May seem like a stupid question but here I go:
How exactly does cold storage work? Read a lot about it but don't understand it. How does a paperwallet work? Lets say I have 1 BTC on a paperwallet (how do I get it onto the paperwallet?), how do I redeem that 1 BTC in lets say 2 years?
Topic: Newbie All-Day - Ask All Your Bitcoin Questions Here! - page 5. (Read 7618 times)
Is it possible that unconfirmed transactions can never be confirmed again?
Seems like I had a few extra zero's there.
Thanks for the great explanation. ^smile^ I am seeing the bigger picture now.
How would we know, how many coins are lost forever, from people who, created wallets and lost their private keys?
Thanks for the great explanation. ^smile^ I am seeing the bigger picture now.
How would we know, how many coins are lost forever, from people who, created wallets and lost their private keys?
Its not possible to know whether a private key was lost or not. People might post here or somewhere else that they lost the private key, but they could make up stories.
Are these coins recoverable in any way?
Realistically: No.
With my experimenting, I have most certainly lost a few thousands already.
I even see people creating $5 vouchers as a marketing ploy, to get people to adopt the currency, and I figure a lot of people, just chucked it away. This is the type of thing, that destroy the currency. [It's lost forever]
I even see people creating $5 vouchers as a marketing ploy, to get people to adopt the currency, and I figure a lot of people, just chucked it away. This is the type of thing, that destroy the currency. [It's lost forever]
Thats why bitcoin is considered deflationary. Every lost Satoshi will increase the value of all the remaining (as in still spendable) Satoshi.
Seems like I had a few extra zero's there.
Thanks for the great explanation. ^smile^ I am seeing the bigger picture now.
How would we know, how many coins are lost forever, from people who, created wallets and lost their private keys?
Are these coins recoverable in any way?
With my experimenting, I have most certainly lost a few thousands already.
I even see people creating $5 vouchers as a marketing ploy, to get people to adopt the currency, and I figure a lot of people, just chucked it away. This is the type of thing, that destroy the currency. [It's lost forever]
Thanks for the great explanation. ^smile^ I am seeing the bigger picture now.
How would we know, how many coins are lost forever, from people who, created wallets and lost their private keys?
Are these coins recoverable in any way?
With my experimenting, I have most certainly lost a few thousands already.
I even see people creating $5 vouchers as a marketing ploy, to get people to adopt the currency, and I figure a lot of people, just chucked it away. This is the type of thing, that destroy the currency. [It's lost forever]
Will there be enough bitcoins?
Yes.
I read that there are only 21 000 000 bitcoins. Of these bitcoins, only 13 000 000 have been released by the system.
Correct. There are 13 252 000 released so far. The remaining 7 748 000 will be released between now and the year 2140.
That Satoshi person, has a few million and he is not spending it.
That's an assumption. It may not be accurate.
Lots of other bitcoin whoreders [Is that the right word] keep the bitcoins for themselves.
I think the word you are looking for is "hoarders". Most hoarders will eventually spend and use their bitcoins.
So only a few bitcoins are in circulation.
In Africa, their are 14 000 000 000 000 people. I each of them, has only a few satoshis, nobody else will have any coins.
You are mistaken.
There are only approximately
7 243 000 000 people in the entire world therefore there cannot be
14 000 000 000 000 people in Africa.
How do they over come this problem? [People on other forums says by increasing the decimal value = 0.0000000000]
How does that work?
How does that work?
13 000 000 bitcoins. Each bitcoin is 100 000 000 satoshis.
That means there are 1 300 000 000 000 000 units of currency available.
1 300 000 000 000 000 satoshis / 7 243 000 000 people = 179 483 units of currency on average for every human being on the planet.
That assumes that every human (including infants) is actively participating in bitcoin and that there are no other currency systems in existence on the entire planet.
More than likely there will be many infants and other humans that do not participate in the bitcoin economy at all. This means that each active participant in the bitcoin economy could have several hundred thousand satoshis.
As the number of bitcoins increases during the next 100 years, the average number of satoshis per active participant will increase perhaps to a million of more.
It appears there is not a problem with the quantity available.
Will there be enough bitcoins?
I read that there are only 21 000 000 bitcoins. Of these bitcoins, only 13 000 000 have been released by the system.
That Satoshi person, has a few million and he is not spending it. Lots of other bitcoin whoreders [Is that the right word] keep the bitcoins for themselves.
So only a few bitcoins are in circulation.
In Africa, their are 14 000 000 000 000 people. I each of them, has only a few satoshis, nobody else will have any coins.
How do they over come this problem? [People on other forums says by increasing the decimal value = 0.0000000000]
How does that work?
I read that there are only 21 000 000 bitcoins. Of these bitcoins, only 13 000 000 have been released by the system.
That Satoshi person, has a few million and he is not spending it. Lots of other bitcoin whoreders [Is that the right word] keep the bitcoins for themselves.
So only a few bitcoins are in circulation.
In Africa, their are 14 000 000 000 000 people. I each of them, has only a few satoshis, nobody else will have any coins.
How do they over come this problem? [People on other forums says by increasing the decimal value = 0.0000000000]
How does that work?
How can I set up a secure cold storage?
DannyHamilton will *probably* give you a much more in depth answer Nope. The details in your link are pretty comprehensive. As long as the bitaddress.org page is saved to a file and opened/printed from a computer that is not connected to the internet, that's a good way to go about it.
If you are exceptionally concerned, you can wipe the hard drive and re-install the operating system cleanly before attaching the computer to the internet after you've printed the paper wallets.
Hey danny! Will bitcoin hit $600 by the end of the year?
How can I set up a secure cold storage?
DannyHamilton will *probably* give you a much more in depth answer Nope. The details in your link are pretty comprehensive. As long as the bitaddress.org page is saved to a file and opened/printed from a computer that is not connected to the internet, that's a good way to go about it.
If you are exceptionally concerned, you can wipe the hard drive and re-install the operating system cleanly before attaching the computer to the internet after you've printed the paper wallets.
Thanks again for keeping an eye on this thread and promptly replying!
How can I set up a secure cold storage?
DannyHamilton will *probably* give you a much more in depth answer Nope. The details in your link are pretty comprehensive. As long as the bitaddress.org page is saved to a file and opened/printed from a computer that is not connected to the internet, that's a good way to go about it.
If you are exceptionally concerned, you can wipe the hard drive and re-install the operating system cleanly before attaching the computer to the internet after you've printed the paper wallets.
How can I set up a secure cold storage?
DannyHamilton will *probably* give you a much more in depth answer but this is my way:
Follow the instructions of blockchain.info here - https://blockchain.info/en/wallet/paper-tutorial
That's my way. Make sure to generate the private keys offline and preferably if you can on a computer that has never been in contact with the internet or other files (to make sure it is virus free).
How can I set up a secure cold storage?
Ok, so does this mean, a customer has to wait 10 minutes for his transaction to be validated, before he can leave with his goods?
Not necessarily.
(Note: The word you are looking for is "confirmed" (not "validated"). The transaction is "validated" within a fraction of a second of being sent. If the transaction is not "valid" it won't occur since all peers will refuse to relay the transaction.)
Merchants already accept a certain amount of risk as the cost of doing business.
- Cash is not "confirmed" until you deposit it in the bank. Until then there is a risk that the bill might be counterfeit.
- Personal checks (cheques?) are not "confirmed" until they "clear" in a few days. Until then there is a risk that they may overdraw the customer's account and "bounce".
- Credit cards and PayPal are not "confirmed" for several months. Until then there is a risk that the customer may contact the bank (or PayPal) are report the charges as fraudulent in which case the credit card or PayPal company will take the money back from the merchant.
Accepting unconfirmed bitcoin payments from a customer is just another small risk that a merchant will have to decide if they want to accept in order to provide a faster and more convenient buying experience.
There are steps that the merchant can take that drastically reduce that risk to acceptable levels.
As long as the merchant makes sure that following are all true, it is extremely likely that the transaction will confirm and is extremely difficult for an attacker to cancel the transaction:
- Bitcoins that fund the transaction already have at least 1 confirmation before they were spent
- The transaction includes a proper fee for its size
- The transaction is well propagated across the network
- The transaction does not include any "dust" output
These conditions typically take less than 2 seconds to occur after the transaction is sent, and would take a well written program only a fraction of a second to check on.
Also, a merchant can require that a customer register identifying information if they want to use bitcoins to pay. This information can then be used to contact (or prosecute) the customer if the transaction fails to confirm.
Additionally, trusted third-party services can be created that can pay the merchant bitcoins on behalf of the customer, and then can collect the bitcoins from the customer (either in a pre-pay form or in a monthly bill).
Will a merchant allow me to leave his store, if my transaction is not validated confirmed?
That will depend on the merchant. Many merchants don't understand exactly what risks they are already accepting, and don't understand exactly what the risk of an unconfirmed transaction is. Therefore, out of fear, they demand far more confirmations than they probably need. With education, time, and competition eventually the process of accepting unconfirmed transactions will become standardized.
I saw someone saying on this board, it's only safe, to accept that the transaction went through, if you received 7 confirmations. I tested this last night, and a transaction with very little fees, took up to 30 minutes for 7 confirmations.
There is nothing magical about the number 7 (or 6) that makes 7 confirmations (or 6 confirmations) completely unable to be canceled while leaving 5 confirmations cancel-able. A transaction with 1 confirmation is VERY very difficult to cancel reliably. A transaction with 2 confirmations is far more difficult (and expensive) to cancel than a transaction with 1 confirmation. A transaction with 10 confirmations is more difficult (and expensive) to cancel than a transaction with 9 confirmations.
The number 6 has become generally accepted as meaning "fully confirmed", but there really aren't many cases where 5 confirmations (or 4, or 3, or 2) would be just as acceptable.
yes, the confirmation time creates an issue for retail sales. It seems to me that USUALLY a transaction is fine after just 1 confirmation, but I have heard 6 confirmations is necessary to be sure a transaction is secure. So maybe for small buys, you can use 1 transaction but for big ones you need to wait longer.
Thank you for answering my previous question.
Blocks are created every 10 minutes, but how long does it take for miners to solve a block?
Blocks are created every 10 minutes, but how long does it take for miners to solve a block?
It only takes a miner (or a mining pool) a fraction of a second to "create" a block. To create a block, the miner (or mining pool) chooses a list of unconfirmed transactions and builds a merkle tree. The merkle root is then used to build a block header. Doing all of that should take a modern computer less than a second.
It is the "solving" of the block that takes the entire network, on average, 10 minutes. The amount of time that it takes any individual miner or mining pool to solve a block depends on the total amount of hash power that they are using and how lucky they are. If a miner (or a mining pool) has enough hash power to generate 92 petahash per second, then at current difficulty they will solve a block approximately every 20 minutes. If a miner (or mining pool) has enough hash power to generate 500 megahash per second, then they will solve a block approximately every 7000 years.
Does this vary? {time}?
Yes. Block solving (mining) is a random process. The protocol automatically adjusts the difficulty every 2016 blocks to try and keep the block solving average time close to 10 minutes, but it is possible for multiple blocks to be solved in a second or two, and it is possible for it to take a few hours before a block is solved.
How would I know, if a pool adds the transaction fees to it's payouts? I am considering joining Ghash or the PBMining group.
Most pools provide their payout rules on their website. If a pool doesn't say whether they include transaction fees in the payout, then you should assume that they don't include them.
Ok, so does this mean, a customer has to wait 10 minutes for his transaction to be validated, before he can leave with his goods?
Will a merchant allow me to leave his store, if my transaction is not validated?
I saw someone saying on this board, it's only safe, to accept that the transaction went through, if you received 7 confirmations. I tested this last night, and a transaction with very little fees, took up to 30 minutes for 7 confirmations.
Ask away and I will attempt to help whoever I can, whenever I can.
You may ask anything thats on your mind related to bitcoin!
You may ask anything thats on your mind related to bitcoin!
What is the best thing to do if your coins was stolen/scammed by someone unknown to you?
I want to earn trust, but I am as poor as a rat.
Trust doesn't require money. Trust requires activity and always acting in a moral, ethical, honest, reliable, and trustworthy manner.
There are people with a lot of money that I wouldn't trust hold a penny for me.
There are people with no money that I would trust with my life.
When I looked at this forum, I saw everyone saying, "Join a signature campaign" and everyone is doing this, and making some money, for posting on this forum.
Not everybody. I would never recommend that anybody join a signature campaign or spam the forum for their own personal gain. That is not what I'd call "moral, ethical, honest, reliable, and trustworthy".
Some people, and I see it's mostly high ranked members, says not to join signature campaigns.
Everyone has their own opinions on the matter. Do you want money, or do you want trust. I'm not saying that you can't have both, but it is a lot easier to acquire money than it is to acquire the trust of others. It is even easier to acquire money if you are a thief, scammer, liar, criminal, or otherwise bad person.
I am confused, why provide opportunities for people, to earn some income, just to tell people, that it's wrong?
There are lots of opportunities in life to earn money with bad behavior. The fact that something pays you money doesn't make it "right".
I have seen this on other forums too. People join early and make tons of money, and then later, the same people stop doing this, and moan and groan about spam and such.
Spam is spam, no matter who is doing it.
Surely Signature campaigns have a place, to help newbies like myself, to get some income?
Just like theft, scamming, and lying have a place to help people get some income? Figure out what you are good at, and what you enjoy doing. Provide a product or service to society. Accept payment for that service.
And if restrictions are placed on the people hosting these campaigns, eg. [Do not encourage people to post more than 20 posts per week] Spam could be reduced?
No. Then people would just create multiple accounts and get paid for 20 posts on each account.
I live in a very poor country, and I cannot afford to buy bitcoins, and I lack skills to sell on the forum. I also have no digital goods to sell. How else can I earn a income?
Contribute to society in a productive and useful way. If you don't then what benefit does the world receive from your existence?
Please, do not feel offended by these statements, it's just my observation as a newbie to this forum.
I'm not offended by your statements. Please don't feel offended by mine.
I want to earn trust, but I am as poor as a rat.
When I looked at this forum, I saw everyone saying, "Join a signature campaign" and everyone is doing this, and making some money, for posting on this forum.
Some people, and I see it's mostly high ranked members, says not to join signature campaigns.
I am confused, why provide opportunities for people, to earn some income, just to tell people, that it's wrong?
I have seen this on other forums too. People join early and make tons of money, and then later, the same people stop doing this, and moan and groan about spam and such.
Surely Signature campaigns have a place, to help newbies like myself, to get some income?
And if restrictions are placed on the people hosting these campaigns, eg. [Do not encourage people to post more than 20 posts per week] Spam could be reduced?
I live in a very poor country, and I cannot afford to buy bitcoins, and I lack skills to sell on the forum. I also have no digital goods to sell. How else can I earn a income?
Please, do not feel offended by these statements, it's just my observation as a newbie to this forum.
When I looked at this forum, I saw everyone saying, "Join a signature campaign" and everyone is doing this, and making some money, for posting on this forum.
Some people, and I see it's mostly high ranked members, says not to join signature campaigns.
I am confused, why provide opportunities for people, to earn some income, just to tell people, that it's wrong?
I have seen this on other forums too. People join early and make tons of money, and then later, the same people stop doing this, and moan and groan about spam and such.
Surely Signature campaigns have a place, to help newbies like myself, to get some income?
And if restrictions are placed on the people hosting these campaigns, eg. [Do not encourage people to post more than 20 posts per week] Spam could be reduced?
I live in a very poor country, and I cannot afford to buy bitcoins, and I lack skills to sell on the forum. I also have no digital goods to sell. How else can I earn a income?
Please, do not feel offended by these statements, it's just my observation as a newbie to this forum.
-snip-
But for now I want to know how can I make some Bitcoin in a short time?
But for now I want to know how can I make some Bitcoin in a short time?
This question gets asked a lot and I am never sure if those asking the question understand bitcoin. Its just another form of currency you earn it the same way as other currencies: you work, you sell (digital) goods, you trade it for other currencies. Well, bitcoin is a bit different. E.g. you can sell your signature space to someone. I no longer recommend faucets, they are a waste of time.
The most viable way and probably the most certain way to make bitcoins is to sell your service in the marketplace section. Be it handmade goods, digital codes, laptops, XBOXs or a no longer needed car, they can all be traded for bitcoins in the marketplace section!
-snip-
But for now I want to know how can I make some Bitcoin in a short time?
But for now I want to know how can I make some Bitcoin in a short time?
This question gets asked a lot and I am never sure if those asking the question understand bitcoin. Its just another form of currency you earn it the same way as other currencies: you work, you sell (digital) goods, you trade it for other currencies. Well, bitcoin is a bit different. E.g. you can sell your signature space to someone. I no longer recommend faucets, they are a waste of time.
As a new comer I have a lot of questions on Bitcoin. But for now I want to know how can I make some Bitcoin in a short time?
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