Newbie All-Day - Ask All Your Bitcoin Questions Here!

[shorena]

I bought a LetraTag yesterday for this very purpose. I guess I'll check on the print every year to see if it's starting to fade and reprint if it is.

Better than my handwriting, anyway.

I think it greatly depends on what you print on. I dont know why, but when I saw that machine I had these supermarket printers in mind. They print on very thin thermopaper and some even have a warning on the back. The warning reads: no sunlight, no chemicals, no oil, no fats, no pressure, no heat, nothing that contains softeners (so maybe my wraps are a bad idea). You basically cant even touch them. Anyway now that I looked at the machine again I think its printing on thick plastic. Dont some of them even "engrave" the print? That should work for ~10 years

[Farmer17]

What's the best thing to start as a beginner? I was planning to buy 0.1/2/3 BTC. I'm not mining by the way.

The best thing to start to understand bitcoin, is to read the bitcoin wiki (https://bitcoin.it/), the Coindesk guide (http://www.coindesk.com/information/) and the whitepaper (https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf).

The best thing to start to invest in bitcoin, is to buy it directly with fiat money.

The best thing to start to earn some bitcoin, is to sell your products or services with bitcoin.

[btchris]

If you worry about the printers cache, AFAIK this is usually only a problem with the big office machines that have actual harddrives in them. Most home use printers have no long term storrage.

True, but most printers run close-source software that do things many don't know about and may not want, even home printers. For example it's known that many (most?) printers will refuse to print counterfeit money using various technologies[1], and some printers surreptitiously include nearly-invisible identifiers to link the printed document to the individual printer which printed it[2]. If they can do this, who knows what could be next (I know this does sound a bit tin-foil-hattish...)

Printers can also be theoretically infected by malware remotely, although I don't think there are any documented cases of this outside a research setting[3] (not yet, anyways).

Some paper wallets / BIP32 backups (e.g. Armory) allow you to encrypt before printing. If you write down the encryption password on the printout, you'll have everything you need to restore the wallet in one place, and you'll remain safe from such printers.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation
[2] https://www.eff.org/issues/printers
[3] http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29203776

[Farmer17]

Very true. With the BIP38 encryption (available on bitaddress), even if someone pick up your paper wallet, your bitcoin is still safe as long as they have no knowledge of your password.

[Bernard Lerring]

An update on the Dymo LetraTag:

Bought one after reading a lot of good reviews on Amazon. Bought it from a high street shop.

Put brand new Duracell (4 x AA Ultra Plus, or something) in and every time I went to make a print the "battery low" warning would come on. I perservered and printed out my keys, even trying some other brand new Duracell AA standard batteries and still the "battery low" warning.

I wasn't happy with this and took it back for an exchange, thinking that the unit I had was dodgy. The replacement did exactly the same.

So, I've given up on the LetraTag, got my money back, and will stick to hand writing BTC keys in future. I considered a Brother P-Touch model but they are too expensive and the cartridges are also pricey.

[BillyBobZorton]

On a scale of 1 to 10, what are the chances Bitcoin goes to 10, and what are the chances Bitcoin goes to 10K?

[DannyHamilton]

On a scale of 1 to 10, what are the chances Bitcoin goes to 10, and what are the chances Bitcoin goes to 10K?

50/50

[Hellcat]

Does the stratum proxy work ok on a 3g connection? I need to move my equipment and the new place doesn't have any wired internet.

Im not sure. Can anyone help out?

Nope sorry. It probably dependa on the hashingpower behind the proxy anyway. This might be interesting though.

 https://github.com/pooler/rollproxy

A proxy to reduce getwork requests and thus bandwidth usage.

Thanks. Will try to get it working

[marcotheminer]

Ask all your questions!

[LiteCoinGuy]

Where is satoshi now?

[888coin]

Any step-by-step guide how to double spend bitcoin?

I know I can't do this with my little hashpower but I'm just interested in understanding the theory behind this.

Thanks.

[Loophole]

Any step-by-step guide how to double spend bitcoin?

I know I can't do this with my little hashpower but I'm just interested in understanding the theory behind this.

Thanks.

You don't really need any hashing power to attempt double spending. You just need to create two different transactions that both spend a particular tx output, and you broadcast both the two transactions to the network. Eventually one will get confirmed, and one will never get confirmed.

But if you are talking about reverting a confirmed transaction and replacing it with another one, it will be a different story.

[btchris]

Any step-by-step guide how to double spend bitcoin?

I know I can't do this with my little hashpower but I'm just interested in understanding the theory behind this.

Thanks.

You don't really need any hashing power to attempt double spending. You just need to create two different transactions that both spend a particular tx output, and you broadcast both the two transactions to the network. Eventually one will get confirmed, and one will never get confirmed.

But if you are talking about reverting a confirmed transaction and replacing it with another one, it will be a different story.

There exist tools (such as the one here, although it's not intended for newbies: https://github.com/petertodd/replace-by-fee-tools) that will create double-spend transactions which may work some of the time. By "work", I only mean that it can "fool" recipients who choose not to wait for confirmations.

(FYI many people don't consider the term "double-spend" to ever apply to 0-conf transactions...)

[shawniko]

can bitcoins be transferred into hard currency such as dollers or euros?

[shorena]

can bitcoins be transferred into hard currency such as dollers or euros?

Yes.
- You can use one of the big exchanged (usually requires some form of activation)
- You can meet with someone in person (e.g. via Mycelium local trader or localbitcoins)
- You can use this section of the board https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=53.0

[notlist3d]

can bitcoins be transferred into hard currency such as dollers or euros?

What country are you in?  This will help us tell you what is best for your situation.

[Pony789]

can bitcoins be transferred into hard currency such as dollers or euros?

What country are you in?  This will help us tell you what is best for your situation.

Also, you may want to tell us what way of payment are you looking for (eg. bank wire, WU, PM, etc) and whether you mind doing ID verification.

[flybull]

I am new to bitcoin and I am trying to pay my activation fee for v-m in usd. I need help

[Pony789]

I am new to bitcoin and I am trying to pay my activation fee for v-m in usd. I need help

Welcome to the bitcoin world.

Could you be more specific about your problem?
Are your v-m provider accepting bitcoin payment and you have problem buying bitcoin or sending bitcoin?

[mittalrishabh]

I am wondering that why do we need consensus algorithm like ripple if all the nodes in a system is honest. There won't exist an use case of double spending. I am asking this question because recently i am reading the news that banks are using ripple algorithm to transfer money between their international branches.