Two beginner crypto management questions.

[seeeker]

Hi, pretty much total newbie here, working out some mechanical and theoretical questions. I own a little bit of bitcoin I purchased on Coinbase. I keep it stored on an external cold wallet. Two questions:

1) Can I sell my bitcoin on any other exchange? Like if I bought it on Coinbase, can I sell it (or buy more) on Cryptyo.com or anywhere else?

2) If I buy more BTC and transfer it to my cold wallet, does it just get added to my existing amount on the cold wallet? Or does it exist as a separate amount, separate transaction?

For example on Monday I buy 1 BTC and move it to my wallet. Then on Wednesday I buy 1 more BTC and move it to my wallet. Does my wallet now say I have 2 BTC in one pile? Or does it look like I have 1 BTC + 1 BTC organized separately? Maybe this is a strange question but I don't think so, I want to know how this works before I commit further to crypto, it's scary enough as it is.

Thank you for any help understanding some of this conceptual management stuff.

[jackg]

1. Yes you can sell your crypto you buy anywhere you want - they're not tied to a specific exchange and they don't refuse each other.

2. This one gets more complex.
If your using an offline wallet, you should go through your wallet if you want better privacy and mark addresses as used once they are (there should be a function for that in most wallets or you can just make a note of it).

The addresses are what are indexed, if you send 1btc to 2 addresses then it'll look completely separate on blockchain explorers (it'll be different if you use a lightweight/spv wallet like electrum as there may be a link between your addresses that could be seen by the node that sends you your information). When you spend funds, you might have to go through manually and decide what you want to spend though (eg if you sell 1.5btc then your 2btc will now produce an output of 1.5btc and 0.5btc and link your 2 together).

[BlackHatCoiner]

Hi and welcome to the perfect place if you're having troubles with understanding. Your first question should be answered, but I'll try clearing some things up for the second.

2) If I buy more BTC and transfer it to my cold wallet, does it just get added to my existing amount on the cold wallet? Or does it exist as a separate amount, separate transaction?

If you transfer funds to your cold storage, they'll be added in the existing amount of coins. The amount of coins you own in a wallet is never separate. Your wallet sums all the outputs of the transactions it loads and that sum is your amount.

The transactions are obviously separate. If you received 1 BTC in Monday, that would be considered one transaction where the output is 1 BTC. If you then, in Wednesday, received another bitcoin, it'd be another transaction. If you sum all the outputs of all of your transactions, then that's your balance.

If this didn't answer on your question, then it's possibly because you wanted to ask something else, but formulated it improperly.

[seeeker]

Ok thank you this helps. That's what I was wondering about. So yes obviously the transactions are recorded separately, but the amount accumulates as one total amount.

Hi and welcome to the perfect place if you're having troubles with understanding. Your first question should be answered, but I'll try clearing some things up for the second.

2) If I buy more BTC and transfer it to my cold wallet, does it just get added to my existing amount on the cold wallet? Or does it exist as a separate amount, separate transaction?

If you transfer funds to your cold storage, they'll be added in the existing amount of coins. The amount of coins you own in a wallet is never separate. Your wallet sums all the outputs of the transactions it loads and that sum is your amount.

The transactions are obviously separate. If you received 1 BTC in Monday, that would be considered one transaction where the output is 1 BTC. If you then, in Wednesday, received another bitcoin, it'd be another transaction. If you sum all the outputs of all of your transactions, then that's your balance.

If this didn't answer on your question, then it's possibly because you wanted to ask something else, but formulated it improperly.

[o_e_l_e_o]

So yes obviously the transactions are recorded separately, but the amount accumulates as one total amount.

Not really.

Although I know BlackHatCoiner understands how this works, I think they way he has phrased it is confusing. "The amount of coins you own in a wallet is never separate" is not really the case. Your wallet will sum all your coins and display a total for you to see, but the coins you have received remain separate and the number your wallet displays doesn't exist on the blockchain.

If you receive 1 BTC and then later receive another 1 BTC, then you wallet shows 2 BTC, but that 2 BTC value does not exist on the blockchain. What exists on the blockchain is 2x 1 BTC outputs. This becomes important when making transactions in the future, since the transaction fee you pay is based on the number of inputs you use, and not on the value of the bitcoin you transact. A transaction which spends 1x 1 BTC will be much cheaper than a transaction which spends 10x 0.1 BTC, even though they send the same amount of bitcoin.

The only time bitcoin values join together to make a bigger value is when you spend them together in the same transaction. In the above example I gave, a transaction could have 10x 0.1 BTC inputs, but only 1x 1 BTC output (minus transaction fees).

[odolvlobo]

2) If I buy more BTC and transfer it to my cold wallet, does it just get added to my existing amount on the cold wallet? Or does it exist as a separate amount, separate transaction?

For example on Monday I buy 1 BTC and move it to my wallet. Then on Wednesday I buy 1 more BTC and move it to my wallet. Does my wallet now say I have 2 BTC in one pile? Or does it look like I have 1 BTC + 1 BTC organized separately? Maybe this is a strange question but I don't think so, I want to know how this works before I commit further to crypto, it's scary enough as it is.

Your wallet will say that you have 2 BTC, but you really have 1 + 1 = 2 BTC. The difference is completely handled by the wallet, and it only really matters when it comes to transaction fees.

Here is the situation that some people experience regarding transaction fees:

Let's say that you have 2 BTC, but instead of being paid in one or two transactions as in your example, you are paid in 200 transactions of 0.01 BTC each. The wallet says you have 2 BTC, but you really have 0.01 + 0.01 + ... + 0.01 = 2 BTC. When you try to send that 2 BTC or (any significant portion of it) the transaction fee will be very high.

The reason is that each of the 200 transactions is an "input" to your transaction, and the fee for your transaction is roughly proportional to the number of inputs. So, if the fee to send 0.01 BTC (using only one input) is X, then the fee to send 0.02 BTC (using 2 inputs) will be 2X and the fee to send 2BTC (using 200 inputs) will be 200X.

The solution to this problem is to consolidate inputs. That is done by sending all of your BTC to yourself when the fees are very low (1 sat/vbyte). That will consolidate all of the small inputs into one single large input, so that if must send when fees are high, you only use 1 input (rather than 200). However, the potential drawback to consolidating inputs is reduced privacy.

[hugeblack]

1) Can I sell my bitcoin on any other exchange? Like if I bought it on Coinbase, can I sell it (or buy more) on Cryptyo.com or anywhere else?

Yes, just remember to buy real Bitcoin (BTC) from trusted exchange and not Bitcoin cash or token version of bitcoin on cheap networks or database balance from unknown exchanges then withdrawal your bitcoin to hardware wallet or Desktop/mobile wallet.

Your wallet manage your balance from serval blocks so that reuse your BTC address will reduce your tx fess.
watch this video ----> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1si5ZWLgy0 you will find more info/

[Little Mouse]

Everyone has already shared how it works but if you are still confuse for the 2nd one-
Your balance in one wallet is accumulated into one. It's more like your bank account. Imagine, you have deposited $100 on November 1st, 2021. Your balance is $100. Now you have deposited $100 more on November 10, 2021. So, bank will have two transaction reports on their database but you will be given one single balance of $200, although the records of timestamp, amount are not exactly like bank 

[Poker Player]

Everyone has already shared how it works but if you are still confuse for the 2nd one-
Your balance in one wallet is accumulated into one. It's more like your bank account. Imagine, you have deposited $100 on November 1st, 2021. Your balance is $100. Now you have deposited $100 more on November 10, 2021. So, bank will have two transaction reports on their database but you will be given one single balance of $200, although the records of timestamp, amount are not exactly like bank 

I don't know if your analogy is the most appropriate. Earlier o_e_l_e_o explained it perfectly.

In the case of your analogy, the difference is that your bank doesn't charge you more to withdraw $200 if it comes from two $100 deposits than if it comes from a single $200 deposit, but in the case of bitcoin it does cost you more to transfer an amount if it has two (or more) inputs, than if it has a single input.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Your balance in one wallet is accumulated into one. It's more like your bank account.

Yeah, this is a bad analogy and is not at all how bitcoin wallets work. If I deposit 20x $50 to my bank account, then I have $1000 and I can withdraw any amount from between $1 to $1000 for the same withdrawal fee leaving the rest behind and untouched. The bank does not care if I received 20x $50 deposits or 1x $1000 deposit, the outcome is exactly the same.

A better analogy with fiat would be like keeping cash in a safe, where for some reason I have to pay 2 cents for every bill I take out of the safe. I can put 20x 50 dollar bills in to that safe. I have $1000 in total, but my 20 bills are still very much separate. If I want to spend $10, then I need to take out a single $50 bill and receive the remaining $40 back in change. If I want to turn those 20 bills in to a single bill, then I need to take them all to the bank at once and swap them for a $1000 bill (imagining such a thing exists for the purpose of this analogy).

[witcher_sense]

2) If I buy more BTC and transfer it to my cold wallet, does it just get added to my existing amount on the cold wallet? Or does it exist as a separate amount, separate transaction?

For example on Monday I buy 1 BTC and move it to my wallet. Then on Wednesday I buy 1 more BTC and move it to my wallet. Does my wallet now say I have 2 BTC in one pile? Or does it look like I have 1 BTC + 1 BTC organized separately? Maybe this is a strange question but I don't think so, I want to know how this works before I commit further to crypto, it's scary enough as it is.

Your wallet is software with which you can interact with the Bitcoin blockchain. What your wallet does is control private keys, sign transactions, generate addresses. What it also does is connect to nodes and ask them if there is some UTXO that can be unlocked with one of the private keys it controls. If it sees a UTXO belonging to you, your wallet will add it up to the total balance. The total balance (the number you see in a wallet)  is nothing else but a creature of the wallet itself, it is just a result of the wallet summing up all the UTXO it can unlock. It is done for the sake of convenience and user experience. In reality, what you really have is a set of UTXO. Advanced wallets have a feature called "coin control" which shows your balance as a set of UTXO instead of the total balance. It allows you to spend those UTXO separately, which greatly increases your privacy.

[The Cryptovator]

Hope OP got your expected answer from here. Feel free to ask if still you have any questions or confusion. Let's make it more simple for you. If you store your Bitcoin in a non-custodial wallet means it's like your own wallet that you are using in real life. So you can spend it anywhere you want or exchange it anywhere you like. You are the owner of whatever you are holding there, no third party can handle your funds in a non-custodial wallet.

Let's make it more simple about the transaction. Let's assume you get one USD from your friend and one USD from your girlfriend. So you have two USD in your wallet now but there is two note of USD. Same you received Bitcoin in two separate transactions means you have two unspent transactions which are worth two Bitcoin. Now if you want to spend $1.5 from your real-life wallet you have to give $2 to the receiver and he will return the change $0.5 to you. The same Bitcoin wallet will work. If you send transactions of 1.5 Bitcoin then the wallet automatically sends 2 Bitcoin to the node, and then 0.5 Bitcoin will return to your change address after deduction the transactions fees.

Hope I made it easier for you.

[Luffygroove]

Hello and welcome to the crypto world. You're certified as a crypto citizen by buying bitcoin now hehe. Feel free to increase your knowledge about cryptocurrencies and please keep alert, guard yourself, don't believe other people easily, and always DYOR since it's a harsh world in here.

Regarding your question :
1.  Can I sell my bitcoin on any other exchange?. Sure, actually bitcoin is traded on many exchanges. You can find this information on the coinmarketcap(dot)com. Wherever you buy it, as long as it's bitcoin you can sell it on those exchanges listed on CMC.

2.  If I buy more BTC and transfer it to my cold wallet, does it just get added to my existing amount on the cold wallet? Or does it exist as a separate amount, separate transaction? Yes, it'll be added to your previous BTC. For example, if previously you have 1 BTC in that wallet, your amount will be added to 2 BTC, if you transfer another 1 BTC into it.

I hope it will help to clear your doubt.

[RILWAN]

As a matter of fact, bitcoin only have one identity where ever you bought Bitcoin and transferred to your wallet the amount is always added to your existing balance, when you buy you add more bits to your portfolio.