the time to learn how to create raw transactions.

In most cases people import the private key into a wallet on a computer that is connected to the internet to create the transaction.  Then they create a new paper wallet with a new private key and send any remaining funds to the new wallet after they've spend/used the funds they want to.

If you are using MtGox for currency exchange, you can import the private key directly into MtGox if you want and they will sweep the funds into your MtGox account for you.

[Dabs]

passphrase is not password is not passkey is not private key. Yes, better define what you mean next time.

[RealT]

Where does the offline passphrase play into this?

What "offline passphrase" are you talking about?  You haven't explained what you're trying to do.

I assume you have a "paper wallet", and you're trying to figure out what to do with the private key when you want to use (spend or sell) the bitcoins, but I'm not sure.

As of now I don't have anything, but you are right.  My questions is exactly what you stated.  Do you need the private key to spend or send the BTC?  Does the paper wallet private key have to go online in order to do this?

Thanks

i think you may be confusing some things.

you send your bitcoins to the address on the exchange you wish to use.. it functions as your wallet. so let's say you have some coins in your blockchain.info wallet.. you would need to transfer them to your bitcoin exchange (localbitcoins.com, btc-e.com, mtgox, or whatever) wallet. this wallet is created once you open up an account.

This is not exactly the question.  Danny Hamilton had it right in his previous post.  The question is:  With an offline "paper wallet" and "passkey" does the "passkey" have to be used to send or spend the BTC?  Does this mean that eventually the "passkey" will need to go online?

In most cases people import the private key into a wallet on a computer that is connected to the internet to create the transaction.  Then they create a new paper wallet with a new private key and send any remaining funds to the new wallet after they've spend/used the funds they want to.

In the scenario of importing the private key into an online wallet for the purposes of sending funds to another person what is an example of a good online wallet for this purpose?  Can portions of funds be imported from an address or does the entire portion have to be imported?
Thanks

[DannyHamilton]

In the scenario of importing the private key into an online wallet for the purposes of sending funds to another person what is an example of a good online wallet for this purpose?

Some examples:

• Bitcoin-Qt
• Armory
• Electrum
• MultiBit

Can portions of funds be imported from an address or does the entire portion have to be imported?
Thanks

Funds aren't stored in addresses.  Funds are stored in the public blockchain that every full node as a complete copy of.  Therefore, you don't "import funds" partially or otherwise.

Private keys allow you to sign transactions that update the blockchain.  A wallet chooses unspent outputs from the blockchain, spends them in the "input" side of the transaction providing value to the transaction, then creates new unspent outputs in the "output" side of the transaction to assign that value elsewhere.  Each unspent output used as an input requires a digital signature.  The digital signature requires the use of the private key that is associated with the address that the unspent output was previously assigned to. The wallet uses the private keys that it has control over to provide these digital signatures in the transactions that it creates.

You import a private key into a wallet.  The wallet uses the private key and calculates the bitcoin address that is associated with the private key.  The wallet then scans the entire list of unspent outputs that the wallet has obtained from the blockchain, and searches for every unspent output that is associate with that address.  The wallet then displays a number that indicates to you the total of the unspent outputs so that you know how much value the wallet can control with the private key.

You can spend some of the unspent outputs or you can spend all of them.  Regardless, once you import the private key into a wallet on a computer you should dispose of the "paper wallet".  If there are any funds left in the wallet on the computer when you are done with your transactions, and if you want to return those funds to a "paper wallet", you can create a new "paper wallet" and create a transaction to assign the remaining unspent outputs controlled by that imported private key to the new paper wallet.

[piotr_n]

Once a person buys BTC, how can they convert it to cash if they decide to not store the passphrase online?  Is the address key (password) necessary to do this?

Bitcoin is cash and this is a wrong section of the forum for this kind of stupid questions.

[DannyHamilton]

Once a person buys BTC, how can they convert it to cash if they decide to not store the passphrase online?  Is the address key (password) necessary to do this?

Bitcoin is cash

I think its rather obvious that the OP is asking about exchanging to fiat.

and this is a wrong section of the forum for this kind of stupid questions.

True, but its the wrong section for this kind of stupid response as well.

[piotr_n]

I think its rather obvious that the OP is asking about exchanging to fiat.

Well, tell it to him. I haven't studied mind reading, but only some science, so I can only answer questions that have a logical sense.
At least I'm teaching him that his question was stupid, instead of deepening his ignorance in the matter, like you.

True, but its the wrong section for this kind of stupid response as well.

Won't be, after Greg moves it out of here

[RealT]

You can spend some of the unspent outputs or you can spend all of them.  Regardless, once you import the private key into a wallet on a computer you should dispose of the "paper wallet".  If there are any funds left in the wallet on the computer when you are done with your transactions, and if you want to return those funds to a "paper wallet", you can create a new "paper wallet" and create a transaction to assign the remaining unspent outputs controlled by that imported private key to the new paper wallet.

In this scenario where funds are left over from a transaction, is the recommendation to transfer those funds to a new paper wallet to avoid storing the funds online?

And yes, fiat is what I meant.  And yes, these are technical questions to me, but if the thread belongs in another forum that's fine too.  

Thank you

[DannyHamilton]

I think its rather obvious that the OP is asking about exchanging to fiat.

Well, tell it to him. I haven't studied mind reading, but only some science, so I can only answer questions that have a logical sense.
At least I'm teaching him that his question was stupid, instead of deepening his ignorance in the matter, like you.

Doesn't require mind reading.  Just some simple deductive reasoning.

True, but its the wrong section for this kind of stupid response as well.

Won't be, after Greg moves it out of here

Won't be the wrong section for this kind of question either.

[DannyHamilton]

You can spend some of the unspent outputs or you can spend all of them.  Regardless, once you import the private key into a wallet on a computer you should dispose of the "paper wallet".  If there are any funds left in the wallet on the computer when you are done with your transactions, and if you want to return those funds to a "paper wallet", you can create a new "paper wallet" and create a transaction to assign the remaining unspent outputs controlled by that imported private key to the new paper wallet.

In this scenario where funds are left over from a transaction, is the recommendation to transfer those funds to a new paper wallet to avoid storing the funds online?

If that is what you desire to do.

Which is why I said:

If there are any funds left in the wallet on the computer when you are done with your transactions, and if you want to return those funds to a "paper wallet", you can create a new "paper wallet" and create a transaction to assign the remaining unspent outputs controlled by that imported private key to the new paper wallet.