Okay, I see.
Where do I find the wallet.dat file? And how is my wallet secure after backing it up? If the wallet.dat is on my computer 24/7 to run Bitcoin, then if my wallet.dat gets hacked, what good will a wallet.dat do?
Where do I find the wallet.dat file? And how is my wallet secure after backing it up? If the wallet.dat is on my computer 24/7 to run Bitcoin, then if my wallet.dat gets hacked, what good will a wallet.dat do?
There are two types of protection:
Since your wallet is software and data that is stored on a computer, there is potential to loose your bitcoins if the computer becomes damaged or otherwise stops working. To protect yourself from losing your bitcoins in this way you need a backup copy that you can restore on a new computer and still access your bitcoins.
If a hacker gains access to your bitcoins, they can steal or spend them. To protect yourself from losing your bitcoins in this way, you need to encrypt your wallet with a password.
You can find the "Backup Wallet" in the "File" menu and "Encrypt Wallet" in the "Settings" menu.
I'm not sure how to say this without sounding insulting, but if you can't figure out on your own where your wallet address is, and you don't realize on your own the importance of backing up your wallet, then it might not be a good idea for you to be using bitcoin in the first place (or at least not the Bitcoin-Qt wallet). There are a lot of opportunities to lose your money if you don't understand what you are doing, and while you don't have to be a computer programmer to use it, it helps if you are capable of looking at an interface and seeing a "Backup Wallet" option uner the "File" Menu, or thinking to click on "Receive Coins" if you want to receive coins.
