Bitamp Bitcoin Web Wallet - Send & Receive Bitcoin Instantly!

[bitampcom]

Is Bitcoin completely virtual and non-physical?

Depends on what you mean. As a currency, it’s complete virtual, since it’s all digitally represented by data on a public ledger.
The network is held together by physical machines, though! And wallets, while they can all be purely digital, are also commonly made with physical representations like hardware devices:)

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[bitampcom]

Will ETH 2.0 be on Coinbase?

ETH or Ether, which is the native currency powering the Ethereum network, is already on Coinbase.
ETH 2.0 is simply an upgrade. This isn’t a contentious split of the network as Bitcoin Cash was with Bitcoin.
All ETH users will eventually upgrade to ETH 2.0. There won’t be any users left behind (well there can be but they wouldn’t be used on Coinbase presumably).

[bitampcom]

What's the most secure and decentralized Bitcoin wallet?

It’s probably not possible to lay claim to the “most secure” and also to “decentralized” but Electrum probably is top in this list simply because it hasn’t been hacked before (there have been some exploits very quickly fixed) and because it’s open source.

But there is one main developer behind it. Bitamp is very much the same we like to think as we’re open source too but also we have developers — so that makes us slightly centralized in the sense that the code is our making.

[dkbit98]

What's the most secure and decentralized Bitcoin wallet?

It’s probably not possible to lay claim to the “most secure” and also to “decentralized” but Electrum probably is top in this list simply because it hasn’t been hacked before (there have been some exploits very quickly fixed) and because it’s open source.

But there is one main developer behind it.

I don't think that Thomas Voegtlin is the only developer working on Electrum wallet, and you can see in their github page that over 280 people contributed their project so far.
It is true that Thomas started the project back in 2011, but ghost43 and SomberNight also have write access and they have their own contributions:
https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/graphs/contributors

[bitampcom]

Does Coinbase give you a wallet?

They do, but it’s what is called a custodial wallet, meaning to say, they are the true owners of the wallet, giving you certain rights to manage it, but ultimately retaining the full control over it.

Think of Coinbase as one huge physical wallet that they own, they lock and they control how money comes in and out. In this wallet are millions of compartments, each assigned to one user. So they put money in and out of all these compartments, all you can do is tell them how. Whether or not they will listen to you, is entirely up to them;)

[bitampcom]

What's the most secure and decentralized Bitcoin wallet?

It’s probably not possible to lay claim to the “most secure” and also to “decentralized” but Electrum probably is top in this list simply because it hasn’t been hacked before (there have been some exploits very quickly fixed) and because it’s open source.

But there is one main developer behind it.

I don't think that Thomas Voegtlin is the only developer working on Electrum wallet, and you can see in their github page that over 280 people contributed their project so far.
It is true that Thomas started the project back in 2011, but ghost43 and SomberNight also have write access and they have their own contributions:
https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/graphs/contributors

We did say one main developer, not the sole developer:) It's still fair to say that this is his project, and Electrum has retained the same features and even design it has had ever since I can remember.

Even the last big exploit I remember (2019 IIRC), it was Thomas himself who first responded and put the fix up.

Still, fair points, and good for bringing it up!

[bitampcom]

How do I get my wallet address? Do I need to use my 12 words?

The 12 words you have should be your “seed phrase” or “recovery phrase”. Use a reputable wallet like electrum (we also have one at Bitamp) to “restore” a wallet with those words. Once restored, you can see all the addresses associated with it and use it as before.

[Opulous-bct]

Cool web wallet, definitely a use case for Bitcoin newcomers. Ever think of developing one for Ethereum so there's an easy way for people to manage their ERC271s aka NFTs?

[bitampcom]

Cool web wallet, definitely a use case for Bitcoin newcomers. Ever think of developing one for Ethereum so there's an easy way for people to manage their ERC271s aka NFTs?

We have always been a Bitcoin wallet so that will be the direction we continue on for now. But thank you for the comment and yes, NFT does look like a good use case for crypto/blockchain, but there are many others too and we personally think the Bitcoin use case is worth focusing on:)

[bitampcom]

Is this the start of crypto winter?

Like Vitalik Buterin just said. This is normal, and we may have just seen the bubble burst, and we may also still see it burst in a few months, it is difficult to know. But we have seen enough bubbles to know that it will rise again.
And when it bursts, like he says also, it is generally proof that the technology is not quite ready yet and then it goes back to fix what it could not do.

[bitampcom]

I see 3 confirmations on my Bitcoin transaction but it's still pending on my balance. Is this normal?

This is entirely the fault of the service you are using. Some services manually confirm transactions, others wait for many confirmations. It is unusual these days for services to require more than 3 confirmations on the Bitcoin network though.

Refer to your tx ID on the Bitcoin blockchain itself (using a public explorer like Blockchair). If there are more than 3 confirmations there, you should get in touch with your service.

[btcsmlcmnr]

I see 3 confirmations on my Bitcoin transaction but it's still pending on my balance. Is this normal?

This is entirely the fault of the service you are using. Some services manually confirm transactions, others wait for many confirmations. It is unusual these days for services to require more than 3 confirmations on the Bitcoin network though.

Refer to your tx ID on the Bitcoin blockchain itself (using a public explorer like Blockchair). If there are more than 3 confirmations there, you should get in touch with your service.

1 or 3 confirmations are very common numbers that are required by services to credit the deposit BTC to account balance.

If the confirmation number already exceeds required numbers, but balance is not credited. Please open support ticket to contact their customer support. If they say the mistake is from user, it is a lie. That service can scam users.

The bad scam is make your second deposit to help the first deposit being credited to balance. It is their double scam.

[Chikito]

I see 3 confirmations on my Bitcoin transaction but it's still pending on my balance. Is this normal?

If sending bitcoin to exchange there will not automatically confirm even has confirmed many blocks, it's happening to me for a month ago, I have to contact support to confirm it to my wallet. But, if I used a non-custody wallet which you own a private key (such as electrum, and etc) that is not happening, we can get the balance with only 1 confirmation.

[bitampcom]

Why does it take so long for BTC transactions to be confirmed, when I always get a notice confirming the deposit amount (almost immediately) when the TX is sent? Is it really possible for the BTC to be lost or re-directed during this time?

The notice you get is not confirming a deposit amount, it is simply a notice or alert of an incoming transaction.

Bitcoin transactions are broadcast to the network, where miners (computers that pick up, validate and verify the transactions) will decide which txs are to be included in blocks they find — new blocks are found on average every 10 minutes. In periods of high network activity, this can take a long time, depending also on the miner fee you paid. Obviously, the more the likelier you are to get picked up.

It’s not possible for BTC to ever be lost in transacting. It also cannot be redirected. But you can choose to “double spend” — using the same unconfirmed bitcoin to spend elsewhere.  This isn’t possible with most clients, however.

[bitampcom]

A question from our Quora today: Do exchanges have parallel blockchains for each coin?

If you’re referring to centralized exchanges, then no. There’s no sense to make a parralel blockchain when APIs can easily connect to the public blockchain and track deposits and withdrawals. It’s when these APIs or blockchains are down that exchanges can’t do much or when they need to do maintenance for wallets.

[bitampcom]

What is the difference between a hard wallet and a digital wallet?

You probably mean a hardware wallet. But there are some things to understand about “hardware” and “software” wallet and I will give you as simple a description about what separates the two in terms of security.

A hardware wallet still contains the software, but is a device SOLELY for storing crypto, and usually does not even need to go online or interact with the internet to work. This prevents any kind of network attack or hack. If hackers can’t access, they can’t steal.

A software wallet is used on any ordinary device, and as you may be aware, most people don’t usually secure their devices, leaving it prone to malware and other listening tools that hacker can use to steal your passwords.

[bitampcom]

Where can I sell my BTC wallet whose passphrase I've lost?

You couldn’t sell it for anything. You can’t prove you own it, so you could simply just take a wallet address from somewhere and sell it.
If someone could crack wallets, all they would need to do it surf the blockchain explorer and find wallets with balances and hack them.
This isn’t possible of course, so no one would buy your wallets.

[bitampcom]

What is the difference between a wallet and an exchange?

A wallet is where cryptocurrencies are stored, and is how you identify the owners of crypto, as it contains addresses you own and have coins in.

An exchange is merely the platform where assets are exchanged (hence the name), that is, sold, bought or traded.

When you use an exchange, they assign you an address from THEIR wallet. Which is why it is not a good idea to store crypto at exchanges because you have no control over THEIR wallet if they one day decide to scam you or get hacked.

[bitampcom]

Do I actually lose my cryptocoins if I lost my ledger wallet?

You never lose anything if you lose your wallet, whatever the form of the wallet. The wallet is simply a tool to access your coins, usually a visual user interface to help you use it. What gives you the access is your private key, so that’s what you need — or your recovery phrase (seed phrase sometimes it’s called). Restore this on any other compatible wallet and you get your access.

[bitampcom]

So many wallets, and so many apps to choose from! So which should you choose? As always, we like to say: Depends on what you’re looking for.

Electrum is probably the best Bitcoin wallet due to the high level of control you have over it (plus it’s open source and one of the most mature apps around). But it isn’t the friendliest looking. Bitamp is also free and isn’t even an app, accessible via any type of smartphone with a web browser.