I'm not saying there aren't going to be more user-friendly applications someday, but as of now it's just way too confusing. It's even confusing to me and I've spent all day reading about Bitcoin and have slightly higher computer knowledge than most people.
Please look at these statements of mine, THANK YOU!
I've been literally reading ALL DAY and I can't wrap my stupid head around Multi-Bit and how it works. Can someone PLEASE break down these following questions for me?
1. What the heck is a difference between a wallet and a private key in Multi-bit? Is the wallet essentially an unlocked version of the key? (since everytime I start up Multi-bit the wallet just opens)
2. I heard the private key is a code which essentially can get you access to your bitcoins...your bitcoins are stored in that code, right? How do I find that code in the event that the "Wallet.key" file is corrupted? Then, in the case that that .key file is corrupted, what do I do with that long code to get back access to my coins?
Thank you for taking the time to read, and believe me I really have put effort into understanding.
Please look at these statements of mine, THANK YOU!
I've been literally reading ALL DAY and I can't wrap my stupid head around Multi-Bit and how it works. Can someone PLEASE break down these following questions for me?
1. What the heck is a difference between a wallet and a private key in Multi-bit? Is the wallet essentially an unlocked version of the key? (since everytime I start up Multi-bit the wallet just opens)
2. I heard the private key is a code which essentially can get you access to your bitcoins...your bitcoins are stored in that code, right? How do I find that code in the event that the "Wallet.key" file is corrupted? Then, in the case that that .key file is corrupted, what do I do with that long code to get back access to my coins?
Thank you for taking the time to read, and believe me I really have put effort into understanding.
Cars are WAY too confusing for the average person. Have you ever tried to take a car apart into all it's component pieces and put it all back together?
Ok, now that we've got that out of the way. . .
A wallet is a program that allows you to access your bitcoins.
Electrum is a wallet.
MultiBit is a wallet.
Bitcoin-Qt is a wallet.
https://blockchain.info/wallet is a wallet.
A bitcoin address is a special string of letters and numbers that is generated from a private key. A wallet can have MANY bitcoin addresses. When you want to receive bitcoins, you provide a bitcoin address from your wallet to the person who will be sending you bitcoins. They use their wallet to create a transaction that assigns bitcoin value to the address in an output.
Here is an example of an address: 1AD1PeA41UYrcdtg68jcZoEzHJYTEh5XrZ
A private key is essentially a super secret password that you need to access/spend the bitcoins that are associated with a paarticual bitcoin address. Each bitcoin address has its own unique private key. The wallet program stores these private keys for you. Most wallet programs don't show this private key to you. The wallet program takes care of storing it and using it when you decide to create a transaction to send bitcoins somewhere.
As long as you have the private key stored somewhere safe, you will be able to access your bitcoins. If anyone else ever gets access to your private key, they will be able to access your bitcoins. This means that it is important to create a backup of whatever files your wallet program uses to store those private keys (so you still have them if your computer crashes or burns up in a fire, or is destroyed in a tornado, or whatever). It also means that it is important to protect the files that store the private keys from being accessed by anyone else (many wallet programs allow you to provide a password to encrypt the contents of the file that stores your private keys).
The bitcoins are stored in the public blockchain. Every full peer participating in the bitcoin network has a complete copy of the public blockchain that has all the bitcoins, but the ownership of those bitcoins can't be transferred to anyone else without the private key that is used to sign the transaction. As long as you have your private keys safely stored somewhere (and nobody else has access to them), you'll be able to regain access to your bitcoins even if your computer is destroyed.
I'm not certain about the specifics of MultiBit and where it stores the private keys and if or how it allows you to export, import, save, restore, encrypt, or otherwise protect them.
