Basic questions - wrapping head around wallets

[LD-ZOGY8]

Hi there,

First up, please excuse me if my question has been answered elsewhere; I couldn't find an easy answer by searching.

I've followed the directions to securely generate, print and store a paper wallet, but there are some things I haven't quite been able to wrap my head around yet.

I have an online wallet with blockchain.info, and I have discovered I can manually input a wallet address and private key. I have also discovered that I could delete a wallet with bitcoins in it (0.005 to be exact), and as long as I still had the address and private key stored elsewhere I could re-input them and the bitcoins would still be there. I wanted to test if I could do this so I could protect myself against someone hacking into my blockchain account and stealing my bitcoins; in other words just use blockchain like a gateway, instead of leaving my populated information on their system.

My question is, if I want to receive payment from someone, can I give them one of the wallet addresses from my piece of paper which I have never used or entered into blockchain? If they send a payment, will I be able to input the wallet/key details at some point in the future and the bitcoins will be identified and show up?

From what I understand I believe this to be correct, but please help me out with some piece of mind

Also, how on earth does the website search through what must be millions of bitcoins so quickly to identify which ones belong to your wallet?

Thanks for your advice.

[LD-ZOGY8]

Also, I have downloaded the software from bitcoin.org but I can't seem to find a way to manually input/import wallets into the program. Is this possible?

[pieppiep]

The first part I have no idea.

The second part, all transactions are in the blocks in the network so it's easy to keep track of everything.
Just throw it in a database and ask the database what you want to know.
Why should it be hard to search?

[pieppiep]

Also, I have downloaded the software from bitcoin.org but I can't seem to find a way to manually input/import wallets into the program. Is this possible?

C:\Users\User Name\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin\wallet.dat
If you replace it with your old wallet.dat it would probably work

[Deafboy]

You can use paper wallets for receiving payments without importing the keys in BTC clinet first.

[Stephen Gornick]

My question is, if I want to receive payment from someone, can I give them one of the wallet addresses from my piece of paper which I have never used or entered into blockchain? If they send a payment, will I be able to input the wallet/key details at some point in the future and the bitcoins will be identified and show up?

From what I understand I believe this to be correct, but please help me out with some piece of mind

That is correct.

This might help explain it with a little more clarity:
 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ#What_happens_when_someone_sends_me_a_bitcoin_but_my_computer_is_powered_off.3F

Also, how on earth does the website search through what must be millions of bitcoins so quickly to identify which ones belong to your wallet?

Just like a retailer doesn't care whose $20 bill you use to pay for your purchase, Bitcoin doesn't care who "spends" the coins.  All that is needed to spend a coin is the coin's private key.  If you keep those keys secure, then you are assured that only you can spend your coins.

As far as the bitcoin client (or the My Wallet from http://BlockChain.info/wallet ) being able to quickly show the balance for the addresses in a wallet well, there's a lot going on underneath to make that possible but fortunately we are getting closer to where Bitcoin can be used without having to be a techie.

[Stephen Gornick]

Also, I have downloaded the software from bitcoin.org but I can't seem to find a way to manually input/import wallets into the program. Is this possible?

The stock client doesn't support that yet.  There is a utility (pywallet) to help with doing that.

 - http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/2254/how-can-i-import-a-private-key-into-the-bitcoin-client

[LD-ZOGY8]

Thank you to the above members for providing such relevant and concise answers

On so many forums the newbie section is simply a playground for the experienced members to come and abuse new people for posting what they perceive as dumb questions. Obviously not on this forum however!