Hi folks, newbie here. I'm looking for some advice please.
I really want to have a permanent public address that I use to receive Bitcoins. By this I mean that I use this address everywhere online (and on my business cards). Anyone who wants to can then check my name and address online and see what address is mine.
I've seen people talk about privacy issues but I don't really understand why. If there is a problem with doing this, is there anything else that I can do to mitigate the risks?
I've seen onename.io allow you to do this so I'm assuming that having one address that you publicly claim s yours can't be too much of a problem.
Thanks!
En, not really understand what you talk about.
A bitcoin address include a pair of public Key and private key which generated by a specific function.
The public Key is used to recieve money, and the private key used to spend the money.
Sorry, I should have been clearer. I understand that an address involves both a public key and a private key. My question is really how risky is it to hand out business cards with one public key on it if I don't want to have all my transactions public. I'll be using the same business cards for maybe over a year.
I wouldn't want to spend lots of money on printing cards if I was just going to have to change that address in a month's time.
I could just use one address to receive payments/tips etc before immediately sending any bitcoins received immediately on to a different address that I control (e.g. in my case using Mycelium to ensure that every transaction is sent to a new address that I control within my HD wallet). But does that not mean that it's easy to imply that those second addresses are also mine? I suppose that I could be spending that money with merchants etc but the reality is that with small amounts (tips etc), the chances are they're all going into another address that I control.
I would split business, privat deals etc.
For business also use one address per customer. It's better for a clean structure and the customer can better comprehend if the payment arrived etc.
Great point, thanks.
If you have nothing to hide and if this is just part of your business principle for transparency, then there is nothing wrong to list down your public address. For me, that is not an issue at all and in fact, I do share my address with people I know and don't know and even post it publicly in the forum here. If you compare to credit card and other payment services, those are even worse.
It's more for personal use to be honest - having one address that is definitively mine that other people can rely on (I realise however that there might be risks from people hacking into my personal website if it displays my address and then any money gets directed by a changed QR code to a thief).