★☆ Get Help Here | The Ultimate Help Thread! | Free Giveaways ★☆

[devthedev]

Welcome new users!
I've been in the community for a while now and have an immerse knowledge of Crypto and related topics.

Feel free to ask me any questions you have about the Bitcoin Protocol, Mining, Legalities, Wallets, etc.
I'll try to answer each and every question posted in the thread!

Looking forward to answering your questions!

For every 50 questions asked I'll be giving away a product or service!
The next one up is a $200 Amazon gift card.
The card will be given to a random user who's asked a question or helped others in the thread!



Tips are appreciated (: 1FLFWupqsssVgGC7jUVDYX2Cz8UtJ7xGHa

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[Bernard Lerring]

When the difficulty changes how is it set?

There can't be some kind of signal dispersed around the network, saying "difficulty change ... ...NOW!", can there?

[Acidyo]

When the difficulty changes how is it set?

There can't be some kind of signal dispersed around the network, saying "difficulty change ... ...NOW!", can there?

It retargets every 2 weeks or so for bitcoin. Depending on the hashrate during the change, it will stick to it and after another 2 weeks change again depending on how many are mining then.

Sorry to hijack the thread, OP may give out a more detailed explanation if he wants to.

[devthedev]

Yep, this is a good explanation

It retargets every 2 weeks or so for bitcoin. Depending on the hashrate during the change, it will stick to it and after another 2 weeks change again depending on how many are mining then. :)

Sorry to hijack the thread, OP may give out a more detailed explanation if he wants to. :)

This is how the difficulty is calculated,

The highest possible target (difficulty 1) is defined as 0x1d00ffff, which gives us a hex target of

Code:

0x00ffff * 2**(8*(0x1d - 3)) = 0x00000000FFFF0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Pooled mining often uses non-truncated targets, which puts "pool difficulty 1" at

Code:

0x00000000FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

So the difficulty at 0x1b0404cb is therefore:

Code:

0x00000000FFFF0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 /
0x00000000000404CB000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 
= 16307.420938523983 (bdiff)

You can read up more about Bitcoin difficulty here as well, https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Difficulty
Let me know if you have any other questions (:

[Cancan]

Great idea for a thread. While I don't have any questions, I would just like to leave this link here, as it's a list of interesting questions a newbie might have: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/11/19/12-questions-you-were-too-embarrassed-to-ask-about-bitcoin/

[DannyHamilton]

When the difficulty changes how is it set?

There can't be some kind of signal dispersed around the network, saying "difficulty change ... ...NOW!", can there?

Yes, there is.

When a block is solved, that block is relayed throughout the network.  The difficulty is recalculated every 2016 blocks.  So each node knows it needs to recalculate the difficulty it's using before it starts working on its next block whenever its blockchain increases in length by another 2016 blocks.  Each node calculates the difficulty for itself, and they all use the same rules for that calculation so that they end up with the same difficulty.

[devthedev]

Great idea for a thread. While I don't have any questions, I would just like to leave this link here, as it's a list of interesting questions a newbie might have: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/11/19/12-questions-you-were-too-embarrassed-to-ask-about-bitcoin/

Thanks!

[Cancan]

While I wouldn't use Washington Post as a reliable news source for Bitcoin, most of those answers were pretty spot on.

I know right? Times are changing, and we're starting to see major news websites actually doing their homework on Bitcoin.
But, so I won't be completely off-topic, I'll also add a question that a lot of newbies might have, as I noticed some tend to confuse the two:

What is the difference between nodes and miners?

[devthedev]

What is the difference between nodes and miners?

Well to start off, a node refers to a "full" client. A "full" client is a client that shares transactions and blocks across the network. Each node has a complete copy of the ledger, which is a record of every Bitcoin transaction that ever took place. Such as Bitcoin-qt or bitcoind (headless).

When you're talking about miners I'm assuming you're talking about mining software. If so, "miners" don't need the full blockchain to operate. When you're using mining software such as Cudaminer and cgminer you're getting work from a pool that's running a Bitcoin client. The pool is essentially sending you a partial header for a new block and the software tries a lot of random numbers (nonces) in order to find one that creates an extremely low block header hash with a lot of zeros. Summing that up, a "miner" is not a node at all, it's just software that's doing basic calculations for a pool.

Let me know if that answers your question (:

[devthedev]

For every 50 questions asked I'll be giving away a free Woodwallet to a random user who's asked a question or helped others in the thread!

[JohnFromWIT]

Difficult one..
What is a woodwallet?

[devthedev]

Difficult one..
What is a woodwallet?

It's like a paper wallet, just engraved in wood.

[monbux]

Difficult one..
What is a woodwallet?

A very cool wallet
Check out the official thread, https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=638832.0.  I already have one myself, and it makes a great gift.  DevTheDev is being very generous giving these away, they start at $19 USD plus shipping.  Great thread, man!

[devthedev]

Difficult one..
What is a woodwallet?

A very cool wallet
Check out the official thread, https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=638832.0.  I already have one myself, and it makes a great gift.  DevTheDev is being very generous giving these away, they start at $19 USD plus shipping.  Great thread, man!

Thanks monbux! There's nothing better than answering questions about Crypto and teaching people safe storage techniques with these WoodWallet giveaways (:

Are you new to the Bitcoin community? Let us know what kind of questions you have and we'll do our best to answer each and every one of them!

[monbux]

I have contacted devthedev and I am willing to also provide a small prize (for the time being) of a 1GH/S voucher on cex.io.
Worth ~ 0.00729 BTC, or almost $5 worth!  Yay!  May contribute more prizes in the future, not sure... I'll try and help as much as I can in this thread... thanks devthedev

[Acidyo]

This thread is turning out to be pretty awesome!

Nice idea!

[devthedev]

Bump, bump. I know you have questions (:

[kuverty]

This is a nice thread, will be helping others when I have the time. Winning one of those cool things would be even better than buying one.

[devthedev]

This is a nice thread, will be helping others when I have the time. Winning one of those cool things would be even better than buying one.

Thanks! Good luck

[Parham6]

Well I still haven't got the answer to my question: I'm using multibit and I want the Public Key (It's different than address) of my address, how do I get it? I don't want to know how a public key is calculated, I don't wanna read a dozen pages of math, I just want to know how to get it, period.

[Coef]

Well I still haven't got the answer to my question: I'm using multibit and I want the Public Key (It's different than address) of my address, how do I get it? I don't want to know how a public key is calculated, I don't wanna read a dozen pages of math, I just want to know how to get it, period.

First get the private key and then do the conversion to public key with openssl.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20086121/convert-ecdsa-private-hex-key-to-public-key

[kuverty]

Well I still haven't got the answer to my question: I'm using multibit and I want the Public Key (It's different than address) of my address, how do I get it? I don't want to know how a public key is calculated, I don't wanna read a dozen pages of math, I just want to know how to get it, period.

It is not that simple, I don't think you can see it from the wallet as it is. I do not use Multibit, though. One thing to note right away is that your address is generated using a cryptographic digest (hash) of your public key, so there is no way you can go back. It is not possible to compute the public key using your public bitcoin adress.

You will need to use your private key to calculate that, there are some tools for this luckily and the easiest method I can think of is going to https://www.bitaddress.org and choosing "Wallet details". There you can input your private key in pretty much any format it happens to be in and it will calculate for you the public key, either in the 65-byte uncompressed format or the 33-byte compressed format, whichever you need. As far as I remember, the page also works offline so you can do that for security and you should, too.

To see yout private key, export your private key to a file in Multibit and open the file in your favourite text editor.
Can I ask, what do you plan using your public key for?

[devthedev]

Well I still haven't got the answer to my question: I'm using multibit and I want the Public Key (It's different than address) of my address, how do I get it? I don't want to know how a public key is calculated, I don't wanna read a dozen pages of math, I just want to know how to get it, period.

Unfortunately, I don't think there is an easy way to find a public key from MultiBit right now.

Thanks Kuverty.

[chaosPT]

Welcome new users!
I've been in the community for a while and have a immerse knowledge of Crypto and related topics.

Feel free to ask me any questions you have about the Bitcoin Protocol, Mining, Legalities, Wallets, etc.
I'll try to answer each and every question posted in the thread!

Looking forward to answering your questions!

~DTD

Tips are appreciated (: 19KsCidkLcNSXWhyQNnV7UfzqyqiSB2oju

EDIT: For every 50 questions asked I'll be giving away a free Woodwallet to a random user who's asked a question or helped others in the thread!

Is there woodcoin since you have wood wallet ?

[JohnFromWIT]

Bump you up.
What does the the block header look like before and after hashing?

[byt411]

Welcome new users!
I've been in the community for a while and have a immerse knowledge of Crypto and related topics.

Feel free to ask me any questions you have about the Bitcoin Protocol, Mining, Legalities, Wallets, etc.
I'll try to answer each and every question posted in the thread!

Looking forward to answering your questions!

~DTD

Tips are appreciated (: 19KsCidkLcNSXWhyQNnV7UfzqyqiSB2oju

EDIT: For every 50 questions asked I'll be giving away a free Woodwallet to a random user who's asked a question or helped others in the thread!

Is there woodcoin since you have wood wallet ?

It's a physical wallet, crafted with wood.

Bump you up.
What does the the block header look like before and after hashing?

As far as I understand, a block header is the block hash. So it would look like this after hashing:

Code:

00000000000008a3a41b85b8b29ad444def299fee21793cd8b9e567eab02cd81

And to get that, you need a few crucial pieces of data: The client version, The hash of the previous block, the hash based on all the transactions to be included in the block, the time, the difficulty, and a random 32-bit number.

[devthedev]

Bump you up.
What does the the block header look like before and after hashing?

As far as I understand, a block header is the block hash. So it would look like this after hashing:

Code:

00000000000008a3a41b85b8b29ad444def299fee21793cd8b9e567eab02cd81

And to get that, you need a few crucial pieces of data: The client version, The hash of the previous block, the hash based on all the transactions to be included in the block, the time, the difficulty, and a random 32-bit number.

Hashing it doesn't change it; it tests whether the header meets the target and will be accepted by the network. So various bits could change for each attempt. You could update nonce, timestamp, the Merkle root, or any combination essentially.

[DannyHamilton]

Bump you up.
What does the the block header look like before and after hashing?

The block header is between 81 and 88 bytes of data.

Before every block header in the blockchain is a 4 byte network ID (in the case of bitcoin this will be 0xD9B4BEF9) and 4 bytes used to indicate the length of the block (in bytes).

The actual block header starts with a 4 byte version number.

Next is the 32 byte hash of the previous block (since each block has a reference to a previous block, they form a chain).

After that is the 32 byte merkle root calculated from the list of previously unconfirmed transactions that the block will include.

That is followed by a 4 byte timestamp, and 4 bytes indicating the current mining difficulty.

The next 4 bytes are the nonce that the miners increment while trying to solve the block.

Finally there is a variable sized integer (anywhere from 1 to 8 bytes) used to indicate the total number of transactions in the block.

For more information, see here:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Protocol_specification#Block_Headers

and here:
http://james.lab6.com/2012/01/12/bitcoin-285-bytes-that-changed-the-world/

When a node hashes the block to determine if it is "solved", the result of the hash is a 32 byte number.  That number is checked to see if it satisfies the proper difficulty for the block.

[BitsBitsBits]

Could someone help me with how I could make a "vanity address"? I heard you can have a computer generate it with the letters you want yourself the address to have. But don't really understand how that would be possible to do. And how you would get your private key?

Sorry I'm sort of new here.

[devthedev]

Could someone help me with how I could make a "vanity address"? I heard you can have a computer generate it with the letters you want yourself the address to have. But don't really understand how that would be possible to do. And how you would get your private key?

Sorry I'm sort of new here.

Hey! No problem at all, that's what the thread's for. What operating system are you using?

[DannyHamilton]

Could someone help me with how I could make a "vanity address"? I heard you can have a computer generate it with the letters you want yourself the address to have. But don't really understand how that would be possible to do. And how you would get your private key?

Sorry I'm sort of new here.

They way vanity addresses are generated is to run a program that generates random private keys and then calculates the addresses from the private keys.  If repeats this process as fast as it can comparing each address to what you want it to look like until it finds what you're looking for.

There are a few programs available to do this.  As devthedev said, it would help to know what operating system you are using.

The more letters or numbers that you want to match, the longer it will take until the program finds a matching address.

If you just want to match the first letter of the address (after the 1), you will find a match on average in 1 out of every 58 addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first two letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 3400 addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first three letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 195000 addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first four letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 11.3 million addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first five letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 660 million addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first five letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 38 billion addresses that you generate.

As you can see, it quickly gets very difficult (and time consuming) to find an address that matches many letters.

[BillyBobJoe]

If you want to match the first five letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 38 billion addresses that you generate.

As you can see, it quickly gets very difficult (and time consuming) to find an address that matches many letters.

Generally, I understand the numbers, I trust the numbers.

But, isn't this a waste of generating numbers? By that I mean what if everybody who gets involved in BTC started trying to generate a vanity address of more and more first X letters, won't that speed up the possible duplication of numbers in some future life time?

Or would it not really matter because all but one of those numbers, the desired vanity address, ever be used?

Trust the Numbers.....

[dvco]

First of all, thanks for helping out the noobies.

Could you recommend me begginer guides for mining, mainly about buying hardware, at what point the investment is worth it, which hardware to buy, etc. I've been searching for guides, but every one I find seems quite outdated.

[devthedev]

If you want to match the first five letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 38 billion addresses that you generate.

As you can see, it quickly gets very difficult (and time consuming) to find an address that matches many letters.

Generally, I understand the numbers, I trust the numbers.

But, isn't this a waste of generating numbers? By that I mean what if everybody who gets involved in BTC started trying to generate a vanity address of more and more first X letters, won't that speed up the possible duplication of numbers in some future life time?

Or would it not really matter because all but one of those numbers, the desired vanity address, ever be used?

Trust the Numbers.....

Bitcoin addresses consist of an alphanumerical string with a length of up to 34 characters, excluding the capital "O", the capital "I" and the lowercase "l", as well as the number "0". Since there are around 1.4*10^48 possible addresses, the chance that a duplicate is found can be calculated using the birthday problem as 1-exp(-(4*10^17)^2/(2*1.4*10^48)), or approximately 0.000000000005%, which means there's a one in 20000 billion of generating the same public/private key pair.

All in all, you don't have to ever worry about a collision or "duplicate"

[JohnFromWIT]

Bump you up.
What does the the block header look like before and after hashing?

The block header is between 81 and 88 bytes of data.

Before every block header in the blockchain is a 4 byte network ID (in the case of bitcoin this will be 0xD9B4BEF9) and 4 bytes used to indicate the length of the block (in bytes).

The actual block header starts with a 4 byte version number.

Next is the 32 byte hash of the previous block (since each block has a reference to a previous block, they form a chain).

After that is the 32 byte merkle root calculated from the list of previously unconfirmed transactions that the block will include.

That is followed by a 4 byte timestamp, and 4 bytes indicating the current mining difficulty.

The next 4 bytes are the nonce that the miners increment while trying to solve the block.

Finally there is a variable sized integer (anywhere from 1 to 8 bytes) used to indicate the total number of transactions in the block.

For more information, see here:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Protocol_specification#Block_Headers

and here:
http://james.lab6.com/2012/01/12/bitcoin-285-bytes-that-changed-the-world/

When a node hashes the block to determine if it is "solved", the result of the hash is a 32 byte number.  That number is checked to see if it satisfies the proper difficulty for the block.

http://james.lab6.com/2012/01/12/bitcoin-285-bytes-that-changed-the-world/
This is a very helpful resource, I'd advise any newbie interested in the technical side look at it.
Bit daunting at first, but it's not as bad as it looks. You'll get it quickly.

You first gave it to me a couple days ago and I've gone through it in my spare time.
I understand a lot more because of it, but there are still huge gaps in what I know.
I've tried hashing that original block header but can't seem to get the corresponding hash that's recorded.
I must be missing something.

[devthedev]

First of all, thanks for helping out the noobies.

Could you recommend me begginer guides for mining, mainly about buying hardware, at what point the investment is worth it, which hardware to buy, etc. I've been searching for guides, but every one I find seems quite outdated.

Many guides are outdated because Bitcoin mining is no longer profitable unless you have thousands to invest in buying hardware.
However, our miners are important because they process our transactions. Check out AntMiners, they're pretty decent ASICs. Or, if you want to take the cheaper route, just buy some AMD cards (:

[DannyHamilton]

I've tried hashing that original block header but can't seem to get the corresponding hash that's recorded.
I must be missing something.

There are two very common mistakes.  Make sure you aren't making either of these before you waste a lot of time trying to figure out what else you might be missing.

First common mistake:
SHA-256 is calculated on the header, then SHA-256 is calculated on that result.  If you are only calculating the hash of the header, and not calculating the hash of the hash result, then you aren't going to get the right result.


Second common mistake:
Frequently people will make the mistake of storing the result of the first SHA-256 of the header as a string representation of the hex value. Then try to calculate the second SHA-256 on this string instead of on the actual bytes.  A hex value of A is equivalent to a binary value of 1010, but the hex value of the string "A" (if represented in ASCII) is 01000001.

[meprob]

What could I invest into with $10 or 0.0154btc? I earned this from Primedice.com, if anyone is curious.

[Coef]

What could I invest into with $10 or 0.0154btc? I earned this from Primedice.com, if anyone is curious.

Safest option is to hold it, and wait for the bitcoin price to go up.
You could also buy stocks on Havelock, or invest in bankroll of JD, but please stay away from ponzi.

[JohnFromWIT]

stay away from ponzi.

Fonzie's evil twin.

There are two very common mistakes.  Make sure you aren't making either of these before you waste a lot of time trying to figure out what else you might be missing.

First common mistake:
SHA-256 is calculated on the header, then SHA-256 is calculated on that result.  If you are only calculating the hash of the header, and not calculating the hash of the hash result, then you aren't going to get the right result.


Second common mistake:
Frequently people will make the mistake of storing the result of the first SHA-256 of the header as a string representation of the hex value. Then try to calculate the second SHA-256 on this string instead of on the actual bytes.  A hex value of A is equivalent to a binary value of 1010, but the hex value of the string "A" (if represented in ASCII) is 01000001.

Check and check, still not getting it though.
Don't worry about it though I'll get back to it again.

[BitsBitsBits]

Could someone help me with how I could make a "vanity address"? I heard you can have a computer generate it with the letters you want yourself the address to have. But don't really understand how that would be possible to do. And how you would get your private key?

Sorry I'm sort of new here.

They way vanity addresses are generated is to run a program that generates random private keys and then calculates the addresses from the private keys.  If repeats this process as fast as it can comparing each address to what you want it to look like until it finds what you're looking for.

There are a few programs available to do this.  As devthedev said, it would help to know what operating system you are using.

The more letters or numbers that you want to match, the longer it will take until the program finds a matching address.

If you just want to match the first letter of the address (after the 1), you will find a match on average in 1 out of every 58 addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first two letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 3400 addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first three letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 195000 addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first four letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 11.3 million addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first five letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 660 million addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first five letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 38 billion addresses that you generate.

As you can see, it quickly gets very difficult (and time consuming) to find an address that matches many letters.

Thanks for the explanation. Is this a program that everyone could learn how to use and maybe run on their own PC? As asked above I'm using Windows 7.

This does sound complicated. Can I use my gpu to do this like with mining?

[devthedev]

What could I invest into with $10 or 0.0154btc? I earned this from Primedice.com, if anyone is curious.

Throw it into cold storage and wait for us to go to 10k/BTC ;D. And, do not gamble, you'll end up losing it all...

[devthedev]

Could someone help me with how I could make a "vanity address"? I heard you can have a computer generate it with the letters you want yourself the address to have. But don't really understand how that would be possible to do. And how you would get your private key?

Sorry I'm sort of new here.

They way vanity addresses are generated is to run a program that generates random private keys and then calculates the addresses from the private keys.  If repeats this process as fast as it can comparing each address to what you want it to look like until it finds what you're looking for.

There are a few programs available to do this.  As devthedev said, it would help to know what operating system you are using.

The more letters or numbers that you want to match, the longer it will take until the program finds a matching address.

If you just want to match the first letter of the address (after the 1), you will find a match on average in 1 out of every 58 addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first two letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 3400 addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first three letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 195000 addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first four letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 11.3 million addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first five letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 660 million addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first five letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 38 billion addresses that you generate.

As you can see, it quickly gets very difficult (and time consuming) to find an address that matches many letters.

Thanks for the explanation. Is this a program that everyone could learn how to use and maybe run on their own PC? As asked above I'm using Windows 7.

This does sound complicated. Can I use my gpu to do this like with mining?

You definitely can! It's not too complex at all. Grab the binary here, unzip it and put it on your desktop. Let me know when you get to that point.

[JohnFromWIT]

Could someone help me with how I could make a "vanity address"? I heard you can have a computer generate it with the letters you want yourself the address to have. But don't really understand how that would be possible to do. And how you would get your private key?

Sorry I'm sort of new here.

They way vanity addresses are generated is to run a program that generates random private keys and then calculates the addresses from the private keys.  If repeats this process as fast as it can comparing each address to what you want it to look like until it finds what you're looking for.

There are a few programs available to do this.  As devthedev said, it would help to know what operating system you are using.

The more letters or numbers that you want to match, the longer it will take until the program finds a matching address.

If you just want to match the first letter of the address (after the 1), you will find a match on average in 1 out of every 58 addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first two letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 3400 addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first three letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 195000 addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first four letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 11.3 million addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first five letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 660 million addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first five letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 38 billion addresses that you generate.

As you can see, it quickly gets very difficult (and time consuming) to find an address that matches many letters.

Thanks for the explanation. Is this a program that everyone could learn how to use and maybe run on their own PC? As asked above I'm using Windows 7.

This does sound complicated. Can I use my gpu to do this like with mining?

Try this download from the first link here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=25804.0
For ease it's here: https://github.com/downloads/samr7/vanitygen/vanitygen-0.22-win.zip

Extract to where ever you want.
Go to that folder, Shift + right-click (not on a file), choose open command line here.
In command line type:
vanitygen64.exe -o names.txt 1name
That's it.

Breaking that down that down.
vanitygen64.exe runs the program with following settings.
-o (lowercase O) means save to file with following name. (makes one if not found)
names.txt is the file to save to call it whatever you want.
1name is the name to search for, choose whatever you want but start with "1"
The shorter the name the faster the result.

[devthedev]

Could someone help me with how I could make a "vanity address"? I heard you can have a computer generate it with the letters you want yourself the address to have. But don't really understand how that would be possible to do. And how you would get your private key?

Sorry I'm sort of new here.

They way vanity addresses are generated is to run a program that generates random private keys and then calculates the addresses from the private keys.  If repeats this process as fast as it can comparing each address to what you want it to look like until it finds what you're looking for.

There are a few programs available to do this.  As devthedev said, it would help to know what operating system you are using.

The more letters or numbers that you want to match, the longer it will take until the program finds a matching address.

If you just want to match the first letter of the address (after the 1), you will find a match on average in 1 out of every 58 addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first two letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 3400 addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first three letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 195000 addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first four letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 11.3 million addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first five letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 660 million addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first five letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 38 billion addresses that you generate.

As you can see, it quickly gets very difficult (and time consuming) to find an address that matches many letters.

Thanks for the explanation. Is this a program that everyone could learn how to use and maybe run on their own PC? As asked above I'm using Windows 7.

This does sound complicated. Can I use my gpu to do this like with mining?

Try this download from the first link here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=25804.0
For ease it's here: https://github.com/downloads/samr7/vanitygen/vanitygen-0.22-win.zip

Extract to where ever you want.
Go to that folder, Shift + right-click (not on a file), choose open command line here.
In command line type:
vanitygen64.exe -o names.txt 1name
That's it.

Breaking that down that down.
vanitygen64.exe runs the program with following settings.
-o (lowercase O) means save to file with following name. (makes one if not found)
names.txt is the file to save to call it whatever you want.
1name is the name to search for, choose whatever you want but start with "1"
The shorter the name the faster the result.

Thanks John.

[devthedev]

We've answered 15 questions in this thread so far! 35 more and we'll be giving away 1 Wood Wallet and 1GH/s on CEX.io!
Post any Bitcoin related question you have to get us closer! Whether it's about the Bitcoin Protocol, Mining, Legalities, Wallets, etc. we'll answer every question!

[DannyHamilton]

We've answered 7 questions in this thread so far!

EDIT: For every 50 questions asked I'll be giving away a free Woodwallet to a random user who's asked a question or helped others in the thread!

Lets count questions asked:

1.

When the difficulty changes how is it set?

2.

What is the difference between nodes and miners?

3.

What is a woodwallet?

4.

Are you new to the Bitcoin community?

5.

I'm using multibit and I want the Public Key (It's different than address) of my address, how do I get it?

6.

what do you plan using your public key for?

7.

Is there woodcoin since you have wood wallet?

8.

What does the the block header look like before and after hashing?

9.

Could someone help me with how I could make a "vanity address"? . . . And how you would get your private key?

10.

What operating system are you using?

11.

But, isn't this a waste of generating numbers? . . . won't that speed up the possible duplication of numbers in some future life time? Or would it not really matter because all but one of those numbers, the desired vanity address, ever be used?

12.

Could you recommend me begginer guides for mining, mainly about buying hardware, at what point the investment is worth it, which hardware to buy, etc

13.

What could I invest into with $10 or 0.0154btc?

14.

Can I use my gpu to do this like with mining?

This last one wasn't phrased in the form of a question, but clearly the question "What am I missing?" is implied:

15.

I've tried hashing that original block header but can't seem to get the corresponding hash that's recorded. I must be missing something.

[gondel]

Should i invest in couple of GPUs to try mining some alt coins or just stick to BTC trading? Is the risk worth the money? It is not a simple question, but keep asking and asking about this and i am getting so much different answer and i cannot go to the end.
Thank you!

[devthedev]

Should i invest in couple of GPUs to try mining some alt coins or just stick to BTC trading? Is the risk worth the money? It is not a simple question, but keep asking and asking about this and i am getting so much different answer and i cannot go to the end.
Thank you!

BTC trading is extremely risky. It's essentially gambling, there's no sure fire way of predicting the markets. Investments in GPU's are risky too but probably the better of the two. You'll likely ROI in a few months if you mine with IPOMiner or a pool that always mines the most profitable coin.

[BitsBitsBits]

Could someone help me with how I could make a "vanity address"? I heard you can have a computer generate it with the letters you want yourself the address to have. But don't really understand how that would be possible to do. And how you would get your private key?

Sorry I'm sort of new here.

They way vanity addresses are generated is to run a program that generates random private keys and then calculates the addresses from the private keys.  If repeats this process as fast as it can comparing each address to what you want it to look like until it finds what you're looking for.

There are a few programs available to do this.  As devthedev said, it would help to know what operating system you are using.

The more letters or numbers that you want to match, the longer it will take until the program finds a matching address.

If you just want to match the first letter of the address (after the 1), you will find a match on average in 1 out of every 58 addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first two letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 3400 addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first three letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 195000 addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first four letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 11.3 million addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first five letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 660 million addresses that you generate.

If you want to match the first five letters, you'll find a match on average 1 out of every 38 billion addresses that you generate.

As you can see, it quickly gets very difficult (and time consuming) to find an address that matches many letters.

Thanks for the explanation. Is this a program that everyone could learn how to use and maybe run on their own PC? As asked above I'm using Windows 7.

This does sound complicated. Can I use my gpu to do this like with mining?

Try this download from the first link here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=25804.0
For ease it's here: https://github.com/downloads/samr7/vanitygen/vanitygen-0.22-win.zip

Extract to where ever you want.
Go to that folder, Shift + right-click (not on a file), choose open command line here.
In command line type:
vanitygen64.exe -o names.txt 1name
That's it.

Breaking that down that down.
vanitygen64.exe runs the program with following settings.
-o (lowercase O) means save to file with following name. (makes one if not found)
names.txt is the file to save to call it whatever you want.
1name is the name to search for, choose whatever you want but start with "1"
The shorter the name the faster the result.

I did this and it's now running at a speed of 1.21 Mkey/s, it should be finished in 3150 years... I noticed that it's mostly taking all of my CPU memory though, so it's not working with my gpu's?

[Acidyo]

I did this and it's now running at a speed of 1.21 Mkey/s, it should be finished in 3150 years... I noticed that it's mostly taking all of my CPU memory though, so it's not working with my gpu's?

Haha, sorry I can't help much since I know nothing about this myself but sounds like you are gonna have to wait a while. How many letters did you choose for the address?

[BitsBitsBits]

I did this and it's now running at a speed of 1.21 Mkey/s, it should be finished in 3150 years... I noticed that it's mostly taking all of my CPU memory though, so it's not working with my gpu's?

Haha, sorry I can't help much since I know nothing about this myself but sounds like you are gonna have to wait a while. How many letters did you choose for the address?

1WTFisThis

[devthedev]

I did this and it's now running at a speed of 1.21 Mkey/s, it should be finished in 3150 years... I noticed that it's mostly taking all of my CPU memory though, so it's not working with my gpu's?

If you have a Nvidia card, use the oclvanitygen.exe file inside the same folder, instead of the vanitygen.exe

1WTFisThis

lol

[BitsBitsBits]

I did this and it's now running at a speed of 1.21 Mkey/s, it should be finished in 3150 years... I noticed that it's mostly taking all of my CPU memory though, so it's not working with my gpu's?

If you have a Nvidia card, use the oclvanitygen.exe file inside the same folder, instead of the vanitygen.exe

I have 3x R9 290. Which should I use instead?

[devthedev]

I did this and it's now running at a speed of 1.21 Mkey/s, it should be finished in 3150 years... I noticed that it's mostly taking all of my CPU memory though, so it's not working with my gpu's?

If you have a Nvidia card, use the oclvanitygen.exe file inside the same folder, instead of the vanitygen.exe

I have 3x R9 290. Which should I use instead?

I think Oclvanitygen may actually support AMD cards now. Give it a shot.

[BitsBitsBits]

I did this and it's now running at a speed of 1.21 Mkey/s, it should be finished in 3150 years... I noticed that it's mostly taking all of my CPU memory though, so it's not working with my gpu's?

If you have a Nvidia card, use the oclvanitygen.exe file inside the same folder, instead of the vanitygen.exe

I have 3x R9 290. Which should I use instead?

I think Oclvanitygen may actually support AMD cards now. Give it a shot.

After I ran the oclvanitygen.exe with a test address it came up this:

Available OpenCL platforms:

0: [Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.] AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing
  0: [Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.] Hawaii
  1: [Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.] Hawaii
  3: [Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.] Hawaii
  4: [GenuineIntel] Intel<R> Core <TM> i5-4570 CPU @ 3.20GHz

But I don't know how to add the AMD gpu so that it will start working with it. What should I write in the command line for it to do it with the gpu?

[DannyHamilton]

I did this and it's now running at a speed of 1.21 Mkey/s, it should be finished in 3150 years... I noticed that it's mostly taking all of my CPU memory though, so it's not working with my gpu's?

Haha, sorry I can't help much since I know nothing about this myself but sounds like you are gonna have to wait a while. How many letters did you choose for the address?

1WTFisThis

With 9 characters (WTFisThis) after the 1, you'll find a matching address on average 1 out of every 7,428,000,000,000,000 addresses that you generate.  Of course you could get lucky and generate a matching address in your next attempt, but you could also get unlucky and generate 15,000,000,000,000,000 addresses before you find a single matching address.

Good luck!

[devthedev]

After I ran the oclvanitygen.exe with a test address it came up this:

Available OpenCL platforms:

0: [Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.] AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing
  0: [Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.] Hawaii
  1: [Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.] Hawaii
  3: [Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.] Hawaii
  4: [GenuineIntel] Intel<R> Core <TM> i5-4570 CPU @ 3.20GHz

But I don't know how to add the AMD gpu so that it will start working with it. What should I write in the command line for it to do it with the gpu?

I'm not too sure to be honest. If anyone else knows, feel free to chime in.

[JohnFromWIT]

try oclvanitygen.exe -D 0:0: -o file.txt 1WTFisThis

[byt411]

After I ran the oclvanitygen.exe with a test address it came up this:

Available OpenCL platforms:

0: [Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.] AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing
  0: [Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.] Hawaii
  1: [Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.] Hawaii
  3: [Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.] Hawaii
  4: [GenuineIntel] Intel<R> Core <TM> i5-4570 CPU @ 3.20GHz

But I don't know how to add the AMD gpu so that it will start working with it. What should I write in the command line for it to do it with the gpu?

I'm not too sure to be honest. If anyone else knows, feel free to chime in.

You specify the device, using -d (device number).
For example, you should use oclvanitygen.exe -d 0 1WTFisThis. If it doesn't worked with all cards specified at the same time, run multiple instances with the different devices.

[BitsBitsBits]

try oclvanitygen.exe -D 0:0: -o file.txt 1WTFisThis

This one worked! Thank you! Any idea if I can add more gpu's to work at the same time?

[byt411]

try oclvanitygen.exe -D 0:0: -o file.txt 1WTFisThis

This one worked! Thank you! Any idea if I can add more gpu's to work at the same time?

Try -d 0:0:1:4: and see if it works. If not, run multiple instances with the different devices, it'll still work.

[JohnFromWIT]

Another vanity address question.
If it runs for a long period at once, is it more likely to find an address than if it's running for a few hours a day with restarts inbetween?

[Pkofet]

Another vanity address question.
If it runs for a long period at once, is it more likely to find an address than if it's running for a few hours a day with restarts inbetween?

The chance should be the same, as you just keep generating new addresses randomly, until it matches your requirement.

[DannyHamilton]

Another vanity address question.
If it runs for a long period at once, is it more likely to find an address than if it's running for a few hours a day with restarts inbetween?

If I roll a set of 20 six sided dice continuously, am I more likely to roll all 20 sixes than if I roll them for a few hours a day taking breaks in between?

The question is the same. In both cases, the results are random. The odds of rolling 20 six sided dice and getting sixes on all of them is about the same as the odds of generating a specific 9 character string in a bitcoin address.  (To get even closer to identical odds, toss a coin in with the dice.  A "winning" result is one where all 20 dice land with the 6 up, and the coin lands with heads up.)

It will take longer, because you are spending less time each day trying, but it won't change the odds.  If you spend only 1 hour a day running it, then it will take 24 times as long as if you just left it running continuously.

[Kprawn]

On Bitadress.org - What is the difference between a single wallet and a paper wallet?

Real noobie question, but a lot of people is asking this on other forums.

The site, do not have a lot of online help.

[DannyHamilton]

On Bitadress.org - What is the difference between a single wallet and a paper wallet?

Real noobie question, but a lot of people is asking this on other forums.

The site, do not have a lot of online help.

A bitaddress.org "single wallet" gives you only 1 bitcoin address and its private key.  It is in a plain boring black-on-white page.

A bitaddress.org "paper wallet" gives you multiple addresses and the associated private keys.  They are formatted on decorative backgrounds that can be cut apart after printing. The can be generated using a passphrase protected private key.

[Kprawn]

Thanks, very quick response and detailed answer.  I always, just use the "single wallet" because it's so simple.

Question 2 - What QR code reader, do you use? {Windows based} I need it for a demonstration, I am busy with. See main beginners & help thread. Still got no answer.

[DannyHamilton]

Thanks, very quick response and detailed answer.  I always, just use the "single wallet" because it's so simple.

Question 2 - What QR code reader, do you use? {Windows based} I need it for a demonstration, I am busy with. See main beginners & help thread. Still got no answer.

I don't use Windows.  You'll have to wait for someone else to stop by with suggestions.

[Kprawn]

Question 3 - What bitcoin lottery sites are worth the time? Not a scam? Paying?

I have not tried any of them, and would like to have a stab at it, without burning coins on scam sites.

And are they legal? {In my country, they only allow the National lottery, so I would have to find out, how they regulate winnings on online sites like these}

Would appreciate your inputs.

[Acidyo]

Question 3 - What bitcoin lottery sites are worth the time? Not a scam? Paying?

I have not tried any of them, and would like to have a stab at it, without burning coins on scam sites.

And are they legal? {In my country, they only allow the National lottery, so I would have to find out, how they regulate winnings on online sites like these}

Would appreciate your inputs.

I haven't heard of any popular lottery sites with bitcoin yet (which I think is sort of weird) but if you are looking for gambling sites you can check out my banner or visit the Marketplace>Gambling section and there you can find anything from dice to mines.

[Kprawn]

Ok.. then here is a example of such a site, but I do not know if they paying or a scam site.

If I am not allowed to post the site, I would only give the name. yabtcl {This way, I am not advertizing, just asking if it's scam or real}

[Acidyo]

Ok.. then here is a example of such a site, but I do not know if they paying or a scam site.

If I am not allowed to post the site, I would only give the name. yabtcl {This way, I am not advertizing, just asking if it's scam or real}

Just from the name it doesn't really sound like something I would trust my bitcoins with.

[Kprawn]

Short for yet another bitcoin lottery - Name is like a linux deamon  Not well known for using great names, but it works 100%.

[devthedev]

And are they legal? {In my country, they only allow the National lottery, so I would have to find out, how they regulate winnings on online sites like these}

What country do you live in?

[Cancan]

Let me know if that answers your question (:

It sure did . To be honest, I knew the difference, but wanted to get this thread started. I'll just ask some stuff that I find interesting to get another opinion, so feel free to ignore my posts if other do actually need help.

Ok, next question: There are rumors that Satoshi has ~ 1 mil. BTC. How can we be sure?

[devthedev]

Let me know if that answers your question (:

It sure did . To be honest, I knew the difference, but wanted to get this thread started. I'll just ask some stuff that I find interesting to get another opinion, so feel free to ignore my posts if other do actually need help.

Ok, next question: There are rumors that Satoshi has ~ 1 mil. BTC. How can we be sure?

We're not sure, it's an estimation. Here's block one. http://blockr.io/block/info/1. For weeks he was testing the system and basically mining alone. If you calculate 50 bitcoins every 10 minutes for the whole period, you can guess how many Bitcoins he and the other early miners have. I'll have to do some more research on the technicalities but I think it's safe to say he has held a ton. One thing we're not sure about is whether or not he still has the private keys for the addresses.

[Parham6]

Regarding vanity addresses, do they have a higher chance of having two people finding the private key to the same address? Because the first few characters of address are the same, does this affect the private key (after encoding and hashing and all the stuff)?

[newIndia]

For a mining pool owner, is it required to run his own miner, e.g. ASIC or a GPU rig, or he can operate it from laptop by setting it up in a web host, where miners will join with their mining machines ?

[icet208]

Maybe it`s a newbie question but Where the fees from a transaction goes?

[newIndia]

Maybe it`s a newbie question but Where the fees from a transaction goes?

Transaction fees goes to the miner who found the block that includes the transaction.

[icet208]

Maybe it`s a newbie question but Where the fees from a transaction goes?

Transaction fees goes to the miner who found the block that includes the transaction.

so one block reward is 25+fees BTC ?

[Pkofet]

Let me know if that answers your question (:

It sure did . To be honest, I knew the difference, but wanted to get this thread started. I'll just ask some stuff that I find interesting to get another opinion, so feel free to ignore my posts if other do actually need help.

Ok, next question: There are rumors that Satoshi has ~ 1 mil. BTC. How can we be sure?

We're not sure, it's an estimation. Here's block one. http://blockr.io/block/info/1. For weeks he was testing the system and basically mining alone. If you calculate 50 bitcoins every 10 minutes for the whole period, you can guess how many Bitcoins he and the other early miners have. I'll have to do some more research on the technicalities but I think it's safe to say he has held a ton. One thing we're not sure about is whether or not he still has the private keys for the addresses.

Not sure how many bitcoin satoshi has, but he has only touched 50 btc, according to  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=548508.0

[Pkofet]

Maybe it`s a newbie question but Where the fees from a transaction goes?

Transaction fees goes to the miner who found the block that includes the transaction.

so one block reward is 25+fees BTC ?

Yup, for example, block 305384 has given its finder 25.09655756 btc.
https://blockchain.info/block/000000000000000018ddf70877b17fbff39458db34f39237d32da5a557a84ec3

[icet208]

thx for answer. One more question. Can you mine a specific transaction if you want? For ex can you mine your one transaction?

[Ratters]

No questions at the moment but this a really good thread, Well Done OP

[DannyHamilton]

thx for answer. One more question. Can you mine a specific transaction if you want? For ex can you mine your one transaction?

The only transaction a block has to have to be valid is the transaction that pays the block reward.

If you are solo mining, and are running custom software to build your blocks, you can choose which transactions (if any) to include in the block.

If you are mining in a mining pool then all you are doing is renting your hash power to the pool.  The pool decides which transactions to include in the block.

[DannyHamilton]

Regarding vanity addresses, do they have a higher chance of having two people finding the private key to the same address? Because the first few characters of address are the same, does this affect the private key (after encoding and hashing and all the stuff)?

A vanity address is just an address that has a coincidence of having a pattern in it that you like.  It does not change the odds of generating that exact address at all.

[Parham6]

Regarding vanity addresses, do they have a higher chance of having two people finding the private key to the same address? Because the first few characters of address are the same, does this affect the private key (after encoding and hashing and all the stuff)?

A vanity address is just an address that has a coincidence of having a pattern in it that you like.  It does not change the odds of generating that exact address at all.

But the first few words are the same, if someone uses the same words doesn't the odds of getting the same address increase a little bit?

[Ratters]

Ok so now i have a Q!!

I know this has been covered before but now I’m info-blind!!

Please could you explain it like I’m 5!

I use multibit on Win 7.

I would like to create a cold storage address to withdraw my daily trading profits.

This wallet needs to be offline and I need to regularly send BTC to it.

One day I would obviously like to be able to access the BTC.

I know its simple stuff but I've been blinded by Cold Storage, Paper Wallet & Private key.

What in your experience would be the easiest method of achieving this?

Thanks in advance.

Rgds

Ratters

[DannyHamilton]

Regarding vanity addresses, do they have a higher chance of having two people finding the private key to the same address? Because the first few characters of address are the same, does this affect the private key (after encoding and hashing and all the stuff)?

A vanity address is just an address that has a coincidence of having a pattern in it that you like.  It does not change the odds of generating that exact address at all.

But the first few words are the same, if someone uses the same words doesn't the odds of getting the same address increase a little bit?

No.

In order to generate those words, you have to generate lots of random addresses until you stumble across a pattern you like.

In order to generate the same words, the other person has to generate lots of random addresses until they stumble across the same pattern.

The odds of stumbling across the particular pattern don't change.  The odds of that being the exact same address as anyone else don't change either.

Lets ignore addresses for a moment and just talk about randomness and probability.  For our randomness and probability discussion we'll be rolling 20 six-sided dice one after another and writing down the result.

I continue rolling my 20 dice until my first 5 rolls are all sixes, then I write down my 20 digit result (66666421136545344651).
You roll your set of dice only once writing down your result and have no two adjacent digits that are the same (34521625342516253425).
A friend of ours rolls all 20 dice 3,600,000,000,000,000 times and eventually gets all 20 dice to come up fives. He writes down 20 fives (55555555555555555555).

Now an attacker is going to try to roll his 20 dice until he matches one of our addresses.

Whose address does he have the best odds of matching?

The answer is that it doesn't matter.  The attacker is equally likely on any set of rolls to get any one of our addresses (he has approximately a 0.000000000000027% chance).

If he happens to roll sixes for his first 5 rolls, then his chances of getting the rest of my address are better, but first he has to actually get 5 sixes for his first 5 rolls.  Just like if he happens to get 34521 for his first 5 rolls, then his chances of getting the rest of your address are better, but first he has to actually get 34521 on his first 5 rolls.  There is nothing special about getting 5 sixes, or 5 fives, or "34521" for the first 5 rolls of the dice.  We give them meaning by deciding that we like the pattern, but that doesn't make the pattern any more likely to come up.

Getting back to addresses, it's the same thing.  Every address is a vanity address, all you need to do is like the first few characters in the address and assign them meaning.  There is nothing special about an address that starts with 1Danny, or 1ggggg, or 16zJNT.  We give them meaning by deciding that we like particular patterns, but that doesn't make the pattern any more likely to come up.

[DannyHamilton]

Ok so now i have a Q!!

I know this has been covered before but now I’m info-blind!!

Please could you explain it like I’m 5!

I use multibit on Win 7.

I would like to create a cold storage address to withdraw my daily trading profits.

This wallet needs to be offline and I need to regularly send BTC to it.

One day I would obviously like to be able to access the BTC.

I know its simple stuff but I've been blinded by Cold Storage, Paper Wallet & Private key.

What in your experience would be the easiest method of achieving this?

Thanks in advance.

Rgds

Ratters

The first thing you need to do is decide what you mean when you say the words "cold storage".  This pair of words has a large variety of meanings depending on who is saying it.

My definition of "cold storage" is an address (and private key) that was generated (then written down or printed) from a computer that was disconnected from the internet, had its hard drive formatted, and a fresh install of a trusted operating system without being connected to the internet.  Then the hard drive is formatted again before ever connecting it back to the internet.

The concept is that any computer that has ever been connected to the internet has the potential of being infected with malware without you knowing it.  That malware has the potential of influencing the private keys (and addresses) that you generate such that the creator of the malware could gain control of your bitcoins.

By formatting the hard drive, and installing a trusted operating system, you eliminate the potential of the computer running any malware.  By formatting the hard drive again, you remove any trace of the software and data that was used on it.  Therefore, an attacker that gains access to your computer can't determine what private keys  (and addresses) were previously generated on it.

Many people find that this is excessive.  They are willing to accept a very small increase in risk in exchange for a significant decrease in complexity.  I know of people who will happily generate paper wallets at bitaddress.org (while online!), print them out, call that "cold storage".  If you are storing small amounts of bitcoins that you aren't going to feel devastated about losing, then this is probaby fine, but I wouldn't call it "cold storage".

[BillyBobJoe]

Ok so now i have a Q!!
Rgds
Ratters

Good question, I also use Multibit on Win 7. While we wait for an answer I tell you what I did, and it seemed to work.

I wanted a paper wallet to load up, add to and give to my nephew. I didn't use Multibit. I went to bitaddress org and downloaded the offline version. Made a paperwallet, loaded it up and sent to off to my nephew as planned. He created an account on blockchain info and sweep the entire amount in. At that point he installed multibit and sent the entire amount to himself.

It seemed to work, but please make sure somebody else with more experience is OK with all this before you try it.

We'll see....

Regards,

[BillyBobJoe]

My definition of "cold storage" is an address (and private key) that was generated on a computer that was disconnected from the internet, had its hard drive formatted, and a fresh install of a trusted operating system without being connected to the internet.  Then the hard drive is formatted again before ever connecting it back to the internet.

The concept is that any computer that has ever been connected to the internet has the potential of being infected with malware without you knowing it.  That malware has the potential of influencing the private keys (and addresses) that you generate such that the creator of the malware could gain control of your bitcoins.

By formatting the hard drive, and installing a trusted operating system, you eliminate the potential of the computer running any malware.  By formatting the hard drive again, you remove any trace of the software and data that was used on it.  Therefore, an attacker that gains access to your computer can't determine what private keys  (and addresses) were previously generated on it.

Many people find that this is excessive.  They are willing to accept a very small increase in risk in exchange for a significant decrease in complexity.  I know of people who will happily generate paper wallets at bitaddress.org (while online!), print them out, call that "cold storage".  If you are storing small amounts of bitcoins that you aren't going to feel devastated about losing, then this is probaby fine, but I wouldn't call it "cold storage".

Question. If you reformat the HDD a second time, as above, where do you have, store your wallet, wallet files, to access them again? You didn't mention a paper wallet, thumb drive, nothing?

[DannyHamilton]

Question. If you reformat the HDD a second time, as above, where do you have, store your wallet, wallet files, to access them again? You didn't mention a paper wallet, thumb drive, nothing?

When I said "generated", I assumed it was implied that the information would need to be recorded offline in some fashion (such as printing with a printer, or carefully writing it down on a piece of paper).  Saving to a USB thumb drive would be ok as well, as long as the thumb drive was never plugged into a computer that was connected to the internet.

I can see how someone unfamiliar with the importance of private keys might not understand the necessity to record this information, and therefore might not realize what I was implying.  As such, I've edited my post to clarify the matter.

[BillyBobJoe]

When I said "generated", I assumed it was implied that the information would need to be recorded offline in some fashion (such as printing with a printer, or carefully writing it down on a piece of paper).  Saving to a USB thumb drive would be ok as well, as long as the thumb drive was never plugged into a computer that was connected to the internet.

I can see how someone unfamiliar with the importance of private keys might not understand the necessity to record this information, and therefore might not realize what I was implying.  As such, I've edited my post to clarify the matter.

This touches on another area I am not totally clear on. What exactly needs to be recorded, printed out/written down?

We have private keys, private (sending?) address, and public (receiving?) address. Do I even have the terminology correct?

If one was to print or write down the private address only is that sufficient to recover (spend, send) BTC to a new wallet some day?

**edit**

Earlier I mentioned a a paper wallet I made. Was the hidden number the private key or private (sending?) address? Once again do I even have the terminology correct?

Regards, and thank you for your time.

[Kprawn]

Well I created a sh^%&load of paper wallets, on a brand new pc, I print them and keeping them for future. I then re-formatted the pc, and most traces of what was on the pc, is wiped. The pc will work as a standalone "wordprocessing" pc and will never be connected to the internet.

I deposit BTC into some of these wallets, to spread the bounty. If someone ever do get hold of these wallets, they will not be online, and all of them will not be, at my house. They will not find 1 wallet with all my coin.

Make say 100 paper wallets, and leave them all over the place. Make whoever are looking for it, work for it.  And in most casses, all of them will be empty anyways.

 

[DannyHamilton]

This touches on another area I am not totally clear on. What exactly needs to be recorded, printed out/written down?

The single most inportant piece of information you need is the private key.  With this you can regenerate the bitcoin address in the future. If you don't have the private key, you can't every access the bitcoins that were sent to the address.  If anyone else has access to the private key, then they can access and spend/steal your bitcoins.  This means that you need to do 2 important things.  You need to store the private key in a way that you are certain that you will be able to access it in the future (protect it against loss and damage), AND you need to store the private key in a way that you are certain that no untrusted individuals will be able to gain access to it.

We have private keys, private (sending?) address, and public (receiving?) address. Do I even have the terminology correct?

You have some of it right, but you have some that isn't right.

There is no such thing as a "sending address", or a "private address".  Some people will use the words "sending address" to refer to their "receiving address" when they spend the bitcoins that were recieved there, but this is not an accurate description and leads to confusion and misunderstandings.

So, when it comes to wallets (paper, offline, online, cold storage, etc), the two terms to be familiar with are "private key" and "bitcoin address" (also known as "receiving address").  You need to know what the bitcoin address is if you want to send bitcoins to the wallet.  You (or the software that you are using to create transactions) need to have access to the private key if you want to spend any bitcoins that were received at that address.  Every private key has exactly 1 address.  For all intents and purposes, every bitcoin address has exactly 1 private key.

If one was to print or write down the private address only is that sufficient to recover (spend, send) BTC to a new wallet some day?

Assuming that you mean "private key", yes that is sufficient.

Earlier I mentioned a a paper wallet I made. Was the hidden number the private key or private (sending?) address?

Hidden number? My best guess is that it was the private key, but I'd need to see an example of a similar paper wallet to be sure.

Once again do I even have the terminology correct?

Again, there is no "private address", and there really isn't a "sending address", but yes, the term "private key" was most likely correct.

[Kprawn]

Question 4

If the bitcoin adress can be generated from the private key, why can'nt the bitcoin adress, not be reverse engineered, to display the private key?

Silly question, but if someone figure that out, the whole crypto currency world will collapse.

[DannyHamilton]

If the bitcoin adress can be generated from the private key, why can'nt the bitcoin adress, not be reverse engineered, to display the private key?

There are three layers of cryptographic functions between the private key and the bitcoin address.  Each layer is currently recognized as being a one-way function.  In other words, given an input, it is very fast for a computer to calculate the output, but given an output, mathematicians have not yet found an efficient way to determine what the input could have been.

The first layer is ECDSA (Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm):
This algorithm depends on the fact that point multiplication is something that computers can do very quickly, but mathematicians have not yet found a way to efficiently accomplish the reverse.  It is known as the "discrete logarithm problem", and if an efficient method is discovered, then it will become possible to determine a private key if you have the public key.  Fortunately, the public key isn't revealed until the bitcoins that are received at an address are spent.  Therefore even if weaknesses are discovered in ECDSA, depending on just how efficient a solution is discovered, bitcoins received at a new address will still be secure.

The next layer is SHA-256 (Secure Hash Algorithm 256 bit):
This algorithm creates a 256 bit digest of the input.  The public key (generated from ECDSA) is used as input, and the output is fed to another hashing algorithm (RIPEMD-160). The output is unpredictable beyond the fact that it will fall between 0 and 2²⁵⁶.  Given the input, computers can very quickly calculate the digest, but mathematicians have not yet found a way to efficiently accomplish the reverse.  If SHA-256 is broken, it will affect much more than just Bitcoin.  This algorithm is widely used for security throughout the internet for passwords, and information verification.  Fortunately, the public key isn't revealed until the bitcoins that are received at an address are spent, and the output of SHA-256 is obscured by the RIPEMD-160 function.  Therefore, having a bitcoin address isn't enough information to calculate the public key, and breaking SHA-256 will only get you the public key which would then need ECDSA to also be broken before you could get to the private key.

As mentioned, the next layer is RIPEMD-160 (RACE Integrity Primitives Evaluation Message Digest 160 bit):
This algorithm creates a 160 bit digest of the input.  The output of the previous SHA-256 is used as input, and the output is essentially your bitcoin address. The output is unpredictable beyond the fact that it will fall between 0 and 2¹⁶⁰.  Given the input, computers can very quickly calculate the digest, but mathematicians have not yet found a way to efficiently accomplish the reverse.  Fortunately, the public key isn't revealed until the bitcoins that are received at an address are spent.  Therefore, if RIPEMD-160 were broken, having a bitcoin address is only enough information to calculate the output of the SHA-256 function.  You'd also have to break SHA-256 just to get the public key which would then need ECDSA to also be broken before you could get to the private key.

As you can hopefully see, weakening any one (or two) of these cryptographic functions isn't enough to steal bitcoins.  Meanwhile, if weaknesses ever are discovered in any of these algorithms, there would be plenty of time for Bitcoin to replace the weakened function with a newer more secure algorithm.  To get from a bitcoin address to a private key, someone would need to very suddenly discover extremely efficient solutions to reverse all three algorithms.  Since they don't have much in common, this would require some significant efforts in very different fields of study with some extremely lucky timing.

It isn't realistically going to happen.

[Kprawn]

I have to go back to this guys videos, to understand the concept. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2bw_N6kQL8

But your answer was spot on. Thanks.

[devthedev]

Bump, we're nearing 50 questions guys!

[JohnFromWIT]

What process do you use to generate an address from a private key?

[Acidyo]

Bump, we're nearing 50 questions guys!

This is an awesome thread btw! I've been reading everything and even though I may know a medium amount about bitcoins I still learned quite a few new things.

Amazing!

[devthedev]

What process do you use to generate an address from a private key?

I would just use the source of Bitaddress https://github.com/pointbiz/bitaddress.org/archive/master.zip and enter it in the Wallet Details tab.

[JohnFromWIT]

Sure sure, so I went to bitaddress.org and gave them my super secret private key:
a6d72baa3db900b03e70df880e503e9164013b4d9a470853edc115776323a098

They did some magic and gave me this really nifty address:
1Nbm3JoDpwS4HRw9WmHaKGAzaeSKXoQ6Ej

What I want to know is:
How do I magic?

[devthedev]

Check this out, https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Technical_background_of_Bitcoin_addresses

[DannyHamilton]

What process do you use to generate an address from a private key?

You use computer software to do it, because the math involved is tedious and time consuming. A computer can do such repetitive tasks quite quickly, but you wouldn't want to do it by hand with paper and pencil.

Specifically:

Start with identifying the curve being used and the base point of prime order on the curve.

In the case of Bitcoin, the curve is the Secp256k1 curve.
This is the curve described by the function:
y² = x³ + ax + b

Where:
a=0 and b=7

In the case of Bitcoin, the base point is the point on the curve with the (x,y) coordinates of:
(881060208356437498713259502322696549220009655260441506808002997766225867667840, 32670510020758816978083085130507043184471273380659243275938904335757337482424)

Next, perform elliptic curve point multiplication multiplying the base point by the private key scalar.

Elliptic curve multiplication in this case is the process of repeatedly adding the base point, so if your private key is 3, then your public key would be determined by adding the base point 3 times.  The process of point addition is defined as taking two points along the curve and computing where a line through them intersects the curve. The negative of the intersection point is used as the result of the addition

Obviously if you are adding a point to itself, then you only have 1 point on the line for the first calculation.  The process of adding a point to itself (point doubling) is defined as taking the tangent of the point on the curve and computing where the tangent line intersects the curve.

Since private keys are extremely large numbers, it would take a prohibitively long time to just add the base point repeatedly to the result of each calculation that many times.  Instead elliptic curve point multiplication has a shortcut.  You can repeatedly double, to get through many iterations very quickly, and then add to these larger results as needed to reach the appropriate number of iterations.  For example, if the private key was 100, you could do the find the public key in 8 operations (rather than 100 individual additions):

If the base point is G and the private key is 100...

double G to get 2 X G
add G to get 3 X G
double 3 X G to get 6 X G
double 6 X G to get 12 X G
double 12 X G to get 24 X G
add G to get 25 X G
double 25 X G to get 50 X G
double 50 X G to get 100 X G

The process for figuring out when to double and when to add can be described with the following process:

Start with the private key as the "number of remaining additions".

• If the number of remaining additions is even, then write down a "D" (to represent "Double").  If the number of remaining additions is odd, then write down "A" (to represent "Add")
• If the point was odd, (and you therefore wrote an "A") then subtract 1 from the number of remaining additions
• If the point was even, (and you therefore wrote a "D") then divide the number of remaining additions in half
• Repeat this process until the number of remaining additions is 1

Now, you can step through the list you wrote down in reverse, doubling or adding as indicated.  We can see this with our example of 100:

100 is even (D)
50 is even (D)
25 is odd (A)
24 is even (D)
12 is even (D)
6 is even (D)
3 is odd (A)
2 is even (D)

In reverse we get the instructions we saw earlier: Double, Add, Double, Double, Double, Add, Double, Double.

When you complete your elliptic curve point multiplication, the resulting point is your public key.

Next you need to calculate the SHA-256 hash of your public key.  I'm sorry, but I'm not going to try and walk you through that mathematics.  You can read about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA-256

The result will be a 256 bit number.

Next you take a RIPEMD-160 hash of the result of the SHA-256 hash. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to try and walk you through that mathematics.  You can read about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIPEMD-160

The result will be a 160 bit number.

The result of this hash is what is actually used in the transactions and blockchain to represent where the bitcoins are "sent to".  Bitcoin addresses are we know them are not stored in the blockchain at all.  They are this 160 bit number with a checksum (to help wallets catch a typo so you don't accidentally send to the wrong RIPEMD-160 hash), and a version number and then converted from a 160 bit binary number to a form of base58 (so you only need to type, write, print, or display 34 alphanumeric characters instead of 160 ones and zeros).

To add the version number, just put 8 zeros on the front of the 160 bit binary number.

To calculate the checksum:

• Calculate a SHA-256 hash of the RIPEMD-160 hash result
• Calculate a SHA-256 hash of this SHA-256 hash result
• Take the first 32 ones and zeros from this SHA-256 hash result

Append these 32 ones and zeros to the end of the RIPEMD-160 160 bit binary number.

The leading character '1', which has a value of zero in base58, is reserved for representing an entire leading zero byte, as when it is in a leading position, has no value as a base-58 symbol. There can be one or more leading '1's when necessary to represent one or more leading zero bytes. Count the number of leading zero bytes. Each leading zero byte shall be represented by its own character '1' in the final result.

Now, to get the bitcoin address, convert the rest of the 200 bit binary number to base58 using the representation defined here:

[devthedev]

I'd say that's about 50 questions asked. I'll be drawing two numbers, the first for the Wood Wallet and the second for the CEX.io voucher. I'll post the results in 20 minutes.
Your entry numbers are based on the post number that you can see to the top right of each post.

[DannyHamilton]

I'd say that's about 50 questions asked. I'll be drawing two numbers, the first for the Wood Wallet and the second for the CEX.io voucher. I'll post the results in 20 minutes.
Your entry numbers are based on the post number that you can see to the top right of each post.

You could make it provably fair by dividing the block hash of the next solved block (block 305601, or some later block if you don't see this message soon enough) by 109 and using the remainder as the "chosen random number".

This way everyone knows that you didn't just pick a favorite, since they can all repeat the calculation and see that the result is correct.

I assume you aren't giving the prizes to yourself?

If so, then you could wait for another block if the result is a post of your own.

If you decide to do this, it would be best to announce that is what you are going to do (and which block will start the process) ahead of time, so it doesn't look like you just waited for a block you liked.

[devthedev]

I'd say that's about 50 questions asked. I'll be drawing two numbers, the first for the Wood Wallet and the second for the CEX.io voucher. I'll post the results in 20 minutes.
Your entry numbers are based on the post number that you can see to the top right of each post.

You could make it provably fair by dividing the block hash of the next solved block (block 305601, or some later block if you don't see this message soon enough) by 109 and using the remainder as the "chosen random number".

This way everyone knows that you didn't just pick a favorite, since they can all repeat the calculation and see that the result is correct.

I assume you aren't giving the prizes to yourself?

If so, then you could wait for another block if the result is a post of your own.

If you decide to do this, it would be best to announce that is what you are going to do (and which block will start the process) ahead of time, so it doesn't look like you just waited for a block you liked.

That seems like the best way to do it. We'll use block 305604 and 305605 then. If I get drawn either time we'll use the next blocks.

[DannyHamilton]

That seems like the best way to do it. We'll use block 305604 and 305605 then. If I get drawn either time we'll use the next blocks.

Block: 305604
Hash: 0000000000000000299e9634677e11a49a454173b11d5e06e7a79f7a546779e3
In decimal: 16328106664413917946375602345914260453145169397703949917744
Remainder when dividing by 109: 37

Someone check my work, but I think the winner is:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=645750.msg7238969#msg7238969

If so, then it appears that I'm the winner.  I appreciate it, but I have no need for the prize.  If possible, I'd like to donate my prize to the person I responded to in that post "JohnFromWIT".  If JohnFromWIT does not want it, then I'll accept it and give it to someone local as a gift.

[devthedev]

That seems like the best way to do it. We'll use block 305604 and 305605 then. If I get drawn either time we'll use the next blocks.

Block: 305604
Hash: 0000000000000000299e9634677e11a49a454173b11d5e06e7a79f7a546779e3
In decimal: 16328106664413917946375602345914260453145169397703949917744
Remainder when dividing by 109: 37

Someone check my work, but I think the winner is:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=645750.msg7238969#msg7238969

If so, then it appears that I'm the winner.  I appreciate it, but I have no need for the prize.  If possible, I'd like to donate my prize to the person I responded to in that post "JohnFromWIT".  If JohnFromWIT does not want it, then I'll accept it and give it to someone local as a gift.

Thanks for all your help up to this point DannyHamilton. JohnFromWIT, PM me your public address and your physical address and I'll get a Wood Wallet out to you. Congrats!

[DannyHamilton]

That seems like the best way to do it. We'll use block 305604 and 305605 then. If I get drawn either time we'll use the next blocks.

Block: 305605
Hash: 00000000000000002e2b25627d27cbe11e664406f4d05cf2f00b8171d190110f
In decimal: 1132049287128551868613215852162935821461544770171095224591
Remainder when dividing by 109: 71

Someone check my work, but I think the winner is:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=645750.msg7256769#msg7256769

If so, then it appears that "Acidyo" is the winner.

[devthedev]

That seems like the best way to do it. We'll use block 305604 and 305605 then. If I get drawn either time we'll use the next blocks.

Block: 305605
Hash: 00000000000000002e2b25627d27cbe11e664406f4d05cf2f00b8171d190110f
In decimal: 1132049287128551868613215852162935821461544770171095224591
Remainder when dividing by 109: 71

Someone check my work, but I think the winner is:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=645750.msg7256769#msg7256769

If so, then it appears that "Acidyo" is the winner.

Just shot Monbux a PM. When he comes online he'll reply via the thread to arrange transfer of the GH/s. Congrats Acidyo!

[Kprawn]

Before you close shop - What is the "dust" everyone is talking about?

And congratulations on the winners. 

[byt411]

Before you close shop - What is the "dust" everyone is talking about?

And congratulations on the winners. 

It means extremely small amounts of bitcoins, such as 10 satoshis, etc.

[JohnFromWIT]

Hey fantastic, I never win anything.
And I didn't really win this.
Tell you what DannyHamilton,
I'll flip you for it.
Next block/118:
I bet remainder is over 58.

[JohnFromWIT]

Well I feel embarrassed now
Converting those hashes to decimal doesn't work for me
So I can't do the maths for my own bet.
On the upside, I know why checking the genisis block didn't work for me.
One of the reasons anyway.

Thanks for the thread devthedev,
Give the woodwallet to DannyHamilton.

[devthedev]

Before you close shop - What is the "dust" everyone is talking about?

And congratulations on the winners. 

We're not closing up shop anytime soon

Thanks for the thread devthedev,
Give the woodwallet to DannyHamilton.

Sounds good. Danny if you want to shoot me a public address and shipping addy when you get a chance it'd be appreciated.

[devthedev]

Post your questions here (:

I'll be offering the same promotion for the next 50 questions.
I'll be giving away another WoodWallet.

[monbux]

That seems like the best way to do it. We'll use block 305604 and 305605 then. If I get drawn either time we'll use the next blocks.

Block: 305605
Hash: 00000000000000002e2b25627d27cbe11e664406f4d05cf2f00b8171d190110f
In decimal: 1132049287128551868613215852162935821461544770171095224591
Remainder when dividing by 109: 71

Someone check my work, but I think the winner is:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=645750.msg7256769#msg7256769

If so, then it appears that "Acidyo" is the winner.

Gah, I'll give that guy the 1 GHS if he promises to take his spamming down a level.
Acidyo, please PM me to claim this gift.  I'll send the CEX.io voucher code then.

[Kprawn]

Recently, during this year, we have seen a game, Watch dog being infiltrated by botnets, used for mining.

Then there was Ads on Yahoo, doing the same thing.

What, apart from AV programs, and 3rd party firewalls, can detect and stop these botnets? Monitoring tools etc.

[byt411]

Recently, during this year, we have seen a game, Watch dog being infiltrated by botnets, used for mining.

Then there was Ads on Yahoo, doing the same thing.

What, apart from AV programs, and 3rd party firewalls, can detect and stop these botnets? Monitoring tools etc.

Well, those softwares are usually useless now, since they attempt to mine on your cpu, so if you're idling your pc and for some reason the cpu fan is spinning very quickly, then you need to check what's going on.
Also, check the CPU usage on task manager.

[Kprawn]

I tend to disagree.

Mining, use GPU na CPU. You would only pick it up, if you losing significant frame rates, when you playing games.

 

[byt411]

I tend to disagree.

Mining, use GPU na CPU. You would only pick it up, if you losing significant frame rates, when you playing games.

 

You would need to understand that it is a lot easier to code a CPU-Mining botnet than a GPU-Mining botnet, since a lot of people don't have AMD/Nvidia GPUs.

[meprob]

What forum services could I do to earn a bit of change? I thought of signature campaigns, but nobody really wants a newbie advertise their websites.

[BiTJack]

What forum services could I do to earn a bit of change? I thought of signature campaigns, but nobody really wants a newbie advertise their websites.

Actually there is one you can try that. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=636079.0;topicseen

[Lamigo]

What forum services could I do to earn a bit of change? I thought of signature campaigns, but nobody really wants a newbie advertise their websites.

Actually there is one you can try that. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=636079.0;topicseen

That is the only program accepting newbies, but please note that it is promoting a ponzi (and so the ponzi owner may vanish at any time without paying)...

[Acidyo]

That seems like the best way to do it. We'll use block 305604 and 305605 then. If I get drawn either time we'll use the next blocks.

Block: 305605
Hash: 00000000000000002e2b25627d27cbe11e664406f4d05cf2f00b8171d190110f
In decimal: 1132049287128551868613215852162935821461544770171095224591
Remainder when dividing by 109: 71

Someone check my work, but I think the winner is:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=645750.msg7256769#msg7256769

If so, then it appears that "Acidyo" is the winner.

Gah, I'll give that guy the 1 GHS if he promises to take his spamming down a level.
Acidyo, please PM me to claim this gift.  I'll send the CEX.io voucher code then.

You may give the 1gh/s voucher to someone else who maybe hasn't used cex.io before and can learn something from it. But thanks.

[Domino]

It is interesting to see everyone (Danny, John and Acidyo) are turning down the prizes.

[byt411]

I suggest you give them to others that have asked/answered questions in this thread, or just give it to me lol.

[monbux]

dev, or danny, mind choosing another winner?  I'll get the GHS sent to them, ask them to PM me or post here.

[devthedev]

dev, or danny, mind choosing another winner?  I'll get the GHS sent to them, ask them to PM me or post here.

I would but I still haven't found out how to convert a block hash to decimal form

[DannyHamilton]

dev, or danny, mind choosing another winner?  I'll get the GHS sent to them, ask them to PM me or post here.

I would but I still haven't found out how to convert a block hash to decimal form

I just use the converter here:
http://www.mathsisfun.com/binary-decimal-hexadecimal-converter.html

You could do the math yourself by hand, but it's not worth the effort.  The converter handles it just fine.

Rather than try to do the modulus function on such a big integer by hand, I just use this calculator:
http://www.mobilefish.com/services/big_number_equation/big_number_equation.php

[devthedev]

Great, thanks! I'll give it a shot tomorrow evening.

[monbux]

Great, thanks! I'll give it a shot tomorrow evening.

Alright, I'll just wait til then.

Also, I can just send 0.007 BTC to the winner's wallet if they wanted that, 1GHS is not withdrawable because it is only worth ~0.0075 BTC, you need a whole bitcent to withdraw.  So give them the option to just get 0.007 BTC

[Cancan]

Here I come with another question!

Why SHA256 and not another algo?

[JohnFromWIT]

Here I come with another question!

Why SHA256 and not another algo?

Pretty much repeating something I've picked up in this thread and am still taking in,  so correct me if I'm wrong.
There are other algorithms involved as back up in case one is broken.


EC and RIPEMD-160.

The process to get to a bitcoin address goes:
Private Key --> EC --> Public Key
Public Key --> SHA256 -> RIPEMD-160 --> PartAddress
PartAddress --> SHA256 -> SHA256 --> CheckSum

Full address is then made from:
00000000, followed by partAddress, followed by CheckSum
All one number.

So if RIPEMD-160 were broken in future, SHA256 would need to be broken too for attacker to profit. And Visa-versa
If EC were broken then (correct me) public keys that coins had been sent from might be vulnerable, but receiving wallets that don't send would still be safe.

EC - Elliptical Curve
RIPEMD-160 - RACE Integrity Primitive Evaluation Message Digest(160 bit)


EDIT: Rereading your question, I guess it's that SHA-256 is currently best choice when measuring security provided against work done.

[DannyHamilton]

and so the student becomes the teacher. Although in this case I believe the question was regarding a proof of work algorithm, and not the use in address generation

[JohnFromWIT]

and so the student becomes the teacher. Although in this case I believe the question was regarding a proof of work algorithm, and not the use in address generation

All thanks to you.
Yeah you snuck in while I was trying to cover up my mistake.
Edited the answer, but still didn't answer the question, because I just don't know.

[Kprawn]

Question:

Which wallet to use, that would all keep all the different Alt currencies and bitcoin. 

[PangPang]

Question:

Which wallet to use, that would all keep all the different Alt currencies and bitcoin. 

If you want a wallet to handle multiple coins, there is UfaSoft Coin (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=58821.0)
If you want a wallet to handle all coins, there will probably never happen, as we have hundreds of different coins and have new coins coming out everyday.

[devthedev]

Question:

Which wallet to use, that would all keep all the different Alt currencies and bitcoin. 

If you want a wallet to handle multiple coins, there is UfaSoft Coin (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=58821.0)
If you want a wallet to handle all coins, there will probably never happen, as we have hundreds of different coins and have new coins coming out everyday.

I wouldn't recommend UfaSoft, it's pretty gross.

The best way to go is to have different clients for each honestly.

[JohnFromWIT]

When you Encrypt your wallet in bitcoin-qt.
What exactly are you encrypting?

[couchdive]

First of all, thank you for this thread! My first post to this forum!

I want to learn about paper wallets and keys more, What is the best place to learn more about this process?

Whats the best way to learn by doing, without risking a lot of bitcoin?

[Mikez]

When you Encrypt your wallet in bitcoin-qt.
What exactly are you encrypting?

You are encrypting your wallet.dat file, which contains the private keys. The keys are encrypted with an entirely random master key, which itself is encrypted using algos such as AES256 and SHA512.

You can find more details here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Wallet_encryption

[jonnybravo0311]

First of all, thank you for this thread! My first post to this forum!

I want to learn about paper wallets and keys more, What is the best place to learn more about this process?

Whats the best way to learn by doing, without risking a lot of bitcoin?

Paper (and wood like the OP is offering) wallets are just another way to store BTC.  There are any number of services out there that will allow you to create, or will create for you, such a wallet.  You can print them from your home printer, burn them into wood, engrave them into metal, or just write them down by hand on a piece of paper.

Any wallet, be it paper, wood, metal, or electronic consists of two important parts: a public key and a private key.  The public key is what you give to other people so they can send you coins.  The private key is what allows you to access those coins and send them to others.  Think of this kind of like your bank deposit box.  Your bank will give you a key to open the box and deposit things.  Only they have the key to open it from the other side and retrieve the deposits.

If you go to blockchain.info, they've got a pretty decent tutorial.  Check it out here: https://blockchain.info/wallet/paper-tutorial

[devthedev]

I'm reviving this thread (:
Let me know if you have any questions!

[thecast]

If everyone gets told to forget about mining, who will do the mining until 2114? coz the current miners will be all dead by then 

[JohnFromWIT]

If everyone gets told to forget about mining, who will do the mining until 2114? coz the current miners will be all dead by then 

Whoever comes after I guess the current miners, it will likely me more like a business soon enough.
So people will go to work at the mines, work as maintenance and get paid a wage, while there will be heads of the company on top reaping the benefits and deciding what changes to make to the company direction.

Is it 2114 or 2140?

[BitCoinDream]

If everyone gets told to forget about mining, who will do the mining until 2114? coz the current miners will be all dead by then 

People are not discouraged about mining in general. They are discouraged to mine with CPU. If u can set up your own GPU rig, U can still make some coins by pointing to a pool, not to mention ASICs are the best performer till date.

[bittown]

How can I burn a cold storage wallet on a cd if I am running a live cd of ubuntu (only one cd slot avaiable)?

[devthedev]

Is it 2114 or 2140?

You're correct, 2140

How can I burn a cold storage wallet on a cd if I am running a live cd of ubuntu (only one cd slot avaiable)?

I don't believe it's possible. If anyone else has any ideas on whether it's possible or not feel free to chime in.

[Omikifuse]

How can I burn a cold storage wallet on a cd if I am running a live cd of ubuntu (only one cd slot avaiable)?

Have at least two cd drivers? Think there are some that are USB.

Or make a live USB instead?

[devthedev]

How can I burn a cold storage wallet on a cd if I am running a live cd of ubuntu (only one cd slot avaiable)?

Have at least two cd drivers? Think there are some that are USB.

Or make a live USB instead?

That would work as well, the second method would overall be better. Faster boot, more reliable, etc.

[bitkilo]

Interesting thread dev, Just want to know what your thoughts are on mobile wallet security? I like to put a small bit of btc on my phone (coinbase wallet) when I go out just in case I see that 'bitcoin accepted' sticker.
I use 2fa and also encrypt my phone, anything else you can think of that I should do?
I only keep a small amount on phone but I'm far from rich and don't want to loose what little btc iv got.
Keep up the goods work.

[jambola2]

Dev, you are going more and more into helping Newbs on the forums I see

Anyways, could you help me with a question of mine ? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=759087

[devthedev]

Interesting thread dev, Just want to know what your thoughts are on mobile wallet security? I like to put a small bit of btc on my phone (coinbase wallet) when I go out just in case I see that 'bitcoin accepted' sticker.
I use 2fa and also encrypt my phone, anything else you can think of that I should do?
I only keep a small amount on phone but I'm far from rich and don't want to loose what little btc iv got.
Keep up the goods work.

Yeah, with 2FA and encryption you should be fine with holding a small amount of Bitcoin with Coinbase. However, if you're planning on holding for the long term I'd suggest using a cold storage device such as the Trezor or a paper wallet.

Could you help me with a question of mine ? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=759087

Buying a steam wallet code can screw you over, if the seller used a stolen CC.

But can buying a steam gift implicate you in any way ? If the seller used a stolen CC, on maybe a new account, to buy a gift and give it to you ?

I would consider this a grey area. If you knowingly purchase a product that's been purchased with a stolen CC it's a felony in the US.

[devthedev]

For every 50 questions asked I'll be giving away a product or service!
The next one up is a $200 Amazon.com gift card.
The card will be given to a random user who's asked a question or helped others in the thread!

[nagabeler]

Is it the most safe and profitable to invest bitcoin is just to trading it? buy low sell high?

I have invested in HYIPS , cloudmining, ponzis games, and all of them turn to be scams

when i asked about mining, most of the member here told me it is not worth it anymore

so what the best way to invest or earning BTC right now?

[JohnFromWIT]

Is it the most safe and profitable to invest bitcoin is just to trading it? buy low sell high?

I have invested in HYIPS , cloudmining, ponzis games, and all of them turn to be scams

when i asked about mining, most of the member here told me it is not worth it anymore

so what the best way to invest or earning BTC right now?

You'll see HODL written a lot on here,
It simply means buy and hold.
It's the best advice for the majority of us that don't know that much.
Later on if you learn enough you can try earning, but make sure you know what you're doing first.

[homm88]

Is it the most safe and profitable to invest bitcoin is just to trading it? buy low sell high?

I have invested in HYIPS , cloudmining, ponzis games, and all of them turn to be scams

when i asked about mining, most of the member here told me it is not worth it anymore

so what the best way to invest or earning BTC right now?

I do believe person-to-person trading and arbitrage over different markets is the most reliable way to increase your BTC amount. Just have to know how to get a decent percentage (5% is absolutely fine) of profit per trade, and absolutely do your best to minimize your chances of getting scammed. ( http://www.firenzee.com/bitcoin-otc-safety.txt is a good guide for newbies)

Price speculation can be a viable way to earn, but you need to have a tried and tested successful strategy if you want to make money and plenty of knowledge on it, otherwise you're just gambling.

[Tammy Chan]

Is it the most safe and profitable to invest bitcoin is just to trading it? buy low sell high?

I have invested in HYIPS , cloudmining, ponzis games, and all of them turn to be scams

when i asked about mining, most of the member here told me it is not worth it anymore

so what the best way to invest or earning BTC right now?

You'll see HODL written a lot on here,
It simply means buy and hold.
It's the best advice for the majority of us that don't know that much.
Later on if you learn enough you can try earning, but make sure you know what you're doing first.

Literally speaking, you can never earn BTC with hodling your bitcoin.
You can earn some USD when bitcoin price goes up, but your 10 btc will forever be the same 10 btc in your wallet lol.

[homm88]

Some people consider Casascius physical Bitcoins as a reasonable investment to grow the amount of your BTC. But then again, you have to do your own research and math on what the payoffs of that would be, and it would probably be easier to just flip them in the short-term instead of holding long-term.

[Brewins]

Is it the most safe and profitable to invest bitcoin is just to trading it? buy low sell high?

I have invested in HYIPS , cloudmining, ponzis games, and all of them turn to be scams

when i asked about mining, most of the member here told me it is not worth it anymore

so what the best way to invest or earning BTC right now?

Better way is find the best way for you to get money then use the money to buy Bitcoins. If it happens the best way will already pay you with Bitcoins, gret for you, if not, it is not bad.

HODL won't will earn you bitcoins, because 1BTC = 1BTC for all eternity(it is the identity principle)

[Nagato4]

Is it the most safe and profitable to invest bitcoin is just to trading it? buy low sell high?

I have invested in HYIPS , cloudmining, ponzis games, and all of them turn to be scams

when i asked about mining, most of the member here told me it is not worth it anymore

so what the best way to invest or earning BTC right now?

Trading isn't safe at all, as bitcoin price is very volatile and unpredictable.
I couldn't find another good bitcoin investment opportunity after JD is down.

[devthedev]

Is it the most safe and profitable to invest bitcoin is just to trading it? buy low sell high?

I have invested in HYIPS , cloudmining, ponzis games, and all of them turn to be scams

when i asked about mining, most of the member here told me it is not worth it anymore

so what the best way to invest or earning BTC right now?

Trading isn't safe at all, as bitcoin price is very volatile and unpredictable.
I couldn't find another good bitcoin investment opportunity after JD is down.

The best place you can invest right now is your own cold storage ;)

[cainy393]

In terms of investment it's supposed to be quite profitable to invest small low-risk amounts and make small profits off the small peaks and troffs that occur on almost an hourly basis with bitcoin. Because of its volatile nature it can be much quicker to make money trading BTC as opposed to trading stocks/currencies in the same way. That said, you really do have to know what you're doing when it comes to that.

[hikedoon]

 I've got a question but I don't know if it's relevant to Bitcoin or not.
 Maybe someone knows.

  I came across an article about "illegal prime numbers" and I ended up at this wikipedia page
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_prime
   
 and I was wondering if any of the Bitcoin code could be written as "executable prime numbers".
 
 

[devthedev]

I've got a question but I don't know if it's relevant to Bitcoin or not.
 Maybe someone knows.

  I came across an article about "illegal prime numbers" and I ended up at this wikipedia page
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_prime
   
 and I was wondering if any of the Bitcoin code could be written as "executable prime numbers".

I'm not exactly sure, I'll have to read up more on Illegal Prime Numbers. If any other user has any input on this question feel free to contribute!

There's a $200 Amazon Gift Card being given out soon!

[shorena]

I've got a question but I don't know if it's relevant to Bitcoin or not.
 Maybe someone knows.

  I came across an article about "illegal prime numbers" and I ended up at this wikipedia page
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_prime
   
 and I was wondering if any of the Bitcoin code could be written as "executable prime numbers".

-snip-
If any other user has any input on this question feel free to contribute!
-snip-

Well this is a pretty broad answer, but since there are an infinite number of primes [1] and even an infite number of primes in the form needed for an illegal prime [2] there is at least one that can represent the current code of the reference client for bitcoin. But honestly, Illegal numbers are not a concept by mathematicians, technicians or programmers. Its an concept that originates in the wrong idea that information can be owned and licensed. Information is neither matter nor energy it is something different even though we need matter and/or energy to store it. The concept of secret algorithms that can not be known in order to protect something was outdated before the first computer was build [3] yet people still cling to that idea. The illegal prime is just another story that proves that humans will find a way to share information, even if that would require you to print the source into a book [4].



[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclid%27s_theorem
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirichlet%27s_theorem_on_arithmetic_progressions
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_through_obscurity
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy#Criminal_investigation

[Qudex]

I have a question concerning cloud mining, i have an account at cex.io that i mostly fund through freebitcoin and freedogecoin, is it better to hold the currency (doge mainly as i tend to buy ghs with the btc straight away) or convert it to either btc or ltc to buy more ghs and/or trade with it?

[devthedev]

I have a question concerning cloud mining, i have an account at cex.io that i mostly fund through freebitcoin and freedogecoin, is it better to hold the currency (doge mainly as i tend to buy ghs with the btc straight away) or convert it to either btc or ltc to buy more ghs and/or trade with it?

You'll never break even from the mining on it's own. You're better off holding the crypto then spending it on cloud mining.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

[Qudex]

thank you

[homm88]

I have a question concerning cloud mining, i have an account at cex.io that i mostly fund through freebitcoin and freedogecoin, is it better to hold the currency (doge mainly as i tend to buy ghs with the btc straight away) or convert it to either btc or ltc to buy more ghs and/or trade with it?

If you consider in how much the price of ghs is going to drop into your calculations, since you'll have to sell it off eventually - that affects your profits too.
Even there is some profit from it, it's not a very high amount and mining has seen a trend of slowly getting less and less profitable.

Considering in the different risks too such as cex.io closing down/running off with your money as has happened to many other big services before (hi mtgox) I'm personally not a fan of cloud mining.

[Harry Hood]

How come there isn't much (if any) good analysis on bitcoin price projections?

Thanks!

[Bitcoin_BOy$]

why bitcoin core is most popular and very  used than online wallet ?

[Muhammed Zakir]

why bitcoin core is most popular and very  used than online wallet ?

Unlike other wallets, Bitcoin core have RPC calls. It is the most reason behind the usage. See these for more details:

1) https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/API_reference_(JSON-RPC)
2) Unofficial : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=800892.0

   ~~MZ~~

[shorena]

why bitcoin core is most popular and very  used than online wallet ?

I doubt it is. Where did you get that info? Its big and slow and even though I currently run 3 full nodes* and plan on running more I doubt the average user does the same.


* a full node is when you have a complete copy of the blockchain as you do with bitcoin core.

[Bitcoin_BOy$]

Thx , but why use bitcoin core in desktop because fee or they are the same in web wallet

[shorena]

Thx , but why use bitcoin core in desktop because fee or they are the same in web wallet

If you use a desktop wallet you are in full control of your private keys. This way you dont have to rely on some service to keep your coins safe. This is just my view, there is no best wallet for everyone. For some an online service that keeps your keys safe is a better choice. Thats why there are so many different wallets, because someone in the past was not happy with the ones available and made a new one.

[virtualx]

Thx , but why use bitcoin core in desktop because fee or they are the same in web wallet

Desktop wallets can have more security. The Bitcoin protocol does not rely on a trusted third party, with a web wallet you have to trust the third party.