Laws of Bitcoin

[witcher_sense]

Found on Reddit:



https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/igxcli/the_8_laws_of_bitcoin/

Text version:

1. Never Discuss Your Bitcoin - Don’t ever disclose the amount of Bitcoin you
have with anyone. Ever.

2. Not Your Keys, Not Your Bitcoin - If your Bitcoin is not stored safely in your
wallet, you do not own it. If you leave Bitcoin on an exchange, you do not own it.

3. If It’s Too Good To Be True - Nobody in this world wants to give you free
Bitcoin. Nobody wants to double your Bitcoin. Nobody wants to offer you a
business opportunity. It's a scam. It's a scam. It's a scam.

4. Your Seed Is Your Key - Your 24 word seed gives access to your Bitcoin. Back
up your seed and store this in a secret place offline. Anyone that has this seed
can take your Bitcoin.

5. Double, Triple, Quadruple Check - When sending or receiving Bitcoin, double,
triple, and quadruple check that the addresses are correct. One incorrect
character can cause you to lose your Bitcoin.

6. Check Those Links - Anytime you buy, send, or receive Bitcoin, make sure you
have a verified legitimate link, url, or website. There are a lot of scamming
websites aimed at taking your Bitcoin.

7. Everyone Has An Opinion - Everyone has an opinion on Bitcoin. Take it with a
grain of salt. Never listen to one single individual and do your own research.

8. Investing - Never invest more than you can stand to lose.

What "laws" do you agree or disagree with? What would you add to those written above?

Personally, I think these rules are more than enough to start exploring  both cryptocurrency space and bitcoin.
The only rule I would add is learn every single day, read books and serious articles about bitcoin because books teach us to think, avoid cryptocurrency media at all costs, because journalists distort facts.

What do you think?

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[o_e_l_e_o]

One incorrect character can cause you to lose your Bitcoin.

I appreciate the sentiment behind it, but it is factually incorrect. One incorrect character in an address will lead to an incorrect checksum and therefore an invalid address which your wallet will not accept. There is only a 1 in 4,294,967,296 chance that one incorrect character can cause you to lose your bitcoin.

That's not to say you shouldn't double/triple/quadruple check every address - you absolutely should - but any incorrect or fake address will almost certainly differ by more than one character.

[decodx]

I would add to this:
9. Just Hodl It - You didn't lose anything until you sell.

[mezzaluna]

Found on Reddit:



https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/igxcli/the_8_laws_of_bitcoin/

These set of rules will be/must be forever etched in the minds of all investors and users within the Crypto-Community. Discussing your own treasure is within your group of friends is not always suggested since strangers can hear about that and might result into bad situations. Its true that nothing is free these days and must always be mindful on what we read and what we hear (Always think before clicking Not Secure Websites). Its actually not just Bitcoin but it can also be applied along high value Cryptocurrencies that have the opportunity to skyrocket its value.

[wildan88]

can this be a law as well

never store your bitcoin to a wallet that don't let you have the private key - it applies to all online wallet and exchange or markets that in case they got hacked you may lose your bitcoin and other coin as well

[mezzaluna]

can this be a law as well

never store your bitcoin to a wallet that don't let you have the private key - it applies to all online wallet and exchange or markets that in case they got hacked you may lose your bitcoin and other coin as well

Not having the private key of your own wallet is already a threat since other people can have access to it, also why bother creating an account that does not let you have the freedom on when to access your own money. What you are adding can also help most users to identify what problems might come to them once they do not have their own private keys. We can also say that some exchanges want to preserve their credibility so they are giving there all to give users the interface that can be user-friendly and at the same time being secured at a high level.

[decodx]

can this be a law as well

never store your bitcoin to a wallet that don't let you have the private key - it applies to all online wallet and exchange or markets that in case they got hacked you may lose your bitcoin and other coin as well

That's already there and in a high second place.

"2. Not Your Keys, Not Your Bitcoin"

[minersday]

One incorrect character can cause you to lose your Bitcoin.

I appreciate the sentiment behind it, but it is factually incorrect. One incorrect character in an address will lead to an incorrect checksum and therefore an invalid address which your wallet will not accept. There is only a 1 in 4,294,967,296 chance that one incorrect character can cause you to lose your bitcoin.

That's not to say you shouldn't double/triple/quadruple check every address - you absolutely should - but any incorrect or fake address will almost certainly differ by more than one character.

I don't think I will agree with you on this. First and foremost, how did you come about with this statistics '' There is only a 1 in 4,294,967,296 chance that one incorrect character can cause you to lose your bitcoin.''   You can't just state figures without giving us proof on how you obtain it. So far as there is some level of chance, you can loose your bitcoin when you input an incorrect address.

[HiringYou]

Not only to the beginners but these rules should be well known and understood by every single person working in this market. These are the rules which will help us to work finer and will help us to gain more.I would like to talk about some of the following rules-:

• Rule no. 4 says that the seed is our key which is absolutely correct.The person who will get to know our private keys will have the access to our wallets and then he can simply misuse our savings.Once the money is gone,it is impossible to retrieve it.
  
• Rule no. 6 says that every time we click on a link or work on a website we should confirm it's legitimacy because many scammers are using phishing sites in order to steal our private keys.People often add their credentials and keys on these particular sites and these scammers can simply steal their money.
• Rule no. 7 says that everyone has their own opinion on bitcoin. No one can exactly predict about it's future.Different person has a different opinion.So before investing go through the market. Take opinion from different experienced investors and use your knowledge to invest wisely so that you can get good returns.
  
• Rule no.8 says that invest that amount which you can afford to lose because bitcoin is highly volatile in nature which makes the probability of profit and loss quite same.So in case you lose,it should not affect your daily living.

[Ryker1]

Well, we dont have an official law of bitcoin but this sentiment will perhaps a law as well.
The only liner that I always read here is, ^{[not your keys, not your bitcoin]} which is very true and I always bear on my mind with that rule. And the other rules I agree, that is correct and it seems good advice as well especially rule number 3 ^{[If It’s Too Good To Be True]}, no one will give you free so don't expect on double your bitcoin.
Well, how about this rule? ^{[Demand and Supply]}, the price vary on this law. Because sometimes they will think that there a correlation of price in stocks or gold price.

[Baofeng]

One incorrect character can cause you to lose your Bitcoin.

I appreciate the sentiment behind it, but it is factually incorrect. One incorrect character in an address will lead to an incorrect checksum and therefore an invalid address which your wallet will not accept. There is only a 1 in 4,294,967,296 chance that one incorrect character can cause you to lose your bitcoin.

That's not to say you shouldn't double/triple/quadruple check every address - you absolutely should - but any incorrect or fake address will almost certainly differ by more than one character.

I don't think I will agree with you on this. First and foremost, how did you come about with this statistics '' There is only a 1 in 4,294,967,296 chance that one incorrect character can cause you to lose your bitcoin.''   You can't just state figures without giving us proof on how you obtain it. So far as there is some level of chance, you can loose your bitcoin when you input an incorrect address.

What proof do you want? Bitcoin addresses is design to have checksums, hashing it through SHA256 twice and then getting the first 4 bytes as your checksum. So taking the first 4 bytes ensures that it is unique by itself. So taking that into account, (2^32)-1 = 4,294,967,295 chances.

[Oasisman]

I'd like to add something to what has been written in your "laws of Bitcoin."  

6. Check Those Links - Anytime you buy, send, or receive Bitcoin, make sure you
have a verified legitimate link, url, or website. There are a lot of scamming
websites aimed at taking your Bitcoin.

And don't forget to bookmark these links once you're done with your transactions. You might be needing their service again in the future. This action will save you from landing into a phishing websites.

7. Everyone Has An Opinion - Everyone has an opinion on Bitcoin. Take it with a
grain of salt. Never listen to one single individual and do your own research.

And don't follow those self proclaimed crypto analysts in Twitter, which is very rampant nowadays in crypto twitter.
Most of these people are shilling shitcoins.

Nevertheless, these laws are just the basic things to know about cryptocurrency/Bitcoin for everyone who are just beginning to explore the crypto space.
When you have enough experience in crypto space you'll soon come up with your own personal laws, such;
Never use the same password when you're using exchange, trading platforms, crypto gambling wesites, or any custodial wallets. And don't ever use the password of your email again to register somewhere.
You'll no the importance of this once you encounter an account breaching.

I would add to this:
9. Just Hodl It - You didn't lose anything until you sell.

I guess that falls under the rule number 8. That's a rule for investing in general.

[Welsh]

Rule number 5. This is something I would extensively reiterate to everyone. Bitcoin is probably one of the easiest currencies out there to make a mistake due to the amount of decimals there are. Unless, you're the filthy rich of course, you'll likely never need to use multiple digits with fiat currencies, but with Bitcoin sending $71 can be easily sent as $710, and isn't that noticeable unless you triple check it. I think we've probably all made small mistakes such as putting the fee to high, or the actual transaction amount.

[teosanru]

Personally I like 7th one the most. I have tried convincing many people about how bitcoin is a safer option when compared to fiat but some people just fail to understand this. This even makes me ponder over my decision of investing in Bitcoin but a good research and knowledge can make anyone realize that bitcoin is a great investment.

I would add to this:
9. Just Hodl It - You didn't lose anything until you sell.

I don't think we need this as it makes no sense for someone using bitcoin as a currency he would never be thinking of selling it for fiat until and unless he needs his money desperately. Moreover, this rule which generally everyone considers to be very magical has actually resulted in tremendous losses for many. This idea in case of bitcoin looks nice for an investor but for a trader or person looking for short terms gains it makes no sense. Just invest what you can afford to lose.

[HeRetiK]

5. Double, Triple, Quadruple Check - When sending or receiving Bitcoin, double,
triple, and quadruple check that the addresses are correct. One incorrect
character can cause you to lose your Bitcoin.

6. Check Those Links - Anytime you buy, send, or receive Bitcoin, make sure you
have a verified legitimate link, url, or website. There are a lot of scamming
websites aimed at taking your Bitcoin.

Either 5 or 6 should be extended with a warning about clipboard malware. It's more likely that you lose coins due to clipboard malware changing the target address on the fly than due to a typo.


Another rule to add, even if it's not about security:

Rule X: Don't try to evangelize the unwilling - But help whenever someone shows genuine interest.

[GreatArkansas]

(......)
Well, how about this rule? ^{[Demand and Supply]}, the price vary on this law. Because sometimes they will think that there a correlation of price in stocks or gold price.

Well, Bitcoin is being Bitcoin. We all now that as time goes by, Bitcoin rewards for miners are being reduced, especially when their is Bitcoin Block Halving happens. For sure, most of the people who owns Bitcoin know about this.
But I also believe that it is not totally vary on that law of yours, as we can see we saw a blockhalving recently this year, so the rewards for miners are being reduce but we still don't see a new all-time-high even the supply (being produce by miners are reduced).

[hatshepsut93]

One incorrect character can cause you to lose your Bitcoin.

I appreciate the sentiment behind it, but it is factually incorrect. One incorrect character in an address will lead to an incorrect checksum and therefore an invalid address which your wallet will not accept. There is only a 1 in 4,294,967,296 chance that one incorrect character can cause you to lose your bitcoin.

That's not to say you shouldn't double/triple/quadruple check every address - you absolutely should - but any incorrect or fake address will almost certainly differ by more than one character.

You can lose money if you make a single character mistake with decimals when you are selecting the fee or the amount. Especially risky when editing raw transactions, like that famous case when someone paid 50 BTC miners fee.

Also, if you are writing down raw private key, 1 character mistake would make it hard to recover the key, cause it would require a custom brute force search.

[molsewid]

The Law of Bitcoin that is written above for me is already enough.

Don't avoid crypto-currency media, it helps us to decide or it help us to see the future price movement. Even if we know that is a fact or not there's always an effect on the price mostly if this distort fact is circulating in social media.

[crwth]

I like what #7 saying, everyone has their own opinion. Everything should mostly be taken with a grain of salt. They would say anything that they think is viable and would only stick to their beliefs since that's what they already know. I feel as members of the crypto community, it's best to convince them that "if" they have a negative view on crypto, it's up to us to turn it into positive.

The rules presented here are not for newbies but for people who are already involved in crypto, not the ones who are just getting into crypto. Don't immediately believe everything you read, but keep an open mind still; just don't fall for scam tactics.

[Wexnident]

2,5 and 7 seem pretty good. Not that the others are bad, just that the ones I listed are the ones I really like. Most people still don't understand how wallets really work, and number 2 really says what they should really do. As for 5, I'm someone with a bit of paranoia when checking stuff you know, like when I'm leaving my car and locking it, I'd double check it twice, thrice, step out a few more steps, go back and check it again. Even with our fridge, I do triple checks or more whenever I leave the kitchen to know that it's bloody closed, it's annoying at times, but hell, it makes checking stuff really worth it imo. As for 7, well I'm not a die-hard enthusiast, and nor am I a hard-headed person. I like researching about a lot of stuff, though most of them don't really end up in a deep search, just about entry-level, but it's still really fun to learn how people talk about various stuff with crypto.