How can you verify if a bitcoin is real? - page 7.

HeRetiK

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Quote from: StaffsLebowski on January 14, 2018, 01:44:31 PM

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That's my concern. I'm a professional programmer/data specialist and I've been doing it successfully for around 25 years (never been out of work so must be doing something right!?). My first approach whenever I come across a new system/technology is to 'take it apart' to see if it 'holds water'.

A few days ago, Kraken scared the living daylights out of the crypto community when it went 'dark'. Crypto is in it's infancy, it's just like the klondyke era and lot's of companies are trying to get a foothold on the action and learning as they go along, mistakes and all. Sure, the banks I work for are exploring crypto but, there is no way on Gods earth they'd be working with a company like Kracken until it's well established, proven itself and is reliable. That'll take many years. If you don't think it's possible to go tits up, look at Lehamn Brother in 2008 the world-wide crash they caused.

Thanks for your input, much appreciated..

You're welcome. Don't mistake Bitcoin the technology with the companies that utilize it, as that's a common error of thought when one first comes in touch with cryptocurrencies. If you want to avoid getting Lehman'd simply don't buy financial derivates based on Bitcoin. No need to invest in certificates if you can just buy the real thing.

Bitcoin had it's own little version of the Lehman brothers when MtGox turned out to run on fractional reserves in 2013 and consequently folded. Lesson learned: Keep your coins in your own wallet and spare yourself from counterparty risk. After all this independence from third parties is exactly the value proposition of Bitcoin.

bitart

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Quote from: StaffsLebowski on January 14, 2018, 01:44:31 PM

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That's my concern. I'm a professional programmer/data specialist and I've been doing it successfully for around 25 years (never been out of work so must be doing something right!?). My first approach whenever I come across a new system/technology is to 'take it apart' to see if it 'holds water'.

A few days ago, Kraken scared the living daylights out of the crypto community when it went 'dark'. Crypto is in it's infancy, it's just like the klondyke era and lot's of companies are trying to get a foothold on the action and learning as they go along, mistakes and all. Sure, the banks I work for are exploring crypto but, there is no way on Gods earth they'd be working with a company like Kracken until it's well established, proven itself and is reliable. That'll take many years. If you don't think it's possible to go tits up, look at Lehamn Brother in 2008 the world-wide crash they caused.

Thanks for your input, much appreciated..

You can buy bitcoin from exchanges (there are much more exchanges, not only Kraken, and Kraken has already started the business again after the update, so it seems they will survive...) or you can buy it from the people at localbitcoins.
When you buy bitcoin, you have to have a bitcoin wallet to hold the bitcoins, if the bitcoins show up in the wallet, you can be sure that they're real and if you do the necessary safety precautions, they will be yours until the end of time or until you s(p)end them. (you should choose a wallet type that fits your needs, online, offline, paper, hardware, mobile, etc., check google for the differences and details).
You should not keep your bitcoins on exchanges (your opinion is right about exhanges, but they are improving), so as soon as you exhanged your money to bitcoin, you should send it to your own wallet asap.
Banks won't bother with bitcoin now neither in the future, so they are only interested in the blockchain itself, as a kind of system to cut down the running costs of the international wire transactions... but you should know this better if you're working for banks.

StaffsLebowski

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<>

That's my concern. I'm a professional programmer/data specialist and I've been doing it successfully for around 25 years (never been out of work so must be doing something right!?). My first approach whenever I come across a new system/technology is to 'take it apart' to see if it 'holds water'.

A few days ago, Kraken scared the living daylights out of the crypto community when it went 'dark'. Crypto is in it's infancy, it's just like the klondyke era and lot's of companies are trying to get a foothold on the action and learning as they go along, mistakes and all. Sure, the banks I work for are exploring crypto but, there is no way on Gods earth they'd be working with a company like Kracken until it's well established, proven itself and is reliable. That'll take many years. If you don't think it's possible to go tits up, look at Lehamn Brother in 2008 the world-wide crash they caused.

Thanks for your input, much appreciated..

Reid

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Sending p2p without the blockchain is kind of what will scare the government. Grin

Every transaction that is made will have to enter that field for confirmations.
You cannot send one person your bitcoin without it. Bitcoin is in the blockchain.

You might have seen a lot of people here ranting about the fees. That is because of that. We send bitcoin and we pay. Because it needs to go to the blockchain.

Refers to his last post.

The Scorpion

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If a bitcoin is real? came on, if you have bitcoins on your wallet, it is real, it is impossible to receive/Send fake bitcoins because it is impossible to hack the protocol. So do not worry about it, because if someone tells you that it can, he is lying to you, of course.

gentlemand

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There is no such thing as a 'fake' Bitcoin. Either it is one or it isn't. If it isn't then it won't exist on the blockchain and no wallet will receive or display it. If you're worried about being fed false information by a rogue wallet provider, which I suppose is feasible but I've never heard of it, then run a full wallet and your own node.

Quinn Main

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Such great features also come with great security concerns. At the same time, Bitcoin can provide very high levels of security if used correctly. Always remember that it is your responsibility to adopt good practices in order to protect your money. Read more about securing your wallet.

Lux Main

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Like in real life, your wallet must be secured. Bitcoin makes it possible to transfer value anywhere in a very easy way and it allows you to be in control of your money.

Dravenz

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Some effort is required to protect your privacy with Bitcoin. All Bitcoin transactions are stored publicly and permanently on the network, which means anyone can see the balance and transactions of any Bitcoin address. However, the identity of the user behind an address remains unknown until information is revealed during a purchase or in other circumstances.

FlintJuan

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Any transaction issued with Bitcoin cannot be reversed, they can only be refunded by the person receiving the funds. That means you should take care to do business with people and organizations you know and trust, or who have an established reputation.

QuestionAuthority

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izanagi narukami

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Bitcoin is not real in physical form but you can own it like owning paypal balance. Once you have create a wallet , just deposit some bitcoin by converting your local money into btc and start holding like you're holding your GOLD.

Trust me, bitcoin can change your LIFE if you start invest Now.

mmhaimhai

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If you already have a bitcoin wallet then anything you received on it is really bitcoin, I haven't heard of a fake bitcoin though. The about sending bitcoin without blockchain, that would be impossible dude, because all btc transaction are sent to blockchain in order to get process.

peterko

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Yes the safest and easiest method to make sure the bitcoin you got is real is to get it through verified exchanges. If you go to sites that states buy bitcoin now but you have not heard of the site before, just leave it. It's always better to be safe than sorry.

Apple Mac

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Quote from: Pekine on January 14, 2018, 06:51:52 AM

Buy bitcoins from a reknown broker. Look up for some references around the broker. Depending on the country you might have differnent brokers.

Well I think this is true given the fact that you can earn here is one of the greatest evidence as well as the transaction made withbthe monetary unit of Bitcoin, this currency is indeed a great crypto which is technically cant be hold with our bare hands but when you convert it on your local money then youll realized Bitcoin is real.

HeRetiK

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Quote from: StaffsLebowski on January 14, 2018, 09:48:10 AM

Hi and thanks to all for chipping in with your input but..

I must say I'm still missing something - and I'm happy to say, maybe something has clicked yet for me..

I know the blockchain verifies that a trail of events (transactions) remains true, this is it's purpose. If you read the article on the bitcoin wiki (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Secure_Trading) it says that "Bitcoin users may want to trade bitcoin directly with each other in what is known as an over-the-counter market", this suggests that I can pass a bitcoin directly from my wallet to your wallet without the blockchain. Or when the say "directly" do they mean by-passing exchanges etc?

This article you are referring to seems to be a little dated, as nowadays you're better off just buying Bitcoin on exchanges such as Bitstamp or Kraken. P2P trades are nowadays mostly done using Bitcoin.de or LocalBitcoins, which take care of escrow for you.

Note that trading Bitcoin is something different from sending a Bitcoin transaction. Sending a Bitcoin transaction is just that, a transaction as described in the posts above. Trading involves you exchanging bitcoins for goods or services or other currencies, such as USD or EUR. How the goods, services and other currencies are provided depends on the trade or trading platform (eg. it could be a wire transfer, it could be handing over cash). The bitcoins themselves however will still be send over the blockchain. You will know that you succesfully received your bitcoins when your wallet shows an incoming transaction with at least 1 confirmation. Recommendation being 6 confirmations, however 1 confirmation should suffice for normal everyday transactions.

In other words: Sending a Bitcoin transaction is like handing over cash. Trading bitcoin is like you handing over cash and receiving a piece of gum (or the other way round). The blockchain only takes care of handing over the cash. The tricky part is making sure that the gum is actually received. This has nothing to do with Bitcoin and that's were exchanges come into play.

mistanama

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Quote from: StaffsLebowski on January 14, 2018, 06:13:09 AM

Hi All,

First post so please be gentle!. I'm trying to get familiar with crypto currency and understand 'how it works'. I've reached a block and I'm hoping someone can shed some light on a particular point.

I understand the process of using public and private keys, back from the time when Phil Zimmermann created PGP. PGP allowed a user to encrypt a file, eg: an email/file (technically, just a bunch of ones and zeros) so that when the other user decrypted the file, they would see the words/file again. Or, to phrase it another way, the encryption was just a 'wrapper' for the content - ie, the words in my email or the file I sent.

Now, if someone sent me a bitcoin, how would I know what I was looking at? With an encrypted email, once decrypted I would be able to see something (text/file) and realise that I had actually received something. But, if someone sent me a bitcoin, what would I be looking at when I decrypted with my private key? A file filled with ones and zeros? Or maybe a simple text file with words inside saying, "Hey, this is 1 bitcoin!"

Can someone shed some light on what it I actually receive when I purchase a bitcoin and how I can verify that what I have 'in my hands', is actually a bitcoin and not just a bunch of ones and zeros? I understand that the blockchain is supposed to verify what is what but, what if I wanted to pass my bitcoin directly to you without the blockchain. Again, how would I know, what I received - was a bitcoin?

Thank you for your time and patience with my lack of understanding!

Regards,

Staffs Lebowski..

Try to join the bitcoin community and explore you. You can see people working hard to earn money. Or try to find out on how bitcoin helps people. Determine how much bitcoin value or price you are overwhelming in the price you see. Try to join the campaign and get along with others posting comments and more and you decide what bitcoin can do. You'll be able to see that by finding forum questions and answers.

StaffsLebowski

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Hi and thanks to all for chipping in with your input but..

I must say I'm still missing something - and I'm happy to say, maybe something has clicked yet for me..

I know the blockchain verifies that a trail of events (transactions) remains true, this is it's purpose. If you read the article on the bitcoin wiki (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Secure_Trading) it says that "Bitcoin users may want to trade bitcoin directly with each other in what is known as an over-the-counter market", this suggests that I can pass a bitcoin directly from my wallet to your wallet without the blockchain. Or when the say "directly" do they mean by-passing exchanges etc?

btcgreen63

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In addition to what others have said, you can query the blockchain network to ask how much BTC is associated with a public address. You can do this for any public address, since the ledger is public.

Check out blockchain.info for example. Click on a block number to see the list of transactions in the block. Then scroll down and click on one of the Bitcoin addresses to see the amount of bitcoin in that address.

christian07

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Buy some so you can see what can bitcoin brings and exchange some also in exchanger like binance or mercatox,Bitcoin is a digital money with value like 0.00005 btc and can transfer all over the world.Start to buy btc in fiat money like dollar and save some then do trade some also to earn but you need to study first the trading here because you can lose by doing that kind of risky thing here in crypto still the chance to earn is big so grab that.

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