Topic: BTC Private Keys (Read 498 times)

Agree, u need to practice, generate your private keys and import them to wallet for example Electrum.
You will understand by practice, how it works its very simple but u need to find out yourself.

i wanted to know so as to know what to expect from the forum people...cos i intedn to join in campaigns etc and also ofer video editing and promos service to people in here and am think how am going to get paid....also do u have any idea why my post and activity count dont tally?

 That would be the most visible place... But it is not important at all that you put it there.  You don't even need to post it!
Why are you asking such tough questions?

can u give me any tip on why it is important to have it in my sig

 Sure.  Put it in your sig.

my question is..is it okay to put my bitcoin address on this forum?

You are misunderstanding how bitcoin works.  Bitcoins don't have private keys.

The seller received bitcoins at an address for which he has the associated private key.

When he "sends you the bitcoins", what actually happens is that he broadcasts a transaction that re-assigns that value using an address for which you have the private key.

Lets say you receive 1 bitcoin at an address of 1LF1egUsL8gidjW29Y3uqgapN4D85YpmNx and that you control the private key that is associated with that address...

The transaction that transfers control to you effectively says:
"Encumber 1 BTC of value with the following requirement that must be met when it is used to fund a transaction in the future: The transaction must include an ECDSA digital signature that can be validated with the public key that is associated with the address of 1LF1egUsL8gidjW29Y3uqgapN4D85YpmNx"

Since the ONLY way to provide such a signature is to know the private key that is associated with the public key that is associated with that address, only someone that has access to that private key can spend that 1 BTC.

When you spend it, you create and broadcast a new transaction.  Lets say you then send that 1 BTC to address 1JRm54UFCSjhBk9oWxPt7WpsmAteFUYy4e...

Your transaction will include the necessary digital signature that meets the requirement that the 1 BTC is encumbered by. Therefore you will be allowed to supply the 1 BTC of value to the transaciton.  Then your transaction will effectively say:
"Encumber 1 BTC of value with the following requirement that must be met when it is used to fund a transaction in the future: The transaction must include an ECDSA digital signature that can be validated with the public key that is associated with the address of 1JRm54UFCSjhBk9oWxPt7WpsmAteFUYy4e"

Note that the recipient never receives the private key that is associated with 1LF1egUsL8gidjW29Y3uqgapN4D85YpmNx.  The entire network gets to see the signature so that it can be validated with the public key, but it is not possible to calculate the private key from the signature.

If your wallet is operated from a website, then the website owns your private keys. If your wallet is operated on a program, paper wallet, etc, then you own the private keys.

 Probably (unless he is using a 3rd party exchange), but once the transaction is confirmed into the blockchain, that address will be lighter by the number of coins he sent to your address which only you control.

I appreciate the response.

Say I do not use CoinBase at all, and I choose to buy my bitcoin from a site like LocalBitcoin. Wouldn't the seller that I buy from also have access to the BitCoins private key from before he sold it to me?

And that's why you shouldn't store your coins in a third party service. You should be the ONLY one having access to your private key.

Neither your private key or address changes. Your static private key will always control your static address.

One question that still stumps me is the concept of private keys and "owning" your coins. I've been using CoinBase and I have heard many people say that when using CoinBase, you really don't "own" those coins. However, if I were to have the private key of a coin, wouldn't the person or in this case, CoinBase, also have access to that Private Key, in turn also having access to that Bit Coin? So I guess what I'm asking is if we both have the Private Key for a bit coin, what stops them from using it. Or do the Private Keys change when sent through the Block Chain. Again, this is a concept that I am very fuzzy on. Thanks in advance.