Totally new. Without a clue.

[kayem]

Can anyone explain to me how Bitcoins work? How to safely purchase bitcoins? Also explain to me how they are electronically stored and where?

[maku]

If you are totally new to the bitcoin then the best thing you can do is watch videos on youtube. They are simple for you to understand and they are many... Just search youtube with 'bitcoin guide' or 'what is bitcoin' and you will find some good material for starters.

[guitarplinker]

If you have about 25 minutes, this video might be worth watching.

It should explain bitcoin to you (in a technical sense) in about 22 minutes, and it goes into depth with how everything technical works too.

[waterpile]

Can anyone explain to me how Bitcoins work? How to safely purchase bitcoins? Also explain to me how they are electronically stored and where?

try this: https://bitcoin.org/en/faq

google is your friend, he can tell something more about bitcoin.

[bitkilo]

Explaining bitcoin to a newbie in 1 post would be very hard, best to do your own research on the net or watch youtube vids as others have said.
Once you have spent a couple of hours web searching and watching vids then you can re post any follow up questions you have.

Good luck and welcome to the crazy rollercoaster of bitcoin.
Warning, it can be addictive

[Velkro]

Can anyone explain to me how Bitcoins work? How to safely purchase bitcoins? Also explain to me how they are electronically stored and where?

Lots of reading before you, but.... you don't need to know how bitcoin work.... how internet work? You also don't know, you don't need to know.
You have your address, you buy coins to it, send from it.... thats all

[DannyHamilton]

Can anyone explain to me how Bitcoins work?

You run software on your computer or smartphone called a "wallet".  The wallet software communicates with the Bitcoin network and allows you to send and receive bitcoins.  It keeps track of the total amount of bitcoins you control.  Using your wallet software you can generate a "bitcoin address".  A bitcoin address can be given out, and when someone uses their wallet to send bitcoins to that address, they will show up in your wallet. If you use a new address for every transaction, then you can see in your wallet who sent you bitcoins and when.

How to safely purchase bitcoins?

That depends on where you live.

Some possibilities are:

• Coinbase
• BitStamp
• Bitfinex
• Circle
• LocalBitcoins

Also explain to me how they are electronically stored and where?

Every transaction that has ever occurred with Bitcoin is permanently recorded in a public ledger called "the blockchain".  Every full node peer on the Bitcoin network stores a complete copy of the blockchain.  When you send or receive bitcoins, the transaction is transmitted by your wallet onto the Bitcoin network.  The peers relay it until almost all node are aware of it.  Eventually the transaction is confirmed into a block which is added to the blockchain.

Your wallet software is aware of which addresses it is able to accept transactions at.  It scans the entire blockchain and adds up all the unspent transaction outputs that were sent to addresses that your wallet has control over.

[lophie]

I agree with the guys on having to do some reasearch because no one can answer these questions thoroughly. It is a BIG question you know and answering it takes a very very long time if you dive into different aspects of the answer. But I want to help with what I think most tutorials and videos choose NOT to explain correctly to avoid confusing a layman.

Q: Where are the bitcoins stored
A: The correct answer is the blockchain and not the wallet. To elaborate, Think of the block chain and bitcoin as the following:

Imagine an almost infinity big room filled with many many locked mailboxes the keys to these mailboxes are scattered allover the room nowhere near the mailbox they open but the box number they open is engraved on each. On the ceiling on top of each mailbox is a rope connected the one big but transparent piñata full of small serial numbered coins. the piñata gets shaken by people pulling the ropes and drops a certain amount of coins approximately every ten minutes that falls perfectly inside the these people mailboxes and overtime as the coins get less and less this amounts halves every two years (another approximation).

This is Bitcoin

Now to connect the dots. Your wallet is your set of keys that you decided to keep with you. Your bitcoins are not there. Your bitcoins are the coins inside those many many mailboxes. Everyone with coins can drop you some. but only you, The one who decided to keep those certain keys are able to open the corresponding mailboxes and take the coins, in order to move them somewhere else.

The block chain is a "current" list that everyone can get a copy of and update regularly of the mailboxes holding any coins inside them and a detailed trackable history of what went where since they fell off the piñata.

This is Bitcoin

Disclaimer: I do not give permission for the above to be copied and claimed to be an original. I took my time and effort thinking of the above scenario. I think I am entitled to be told of as the person who came up with it.  

[notlist3d]

Biggest advice if it sounds to good to be true.... it is.  Watch out for investments that offer huge returns.  Never invest more then you can lose.

Also look into safe wallets.  Cold storage and paper wallets.  Shamless plug for my signature it is a coin you have private key in.  There are a lot of nice hardware or software to keep coins safe.

[avatar_kiyoshi]

Can anyone explain to me how Bitcoins work? How to safely purchase bitcoins? Also explain to me how they are electronically stored and where?

http://bitcoin.org/en/faq
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/

you can choose your wallet here: https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet i recommended electrum

[Kprawn]

Can anyone explain to me how Bitcoins work? How to safely purchase bitcoins? Also explain to me how they are electronically stored and where?

The most simple explanation would be to say... "Bitcoin is a ledger account stored on loads of people's computers, where everyone can make entries on it.. every time you use bitcoins or a part of it, it will be displayed on this electronic ledger.... To have access to it, you create a public and private key, and that will link you, to your part of the coins you reference on the ledger."

Nobody else can access your part without your private key.

The public key and the private key are paired with each other with huge math/encryption which cannot be solved or paired with todays computer power... So your coins should be safe for years to come.

I will post some videos on the subject later...

[ronaldo40]

Can anyone explain to me how Bitcoins work? How to safely purchase bitcoins? Also explain to me how they are electronically stored and where?

for storage I use blockchain.info and use 2FA(google authenticator) very safe until now

[Amph]

bitcoin is a digital decentralized curreny, they work like strongbox chain, wher ein every strongbox there are for now 25 btcoin, when you make a transaction you need the key of the strongbox to transfer them to another strongbox

you can safely purchase them on kraken, you need an account(no id required, unless you are from germany)

in the blockchain, already explained above practically

[uki]

If you like reading books, you may have a look at:

http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920032281.do



probably the most comprehensible and complete book about Bitcoin.

[AtheistAKASaneBrain]

If you like reading books, you may have a look at:

http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920032281.do



probably the most comprehensible and complete book about Bitcoin.

I think Mastering Bitcoin is too hardcore for the mega newbie, maybe the very first pages can be useful but then it gets too technical for the average joe.

[dothebeats]

Hello. Welcome to BTT and welcome to the world of bitcoin!

First things first, you may want to know what bitcoin is. Bitcoin is a digital currency developed by a man named Satoshi Nakamoto and is based on SHA-256 algorithm. To be able to "create" bitcoins, one must "mine" them by using a "miner" to obtain them by a process called "mining". In mining bitcoins, you use your hardware's computing power to compute the necessary algorithm that bitcoin is based on. To be able to learn more about this, please see https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining

The basics are located here ---> https://bitcoin.org/en/

Hope I helped you here. Again, welcome to the world of cryptocurrency!

[najzenmajsen]

Can anyone explain to me how Bitcoins work?

You run software on your computer or smartphone called a "wallet".  The wallet software communicates with the Bitcoin network and allows you to send and receive bitcoins.  It keeps track of the total amount of bitcoins you control.  Using your wallet software you can generate a "bitcoin address".  A bitcoin address can be given out, and when someone uses their wallet to send bitcoins to that address, they will show up in your wallet. If you use a new address for every transaction, then you can see in your wallet who sent you bitcoins and when.

How to safely purchase bitcoins?

That depends on where you live.

Some possibilities are:

• Coinbase
• BitStamp
• Bitfinex
• Circle
• LocalBitcoins

Also explain to me how they are electronically stored and where?

Every transaction that has ever occurred with Bitcoin is permanently recorded in a public ledger called "the blockchain".  Every full node peer on the Bitcoin network stores a complete copy of the blockchain.  When you send or receive bitcoins, the transaction is transmitted by your wallet onto the Bitcoin network.  The peers relay it until almost all node are aware of it.  Eventually the transaction is confirmed into a block which is added to the blockchain.

Your wallet software is aware of which addresses it is able to accept transactions at.  It scans the entire blockchain and adds up all the unspent transaction outputs that were sent to addresses that your wallet has control over.

whew , you've made the best post so far imo , to the newbie i belive that checking the what is bitcoin etc video's will help you out alot , that's how i got started atleast.

[findftp]

Can anyone explain to me how Bitcoins work? How to safely purchase bitcoins? Also explain to me how they are electronically stored and where?

Well, if you had actually put your first sentence into google, you would have had enough to read.
First investigate, then ask.

[AutoSigBot]

Visit an exchange such as https://BIT-X.com to buy bitcoins with fiat.

[Brewins]

If you like reading books, you may have a look at:

http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920032281.do



probably the most comprehensible and complete book about Bitcoin.

I think Mastering Bitcoin is too hardcore for the mega newbie, maybe the very first pages can be useful but then it gets too technical for the average joe.

read the bitcoin faq in the  bitcoin.org site if you only want to get some high level idea about how btc works.

The chapters about btc story of the mastering btc book might be interesting to newbies, too