step-by-step process for BTC transaction

[bkelly13]

I cannot find a simple step-by-step process to understand how to go from a BTC private address, in the form of a 256-bit binary number, to initiating an actual transaction.  A description or link to a good web page will be greatly appreciated.

Here is what I suspect happens.

1. Create 256-bit random number.  Yeah, a bit difficult to do properly.
2. translate to base 58 format.
   2.a. takes multiple steps, what are they?
3. Create seed phrases, how to do this?
4. There is more stuff needed to actually initiate a BTC transaction I don't understand, but keep this short and stop here.

This is probably already on this forum.  Do you have a search phrase that will discover it? Link to a specific thread?

Thank you for your time.

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[ABCbits]

Assuming you want step-by-step technical explanation, here's the rough process.
1. Generate private keys securely, https://learnmeabitcoin.com/technical/keys/private-key/.
2. Generate public key using your private keys, https://learnmeabitcoin.com/technical/keys/public-key/.
3. Create Bitcoin address using your public key, https://learnmeabitcoin.com/technical/keys/public-key/hash/.

If you want to create seed phrase from random 128-256 bit random binary, check https://learnmeabitcoin.com/technical/keys/hd-wallets/mnemonic-seed/. As for creating Bitcoin TX, it's far more complex where you need to read really long article or part of book such as https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook/blob/develop/ch06_transactions.adoc or https://learnmeabitcoin.com/technical/transaction/. Personally i never try to create Bitcoin TX from scratch due to the complexity.

[DannyHamilton]

I cannot find a simple step-by-step process to understand how to go from a BTC <snip>

You've jumped into the deep end of the pool with weights strapped to your ankles here. Your lack of understanding of even the basics has resulted in you using phrases that are meaningless and don't apply to Bitcoin at all, such as "private address".

What are you trying to accomplish here?  Are you just wanting to learn more about the technical details of the bitcoin protocol because you find it interesting? Are you trying to create software that interacts with the Bitcoin network in some way? Are you just trying to receive some bitcoins from someone that wants to pay you with bitcoin? Do you already have some bitcoin, and you're just trying to send it somewhere?

User ABCbits, earlier in this thread, has linked to some good resources for learning a bit more about some of the technical details of keys and addresses. Hopefully that will help, but I'm not certain yet that it gets you any closer to what you're actually trying to accomplish.

[bkelly13]

ABCbits: Thank you for the links, looking at them.  I keep missing that WIF, Wallet Import Format.  Cannot seem to keep it in my head.

DannyHamilton: Yes, the deep end.  I have a bit of dyslexia and knew that the correct phrase is private key, just wrote it wrong.  I am not a mathematician, or even very good with math.  I just want to develop my own sense of confidence in this entity into which we place so much trust.  

I have a small amount of bitcoins in a commercial exchange and will probably put them in an offline wallet.  Someday soon.

I continue to be a bit surprised at how volatile BTC is, and most cryptos.  Similar to the stock markets of the world, but much more volatile.  Seems to me it should be more stable.  I really do like the concept of a currency that is independent of government control.  That is its main attraction for me.

Oh, and I still don’t fully understand why we use the base 58 format.  Its not that much shorter than hex, and quite a bit more complicated.  Regarding fonts and the characters 0/O and 1/l  (one and lower case l), how often does anyone really transcribe a private key or an address by hand?  I suspect extremely seldom.  Almost to the point of never.  We just do a copy with the keyboard and mouse, in which case, the font has no significance what-so-ever.  And I suspect that we very seldom manually copy the key. It gets saved by our selected exchange or our offline wallet.  We write down the code words for recovery, but even then, I print them out and put them in a safe.  Won't trust my writing and spelling for something that critical.

[ABCbits]

I have a small amount of bitcoins in a commercial exchange and will probably put them in an offline wallet.  Someday soon.

Please double check withdraw fee imposed by that commercial exchange. If you own relative small amount of Bitcoin, the withdraw fee could "eat" most of it.

Oh, and I still don’t fully understand why we use the base 58 format.  Its not that much shorter than hex, and quite a bit more complicated.  Regarding fonts and the characters 0/O and 1/l  (one and lower case l), how often does anyone really transcribe a private key or an address by hand?  I suspect extremely seldom.  Almost to the point of never.  We just do a copy with the keyboard and mouse, in which case, the font has no significance what-so-ever.  And I suspect that we very seldom manually copy the key. It gets saved by our selected exchange or our offline wallet.  We write down the code words for recovery, but even then, I print them out and put them in a safe.  Won't trust my writing and spelling for something that critical.

This page explain Base58 in detail, https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Base58Check_encoding. But AFAIK the main reason should be it's checksum feature and version bytes.

[DannyHamilton]

<snip>
how often does anyone really transcribe a private key or an address by hand?  I suspect extremely seldom.  Almost to the point of never.  We just do a copy with the keyboard and mouse, in which case, the font has no significance what-so-ever.
<snip>

Even when we "copy with the keyboard and mouse", it is important to be able to look at the original address and the copied address and make sure they are identical. Malware exists that can modify the contents of your clipboard. So, it's possible that you could copy an address, then the malware modifies the contents of the clipboard to be someone else's address, and then you paste that other person's address into wherever you are using it.

Generally you are correct though, we could use binary or octal, or hex, or any other base to represent the number. base 58 is what was chosen. It is both shorter than hex AND avoids ambiguity. Since it isn't really any more difficult for a computer to convert binary data to base58 than it is to convert that binary data to hex, why not?

[tbct_mt2]

Even when we "copy with the keyboard and mouse", it is important to be able to look at the original address and the copied address and make sure they are identical. Malware exists that can modify the contents of your clipboard. So, it's possible that you could copy an address, then the malware modifies the contents of the clipboard to be someone else's address, and then you paste that other person's address into wherever you are using it.

There is risk from malware and people must be very carefull when copying, pasting an address in their transaction broadcasting process. Check, double check will help them to avoid risk of sending their precious bitcoins to a non-wanted address.

How to lose your Bitcoins with CTRL-C CTRL-V

It can help to reduce risk and loss of hijack from malware attackers.

[Cricktor]

Oh, and I still don’t fully understand why we use the base 58 format.  Its not that much shorter than hex, and quite a bit more complicated.

Base58 encoded public addresses or private keys in WIF format also contain a checksum which allows detection of errors. You don't have that luxury with plain "naked" private keys in plain hex. I'd also go so far to say that if you need to read, compare or write private keys or public addresses then it's less error prone in base58enc format than in plain boring uniform hex.

Humans are not supposed to deal with such things, let your wallet do the heavy lifting. But, one exception, always carefully control all details of a transaction before you sign it. When you check public addresses it's usually sufficient to check a bunch of characters at the start, in the middle and at the end.