Bitcoin Wiki - User contributions [en]

User talk:Bawolff

2015-06-27T11:14:35Z

Bawolff: welcome

{| class="wikitable"
|[[File:Barnstar.png|128px|link=wikipedia:ok]]
|Thank you for your contributions to the wiki. I really appreciate the changes you've made so far, especially taking the user registration noise out of the recent changes list and renaming the project namespace. ;)

I'm pretty sure they have barnstars at the MediaWiki Wiki, so I made one for you!

[[User:Taras|Taras]] ([[User talk:Taras|talk]]) 03:54, 21 June 2015 (UTC)
|}

You're welcome :) [[User:Bawolff|Bawolff]] ([[User talk:Bawolff|talk]]) 11:14, 27 June 2015 (UTC)

MediaWiki:Confirmemail loggedin

2015-06-27T11:12:52Z

Bawolff: link to edit privs page from this message

Your email address has now been confirmed.

Please note: In order to edit this wiki, you must also [[Bitcoin Wiki:Editing privileges|activate your account]].

User:Bawolff

2015-06-19T01:53:33Z

Bawolff: test

Hello

I help maintain the technical aspects of this wiki. If you're experiencing any issues with the wiki, please don't hesitate to ask.

Help:FAQ

2015-05-11T09:45:12Z

Bawolff: Bitcoin -> Bitcoin Wiki

Here you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions.

== General ==
=== What is Bitcoin? ===
Bitcoin is a distributed peer-to-peer digital currency that can be transferred instantly and securely between any two people in the world. It's like electronic cash that you can use to pay friends or merchants.

=== What are bitcoins? ===
Bitcoins are the unit of currency of the Bitcoin system. A commonly used shorthand for this is “BTC” to refer to a price or amount (e.g. “100 BTC”).
There are such things as [[physical bitcoins]], but ultimately, a bitcoin is just a number associated with a [[Address|Bitcoin Address]]. A physical bitcoin is simply an object, such as a coin, with the number carefully embedded inside. See also an [[Introduction|easy intro]] to Bitcoin.

=== How can I get bitcoins? ===

There are a variety of ways to acquire bitcoins:
* You can buy bitcoins from [http://coinbase.com/ Coinbase], [[File:BIPS.gif|20px|link=https://bipsmarket.com]] [https://bipsmarket.com BIPS Market] or [http://gocelery.com/ Celery] .
* Accept bitcoins as payment for goods or services.
* The most common way to buy bitcoins are the [[Buying bitcoins|Bitcoin Exchanges]]
* Visit [http://bitcoinx.io bitcoinx.io] for peer-to-peer ratings and reviews of bitcoin exchanges to see where to buy bitcoins
* There are several services where you can [[Buying_Bitcoins_(the_noob_version)|trade them]] for traditional currency.
* Find someone to trade cash for bitcoins in-person through a [https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:Directories local directory].
* Participate in a [[Pooled mining|mining pool]].
* If you have a lot of mining hardware, you can solo mine and attempt to create a new [[block]] (currently yields 25 bitcoins plus transaction fees).
* Visit sites that provide [[Trade#Free_Samples_and_Offers|free samples and offers]].
* Visit [http://wheretobuycryptocoins.com WhereToBuyCryptoCoins.com] to get a guide how to start with bitcoins and cryptocurrency in general. Shows a list of markets, faucets, exchanges, miner's pools and more.

===Does Bitcoin guarantee an influx of free money?===

Since Bitcoin is a new technology, what it is and how it works may be initially unclear. Bitcoin is sometimes presented as being one of three things:
<ol style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;">
<li>Some sort of online 'get-rich-quick' scam.</li>
<li>A loophole in the market economy, the installation of which guarantees a steady influx of cash.</li>
<li>A sure investment that will almost certainly yield a profit.</li>
</ol>
In fact, none of the above are true. Let's look at them independently.

;Is Bitcoin a 'get-rich-quick' scheme?
:If you've spent much time on the Internet, you've probably seen ads for many 'get-rich-quick' schemes. These ads usually promise huge profits for a small amounts of easy work. Such schemes are usually pyramid/matrix-style schemes that make money from their own employees and offer nothing of any real value. Most convince one to buy packages that will make them earn hundreds a day, which in fact have the buyer distribute more such ads, and make minute profits.

:Bitcoin is in no way similar to these schemes. Bitcoin doesn't promise windfall profits. There is no way for the developers to make money from your involvement or to take money from you. That bitcoins are nearly impossible to acquire without the owner's consent represents one of its greatest strengths. Bitcoin is an experimental, virtual currency that may succeed or may fail. None of its developers expect to get rich off of it.

:A more detailed answer to this question can be found [http://bitcointalk.org/?topic=7815.0 here].

;Will I make money by installing the client?
:Most people who use Bitcoin don't earn anything by doing so, and the default client has no built-in way to earn Bitcoins. A small minority of people with dedicated, high-performance hardware do earn some Bitcoins by "''mining''" (generating new bitcoins, see [[#What is mining?|What is mining?]]) with special software, but joining Bitcoin shouldn't be construed as being the road to riches. Most Bitcoin users get involved because they find the project conceptually interesting and don't earn anything by doing so. This is also why you won't find much speculation about the political or economic repercussions of Bitcoin anywhere on this site: Bitcoin developers owe their dedication to the project's intellectual yieldings more than to those of a monetary nature. Bitcoin is still taking its first baby steps; it may go on to do great things but right now it only has something to offer those chasing conceptually interesting projects or bleeding edge technology.

;As an investment, is Bitcoin a sure thing?
:Bitcoin is a new and interesting electronic currency, the value of which is not backed by any single government or organization. Like other currencies, it is worth something partly because people are willing to trade it for goods and services. Its exchange rate fluctuates continuously, and sometimes wildly. It lacks wide acceptance and is vulnerable to manipulation by parties with modest funding. Security incidents such as website and account compromise may trigger major sell-offs. Other fluctuations can build into positive feedback loops and cause much larger exchange rate fluctuations. Anyone who puts money into Bitcoin should understand the risk they are taking and consider it a high-risk currency. Later, as Bitcoin becomes better known and more widely accepted, it may stabilize, but for the time being it is unpredictable. Any investment in Bitcoin should be done carefully and with a clear plan to manage the risk.

=== Can I buy bitcoins with Paypal? ===

It is possible to buy [[physical bitcoins]] with PayPal but it is otherwise difficult and/or expensive to do so for non-physical bitcoins, because of significant risk to the seller.

While it is possible to find an individual who wishes to sell Bitcoin to you via Paypal, (perhaps via [http://www.bitcoin-otc.com/ #bitcoin-otc] ) most exchanges do not allow funding through PayPal. This is due to repeated cases where someone pays for bitcoins with Paypal, receives their bitcoins, and then fraudulently complains to Paypal that they never received their purchase. PayPal often sides with the fraudulent buyer in this case, which means any seller needs to cover that risk with higher fees or refuse to accept PayPal altogether.

Buying Bitcoins from individuals this way is still possible, but requires the seller to have some trust that the buyer will not file a claim with PayPal to reverse the payment.

=== Where can I find a forum to discuss Bitcoin? ===

Please visit the [[Bitcoin Wiki:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums_on_various_platforms|Community Portal]] for links to Bitcoin-related forums.

=== How are new bitcoins created? ===

New bitcoins are generated by the network through the process of "[[#What is mining?|''mining'']]". In a process that is similar to a continuous raffle draw, mining nodes on the network are awarded bitcoins each time they find the solution to a certain mathematical problem (and thereby create a new [[block]]). Creating a block is a [[proof of work]] with a difficulty that varies with the overall strength of the network. The reward for solving a block is [[Controlled Currency Supply|automatically adjusted]] so that, ideally, every four years of operation of the Bitcoin network, half the amount of bitcoins created in the prior 4 years are created. A maximum of {{formatnum:10499889.80231183}} bitcoins were created in the first 4 (approx.) years from January 2009 to November 2012. Every four years thereafter this amount halves, so it should be {{formatnum:5250000}} over years 4-8, {{formatnum:2625000}} over years 8-12, and so on. Thus the total number of bitcoins in existence can never exceed {{formatnum:20999839.77085749}} and counting. See [[Controlled Currency Supply]].

Blocks are [[Mining|mined]] every 10 minutes, on average and for the first four years ({{formatnum:210000}} blocks) each block included 50 new bitcoins. As the amount of processing power directed at mining changes, the difficulty of creating new bitcoins changes. This difficulty factor is calculated every 2016 blocks and is based upon the time taken to generate the previous 2016 blocks. See [[Mining]].

=== What's the current total number of bitcoins in existence? ===

[http://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc Current count]. Also see [https://blockchain.info/charts/total-bitcoins Total bitcoins in circulation chart]

The number of blocks times the coin value of a block is the number of coins in existence. The coin value of a block is 50 BTC for each of the first {{formatnum:210000}} blocks, 25 BTC for the next {{formatnum:210000}} blocks, then 12.5 BTC, 6.25 BTC and so on.

=== How divisible are bitcoins? ===

A bitcoin can be divided down to 8 decimal places. Therefore, 0.00000001 BTC is the smallest amount that can be handled in a transaction. If necessary, the protocol and related software can be modified to handle even smaller amounts.

=== What do I call the various denominations of bitcoin? ===

Unlike most currencies, Bitcoin amounts are highly divisible. This has led to a desire to create names for smaller denominations of bitcoin amounts, especially since transactions involving whole bitcoins are no longer quite so common. Bitcoin is decentralized, so there is no organization that can set official names for units. Therefore, there are many different units with varying degrees of popularity. As of 2014, the most common units are bitcoins, bits, and satoshi: 1 bitcoin = 1 000 000.00 bits = 100 000 000 satoshi.

The '''bitcoin''' (abbreviated '''BTC''' or '''XBT''') is the unit that was used in the original Bitcoin wallet software created by [[Satoshi Nakamoto]]. There is nothing particularly special about this unit, but it is by far the most common unit due to tradition.

The smallest value that the Bitcoin network supports sending is the '''[[satoshi (unit)|satoshi]]''' (sometimes abbreviated '''sat'''), one hundred-millionth (0.000 000 01) of a bitcoin. In other words, the network does not support sending fractions of a satoshi. Since it is a hard limit, it seems natural to use it as a unit, though it currently has very little value. The unit was named in honor of Bitcoin's creator after he left -- he was not so vain as to name a unit after himself. The plural of satoshi is satoshi: "Send me 100 satoshi".

Another common unit is the '''[[bit (unit)|bit]]''', one millionth (0.000 001) of a bitcoin. This unit is the same as a microbitcoin (μBTC). Bits are seen by some as especially logical because they have two-decimal precision like most fiat currencies. You can send 1.23 bits, but not 1.234 bits due to the network's limited precision.

It is also fairly common to use SI prefixes:

* 0.01 BTC = 1 cBTC = 1 centibitcoin (also referred to as bitcent)
* 0.001 BTC = 1 mBTC = 1 millibitcoin (also referred to as mbit (pronounced em-bit) or millibit or even bitmill)
* 0.000 001 BTC = 1 μBTC = 1 microbitcoin (also referred to as ubit (pronounced yu-bit) or microbit)

For an overview of all proposed units of Bitcoin (including less common and niche units), see [[Units]].

Further discussion on this topic can be found on the forums here:

* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=14438.msg195287#msg195287 We need names]
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=8282.0 What to call 0.001 BTC]

=== How does the halving work when the number gets really small? ===

Eventually the reward will go from 0.00000001 BTC to zero and no more bitcoins will be created.

The block reward calculation is done as a right bitwise shift of a 64-bit signed integer, which means it is divided by two and rounded down. The integer is equal to the value in BTC * 100,000,000 since internally in the reference client software, all Bitcoin balances and values are stored as unsigned integers.

With an initial block reward of 50 BTC, it will take many 4-year periods for the block reward to reach zero.

=== How long will it take to generate all the coins? ===

The last block that will generate coins will be block #6,929,999 which should be generated at or near the year 2140. The total number of coins in circulation will then remain static at 20,999,999.9769 BTC.

Even if the allowed precision is expanded from the current 8 decimals, the total BTC in circulation will always be slightly below 21 million (assuming everything else stays the same). For example, with 16 decimals of precision, the end total would be 20,999,999.999999999496 BTC.

=== If no more coins are going to be generated, will more blocks be created? ===

Absolutely! Even before the creation of coins ends, the use of [[transaction fee|transaction fees]] will likely make creating new blocks more valuable from the fees than the new coins being created. When coin generation ends, these fees will sustain the ability to use bitcoins and the Bitcoin network. There is no practical limit on the number of blocks that will be mined in the future.

=== But if no more coins are generated, what happens when Bitcoins are lost? Won't that be a problem? ===

Because of the law of supply and demand, when fewer bitcoins are available the ones that are left will be in higher demand, and therefore will have a higher value. So, as Bitcoins are lost, the remaining bitcoins will eventually increase in value to compensate. As the value of a bitcoin increases, the number of bitcoins required to purchase an item '''de'''creases. This is a [[Deflationary spiral|deflationary economic model]]. As the average transaction size reduces, transactions will probably be denominated in sub-units of a bitcoin such as millibitcoins ("Millies") or microbitcoins ("Mikes").

The Bitcoin protocol uses a base unit of one hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin ("a Satoshi"), but unused bits are available in the protocol fields that could be used to denote even smaller subdivisions.

=== If every transaction is broadcast via the network, does Bitcoin scale? ===
The Bitcoin protocol allows lightweight clients that can use Bitcoin without downloading the entire transaction history. As traffic grows and this becomes more critical, implementations of the concept will be developed. Full network nodes will at some point become a more specialized service.

With some modifications to the software, full Bitcoin nodes could easily keep up with both VISA and MasterCard combined, using only fairly modest hardware (a single high end server by todays standards). It is worth noting that the MasterCard network is structured somewhat like Bitcoin itself - as a peer to peer broadcast network.

Learn more about [[Scalability]].

==Economy==
=== Where does the value of Bitcoin stem from? What backs up Bitcoin? ===
Bitcoins have value because they are useful and because they are [[Controlled Currency Supply|scarce]]. As they are accepted by more merchants, their value will [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticky_%28economics%29 stabilize]. See the [[Trade|list of Bitcoin-accepting sites]].

When we say that a currency is backed up by gold, we mean that there's a promise in place that you can exchange the currency for gold. Bitcoins, like dollars and euros, are not backed up by anything except the variety of merchants that accept them.

It's a common misconception that Bitcoins gain their value from the cost of electricity required to generate them. Cost doesn't equal value – hiring 1,000 men to shovel a big hole in the ground may be costly, but not valuable. Also, even though scarcity is a critical requirement for a useful currency, it alone doesn't make anything valuable. For example, your fingerprints are scarce, but that doesn't mean they have any exchange value.

Alternatively it needs to be added that while the law of supply and demand applies it does not guarantee value of Bitcoins in the future. If confidence in Bitcoins is lost then it will not matter that the supply can no longer be increased, the demand will fall off with all holders trying to get rid of their coins. An example of this can be seen in cases of state currencies, in cases when the state in question dissolves and so no new supply of the currency is available (the central authority managing the supply is gone), however the demand for the currency falls sharply because confidence in its purchasing power disappears. Of-course Bitcoins do not have such central authority managing the supply of the coins, but it does not prevent confidence from eroding due to other situations that are not necessarily predictable.

=== Is Bitcoin a bubble? ===
Yes, in the same way as the euro and dollar are. They only have value in exchange and have no inherent value. If everyone suddenly stopped accepting your dollars, euros or bitcoins, the "bubble" would burst and their value would drop to zero. But that is unlikely to happen: even in Somalia, where the government collapsed 20 years ago, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_shilling Somali shillings] are still accepted as payment.

=== Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme? ===
In a Ponzi Scheme, the founders persuade investors that they’ll profit. Bitcoin does not make such a guarantee. There is no central entity, just individuals building an economy.

A ponzi scheme is a zero sum game. Early adopters can only profit at the expense of late adopters. Bitcoin has possible win-win outcomes. Early adopters profit from the rise in value. Late adopters, and indeed, society as a whole, benefit from the usefulness of a stable, fast, inexpensive, and widely accepted p2p currency.

The fact that early adopters benefit more doesn't alone make anything a Ponzi scheme. All good investments in successful companies have this quality.

=== Doesn't Bitcoin unfairly benefit early adopters? ===
Early adopters in Bitcoin are taking a risk and invested resources in an unproven technology. By so doing, they help Bitcoin become what it is now and what it will be in the future (hopefully, a ubiquitous decentralized digital currency). It is only fair they will reap the benefits of their successful investment.

In any case, any bitcoin generated will probably change hands dozens of time as a medium of exchange, so the profit made from the initial distribution will be insignificant compared to the total commerce enabled by Bitcoin. Many of the earliest users of Bitcoin have traded their coins at valuations below $1 US, or other amounts which are small compared to contemporary prices.

===Won't loss of wallets and the finite amount of Bitcoins create excessive deflation, destroying Bitcoin? ===
Worries about Bitcoin being destroyed by deflation are not entirely unfounded. Unlike most currencies, which experience inflation as their founding institutions create more and more units, Bitcoin will likely experience gradual deflation with the passage of time. Bitcoin is unique in that only a small amount of units will ever be produced (twenty-one million to be exact), this number has been known since the project's inception, and the units are created at a predictable rate.

Also, Bitcoin users are faced with a danger that doesn't threaten users of any other currency: if a Bitcoin user loses his wallet, his money is gone forever, unless he finds it again. And not just to him; it's gone completely out of circulation, rendered utterly inaccessible to anyone. As people will lose their wallets, the total number of Bitcoins will slowly decrease.

Therefore, Bitcoin seems to be faced with a unique problem. Whereas most currencies inflate over time, Bitcoin will mostly likely do just the opposite. Time will see the irretrievable loss of an ever-increasing number of Bitcoins. An already small number will be permanently whittled down further and further. And as there become fewer and fewer Bitcoins, the laws of supply and demand suggest that their value will probably continually rise.

Thus Bitcoin is bound to once again stray into mysterious territory, because no one exactly knows what happens to a currency that grows continually more valuable. Many economists claim that a low level of inflation is a good thing for a currency, but nobody is quite sure about what might happens to one that continually deflates. Although deflation could hardly be called a rare phenomenon, steady, constant deflation is unheard of. There may be a lot of speculation, but no one has any hard data to back up their claims.

That being said, there is a mechanism in place to combat the obvious consequences. Extreme deflation would render most currencies highly impractical: if a single Canadian dollar could suddenly buy the holder a car, how would one go about buying bread or candy? Even pennies would fetch more than a person could carry. Bitcoin, however, offers a simple and stylish solution: infinite divisibility. Bitcoins can be divided up and trade into as small of pieces as one wants, so no matter how valuable Bitcoins become, one can trade them in practical quantities.

In fact, infinite divisibility should allow Bitcoins to function in cases of extreme wallet loss. Even if, in the far future, so many people have lost their wallets that only a single Bitcoin, or a fraction of one, remains, Bitcoin should continue to function just fine. No one can claim to be sure what is going to happen, but deflation may prove to present a smaller threat than many expect.

For more information, see the [[Deflationary spiral]] page.

=== What if someone bought up all the existing Bitcoins? ===
Bitcoin markets are competitive -- meaning the price of a bitcoin will rise or fall depending on supply and demand at certain price levels. Only a fraction of bitcoins issued to date are found on the exchange markets for sale. So even though technically, a buyer with lots of money could buy all the bitcoins offered for sale, unless those holding the rest of the bitcoins offer them for sale as well, even the wealthiest, most determined buyer can't get at them.

Additionally, new currency continues to be issued daily and will continue to do so for decades; though over time the rate at which they are issued declines to insignificant levels. Those who are mining aren't obligated to sell their bitcoins so not all bitcoins will make it to the markets even.

This situation doesn't suggest, however, that the markets aren't vulnerable to price manipulation. It doesn't take significant amounts of money to move the market price up or down, and thus Bitcoin remains a volatile asset.

===What if someone creates a new block chain, or a new digital currency that renders Bitcoin obsolete?===

That the block chain cannot be easily forked represents one of the central security mechanisms of Bitcoin. Given the choice between two block chains, a Bitcoin miner always chooses the longer one - that is to say, the one with the more complex hash. Thusly, it ensures that each user can only spend their bitcoins once, and that no user gets ripped off.

As a consequence of the block chain structure, there may at any time be many different sub-branches, and the possibility always exists of a transaction being over-written by the longest branch, if it has been recorded in a shorter one. The older a transaction is though, the lower its chances of being over-written, and the higher of becoming permanent. Although the block chain prevents one from spending more Bitcoins than one has, it means that transactions can be accidentally nullified.

A new block chain would leave the network vulnerable to [[double-spending|double-spend]] attacks. However, the creation of a viable new chain presents considerable difficulty, and the possibility does not present much of a risk.

Bitcoin will always choose the longer Block Chain and determines the relative length of two branches by the complexities of their hashes. Since the hash of each new block is made from that of the block preceding it, to create a block with a more complex hash, one must be prepared to do more computation than has been done by the entire Bitcoin network from the fork point up to the newest of the blocks one is trying to supersede. Needless to say, such an undertaking would require a very large amount of processing power and since Bitcoin is continually growing and expanding, it will likely only require more with the passage of time.

A much more distinct and real threat to the Bitcoin use is the development of other, superior virtual currencies, which could supplant Bitcoin and render it obsolete and valueless.

A great deal of careful thought and ingenuity has gone into the development of Bitcoin, but it is the first of its breed, a prototype, and vulnerable to more highly-evolved competitors. At present, any threatening rivals have yet to rear their heads; Bitcoin remains the first and foremost private virtual currency, but we can offer no guarantees that it will retain that position. It would certainly be in keeping with internet history for a similar system built from the same principles to supersede and cast Bitcoin into obsolescence, after time had revealed its major shortcomings. Friendster and Myspace suffered similar fates at the hand of Facebook, Napster was ousted by Limeware, Bearshare and torrent applications, and Skype has all but crushed the last few disciples of the Microsoft Messenger army.

This may sound rather foreboding, so bear in mind that the introduction of new and possibly better virtual currencies will not necessarily herald Bitcoin's demise. If Bitcoin establishes itself sufficiently firmly before the inception of the next generation of private, online currencies so as to gain widespread acceptance and general stability, future currencies may pose little threat even if they can claim superior design. This is known as the network effect.

=== Is Bitcoin open to value manipulation? ===

The current low market cap of Bitcoin means that any investor with deep enough pockets can significantly change/manipulate the rate. Is this a problem?

This is only a problem if you are investing in Bitcoin for short period of time. A manipulator can't change the fundamentals, and over a period of 5-10 years, the fundamentals will win over any short term manipulations.

==Sending and Receiving Payments==

=== Why do I have to wait 10 minutes before I can spend money I received? ===

10 minutes is the average time taken to find a block. It can be significantly more or less time than that depending on luck; 10 minutes is simply the average case.

[[Blocks]] (shown as "confirmations" in the GUI) are how the Bitcoin achieves consensus on who owns what. Once a block is found everyone agrees that you now own those coins, so you can spend them again. Until then it's possible that some network nodes believe otherwise, if somebody is attempting to defraud the system by reversing a transaction. The more confirmations a transaction has, the less risk there is of a reversal. Only 6 blocks or 1 hour is enough to make reversal computationally impractical. This is dramatically better than credit cards which can see chargebacks occur up to three months after the original transaction!

Ten minutes was specifically chosen by [[Satoshi]] as a tradeoff between first confirmation time and the amount of work wasted due to chain splits. After a block is mined, it takes time for other miners to find out about it, and until then they are actually competing against the new block instead of adding to it. If someone mines another new block based on the old block chain, the network can only accept one of the two, and all the work that went into the other block gets wasted. For example, if it takes miners 1 minute on average to learn about new blocks, and new blocks come every 10 minutes, then the overall network is wasting about 10% of its work. Lengthening the time between blocks reduces this waste.

As a thought experiment, what if the Bitcoin network grew to include Mars? From the farthest points in their orbits, it takes about 20 minutes for a signal to travel from Earth to Mars. With only 10 minutes between new blocks, miners on Mars would always be 2 blocks behind the miners on Earth. It would be almost impossible for them to contribute to the block chain. If we wanted collaborate with those kinds of delays, we would need at least a few hours between new blocks.

[[File:TransactionConfirmationTimesExample.PNG]]

=== Do you have to wait until my transactions are confirmed in order to buy or sell things with Bitcoin? ===

YES, you do, IF the transaction is non-recourse. The Bitcoin reference software does not display transactions as confirmed until six blocks have passed (confirmations). As transactions are buried in the chain they become increasingly non-reversible but are very reversible before the first confirmation. Two to six confirmations are recommended for non-recourse situations depending on the value of the transactions involved.

When people ask this question they are usually thinking about applications like supermarkets. This generally is a recourse situation: if somebody tries to double-spend on a face-to-face transaction it might work a few times, but probabalistically speaking eventually one of the double-spends will get noticed, and the penalty for shoplifting charges in most localities is calibrated to be several times worse than the proceeds of a single shoplifting event.

Double-spends might be a concern for something like a snack machine in a low-traffic area with no nearby security cameras. Such a machine shouldn't honor zero-confirmation payments, and should instead use some other mechanism of clearing Bitcoin or validating transactions against reversal, see the wiki article [[Myths#Point_of_sale_with_bitcoins_isn.27t_possible_because_of_the_10_minute_wait_for_confirmation|here]] for alternatives.

Applications that require immediate payment processing, like supermarkets or snack machines, need to manage the risks. Here is one way to reverse an unconfirmed payment:

A [[Double-spending#Finney_attack|Finney attack]] is where an attacker mines a block containing a movement of some coins back to themselves. Once they find a block solution, they quickly go to a merchant and make a purchase, then broadcast the block, thus taking back the coins. This attack is a risk primarily for goods that are dispatched immediately, like song downloads or currency trades. Because the attacker can't choose the time of the attack, it isn't a risk for merchants such as supermarkets where you can't choose exactly when to pay (due to queues, etc). The attack can fail if somebody else finds a block containing the purchasing transaction before you release your own block, therefore, merchants can reduce but not eliminate the risk by making purchasers wait some length of time that's less than a confirm.

Because pulling off this attack is not trivial, merchants who need to sell things automatically and instantly are most likely to adjust the price to include the cost of reversal fraud, or elect to use special insurance.

=== I was sent some bitcoins and they haven't arrived yet! Where are they? ===

Don't panic! There are a number of reasons why your bitcoins might not show up yet, and a number of ways to diagnose them.

The latest version of the Bitcoin-Qt client tells you how far it has yet to go in downloading the blockchain. Hover over the icon in the bottom right corner of the client to learn your client's status.

If it has not caught up then it's possible that your transaction hasn't been included in a block yet.

You can check pending transactions in the network by going [https://www.biteasy.com here] or [http://blockchain.info here] and then searching for your address. If the transaction is listed here then it's a matter of waiting until it gets included in a block before it will show in your client.

If the transaction is based on a coin that was in a recent transaction then it could be considered a low priority transaction. Transfers can take longer if the transaction fee paid was not high enough. If there is no fee at all the transfer can get a very low priority and take hours or even days to be included in a block.

=== Why does my Bitcoin address keep changing? ===
{{seealso|Address reuse}}
Unlike postal and email addresses, Bitcoin addresses are designed to be used exactly once only, for a single transaction.
Originally, wallets would display only a single address at a time, and change it when a transaction was received, but an increasing number of wallet implementations now generate an address when you explicitly want to receive a payment.

While it is technically possible to use an address for an arbitrary number of payments, this works by accident and harms both yourself ''and other unrelated third parties'', so it is considered a bad practice.
The most important concerns with such misuse involve loss of privacy and security:
both can be put into jeopardy when addresses are used for more than a single transaction only.

===How much will the transaction fee be?===

Some transactions might require a [[transaction fee]] for them to get confirmed in a timely manner. The transaction fee is processed by and received by the bitcoin miner. The most recent version of the Bitcoin client will estimate an appropriate fee when a fee might be required.

The fee is added to the payment amount. For example, if you are sending a 1.234 BTC payment and the client requires a 0.0005 BTC fee, then 1.2345 BTC will be subtracted from the wallet balance for the entire transaction and the address for where the payment was sent will receive a payment of 1.234 BTC.

A fee might be imposed because your transaction looks like a denial of service attack to the Bitcoin system. For example, it might be burdensome to transmit or it might recycle Bitcoins you recently received. The wallet software attempts to avoid generating burdensome transactions, but it isn't always able to do so: The funds in your wallet might be new or composed of many tiny payments.

Because the fee is related to the amount of data that makes up the transaction and not to the amount of Bitcoins being sent, the fee may seem extremely low (0.0005 BTC for a 1,000 BTC transfer) or unfairly high (0.004 BTC for a 0.02 BTC payment, or about 20%). If you are receiving tiny amounts (''e.g.'' as small payments from a mining pool) then fees when sending will be higher than if your activity follows the pattern of conventional consumer or business transactions.

As of Bitcoin 0.5.3 the required fee will not be higher than 0.05 BTC. For most users there is usually no required fee at all. If a fee is required it will most commonly be 0.0005 BTC.

=== What happens when someone sends me a bitcoin but my computer is powered off? ===

Bitcoins are not actually "sent" to your wallet; the software only uses that term so that we can use the currency without having to learn new concepts. Your wallet is only needed when you wish to spend coins that you've received.

If you are sent coins when your wallet client program is not running, and you later launch the wallet client program, the coins will eventually appear as if they were just received in the wallet. That is to say, when the client program is started it must download blocks and catch up with any transactions it did not already know about.

=== How long does "synchronizing" take when the Bitcoin client is first installed? What's it doing? ===

The popular Bitcoin client software from bitcoin.org implements a "full" Bitcoin node: It can carry out all the duties of the Bitcoin P2P system, it isn't simply a "client". One of the principles behind the operation of full Bitcoin nodes is that they don't assume that the other participants have followed the rules of the Bitcoin system. During synchronization, the software is processing historical Bitcoin transactions and making sure for itself that all of the rules of the system have been correctly followed.

In normal operation, after synchronizing, the software should use a hardly noticeable amount of your computer's resources.

When the wallet client program is first installed, its initial validation requires a lot of work from your computer's hard disk, so the amount of time to synchronize depends on your disk speed and, to a lesser extent, your CPU speed. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or so. On a slow computer it could take more than 40 hours of continuous synchronization, so check your computer's power-saving settings to ensure that it does not turn its hard disk off when unattended for a few hours. You can use the Bitcoin software during synchronization, but you may not see recent payments to you until the client program has caught up to the point where those transactions happened.

If you feel that this process takes too long, you can download a pre-synchronized blockchain from [http://eu2.bitcoincharts.com/blockchain/ http://eu2.bitcoincharts.com/blockchain/]. Alternatively, you can try an alternative "lite" client such as Multibit or a super-light client like electrum, though these clients have somewhat weaker security, are less mature, and don't contribute to the health of the P2P network.

==Networking==
=== Do I need to configure my firewall to run Bitcoin? ===

Bitcoin will connect to other nodes, usually on TCP port 8333. You will need to allow outgoing TCP connections to port 8333 if you want to allow your Bitcoin client to connect to many nodes. [[Testnet]] uses TCP port 18333 instead of 8333.

If you want to restrict your firewall rules to a few IPs, you can find stable nodes in the [[Fallback Nodes|fallback nodes list]].

=== How does the peer finding mechanism work? ===

Bitcoin finds peers primarily by forwarding peer announcements within its own network and each node saves a database of peers that it's aware of, for future use. In order to bootstrap this process Bitcoin needs a list of initial peers, these can be provided manually but normally it obtains them by querying a set of DNS domain names which have automatically updated lists, if that doesn't work it falls back to a built-in list which is updated from time to time in new versions of the software. In the reference software initial peers can also be specified manually by adding an addr.txt to the data directory or via the addnode parameter.

==Mining==
===What is mining?===
[[Mining]] is the process of spending computation power to secure Bitcoin transactions against reversal and introducing new Bitcoins to the system.

Technically speaking, mining is the calculation of a [[hash]] of the a block header, which includes among other things a reference to the previous block, a hash of a set of transactions and a [[nonce]]. If the hash value is found to be less than the current [[target]] (which is inversely proportional to the [[difficulty]]), a new block is formed and the miner gets the newly generated Bitcoins (25 per block at current levels). If the hash is not less than the current target, a new nonce is tried, and a new hash is calculated. This is done millions of times per second by each miner.

===Is mining used for some useful computation?===
The computations done when mining are internal to Bitcoin and not related to any other distributed computing projects. They serve the purpose of securing the Bitcoin network, which is useful.

===Is it not a waste of energy?===
Spending energy on creating and securing a free monetary system is hardly a waste. Also, services necessary for the operation of currently widespread monetary systems, such as banks and credit card companies, also spend energy, arguably more than Bitcoin would.

===Why don't we use calculations that are also useful for some other purpose?===
To provide security for the Bitcoin network, the calculations involved need to have some [http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/5617/why-are-bitcoin-calculation-useless/5618#5618 very specific features]. These features are incompatible with leveraging the computation for other purposes.

===How can we stop miners from creating zero transaction blocks?===
The incentive for miners to include transactions is in the fees that come along with them. If we were to implement some minimum number of transactions per block it would be trivial for a miner to create and include transactions merely to surpass that threshold. As the network matures, the block reward drops, and miners become more dependent on transactions fees to pay their costs, the problem of zero transaction blocks should diminish over time.

===How does the proof-of-work system help secure Bitcoin?===
Bitcoin uses the [[Hashcash]] proof of work with a minor adaption. To give a general idea of the mining process, imagine this setup:

payload = <some data related to things happening on the Bitcoin network>
nonce = 1
hash = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( payload + nonce ) )

The work performed by a miner consists of repeatedly increasing "nonce" until
the hash function yields a value, that has the rare property of being below a certain
target threshold. (In other words: The hash "starts with a certain number of zeroes",
if you display it in the fixed-length representation, that is typically used.)

As can be seen, the mining process doesn't compute anything special. It merely
tries to find a number (also referred to as nonce) which - in combination with the payload -
results in a hash with special properties.

The advantage of using such a mechanism consists of the fact, that it is very easy to check a result: Given the payload and a specific nonce, only a single call of the hashing function is needed to verify that the hash has the required properties. Since there is no known way to find these hashes other than brute force, this can be used as a "proof of work" that someone invested a lot of computing power to find the correct nonce for this payload.

This feature is then used in the Bitcoin network to secure various aspects. An attacker
that wants to introduce malicious payload data into the network, will need to do the
required proof of work before it will be accepted. And as long as honest miners have more
computing power, they can always outpace an attacker.

Also see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashcash Hashcash] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof-of-work_system Proof-of-work system] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2] and on Wikipedia.

===Why was the "Generate coin" option of the client software removed?===

The option wasn't removed, but it is now only accessible via the command-line or the configuration file. The reason for this is that many users were complaining after they turned on and expecting to receive coins. Without specialized mining hardware a user is exceptionally unlikely generate a block on their own at the network's current [[difficulty|security level]].

==Security==

===Could miners collude to give themselves money or to fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?===

There are two questions in here. Let's look at them separately.

;Could miners gang up and give themselves money?

Mining itself is the process of creating new blocks in the block chain. Each block contains a list of all the transactions that have taken place across the entire Bitcoin network since the last block was created, as well as a hash of the previous block. New blocks are 'mined', or rather, generated, by Bitcoin clients correctly guessing sequences of characters in codes called 'hashes,' which are created using information from previous blocks. Bitcoin users may download specialized 'mining' software, which allows them to dedicate some amount of their processing power – however large or small – to guessing at strings within the hash of the previous block. Whoever makes the right guess first, thus creating a new block, receives a reward in Bitcoins.

The block chain is one of the two structures that makes Bitcoin secure, the other being the public-key encryption system on which Bitcoin trade is based. The block chain assures that not only is every single transaction that ever takes place recorded, but that every single transaction is recorded on the computer of anyone who chooses to store the relevant information. Many, many users have complete records of every transaction in Bitcoins history readily available to them at any point, and anyone who wants in the information can obtain it with ease. These things make Bitcoin very hard to fool.

The Bitcoin network takes considerable processing power to run, and since those with the most processing power can make the most guesses, those who put the most power toward to sustaining the network earn the most currency. Each correct guess yields, at present, twenty-five Bitcoins, and as Bitcoins are presently worth something (although the value still fluctuates) every miner who earns any number of Bitcoins makes money. Some miners pull in Bitcoins on their own; and some also join or form pools wherein all who contribute earn a share of the profits.

Therefore, first answer is a vehement “yes” – not only can miners collude to get more money, Bitcoin is designed to encourage them to do so. Bitcoin pools are communal affairs, and there is nothing dishonest or underhanded about them.

Of course, the real question is:

;Can they do so in ways not sanctioned by Bitcoin network? Is there any way to rip off the network and make loads of money dishonestly?

Bitcoin isn't infallible. It can be cheated, but doing so is extremely difficult. Bitcoin was designed to evade some of the central problems with modern currencies – namely, that their trustworthiness hinges upon that of people who might not have users' best interests in mind. Every currency in the world (other than Bitcoin) is controlled by large institutions who keep track of what's done with it, and who can manipulate its value. And every other currency has value because people trust the institutions that control them.

Bitcoin doesn't ask that its users trust any institution. Its security is based on the cryptography that is an integral part of its structure, and that is readily available for any and all to see. Instead of one entity keeping track of transactions, the entire network does, so Bitcoins are astoundingly difficult to steal, or double-spend. Bitcoins are created in a regular and predictable fashion, and by many different users, so no one can decide to make a whole lot more and lessen their value. In short, Bitcoin is designed to be inflation-proof, double-spend-proof and completely distributed.

Nonetheless, there are a few ways that one can acquire Bitcoins dishonestly. Firstly, one can steal private keys. Key theft isn't something that Bitcoin security has been designed to prevent: it's up to users to keep their keys safe. But the cryptography is designed so that it is completely impossible to deduce someone's private key from their public one. As long as you keep your private key to yourself, you don't have much to worry about. Furthermore, one could theoretically create a new block chain, but due to the way in which the block chain is constructed, this would be extremely difficult and require massive amounts of processing power. A full explanation of the difficulties involved can be found in the [[block chain]] article.

Bitcoin can be ripped off – but doing so would be extremely hard and require considerable expertise and a staggering amount of processing power. And it's only going to get harder with time. Bitcoin isn't impenetrable, but it's close enough to put any real worries in the peripherals.

;Could miners fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?

Once again, almost certainly not.

Bitcoin is a distributed network, so any changes implemented to the system must be accepted by all users. Someone trying to change the way Bitcoins are generated would have to convince every user to download and use their software – so the only changes that would go through are those that would be equally benefit all users.

And thus, it is more or less impossible for anyone to change the function of Bitcoin to their advantage. If users don't like the changes, they won't adopt them, whereas if users do like them, then these will help everyone equally. Of course, one can conceive of a situation where someone manages to get a change pushed through that provides them with an advantage that no one notices, but given that Bitcoin is structurally relatively simple, it is unlikely that any major changes will go through without someone noticing first.

The fact that such changes are so difficult to make testifies to the fully distributed nature of Bitcoin. Any centrally controlled currency can be modified by its central agency without the consent of its adherents. Bitcoin has no central authority, so it changes only at the behest of the whole community. Bitcoins development represents a kind of collective evolution; the first of its kind among currencies.

==Help==
===I'd like to learn more. Where can I get help?===

* Read the [[Introduction|introduction to bitcoin]]
* See the videos, podcasts, and blog posts from the [[Press]]
* Read and post on the [[:Bitcoin Wiki:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums|forums]]
* Chat on one of the [[:Bitcoin Wiki:Community_portal#IRC_Chat|Bitcoin IRC]] channels
* Listen to [http://omegataupodcast.net/2011/03/59-bitcoin-a-digital-decentralized-currency/ this podcast], which goes into the details of how bitcoin works
* Ask questions on the [http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com Bitcoin Stack Exchange]
* Use [http://bitcoinx.io BitcoinX.io] to help beginners learn about reputable Bitcoin exchanges and Bitcoin wallets

==See Also==

* [[Man page]]
* [[Introduction]]

==References==
<references>
<references/>
{{Reflist|2}}

[[de:FAQ]]
[[zh-cn:FAQ]]
[[fr:FAQ]]
[[ru:FAQ]]

[[Category:Technical]]
[[Category:Vocabulary]]

User talk:Bitmix4you

2015-05-11T09:37:10Z

Bawolff: Bitcoin -> Bitcoin Wiki

== Copyright notice ==

(on [[Bitmix4you]]) Doesn't work that way. Read the notice next to the save button: "Please note that all contributions to Bitcoin are considered to be released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (see [[Bitcoin wiki:Copyrights]] for details). If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly and redistributed at will, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource. '''Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!'''" I've edited out the copyright notice. If you actually wanted to invoke that copyright over the text, remove it from the wiki. --[[User:TimS|TimS]] ([[User talk:TimS|talk]]) 22:18, 10 June 2014 (UTC)

User talk:Taras/Archives/2014

2015-05-11T09:36:32Z

Bawolff: Bitcoin -> Bitcoin Wiki

{{archive|User talk:Taras}}__TOC__
Here I am hello [[User:Taras|Taras]] ([[User talk:Taras|talk]]) 21:49, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
:Love you {{unsigned|the world}}

== IRC, recent changes, etc ==

You're not on IRC much anymore - if it's not too inconvenient, it's nice to have everyone online for chatting ;)
In the meantime, some topics I'd like to bring up:
* Please don't give BitcoinTalk a privileged position on the wiki - it is 99.99% trolls, so probably the worst place to be referring to for reviews.
* I disagree with automatically removing things as "cons" without evidence of it (ie, not merely lack of evidence in their favour) - this should probably be discussed on IRC with everyone sometime.
* The sentence "Please use a more established mixer until this one proves to be trustworthy." may prove to be problematic since mixers are most likely illegal - maybe we should discuss just prohibiting them altogether...
* Transactions do not have a [[from address]] - please try not to bring blockchain.info's misinformation to the wiki :)
--[[User:Luke-jr|Luke-jr]] ([[User talk:Luke-jr|talk]]) 07:13, 23 September 2014 (UTC)
:I thought I replied to this. I must not have saved it. Anyways I don't have much time right now, but I wanted to say real quick that I am certain of pages like [[Brave Bunny 6x]] et al are scams. These pages all have the same format and have been repeatedly created at the same time by the same accounts. I think [[Bitcoin Blender]] is a real service, but on BitcoinTalk or not, I can't find any testimonials. I will try to be more active on IRC, I look forward to talking to you! [[User:Taras|Taras]] ([[User talk:Taras|talk]]) 14:38, 25 September 2014 (UTC)

== permission to edit==
Hi Taras, it says that I do not have rights to edit:https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Talk:Buying_Bitcoins_%28the_newbie_version%29
I would like to add my company, BTC Guys LLC link: http://www.btguys.us

Thanks for your help {{unsigned|Mansoor5|15:55, 29 August 2014 (UTC)}}
:Sorry I didn't get back to you until now; but it looks like you have figured it out. Let me know if you still need anything. [[User:Taras|Taras]] ([[User talk:Taras|talk]]) 17:27, 1 September 2014 (UTC)
::Dear Taras, my website is still not listed on https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Buying_Bitcoins_%28the_newbie_version%29
::I will appreciate any help to list my website there.
::Thank you, {{unsigned|Mansoor5|00:00, 3 September 2014 (UTC)}}
:::I'm sorry; I thought you were talking about [[Buying bitcoins]], not the newbie version. I took care of it. :)
:::<small>By the way -- you can sign your comments by typing <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> in the editor.</small> [[User:Taras|Taras]] ([[User talk:Taras|talk]]) 20:58, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
::::Thank you so such! ~{{unsigned|Mansoor5|00:38, 4 September 2014 (UTC)}}

== admin rights ==

you have admin rights on the english wiki. that means you can move/delete pages when you deem it appropriate. {{unsigned|Nanotube|02:41, 14 August 2014‎}}
:Acknowledged :) [[User:Taras|Taras]] ([[User talk:Taras|talk]]) 02:46, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

==Proposed article for deletion==

Hi, I would like to propose deleting the article [[Tonal Bitcoin]]. I have added a justification here

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Talk:Tonal_Bitcoin

To avoid having this article reappear, it might be best to blank the page while keeping it protected. [[User:Lunokhod|Lunokhod]] ([[User talk:Lunokhod|talk]]) 09:42, 21 August 2014 (UTC)
:See below [[User:Taras|Taras]] ([[User talk:Taras|talk]]) 21:25, 22 August 2014 (UTC)

==Proposed block of user [[User:Luke-jr|Luke-jr]]==
Hi there, in addition to the above proposed article deletion, with further research and run ins with the "overseer" of that page, I kindly ask that you consider blocking the user account [[User:Luke-jr|Luke-jr]]. I have never once asked such a thing before on any of the wiki's I edit, so I do not do so lightly.

To summarize:

# If you look at the editing history of [[Tonal Bitcoin]], you will see that user Luke-Jr has reverted almost every single edit that has been made to this page. This has been done with no discussion on the talk page. This manner in which the edits are reverted are done so in a fanatical way, and this applies to several users that have attempted to contribute to this page, not just one.
# If you look at the history of the talk pages, you will see that several people have made sensible comments. Furthermore several people have previously made arguements for why this page should be deleted. However, Luke-jr has consistently removed these comments from the talk page, affectively stopping all further discussion, or ending in a revert-war. Though it is common to to have differences in the content of a wiki page, I have never seen a user in my life revert to removing comments and discussions posted on the talk page.
# With regard to the above point, I emphasize that Gavin Andresen himself (!) commented on the talk page, suggesting that this page be removed. Luke -Jr had the gaul to even remove this comment from such a member of high standing in the bitcoin community.
# If you look at this user's talk page, you will notice that he has consistently blanked his page after receiving comments about his edits on other pages.
# If you look at his editing history, you will see that he consistently makes edits that go against community consensus, all while giving little-to-no justification.
# Finally, as seen in the tonal bitcoin forum, he accuses all members that are not on his side (i.e., everyone in the tonal bitcoin case) to be trolling. At the very least, this is not very kind. At the worst, this behavior is itself trolling.

[[User:Lunokhod|Lunokhod]] ([[User talk:Lunokhod|talk]]) 10:10, 22 August 2014 (UTC)
:It's really not my place to block Luke. While I agree that TBC doesn't belong on the list of alts, it '''does''' constitute an article of its own (even if it may need some rewording) and Luke is otherwise a contributing member of this wiki. I dislike that he blanks talk pages for being against his ideals, over the guise of being simply "trolling," however he is right that TBC is in no violation [[Bitcoin Wiki:About|of any guidelines on the wiki]] and his actions would not constitute a block on my behalf. Regardless, I appreciate you trying to improve this wiki. If Luke ''does'' get blocked, or TBC is deleted, it will not be my doing.<br/>[[Image:No.png|18px|link=|alt=]] '''Rejected''' [[User:Taras|Taras]] ([[User talk:Taras|talk]]) 21:25, 22 August 2014 (UTC)
:PS - You may want to consult [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=168.0 the forum] for this. [[User:Taras|Taras]] ([[User talk:Taras|talk]]) 21:31, 22 August 2014 (UTC)

:: Thanks for the quick response. If you think that it is acceptable for users to remove comments from the talk page, when they are reasoned and written in the best interest of this wiki, then I don't know if I really want to be part of this community. In any case, I wish you all the best of luck here. It's not always easy to deal with these types of personalities (mine included!). [[User:Lunokhod|Lunokhod]] ([[User talk:Lunokhod|talk]]) 08:31, 23 August 2014 (UTC)

== Ico template bug ==

[[:Template:Ico]] appears outside of the content area on the MonoBook theme. If you have time, could you look into this? If not, I might try fixing it later, but I won't have time for a while. Thanks. [[User:Theymos|theymos]] ([[User talk:Theymos|talk]]) 20:00, 22 August 2014 (UTC)
:I will definitely be looking into this. Thank you for bringing it to my attention! [[User:Taras|Taras]] ([[User talk:Taras|talk]]) 21:25, 22 August 2014 (UTC)
::I moved the images around a bit, and I think they look nice on both themes for now. There might be a better solution in the future. See [[Bitcoin]], the only page with all three icons. [[User:Taras|Taras]] ([[User talk:Taras|talk]]) 21:59, 22 August 2014 (UTC)
:::Looks good, thanks! [[User:Theymos|theymos]] ([[User talk:Theymos|talk]]) 02:16, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

== Adding Trucoin to the Buying Bitcoins; Newbie Version ==

Hi, I noticed editing is restricted on the 'buying bitcoins: newbie version' article. Can you please add Trucoin to the credit card entry?

=== Trucoin.com ===
[http://trucoin.com/ Trucoin] - allows users to buy Bitcoin with credit and debit cards. Trucoin is the first properly licensed money service business to offer this service and serves U.S. customers in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, American Samoa, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Wake Island, West Virginia, and Wyoming, with more states and worldwide locations coming soon.

{{unsigned|Bitcoinsource|17:23, 18 November 2014 (UTC)}}
:I took care of it :) [[User:Taras|Taras]] ([[User talk:Taras|talk]]) 21:34, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

-- Thanks! May also want to add CoinMX.org:

=== CoinMX ===
[http://www.coin.mx CoinMX] - Accepts worldwide users (mainly from the US). you can use your credit card to fund your CoinMX account and buy BTC or LTC currencies. Requires verification of identity by sending a video holding a government issued ID (e.g. passport) to the site.

== Adding BittyBot to Buying Bitcoins (the newbie version) ==

Hi, please could you add BittyBot to the "Buying Bitcoins (the newbie version)" page. It probably needs to be in a new subheading for "Price Comparison"

===Price Comparison===

[http://bittybot.co.uk BittyBot] - allows users to compare different bitcoin sellers and prices in UK.

== Bitcoin-Qt move ==

Can you move [[Bitcoin-Qt]] to [[Bitcoin Core]]? I can't because [[Bitcoin Core]] has edit history. Thanks. [[User:Theymos|theymos]] ([[User talk:Theymos|talk]]) 16:26, 18 December 2014 (UTC)
:I took care of it! Also, can we have the old wiki's database? I'd like to import its revisions for historical completeness. [[User:Taras|Taras]] ([[User talk:Taras|talk]]) 01:05, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

User talk:TheDuche

2015-05-11T09:36:02Z

Bawolff: Bitcoin -> Bitcoin Wiki

== Referral link ==

Trying to make the Coinbase link have you as a referrer is not allowed. See [[Bitcoin Wiki:About#Links]]. --[[User:TimS|TimS]] ([[User talk:TimS|talk]]) 22:11, 10 June 2014 (UTC)

== September 2014 ==
[[File:Stophand.png|32px|alt=Information icon]] You appear to be inserting links to malicious or fraudulent sites. This is your <b>only warning</b>. Should you do this again, <b>you will be blocked without further notice</b>. [[User:Taras|Taras]] ([[User talk:Taras|talk]]) 21:05, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

User talk:Glitch003

2015-05-11T09:35:38Z

Bawolff: Bitcoin -> Bitcoin Wiki

Hi, I deleted your new page "Using Vanitygen with Alt-Coins‎" since it is [[Bitcoin Wiki:About#Alternative_cryptocurrencies|off-topic]]. Please review the [[Bitcoin Wiki:About|wiki policy]] if you have any questions. --[[User:Luke-jr|Luke-jr]] ([[User talk:Luke-jr|talk]]) 03:49, 2 August 2014 (UTC)

Bitcoin Wiki:Community portal

2015-05-11T09:34:49Z

Bawolff: Bitcoin -> Bitcoin Wiki

== Bitcoin Community Forums on various platforms ==
* [http://bitcointalk.org/ Bitcointalk]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/ /r/Bitcoin]
* [https://plus.google.com/communities/115591368588047305300 Bitcoin Google+ Community]
* [http://bitcoin.org.uk/forums Bitcoin Forums]
* [http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/ The Bitcoin StackExchange]
* [http://www.quora.com/Bitcoin/ Bitcoin group on Quora]
* [http://bitcointrading.com Bitcoin Trading Forum]
* [http://tweetforum.com/bitcoin TweetForum Bitcoin Community]
* [http://www.bitcoin-board.com/ Bitcoin-Board Forum]
* [http://www.bitcoinforums.net BitcoinForums.Net]
* [http://groups.google.com/group/bitcoin-discussion Bitcoin google group]
* [http://goo.gl/2PncY Bitcoin Portal p2p (on Osiris platform)]
* [http://www.btclog.com btc::log]
* [http://www.facebook.com/bitcoins Facebook page]
* [http://www.facebook.com/groups/136003253120130 Facebook Group]
* [https://plus.google.com/107581642674912229828/ Bitcoin Google+]
* [http://hubski.com/tag?id=bitcoin Bitcoin on Hubski]
* [http://www.bitcointribe.com Bitcoin Tribe Social Network]

===Regions / Languages===
* [https://coinforum.ca Canada's Bitcoin Community]
* [https://www.bitcoin-italia.org Bitcoin Italia]
* [http://forum.bitcoin.com.au/ Bitcoin Australia Forum]
* [http://www.bitcoin.org.il Isreali Bitcoin Community Forum]
* [http://bitcoincenterkorea.org Bitcoin Center Korea]
* [http://bitcoin.pl/forum/ Polish Bitcoin Community Forum]
* [http://btcsec.com/ BTCsec.com] Russian Website about Bitcoin
* [https://forum.btcsec.com/ BTCsec.com Bitcoin Community Forum (Russian)]
* [http://rubitcoin.com/ Russian Bitcoin Community Forum]
* [https://www.facebook.com/groups/bitcoinph/ Bitcoin Philippine Community]

=== Local Communities ===
''For an up-to-date list please see [http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/wiki/local_communities local communities]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/ArgenBitcoin Argentina bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinAUS Australia bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinBE Belgian bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BrasilBitcoin Brazil bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinCA Canada bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinDK Denmark bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcoinsuomi Finland bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinFrance France bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinDE Germany bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinGhana Ghana bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinGT Guatemala bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinIndia India bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinIran Iran bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinIT Italy bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinJP Japan bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcoinlaos Laos bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinMalaysia Malaysia bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BITCOINMEX Mexico bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinNL The Netherlands bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinNO Norway bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinPL Poland bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcoinsouthafrica South Africa bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcoines Spain bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinSWE Sweden bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/btctaiwan Taiwan bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinTR Turkey bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinUK United Kingdom bitcoin community]
** [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinLondon London bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinUSA USA bitcoin community]
** [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinBayArea Bay Area, CA bitcoin community]
** [http://www.reddit.com/r/DenverBitcoin/ Denver, CO bitcoin community]
** [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinAsheville Asheville, NC bitcoin community]
** [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinAlbuquerque Albuquerque, NM bitcoin community]
** [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinNY New York City, NY bitcoin community]
** [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinPA Pennsylvania bitcoin community]
** [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinNashville Nashville, TN bitcoin community]
** [http://reddit.com/r/BitcoinAustin/ Austin, TX bitcoin community]
** [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinSeattle Seattle, WA bitcoin community]
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinVzla Venezuela bitcoin community]

== Bitcoin Community Groups on Bitcoin Wiki platform ==

=== Special interests ===
* [[Bitcoin Wiki]]-group

=== Geographically ===
* [[Espagna]] / [[Spain]] (E.)
* [[France]] / [[France]] (F.)
* [[Germany]] / [[Deutschland]] (D.)
* [[Netherlands]] (NL) and [[Belgium]] (B.)
* [[United Kingdom]] of Great Brittain (GB) and Northern Ireland
* [[United States]] of America (USA)

====Clusters====
There are various temporary and permanent clusters where bitcoin-friendly communities form. Temporary clusters are listed in [[Bitcoin Wiki:Community_portal#Events|events]]. Permanent communities include:

* [http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=66832.0 Free State Project] New Hampshire
* [http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2012/05/bitcoins-hogwarts-san-francisco-tech.html 20 Mission] San Francisco, CA
* [http://bitcoinmagazine.net/bitcoin-kiez-rollout-3-new-btc-accepting-stores-and-restaurants-in-berlin-more-to-come Bitcoin Kiez] Berlin, Germany

== IRC ==

* See [[IRC_channels|IRC channels]]

==Wiki Users==

* [http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Special:ListUsers List of Users] registered on the Bitcoin wiki.

== Events ==
Periodic events where Bitcoin community meets include PorcFest, Chaos Computer Camp, Burning Man, Bitcoin conferences and more.

* [[Meetups]]
* [http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4526.0 Events, conferences and other events]

==Bitcoin Related Publications==

* [http://bitcoinmagazine.net Bitcoin Magazine] periodical printed publication
* [http://twitter.com/bitcoinnews/bitcoin @BitcoinNews/bitcoin] Twitter list
* See [[:Category:Blogs|Blogs]] category
* See [[:Category:Directories|Directories]] category
* See [[Press]]

==Education==

* [[:Category:Educational|Educational category]]

== Maps ==
* [http://bitcoinyellowpages.com Bitcoin Yellow Pages], A fast growing Bitcoin search directory showing all Bitcoin business locations on a world map. Search by keyword, location, or category to find the Bitcoin business that fits your needs.
* [http://coinmap.org/ CoinMap], collaborative map based on OpenStreetMap data and rendering
* [[Bitcoin.local]] Local exchanges
* The [[Bitcoin Map (Collaborative map)|Bitcoin Map]] collaborative map
* [[Bitcoin Users Worldwide]] - Find nearby Bitcoin users • Engage in local trade • Add your own offers • Get notifications

== Monitoring ==
* [http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/ Bitcoin Charts] displays an overview of Bitcoin exchange markets.
* The [http://www.bitcoinmonitor.com/ Bitcoin Monitor] visualizes transactions, new blocks and trades on markets as they are happening.
* [http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/ Bitcoin Watch] has various statistics on things like the size of the economy or the number of transactions.

== Portfolio ==
* [http://my-btc.info MY-BTC.INFO] A free profit/loss portfolio manager for Bitcoins and other digital currencies.
* [http://myBitWorth.com myBitWorth] - allows you to track your bitcoin holdings over multiple addresses and portfolios on the bitcoin securities exchanges.

== Bitcoin Project ==
* [http://www.bitcoin.org Bitcoin.org] Official project site
* [[:Category:Developer|Developer]] pages

== Non-profit Organizations ==

* [[List_of_Bitcoin_non-profits_around_the_world|List of Bitcoin non-profits around the world]]

== External Communities ==
* [http://www.etsy.com/teams/10366/bitcoin Bitcoin team] on Etsy, an e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items.
* [http://weacceptbitcoins.deviantart.com #WeAcceptBitcoins group] on deviantArt, an online community showcasing various forms of user-made artwork.
* [https://www.couchsurfing.org/group.html?gid=38717 Bitcoin group] on Couchsurfing.org, a website that offers its users hospitality exchange and social networking services.
* [http://steamcommunity.com/groups/bitcoin Bitcoin group on Steam] platform by Valve, a gaming platform.
* [http://www.Ogrr.com Ogrr], a digital trading community.
* [http://www.rugatu.com/ Rugatu], a Q&A community.

Talk:Bitcoin Fog

2015-05-11T09:34:04Z

Bawolff: Bitcoin -> Bitcoin Wiki

== Scam accusation ==
It would be nice, if you enable editing this page, because Bitcoin Fog scammed a lot of people. {{unsigned|Pampa|20:19, 5 March 2015‎ (UTC)}}
:Changes can be made [[Bitcoin Wiki:ContentPages/Bitcoin_Fog|here]]. The links are locked, not the content of the page. I think we should ban mixing services from the wiki anyways; they're 99% fraud and pretty useless.
::This page links to a phishing site. The first link is to bitcoinfog.CO. The real site is .COM. {{unsigned|Joshhern|23:08, 6 March 2015‎ (UTC)}}
:::That was done [https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Bitcoin%3AContentPages%2FBitcoin_Fog&action=historysubmit&diff=53914&oldid=51146 here]... The perpetrator had inserted other undetected fraudulent links, too. Mixing services on the wiki have been causing a lot of drama. I'm going to propose we ban them from the wiki (the links, at least). Mixers are completely arbitrary and useless except as a placebo anyway, and almost all of them are scams. Thank you for pointing this link out. Both will be removed. [[User:Taras|Taras]] ([[User talk:Taras|talk]]) 23:19, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

== Related thread ==
[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=713095.0 Related thread] --[[User:Taras|Taras]] ([[User talk:Taras|talk]]) 19:23, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

== Protecting links ==

In order to prevent the insertion of malicious or fraudulent links onto this page, I will be locking the page. It can still be edited at [[Bitcoin Wiki:ContentPages/Bitcoin_Fog]]. This is so that users can contribute information without being able to tamper with the links. [[User:Taras|Taras]] ([[User talk:Taras|talk]]) 15:49, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Meetups

2015-05-11T09:33:32Z

Bawolff: Bitcoin -> Bitcoin Wiki

Don't add everyone who's going in the "Who?" column, just prominent Bitcoin members and organizers. Also see [http://bitcoin.meetup.com bitcoin.meetup.com]. Also see [[Conferences]].

Keep an eye on the [http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=86.0 Meetups] forum board on BitcoinTalk for announcements.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Group
! When?
! Where?
! Who?
! Other Notes
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/Bitcoin-in-San-Diego/ Bitcoin in San Diego]
| Bi-Monthly meetups, weekly workshops
| San Diego, CA, United States
| Local and international participants - guest speakers welcome.
| Presentations and workshops, discussion & trade.
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/Tucson-Bitcoin-Marketplace/ Bitcoin in Tucson]
| short-notice meetups
| Tucson, AZ, United States
| everyone welcome
| breakfast, Bitcoin basics, presentations, cryptocurrencies, blockchains, and economics
|-
| [http://bitcoinembassy.ca Bitcoin Embassy]
| Monthly meetups, weekly workshops
| Montreal, QC, Canada
| Local and international participants - guest speakers welcome. Come and visit our hackerspace, startup incubator and soon, Bitcoin store.
| Presentations and workshops, discussion & trade. [http://eepurl.com/GRzAf Register to our mailing list] to receive event invitations. We also post on [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=86.0 BitcoinTalk Meetups], [http://bitcoinembassy.eventbrite.ca/ EventBrite], [https://www.facebook.com/bitcoinembassy Facebook Bitcoin Embassy page], [https://plus.google.com/u/0/100266464273886488866 Google +], etc.
|-
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/San-Antonio-Bitcoin/ San Antonio Meetup]
| Every Thursday at 7:00 PM
| San Antonio, Texas
Currently at [https://www.google.com/maps/place/17711+Interstate+10+Frontage+Rd,+The+Rim,+San+Antonio,+TX+78257/@29.609714,-98.59871,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x865c6423ecd5d047:0xaa94c89b14a98fc0 Tiago's]
| Miners, entrepreneurs, traders and anyone looking to learn more about Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies are welcome.
| [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=727155.0 Bitcointalk thread]
|-
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/BitcoinCT/ BitcoinCT Meetup]
| Monthly Meetups
| Stamford, CT
| The Connecticut Bitcoin Meetup brings together Bitcoin users in Connecticut. This meetup is suitable for everyone from Bitcoin newbies to experienced Bitcoiners. You can attend meetups simply to learn more about Bitcoin or to make business connections for entrepreneurs, miners and developers. | We welcome everyone to our meetups even if you're not currently a Bitcoin user, but simply want to find out more about this amazing e-currency.
|-
|-
| [https://bitcash.cz/forum/ Bitcash.cz]
| Ocasionally
| Prague, Brno, Ostrava
| Meetup for Czech and Slovak bitcoin pioneers.
| Discuss and trade with Bitcoin. Events posted also on our [https://www.facebook.com/Bitcash.cz Facebook] profile.
|-
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/Sydney-Bitcoin-Users-Group/ BitcoinSYD]
| Every Wednesday @ 1800
| [https://goo.gl/maps/okdSm The SG], Downstairs, 32 York St. Look for the guy in the Red Cap.
| Local, National and International peeps looking to Talk and Trade Bitcoin
| We also post our meetups on Reddit and [https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bitcoin-Sydney-Australia/457681220943285 Facebook]
|-
|-
| [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=27191.0;all Bitcoin Stammtisch]
| each first Thursday of the month
| [http://www.room77.de/ Room 77], Gräfestr. 77, Berlin-Kreuzberg
| Anyone interested in Bitcoin: technically, economically, socially or philosophically.
| If questions contact andreas(at)schildbach.de (founder).
|-
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/bitcoins/ Bitcoin NYC]
| monthly
| [http://www.xcubicle.com/ xCubicle Hackerspace - New York, NY]
| Any and all Bitcoin aficionados.
|
|-
|-
| [https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_Wednesday Bitcoin Wednesday Amsterdam]
| First Wednesday of the Month
| Dutch Bitcoin Users Group of the Netherlands - The country's longest continuously running Bitcoin event.
| [http://www.meetup.com/BitcoinWednesday/ Sign Up - Amsterdam, The Netherlands]
| Open to anyone interested in Bitcoin. Organized by [https://www.PikaPay.com PikaPay.com] @PikaPay or hello-AT-PikaPay.com
|-
|-
| [http://hitspace.org/ HIT Space - Hack it Together]
| monthly
| [http://hitspace.org/where-we-are/ HIT Space - Porto, Portugal]
| Hackerspace members and anyone who want to join us
| send us an email geral[at]hitspace.org
|-
|-
| [http://bitcoin-austria.at Bitcoin Austria]
| monthly - check the [http://bitcoin-austria.at wiki] or subscribe to the [http://lists.bitcoin-austria.at/listinfo/bitcoin mailinglist]
| [https://metalab.at/wiki/Lage Metalab], Vienna hacker space, Rathausstraße 6, 1010 Wien
| Everybody interested in Bitcoin
|
|-
| [http://brmlab.cz brmlab, prague hackerspace]
| 14th Nov 2011
28th Nov 2011
([http://brmlab.cz/event/bitcoin_seminar])
| [http://brmlab.cz/place Brmlab, Bubenska 1]
| brmlab crew, slush, genjix
|
|-
| [http://www.facebook.com/groups/175596065827848/ Bitcoin Boston]
| Every Friday at 4:30 and bi-weekly on Saturday or Sunday ([http://www.facebook.com/groups/175596065827848/ See Facebook page])
| Starbucks in Kendall Square (Ames St & Broadway) and bi-weekly at Starbucks in Harvard Square
| Anyone is welcome!
| Our bi-weekly meetings have been somewhat sporadic but we aim to gain some regularity.
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/Milwaukee-Area-Bitcoin-Meetup/ Milwaukee Area Bitcoin Meetup]
| Every other Thursday at 6:00pm
| 17025 West Rogers Drive, New Berlin WI
| Open to anyone interested in Bitcoin
| [https://www.facebook.com/groups/BTCMKE Milwaukee Area Bitcoin Meetup Facebook]
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/bitcoin New York Bitcoin Users]
| 6:00 PM, 3rd Sunday of every month ([http://www.meetup.com/bitcoin/events/past past meetings])
| OnlyOneTV Studios - 290 Fifth Ave New York, NY
| Bruce Wagner (Organizer) and others
|
|-
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/bitcoin New York Bitcoin Users]
| 6:00 PM, every Wednesday of every month ([http://www.meetup.com/bitcoin/events/past past meetings])
| Just Sweet Dessert House - 83 Third Ave New York, NY
| Yifu Guo (Organizer) and crew
| hosted by Bitsyncom, the people behind [[Bitnavigator]], walk-ins welcome;
|-
|[http://www.meetup.com/MichiganBitcoinMeetup Michigan Bitcoin Meetup]
|
|
|Kinnard Hockenhull (Organizer)
|Sponsored by [[BitBox]]
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/PhillyBitcoin Philadelphia Bitcoin User Group]
| TBD
| TBD
| Brian Cohen (Organizer) and others
|
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/BitcoinDC Washington, DC Bitcoin Users]
| 7:00 PM, 1st Monday of every month ([http://www.meetup.com/BitcoinDC/#past past meetings])
| Northside Social, 3211 Wilson Blvd Arlington, VA
| [[User:Dduane|Darrell Duane]] (Organizer) and others
|
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/Silicon-Valley-Bitcoin-Users Silicon Valley Bitcoin Users]
| 7:00 PM, Tuesday, June 14, 2011 ([http://www.meetup.com/Silicon-Valley-Bitcoin-Users/events/past past meetings])
| 140B S Whisman Road Mountain View, CA
| Brian Mcqueen and others
|
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/BitcoinChicago Chicago]
| No regular schedule yet ([http://www.meetup.com/BitcoinChicago/events/past past meetings])
| Sunnyvale Art Gallery Cafe, 251 W El Camino Real Sunnyvale, CA
| Igor
|
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/denver-bitcoin Denver]
| First meeting June 4th, 2011 ([http://www.meetup.com/denver-bitcoin/events/past past meetings])
| Gypsy House Cafe - 1279 Marion St Denver, CO
| bearbones
|
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/bitcoinSF Bitcoin SF]
| Saturday, June 4, 2011 ([http://www.meetup.com/bitcoinSF past meetings])
| SFSU - 1600 Holloway Ave. San Francisco, CA
| Brian Mcqueen and others
|
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/Los-Angeles-Digital-Currency-Innovators-Group Los Angeles Digital Currency Innovators]
| Thursday July 7th, 2011, 7 PM
| (mt)/Media Temple, Culver City, CA
| [[User:sgornick|Stephen Gornick]] (Interim organizer) and others
| Seeking meetup coordinator
|-
| [http://CryptoParty.vegas/ Las Vegas Crypto Party]
| 1st Thursday 7pm. [http://BitcoinsInVegas.com Weekly Wednesday lunch mobs]
| CoinBus.com, 64 N Pecos, Henderson, NV 89052
| Julian Tosh / Tuxavant
|
|-
| [https://www.facebook.com/groups/195492163844669/ Free State Bitcoin Consortium]
| Every Saturday, at 6:30 PM
| Strange Brew Tavern, Manchester, NH
| ben-abuya (organizer)
| Weekly
|-
| [https://www.facebook.com/groups/195492163844669/ Twin Cities Users]
| Friday, June 10, 2011, 6:30 PM
| Joule - 1200 Washington Ave S Minneapolis, MN
| Mac Manson
|
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/Portland-Bitcoin-Meetup-Users Portland Bitcoin Users Meetup Group]
| forming
|
| Steven Wagner
|
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/Bitcoin-Orlando Bitcoin Orlando]
| ([http://www.meetup.com/Bitcoin-Orlando#past past meetings])
| Frank & Steins 150 S. Magnolia Ave, Orlando, FL
| Antonio Gallippi
|
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/Bitcoin-Enthusiasts/ Bitcoin Tampa]
| Monthly meetings
| Matt Branton -- [https://www.coinlock.com/ Coinlock.com] founder
|
|-
| [http://www.hive13.org/?p=310 Hive13 Hackerspace]
| Bitcoin Exchange, Every Tuesday, 7:30 PM
| Hive13 - 2929 Spring Grove Avenue, Cincinnati, OH
|
|
|-
| [https://www.facebook.com/bitcoinaus Bitcoin Australia]: Melbourne
| [https://www.facebook.com/events/345430765511234/ Wednesday, 23 May 2012, 18:45]
| Melbourne CBD(TBA)
| Facebook, IRC, Bitcointalk Forum...
|
|-
| [[Bitcoin Wiki:Tokyo meetup|Tokyo]]
| Every Thursday
| Shibuya, Roppongi
| Roger Ver (Organizer) and others
| Locations change, check the meetup page
|-
| [http://meetup.com/Bitcoin-Canada Vancouver Canada]
| ([http://www.meetup.com/Bitcoin-Canada/#past past meetings])
| The Brickhouse - 730 Main St.
| humble (and others)
|
|-
| [https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/113055238568417913658 Zurich / Geneva Switzerland]
| Twice a month
| Kennedy's Irish Pub, Zurich; Lord Nelson Pub, Geneva
| Stefan Thomas (WeUseCoins), Mike Hearn (BitcoinJ), bitdragon, Luzius (Wuala), more ...
|
|-
| Seattle Bitcoin Meetup
| [http://www.meetup.com/SeattleBitCoin/ Semi-regularly].
| [http://maps.google.com/maps?q=cafe+solstice&daddr=4116+University+Way,+Seattle,+WA+98105-6214&hl=en&ll=47.657424,-122.31313&spn=0.007328,0.01929&gl=us&view=map&geocode=CRT9Bdg7zX3vFdcx1wIdWqa1-CFcJ9qrr9CcEQ&t=h&z=16 Solstice Cafe, 2pm]
| [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=36217 indolering]
|
|-
| [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=135723.0 Munich Germany]
| First wednesday of the month, 6:00PM
| [http://www.openstreetmap.org/?minlon=11.5800867080688&minlat=48.1336479187012&maxlon=11.5804319381714&maxlat=48.1338386535645 Nero Pizza], Rumfordstrasse 34, 80469 München
| Bitcoin-users from Munich and around
| [http://www.meetup.com/Bitcoin-Munchen/ @meetup.com]
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/bitcoin-il/ Israel Bitcoin Meetup Group]
| Occasional
| TBD
| Meni Rosenfeld
|
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/Dallas-Bitcoin-User-Meetup/ Dallas Bitcoin Meetup Group]
| Biweekly on Saturdays, 6:00PM
| [http://freemandallas.com/ The Free Man Cajun Cafe]
| Justus Ranvier (organizer)
|
|-
| [https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Cafe Café Bitcoin Sevilla]
|
| Seville, Spain
| Randy Brito (rdymac / btcven), Eduardo (bitcoin.com.es), Jorge and Alfredo
| http://cafebitcoin.com
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/BitcoinSingapore/ Bitcoin Singapore Meetup]
|
| Singapore
| Monthly
| [https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bitcoin-Singapore/431452580303555 Bitcoin Singapore Facebook Page]
|-
| [http://www.meetup.com/Lehigh-Valley-Bitcoin-Meetup/ Lehigh Valley (Allentown/Bethlehem PA) Bitcoin]
|
| Westgate Subway; Schoenersville Rd; Bethlehem
| Jim Hoff (organizer)
| http://www.meetup.com/Lehigh-Valley-Bitcoin-Meetup/
|-
|}

==See Also==

* [http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/List_of_Hacker_Spaces List of Hacker Spaces]
* [http://bitimap.net Bitimap.net - Find local meetups (up-to-date)]

[[Category:Local]]
[[Category:Meetups]]

[[de:Treffen]]

Secure Trading

2015-05-11T09:32:59Z

Bawolff: Bitcoin -> Bitcoin Wiki

Bitcoin users may want to trade bitcoin directly with each other in what is known as an over-the-counter market. This topic is a guide on how to set up your online identity and includes some best practices for trading with others in the Bitcoin community.

==Introduction==
Within the Bitcoin community, individuals should be careful with their security and identity, primarily for two reasons:
# At this time, there is little in the way of law enforcement. No court has dealt directly with a significant theft of bitcoins or determined Bitcoin's legal status. Bitcoin users are for the most part, on their own.
# In lieu of legal action and lack of community trust outside the Bitcoin system itself, one's reputation has become the focus for building trust relationships with others in the community. Traders will take very little risk with new users who have not proven themselves (as one user can easily commit continuous fraud using many different identities.

The Bitcoin community uses a few tools to help protect privacy, and thus identity. The first and most important is a [[Securing Your Computer|secure computer]].<br />

'''Before proceeding please make sure you have completed the [[Securing Your Computer]] guide; this guide assumes that your computer is secure both physically and in software.'''

If you are trading within Canada you are encouraged to use Interac e-transfer and Clearcoin (now closed) as outlined on [[Secure Trading-CAD-interac|this page]].

==Creating a secure identity==
The first step is to create a cryptographically secure public-private key-pair. This will be used as the basis of keeping both your wallet (see [[Securing your wallet]]) and your identity secure.

===Creating your first [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy PGP] key-pair===
A PGP key-pair serves two very important functions:
# To sign information with an unforgeable signature
# To decrypt things that other people encrypt for you

This allows you to both conduct business privately (encryption), and give out promises that you cannot deny making (signature).
==== Installing GPG ====
Virtually all GNU/Linux distributions include [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Privacy_Guard GPG] in their default configurations, but Microsoft Windows users will need to install additional software.

===== Microsoft Windows:=====
On Windows, the recommend package that contains GPG is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_%28software%29 Git] package by the [http://code.google.com/p/msysgit msysgit project]. This package contains a collection of Unix tools that are very useful for any Windows installation.

* Navigate to [[Git|msysgit]] https://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list
* Select the latest ''Git'' package. (Git-1.7.4-preview20110204.exe)
* When installing Git on the ''Adjusting your PATH environment'' screen, select: ''Run Git and included Unix tools from the Windows Command Prompt''<br />
This option will install both Git and its supporting tools that include [[gpg]] into the Windows file PATH. This will enable any Windows application to access GPG.<br />
It is possible that some other software on your system has installed GPG before. If you think this may be the case, it is advised to use the search tool or command prompt to find or run GPG respectively.
* After installation, GPG can be used by entering 'gpg' into any Windows Command Prompt (cmd).

==== Setting up OpenPGP email ====
Once you have GPG installed on your system, it is recommended that you use Thunderbird that works on both Windows and Linux systems:

===== All: =====
# Install Thunderbird: https://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-GB/
# Setup your email account with Thunderbird.
# Install the Enigmail plugin for Thunderbird: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/enigmail/<br />

Upon loading Enigmail, Thunderbird will ask you to make a new ‘identity,’ follow this wizard and you will have created your identity.<br />
You should backup your private key in a secure place.<br />
Secondary, you should create a revocation certificate and store that in a different secure place (maybe print it out and store it in your fire safe).

===Register with [#bitcoin-otc]===
Follow the guide here: http://wiki.bitcoin-otc.com/wiki/Using_bitcoin-otc

===Register the same username at the popular places:===
* [[Bitcoin Forum]]
* [[Bitcoin.it_Wiki|Bitcoin Wiki]]
* [[Bitcoin Wiki:Community_portal#IRC_Chat|Freenode IRC]]
Use a strong and different password for each of these places, keeping your passwords in a secure place. This will allow other people in the community to track you across the different Bitcoin related sites. Also making identity theft online more challenging.

==Best Practices with trading==
===Decentralised/social exchanges===
Using a service such as [[Bitcoin-otc|Bitcoin OTC]] or [[CoinTouch]], you can find friends of friends that trade crypto currency, and trade with them directly. Remember to verify the counterparty using more than one means of contact (e.g. Facebook message and phone call)

====Bitcoin-OTC====
The [[Bitcoin-otc|Bitcoin OTC]] acts as a secure 'Address Book' within the bitcoin community.
* Always require the user to become registered with #bitcoin-otc.
* Require a signed message from the fingerprint quoted at: http://bitcoin-otc.com/viewgpg.php
* Follow additional [http://wiki.bitcoin-otc.com/wiki/Using_bitcoin-otc#Risk_of_fraud recommendations] for avoiding fraud.

=====Using the Web-Of-Trust=====
One of the key features of the Bitcoin OTC is the Web of Trust, this allows users to 'rate' each other. One can have more confidence trading with a user that has many good ratings.
* http://bitcoin-otc.com/viewratings.php

===Make sure both parties agree to the terms of the trade with signed messages===
* Get a PGP signed quote, and check the signature.
* Send a PGP signed receipt.
This allows either party to go public if the trade has become sour and stops your trading partner from claiming the details of the agreement were somehow different.<br />

Search the Bitcoin Forum for the username of the person that you are trading with. Check if the user has provided constructive and useful advice to other parties. And, most importantly, check for any claims that the user has scammed.

===Use an Escrow Service===
Trading might benefit from an [[:Category:Escrow_services|escrow service]] such that bitcoins are disbursed only after contract terms have been met.<br />

Additionally, found in Bitcoin's community are trusted individuals willing to act as independent, third-party escrow brokers.

==See Also==

* [[Securing online services]]
* [http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=137272.0 Tips for Local Trading]

[[de:Sicheres_Handeln]]
[[zh-cn:交易安全]]

[[Category:Instructional]]
[[Category:Security]]

Bitcoin-market

2015-05-11T09:32:34Z

Bawolff: Bitcoin -> Bitcoin Wiki

'''Bitcoin-market''' is an IRC channel that provides a datafeed of trades being conducted on the exchanges [[Bitcoin Market]] and [[Bitcoin Central]].

===Feed data example===

<tt>
(08:20:55 AM) gribble: BCM| NEW ASK|PPUSD 1000 @ $0.3900

(08:29:58 AM) gribble: BC | TRADE|LRUSD 50.0 @ $0.385

(08:59:20 AM) gribble: MTG| TRADE| 500 @ $0.3825

(08:09:07 AM) gribble: MTG| TRADE| 41 @ $0.383
</tt>

===Legend===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Code !! Exchange
|-
| MTG || [[MtGox|Mt. Gox]]
|-
| BC || [[Bitcoin Central]]
|-
| BCM || [[Bitcoin Market]]
|}

==See also==

* [[Bitcoin Wiki:Community_portal#IRC_Chat|Bitcoin IRC channels]]
* [[Bitcoin-otc]]

==External Links==
* [http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#bitcoin-market #bitcoin-market] web-based access

[[Category:Services]]

BitcoinTalk

2015-05-11T09:32:08Z

Bawolff: Bitcoin -> Bitcoin Wiki

{{infobox company|name=Bitcoin Forum
|trading_name=BitcoinTalk
|industry=Forum
|founder=[[Satoshi Nakamoto]]
|owner=[[Martti Malmi]], [[theymos]]
|foundation=November 22, 2009
|members=464,589<ref>[http://bitcointalk.org/ BitcoinTalk]</ref>
|ni_btc={{decrease}} -1,500
|ni_usd={{decrease}} -$430 thousand
|ni_year=2014
|equity_btc={{decrease}} 5,568
|equity_usd={{decrease}} $1.60 million
|equity_year=2014
|employees=
|website=[http://bitcointalk.org/ bitcointalk.org]
}}'''BitcoinTalk''' is a message board where people interested in the technical details and the development of Bitcoin software can talk to each other. The forum also has places for people who are interested in bitcoin [[:Category:Mining|mining]], in trading with bitcoin, and in the economics of Bitcoin.

The domain name is owned by [[Sirius]]. The forum is administrated by [[:User:Theymos|theymos]].

==History==

Before the creation of the current BitcoinTalk Forum, Satoshi used a SourceForge forum, which is lost. When Sirius provided hosting, the forum was moved to bitcoin.org/smf. Satoshi made several custom modifications to the forum software and theme.

Satoshi's first non-test post on the forum was:

<blockquote><p>I left the admin account set to the original SMF theme so if I somehow completely wedge the custom theme I can still get in to fix it.</p>

<p>I've got a neat little 12x12 coin image to replace those pip stars with. Should look nice. Also some nice button images to try.</p>

<p>The registration page has "hide your e-mail address" unchecked by default. I must fix that in php before we can open up.</p>

<p>The Announcements forum is currently moderator access only.</p></blockquote>

The forum was at some point moved to forum.bitcoin.org. The bitcoin.org domain name was also transferred from Satoshi to Sirius.

In July, 2011 the forum was moved to bitcointalk.org in order to make it explicitly unofficial. The "forum" link on the bitcoin.org homepage was made to simply return the Google search results for the search terms "bitcoin forums". This was followed by Bitcoin Community members, very much in bitcoin's spirit of decentralisation, creating a number of alternative forums offering different moderatorial policies and using different software platforms. None of these alternative forums have yet reached the size of Bitcoin Talk.

Later, the "forum" link was simply removed, further distancing Bitcoin Talk from the official bitcoin.org. As of April 21, 2012, Bitcoin Talk remains the first search result on Google thanks to its high page rank.

On July 22, 2012, Bitcoin Talk reached its one millionth post.

==See Also==

* [[Bitcoin Wiki:Community portal]]

==External links==

* [http://bitcointalk.org/ Bitcoin Talk]

[[Category:Forums]]

==References==
<references/>

Category:Services

2015-05-11T09:30:55Z

Bawolff:

A list of service providers who do business in bitcoin.
==See also==

* [[Trade]]
* [[Bitcoin Wiki:Community portal|Community portal]]

[[Category:Main category]]

Template:Saheader

2015-05-11T09:29:44Z

Bawolff:

<includeonly>
==Listing your accusation==
More info to be added.

Use dates in this format: January 3, 2009

This way we avoid mixing up 1/3/09 and 3/1/09.
==Listing a resolution==
'''Don't remove other people's resolutions!'''
The author of the accusation does not need to include a resolution, unless they are contradicting their original statement. When adding a resolution, include your signature and place each resolution on a new line (use <nowiki><br/></nowiki>)! Acceptable statuses are listed below:
*<nowiki>{{conf}}</nowiki> ({{conf}})
*<nowiki>{{poss}}</nowiki> ({{poss}})
*<nowiki>{{unl}}</nowiki> ({{unl}})
*<nowiki>{{nei}}</nowiki> ({{nei}})

='''Scam Accusations'''=
</includeonly><noinclude>Don't insert your accusations on this page! Go [[Bitcoin Wiki:Scam accusations|here]] to do that!</noinclude>
{|
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| style="width:140px; text-align:left;" | '''Date'''
| style="width:150px; text-align:left;" | '''Parties'''
| style="width:500px; text-align:left;" | '''Description'''
| style="width:200px; text-align:left;" | '''Resolution'''
|}
----

Template:Cite

2015-05-11T09:29:21Z

Bawolff: Bitcoin -> Bitcoin Wiki

<sup><small><nowiki>[</nowiki>''[[Bitcoin Wiki:Citing sources|citation needed]]'']</small></sup><includeonly>[[Category:Pages needing citations]]</includeonly><noinclude>
[[Category:Formatting templates|Cite]]
</noinclude>

Template:Who

2015-05-11T09:29:02Z

Bawolff: Bitcoin -> Bitcoin Wiki

<sup><small><nowiki>[</nowiki>''[[Bitcoin Wiki:Words to watch#Unsupported attributions|who?]]'']</small></sup>

Template:RfD

2015-05-11T09:27:20Z

Bawolff: Bitcoin -> Bitcoin Wiki

{{ambox
| name = RfD
| subst = <includeonly>{{subst:</includeonly><includeonly>substcheck}}</includeonly>
| type = content
| image = [[Image:Fairytale_Trash_Question.svg|40px]]
| issue = '''An editor has asked for [[Bitcoin Wiki:Requests for deletion|deletion]] of this {{namespaces}}.'''
| fix = {{#if:{{{1|}}}|The nominator's reason for doing this is: <i id="delete-reason">{{{1|}}}</i>}}{{ #if:{{{group|}}}| {{#ifexist: Bitcoin Wiki:Requests for deletion/Requests/{{CURRENTYEAR}}/{{{group}}} | {{Template:RfD/Created|{{{group}}}}} | {{Template:RfD/Uncreated}} }}|
{{ #ifexist: Bitcoin Wiki:Requests for deletion/Requests/{{CURRENTYEAR}}/{{{request|{{FULLPAGENAME}}}}} | {{Template:RfD/Created|{{{request|{{FULLPAGENAME}}}}}}} | {{Template:RfD/Uncreated}} }} }}
| cat = {{{cat|}}}
}}<noinclude>
{{documentation}}
</noinclude>

Template:Welcome

2015-05-11T09:26:24Z

Bawolff: Bitcoin -> Project

<div style="padding-left: 12px; padding-right: 12px; border-style: solid; border-color: #20beef; background-color: #beeeef;"><h2>Welcome to the [[Bitcoin.it Wiki|Bitcoin Wiki]]!</h2><div style="position:relative; z-index:50; right:0px; top:-42px;">[[File:Bitcoin.png|right|96px|link=]]</div><div style="position:relative; z-index:50; right:0px; top:-48px; width:80%;">''HELLO THERE, AND''</div><div style="position:relative; z-index:50; right:0px; top:-20px;">This Wiki is our shared resource for all things [[Bitcoin]], and we hope you'll appreciate its [[Special:AllPages|contents]]! We've been at this since [[2010]], and look forward to your [[Special:Contributions/{{PAGENAME}}|contributions]]! Find a list of things to do [[Bitcoin Wiki:Things to do|here]], and don't forget to sign any messages you leave on talk pages with four tildes: <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki></div></div>

Template:Peacock inline

2015-05-11T09:25:47Z

Bawolff: Bitcoin -> Project

<sup><small><nowiki>[</nowiki>''[[Project:Words to watch#Puffery|peacock term]]'']</small></sup>

Template:Why

2015-05-11T09:25:22Z

Bawolff:

<sup><small><nowiki>[</nowiki>''[[Project:Words to watch#Unsupported attributions|why?]]'']</small></sup>

Template:By whom

2015-05-11T09:25:05Z

Bawolff:

<sup><small><nowiki>[</nowiki>''[[Project:Words to watch#Unsupported attributions|by whom?]]'']</small></sup>

Template:Disambiguation

2015-05-11T09:24:44Z

Bawolff: Bitcoin -> Project

----
''This {{#if:{{{1|}}}||is a }}[[Project:Disambiguation|disambiguation]] page{{#if:{{{1|}}}| lists pages associated with the title '''{{{1}}}'''|}}.''
----
<includeonly>[[Category:Disambiguation pages]]</includeonly>

Template:When

2015-05-11T09:24:14Z

Bawolff:

<sup><small><nowiki>[</nowiki>''[[Project:Words to watch#Unsupported attributions|when?]]'']</small></sup>

Bitcoin Wiki:AboutWiki

2015-05-11T09:22:50Z

Bawolff: Bitcoin -> Project

#redirect [[Project:About]]

BitVegas

2015-05-11T09:21:38Z

Bawolff: Bitcoin -> Project

{{infobox company|name=BitVegas|image=
|industry=Gambling
|foundation=February 12, 2013
|defunct=March 7, 2014
|founder=[[Murderscene]]
|website=https://bitvegas.net/
}}:''Not to be confused with [[BitVegas.eu]].''<br/>
'''BitVegas''' was a casino based in Minecraft. It was among the first [[Bitcoin-Minecraft]] services.<ref>https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=143554.0</ref>

It featured [[BitVegas#Gift chest|the most generous faucet of its time]], yielding 0.002 BTC per hour to visitors.
==Layout==
[[File:BV_Roulette.png|thumb|512px|Roulette table 1 at BitVegas floor 2]]
BitVegas was a six story building. Across the six levels were a collection of games:
{| class="wikitable"
!Game
!Floors
!Bitcoin?
!Game
!Floors
!Bitcoin?
!Game
!Floors
!Bitcoin?
|-
|Lottery
|1, 4
|{{yes|Always}}
|Hold'em
|3
|{{no}}
|Minefield
|2, 5
|{{yes}}
|-
|[[BitVegas#Drinking game|Drinking]]
|1-5
|{{yes|Always}}
|Roulette
|2, 5
|{{yes}}
|[[BitVegas#Bacon Races|Race betting]]
|4
|{{yes}}
|-
|Slots
|2-5
|{{yes}}
|Blackjack
|3, 5
|{{yes}}
|Parkour
|6
|{{no}}
|-
|}
===Floors===
The building's six accessible levels were connected by elevators. The first floor served as the lobby, featuring a bar. Also connected to the first floor were two closed wings, a gift shop and a hotel. Neither of these wings would ever open, although it was possible to see their contents by freecamming. The second floor had two massive roulette tables and a slur of other games. The third floor had almost exclusively featured card games, and the fourth floor was centered on the [[BitVegas#Bacon Races|Bacon Races]]. The fifth floor was reserved to users who had 1 BTC in their accounts, and had games with higher maximum bets. The top floor was technically the roof, and had several games of skill which did not allow betting.
==Mechanics==
===Bacon Races===
[[File:BV_Piggies.png|thumb|The Bacon Races]]Floor 4 featured Bacon Racing, which was a comical take on horse racing. Four pigs were given odds out of 100% to win the race, and players could stake bitcoins on those odds.
===Drinking game===
Players could purchase alcoholic drinks from bars across the casino. Upon drinking a beverage, there was a 48% chance of the drinker finding double what they spent on the drink. Found bitcoins were in the form of chips in the bottle.
===Gift chest===
Upon first joining the server, the number of free gifts a player may receive was set to thirty. Once every fifteen minutes, a player could go to a "Gift Chest" to receive a free gift of .5 mBTC. Players may increase their number of free gifts by referring other players. Referrals also paid 5 mBTC up front. This very generous subsidy sparked edit wars on the [[Project:About|Bitcoin wiki]].
==History==
===September 6, 2013 Hack===
On September 6, a user logged into BitVegas and exploited a glitch related to Bukkit to log into the server as Murderscene and Dinnerbone. About 7 bitcoins were stolen, worth about $1,000 at the time.<ref>https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=289399.0</ref><ref>http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1lx1y4/minecraft_casino_bitvegas_hacked_and_poker_alpha/</ref>
===Shutdown===
After the disappearance of [[Murderscene]], BitVegas had essentially ran out of money by 2014. On January 20, all the games were shut down. The service remained online, and users could still deposit or withdraw, but placing bets was impossible.<ref>http://www.reddit.com/r/BitVegas/comments/1vocak/announcement_temporarily_shutting_off_the_games/</ref> When it became apparent that Murderscene wasn't coming back, the server was shut down on March 7. As the server had no bitcoins left, many users were left without any of their remaining deposits.<ref>http://www.reddit.com/r/BitVegas/comments/1zryen/announcement_temporarily_shutting_off_the_server/</ref> A month later, the [[BTCVegas]] project was started as an attempt to recreate BitVegas.
==References==
<references/>

Časté otázky

2015-05-11T09:21:08Z

Bawolff:

Na tomto mieste nájdete odpovede na najčastejšie kladené otázky.

== Všeobecné ==
=== Čo sú to bitcoiny? ===
Bitcoiny sú menové jednotky  systému Bitcoin. Zaužívaná skratka je “BTC” pri cenách alebo množstvách (napríklad “100 BTC”).
Existujú aj [[physical bitcoins|fyzické bitcoiny]], ale v konečnom dôsledku je bitcoin len číslo priradené k [[Address|bitcoinovej adrese]]. Fyzický bitcoin je objekt, napríklad minca, v ktorom je toto číslo ukryté.  Pozri aj [[Úvod|jednoduchý úvod]] do bitcoinu.

=== Ako môžem získať bitcoiny? ===

Existuje niekoľko spôsobov, ako získať bitcoiny:

* Prijímajte bitcoiny ako platbu za tovary alebo služby.
* Existujú viaceré služby, kde sa bitcoiny dajú [[buying bitcoins|kúpiť]] za tradičné meny
* Nájdite si miestneho obchodníka na [http://tradebitcoin.com tradebitcoin] (alebo niekde inde) a zameňte s ním hotovosť
* Vytvorte nový [[block|blok]] (momentálne je odmena 50 bitcoinov)
* Zapojte sa do [[Pooled mining|zdieľanej ťažby (pooled mining)]]

=== Garantuje Bitcoin prísun peňazí zadarmo? ===

Bitcoin je nová technológia, a preto nemusí byť celkom jasné, čo to presne je a ako to funguje. Bitcoin je občas prezentovaný ako niektoré z nasledovného:
'''A)''' Internetový podvod lákajúci ľudí vidinou rýchleho zbohatnutia
'''B)''' Diera v trhovej ekonomike, ktorej fungovanie zabezpečí stabilný príjem
'''C)''' Bezpečná investícia, ktorá takmer určite prinesie zisk

V skutočnosti nič z toho nie je pravda. 
=== Dajú sa bitcoiny kúpiť pomocou PayPal-u? ===
Fyzické bitcoiny sa dajú kúpiť pomocou PayPal-u. Oveľa ťažšie je kúpiť digitálne bitcoiny s PayPal-om kvôli riziku, že predajca bude reklamovať a žiadať peniaze naspäť. Predaj fyzických vecí je menej riskantný ako predaj digitálnych vecí.

Aj keď sa dajú nájsť ľudia ochotní predať Vám bitcoiny cez PayPal (napríklad na [http://www.bitcoin-otc.com/ #bitcoin-otc] ), väčšina veľkých búrz nepovoľuje platby cez PayPal. Dôvodom sú opakované prípady, keď podvodník zaplatí za bitcoiny cez PayPal, obdrží bitcoiny a potom sa sťažuje, že tovar nedostal. PayPal dosť často dáva za pravdu takýmto podvodníkom, a preto burzy už nedovoľujú tento spôsob platby.

Aj tak je možné kúpiť bitcoiny od jednotlivcov, ale v tomto prípade je potrebná vzájomná dôvera a predajca bitcoinov by si mal dávať pozor.

=== Where can I find a forum of Bitcoin users? ===

There is no longer an "official" forum for Bitcoin. The [[Project:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums_on_various_platforms|Community Portal]] includes links to some forums.

=== How are new Bitcoins created? ===

New coins are generated by a network node each time it finds the solution to a certain mathematical problem (i.e. creates a new [[block]]), which is difficult to perform and can demonstrate a [[proof of work]]. The reward for solving a block is [[Controlled Currency Supply|automatically adjusted]] so that in the first 4 years of the Bitcoin network, 10,500,000 BTC will be created. The amount is halved each 4 years, so it will be 5,250,000 over years 4-8, 2,625,000 over years 8-12 and so on. Thus the total number of bitcoins in existence will not exceed 21,000,000. See [[Controlled Currency Supply]].

Blocks are [[Mining|generated]] every 10 minutes, on average. As the number of people who attempt to generate these new coins changes, the difficulty of creating new coins changes. This happens in a manner that is agreed upon in advance by the network as a whole, based upon the time taken to generate the previous 2016 blocks. The difficulty is therefore related to the average computing resources devoted to generate these new coins over the time it took to create these previous blocks. The likelihood of somebody creating a block is based on the calculation speed of the system that they are using compared to the aggregate calculation speed of all the other systems generating blocks on the network. See [[Mining]].

=== What's the current total number of Bitcoins in existence? ===

[http://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc Current count]. Also see [https://blockchain.info/charts/total-bitcoins Total Bitcoins in circulation chart]

The number of blocks times the coin value of a block is the number of coins in existence. The coin value of a block is 50 BTC for each of the first 210,000 blocks, 25 BTC for the next 210,000 blocks, then 12.5 BTC, 6.25 BTC and so on.

=== How divisible are Bitcoins? ===

Technically, a Bitcoin can be divided down to 8 decimals using existing data structures, so 0.00000001 BTC is the smallest amount currently possible. Discussions about and ideas for ways to provide for even smaller quantities of Bitcoins may be created in the future if the need for them ever arises.

=== What do I call the various denominations of Bitcoins? ===

There is a lot of discussion about the naming of these fractions of Bitcoins. The leading candidates are:

* 1 BTC = 1 Bitcoin
* 0.01 BTC = 1 cBTC = 1 Centi-Bitcoin (also referred to as Bitcent)
* 0.001 BTC = 1 mBTC = 1 Milli-Bitcoin (also referred to as mbit (pronounced em-bit) or millibit)
* 0.000 001 BTC = 1 μBTC = 1 Micro-Bitcoin (also referred to as ubit (pronounced yu-bit) or microbit)

The above follows the accepted international SI units for thousandths, millionths and billionths. There are many arguments against the special case of 0.01 BTC since it is unlikely to represent anything meaningful as the Bitcoin economy grows (it certainly won't be the equivalent of 0.01 USD, GBP or EUR). Equally, the inclusion of existing national currency denominations such as "cent", "nickel", "dime", "pence", "pound", "kopek" and so on are to be discouraged. This is a worldwide currency.

One exception is the "satoshi" which is smallest denomination currently possible

* 0.000 000 01 BTC = 1 Satoshi (pronounced sa-toh-shee)

which is so named in honour of Satoshi Nakamoto the pseudonym of the inventor of Bitcoin.

For an overview of all defined units of Bitcoin (including less common and niche units), see [[Units]].

Further discussion on this topic can be found on the forums here:

* [http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=14438.msg195287#msg195287 We need names]
* [http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=8282.0 What to call 0.001 BTC]

=== How does the halving work when the number gets really small? ===

The reward will go from 0.00000001 BTC to 0. Then no more coins will likely be created.

The calculation is done as a right bitwise shift of a 64-bit signed integer, which means it is divided by 2 and rounded down. The integer is equal to the value in BTC * 100,000,000. This is how all Bitcoin balances/values are stored internally.

Keep in mind that using current rules this will take nearly 100 years before it becomes an issue and Bitcoins may change considerably before that happens.

=== How long will it take to generate all the coins? ===

The last block that will generate coins will be block #6,929,999. This should be generated around year 2140. Then the total number of coins in circulation will remain static at 20,999,999.9769 BTC.

Even if the allowed precision is expanded from the current 8 decimals, the total BTC in circulation will always be slightly below 21 million (assuming everything else stays the same). For example, with 16 decimals of precision, the end total would be 20999999.999999999496 BTC.

=== If no more coins are going to be generated, will more blocks be created? ===

Absolutely! Even before the creation of coins ends, the use of [[transaction fee|transaction fees]] will likely make creating new blocks more valuable from the fees than the new coins being created. When coin generation ends, what will sustain the ability to use bitcoins will be these fees entirely. There will be blocks generated after block #6,929,999.

=== But if no more coins are generated, what happens when Bitcoins are lost? Won't that be a problem? ===

Because of the law of supply and demand, when fewer bitcoins are available the ones that are left will be in higher demand, and therefore will have a higher value. So, as Bitcoins are lost, the remaining bitcoins will eventually increase in value to compensate. As the value of a bitcoin increases, the number of bitcoins required to purchase an item '''de'''creases. This is a [[Deflationary spiral|deflationary economic model]]. As the average transaction size reduces, transactions will probably be denominated in sub-units of a bitcoin such as millibitcoins ("Millies") or microbitcoins ("Mikes").

The Bitcoin protocol uses a base unit of one hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin ("a Satoshi"), but unused bits are available in the protocol fields that could be used to denote even smaller subdivisions.

=== If every transaction is broadcast via the network, does Bitcoin scale? ===
The Bitcoin protocol allows lightweight clients that can use Bitcoin without downloading the entire transaction history. As traffic grows and this becomes more critical, implementations of the concept will be developed. Full network nodes will at some point become a more specialized service.

With some modifications to the software, full Bitcoin nodes could easily keep up with both VISA and MasterCard combined, using only fairly modest hardware (a couple of racks of machines using todays hardware). It's worth noting that the MasterCard network is structured somewhat like Bitcoin itself - as a peer to peer broadcast network.

Learn more about [[Scalability]].

==Economy==
=== Where does the value of Bitcoin stem from? What backs up Bitcoin? ===
Bitcoins have value because they are useful and because they are [[Controlled Currency Supply|scarce]]. As they are accepted by more merchants, their value will [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticky_%28economics%29 stabilize]. See the [[Trade|list of Bitcoin-accepting sites]].

When we say that a currency is backed up by gold, we mean that there's a promise in place that you can exchange the currency for gold. Bitcoins, like dollars and euros, are not backed up by anything except the variety of merchants that accept them.

It's a common misconception that Bitcoins gain their value from the cost of electricity required to generate them. Cost doesn't equal value – hiring 1,000 men to shovel a big hole in the ground may be costly, but not valuable. Also, even though scarcity is a critical requirement for a useful currency, it alone doesn't make anything valuable. For example, your fingerprints are scarce, but that doesn't mean they have any exchange value.

=== Is Bitcoin a bubble? ===
Yes, in the same way as the euro and dollar are. They only have value in exchange and have no inherent value. If everyone suddenly stopped accepting your dollars, euros or bitcoins, the "bubble" would burst and their value would drop to zero. But that is unlikely to happen: even in Somalia, where the government collapsed 20 years ago, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_shilling Somali shillings] are still accepted as payment.

=== Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme? ===
In a Ponzi Scheme, the founders persuade investors that they’ll profit. Bitcoin does not make such a guarantee. There is no central entity, just individuals building an economy.

A ponzi scheme is a zero sum game. Early adopters can only profit at the expense of late adopters. Bitcoin has possible win-win outcomes. Early adopters profit from the rise in value. Late adopters, and indeed, society as a whole, benefit from the usefulness of a stable, fast, inexpensive, and widely accepted p2p currency.

The fact that early adopters benefit more doesn't alone make anything a Ponzi scheme. All good investments in successful companies have this quality.

=== Doesn't Bitcoin unfairly benefit early adopters? ===
Early adopters have a large number of bitcoins now because they took a risk and invested resources in an unproven technology. By so doing, they have helped Bitcoin become what it is now and what it will be in the future (hopefully, a ubiquitous decentralized digital currency). It is only fair they will reap the benefits of their successful investment.

In any case, any bitcoin generated will probably change hands dozens of time as a medium of exchange, so the profit made from the initial distribution will be insignificant compared to the total commerce enabled by Bitcoin.

Since the pricing of Bitcoins has fallen greatly from its June 2011 peak, prices today are much more similar to those enjoyed by many early adopters. Those who are buying Bitcoins today likely believe that Bitcoin will grow significantly in the future. Setting aside the brief opportunity to have sold Bitcoins at the June 2011 peak enjoyed by few, the early-adopter window is arguably still open.

===Won't loss of wallets and the finite amount of Bitcoins create excessive deflation, destroying Bitcoin? ===
Worries about Bitcoin being destroyed by deflation are not entirely unfounded. Unlike most currencies, which experience inflation as their founding institutions create more and more units, Bitcoin will likely experience gradual deflation with the passage of time. Bitcoin is unique in that only a small amount of units will ever be produced (twenty-one million to be exact), this number has been known since the project's inception, and the units are created at a predicable rate.

Also, Bitcoin users are faced with a danger that doesn't threaten users of any other currency: if a Bitcoin user loses his wallet, his money is gone forever, unless he finds it again. And not just to him; it's gone completely out of circulation, rendered utterly inaccessible to anyone. As people will lose their wallets, the total number of Bitcoins will slowly decrease.

Therefore, Bitcoin seems to be faced with a unique problem. Whereas most currencies inflate over time, Bitcoin will mostly likely do the just the opposite. Time will see the irretrievable loss of an ever-increasing number of Bitcoins. An already small number will be permanently whittled down further and further. And as there become fewer and fewer Bitcoins, the laws of supply and demand suggest that their value will probably continually rise.

Thus Bitcoin is bound to once again stray into mysterious territory, because no one exactly knows what happens to a currency that grows continually more valuable. Economists generally agree that a low level of inflation is a good thing for a currency, but nobody is quite sure about what might happens to one that continually deflates. Although deflation could hardly be called a rare phenomenon, steady, constant deflation is unheard of. There may be a lot of speculation, no one has any hard data to back up their claims.

That being said, there is a mechanism in place to combat the obvious consequences. Extreme deflation would render most currencies highly impractical: if a single Canadian dollar could suddenly buy the holder a car, how would one go about buying bread or candy? Even pennies would fetch more than a person could carry. Bitcoin, however, offers a simple and stylish solution: infinite divisibility. Bitcoins can be divided up and trade into as small of pieces as one wants, so no matter how valuable Bitcoins become, one can trade them in practical quantities.

In fact, infinite divisibility should allow Bitcoins to function in cases of extreme wallet loss. Even if, in the far future, so many people have lost their wallets that only a single Bitcoin, or a fraction of one, remains, Bitcoin should continue to function just fine. No one can claim to be sure what is going to happen, but deflation may prove to present a smaller threat than many expect.

For more information, see the [[Deflationary spiral]] page.

=== What if someone bought up all the existing Bitcoins? ===
Bitcoin markets are competitive -- meaning the price of a bitcoin will rise or fall depending on supply and demand at certain price levels. Only a fraction of bitcoins issued to date are found on the exchange markets for sale. So even though technically a buyer with lots of money could buy all the bitcoins offered for sale, unless those holding the rest of the bitcoins offer them for sale as well, even the wealthiest, most determined buyer can't get at them.

Additionally, new currency continues to be issued daily and will continue to do so for decades though over time the rate at which they are issued declines to insignificant levels. Those who are mining aren't obligated to sell their bitcoins so not all bitcoins will make it to the markets even.

This situation doesn't suggest, however, that the markets aren't vulnerable to price manipulation. It doesn't take significant amounts of money to move the market price up or down and thus Bitcoin remains a volatile asset.

===What if someone creates a new block chain, or a new digital currency that renders Bitcoin obsolete?===

That the block chain cannot be easily forked represents one of the central security mechanisms of Bitcoin. Given the choice between two block chains, a Bitcoin miner always chooses the longer one - that is to say, the one with the more complex hash. Thusly, it ensures that each user can only spend their bitcoins once, and that no user gets ripped off.

As a consequence of the block chain structure, there may at any time be many different sub-branches, and the possibility always exists of a transaction being over-written by the longest branch, if it has been recorded in a shorter one. The older a transaction is though, the lower its chances of being over-written, and the higher of becoming permanent. Although the block chain prevents one from spending more Bitcoins than one has, it means that transactions can be accidentally nullified.

A new block chain would leave the network vulnerable to [[double-spending|double-spend]] attacks. However, the creation of a viable new chain presents considerable difficulty, and the possibility does not present much of a risk.

Bitcoin will always choose the longer Block Chain and determines the relative length of two branches by the complexities of their hashes. Since the hash of each new block is made from that of the block preceding it, to create a block with a more complex hash, one must be prepared to do more computation than has been done by the entire Bitcoin network from the fork point up to the newest of the blocks one is trying to supersede. Needless to say, such an undertaking would require a very large amount of processing power and since Bitcoin is continually growing and expanding, it will likely only require more with the passage of time.

A much more distinct and real threat to the Bitcoin use is the development of other, superior virtual currencies, which could supplant Bitcoin and render it obsolete and valueless.

A great deal of careful thought and ingenuity has gone into the development of Bitcoin, but it is the first of its breed, a prototype, and vulnerable to more highly-evolved competitors. At present, any threatening rivals have yet to rear its head; Bitcoin remains the first and foremost private virtual currency, but we can offer no guarantees that it will retain that position. It would certainly be in keeping with internet history for similar system built from the same principles to supersede and cast Bitcoin into obsolescence, after time had revealed its major shortcomings. Friendster and Myspace suffered similar fates at the hand of Facebook, Napster was ousted by Limeware, Bearshare and torrent applications, and Skype has all but crushed the last few disciples of the Microsoft Messenger army.

This may sound rather foreboding, so bear in mind that introduction of new and possibly better virtual currencies will not necessarily herald Bitcoin's demise. If Bitcoin establishes itself sufficiently firmly before the inception of the next generation of private, online currencies as to gain widespread acceptance and general stability, future currencies may pose little threat even if they can claim superior design.

==Sending and Receiving Payments==

=== Why do I have to wait 10 minutes before I can spend money I received? ===

10 minutes is the average time taken to find a block. It can be significantly more or less time than that depending on luck; 10 minutes is simply the average case.

[[Blocks]] (shown as "confirmations" in the GUI) are how the Bitcoin achieves consensus on who owns what. Once a block is found everyone agrees that you now own those coins, so you can spend them again. Until then it's possible that some network nodes believe otherwise, if somebody is attempting to defraud the system by reversing a transaction. The more confirmations a transaction has, the less risk there is of a reversal. Only 6 blocks or 1 hour is enough to make reversal computationally impractical. This is dramatically better than credit cards which can see chargebacks occur up to three months after the original transaction!

Ten minutes was specifically chosen by [[Satoshi]] as a tradeoff between propagation time of new blocks in large networks and the amount of work wasted due to chain splits. For a more technical explanation, see Satoshi's [http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf original technical paper].

[[File:TransactionConfirmationTimesExample.PNG]]

=== Do you have to wait until my transactions are confirmed in order to buy or sell things with Bitcoin? ===

YES, you do, IF the transaction is non-recourse. The Bitcoin reference software does not display transactions as confirmed until six blocks have passed (confirmations). As transactions are burred in the chain they become increasingly non-reversible but are very reversible before the first confirmation. Two to six confirmations are recommended for non-recourse situations depending on the value of the transactions involved.

When people ask this question they are usually thinking about applications like supermarkets. This generally is a recourse situation: if somebody tries to double-spend on a face-to-face transaction it might work a few times, but probabalistically speaking eventually one of the double-spends will get noticed, and the penalty for shoplifting charges in most localities is calibrated to be several times worse than the proceeds of a single shoplifting event.

Double-spends might be a concern for something like a snack machine in a low-traffic area with no nearby security cameras. Such a machine shouldn't honor 0-confirmation payments, and should instead use some other mechanism of clearing Bitcoin or validating transactions against reversal, see the wiki article [[Myths#Point_of_sale_with_bitcoins_isn.27t_possible_because_of_the_10_minute_wait_for_confirmation|here]] for alternatives.

When people ask this question they are usually thinking about applications that require immediate payment processing, like supermarkets or snack machines. Here is one way to reverse an unconfirmed payment:

A [[Double-spending#Finney_attack|Finney attack]], in which an attacker mines a block containing a movement of some coins back to themselves. Once they find a block solution, they quickly go to a merchant and make a purchase, then broadcast the block, thus taking back the coins. This attack is a risk primarily for goods that are dispatched immediately, like song downloads or currency trades. Because the attacker can't choose the time of the attack, it isn't a risk for merchants such as supermarkets where you can't choose exactly when to pay (due to queues, etc). The attack can fail if somebody else finds a block containing the purchasing transaction before you release your own block, therefore, merchants can reduce but not eliminate the risk by making purchasers wait some length of time that's less than a confirm.

Because pulling off this attack is not trivial, merchants who need to sell things automatically and instantly are most likely to just price the cost of reversal fraud in, or use insurance.

=== I was sent some bitcoins and they haven't arrived yet! Where are they? ===

Don't panic! There are a number of reasons why your bitcoins might not show up yet, and a number of ways to diagnose them.

The latest version of the Bitcoin-Qt client will tell you how far it has to go yet in downloading the blockchain. Hover over the icon in the bottom right corner of the client to learn your client's status.

If it has not caught up then it's possible that your transaction hasn't been included in a block yet.

You can check pending transactions in the network by going [http://blockchain.info here] and then searching for your address. If the transaction is listed here then it's a matter of waiting until it gets included in a block before it will show in your client.

Bear in mind that if the transaction is based on a coin that was in a recent transaction then it could be considered a low priority transaction take longer to transfer if the transaction fee paid isn't high enough. Very low priority transactions with 0 fees might take hours or days to be included in a block.

=== Why does my Bitcoin address keep changing? ===

Whenever the address listed in "Your address" receives a transaction, Bitcoin replaces it with a new address. This is meant to encourage you to use a new address for every transaction, which enhances [[anonymity]]. All of your old addresses are still usable: you can see them in ''Settings -> Your Receiving Addresses''.

===How much will the transaction fee be?===

Some transactions might require a [[transaction fee]] for them to get confirmed in a timely manner. The transaction fee is processed by and received by the bitcoin miner. The most recent version of the Bitcoin client will estimate an appropriate fee when a fee might be required.

The fee is added to the payment amount. For example, if you are sending a 1.234 BTC payment and the client requires a 0.0005 BTC fee, then 1.2345 BTC will be subtracted from the wallet balance for the entire transaction and the address for where the payment was sent will receive a payment of 1.234 BTC.

In cases where a fee is required it is required because your transaction objectively looks like a denial of service attack to the bitcoin system, either due to it being burdensome to transmit or it recycles bitcoins you recently received. The wallet software attempts to avoid generating burdensome transactions, but it isn't always able if the funds in your wallet are new or are composed of many very tiny payments.

Because the fee is related to the amount of data that makes up the transaction and not to the amount of bitcoins being sent, the fee may seem extremely low (0.0005 BTC for a 1,000 BTC transfer) or unfairly high (0.004 BTC for a 0.02 BTC payment, or about 20%). If you are receiving tiny amounts (e.g., as small payments from a mining pool) then fees when sending will be higher than if your activity follows a more normal consumer or business transaction pattern. As of bitcoin 0.5.3 the required fee it will ask for will not be higher than 0.05 BTC, though for most users there is usually no required fee at all and 0.0005 is the most common when one is required.

=== What happens when someone sends me a bitcoin but my computer is powered off? ===

Bitcoins aren't actually "sent" to your wallet, the software only uses that term so that we can use the currency without having to learn new concepts. Your wallet is only needed when you wish to spend coins that you've received.

The coins that were sent to you when the client was not running will later appear as if they were received in your wallet when you later launch the client. It will download blocks and catch up with any transactions it didn't already have.

=== How long does "synchronizing" take when the bitcoin client is first installed? What is it doing? ===

The popular bitcoin client software from bitcoin.org implements a "full" bitcoin node: It can carry out all the duties of the bitcoin P2P system, it isn't simply a "client". One of the principles behind the operation of full bitcoin nodes is that they don't trust that the other participants have followed the rules of the bitcoin system. During synchronization the software is processing historical bitcoin transactions and making sure for itself that all of the rules of the system have been correctly followed.

In normal operation after synchronizing the software should use a hardly noticeable amount of IO, CPU, or network capacity.

The initial validation is very disk IO intensive so the amount of time to synchronize depend on your disk speed and, to a lesser extent, your cpu speed. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or so. You can use the software while this process is going on, but you may not see recent payments to you until the synchronization has caught up to the point where those transactions happened.

If this is too long for you, you can download a pre-synchronized blockchain from [http://eu1.bitcoincharts.com/blockchain/ http://eu1.bitcoincharts.com/blockchain/]. Alternatively, you can try an alternative "lite" client such as Multibit or a super-light client like electrum though these clients have somewhat weaker security, are less mature, and don't contribute to the health of the P2P network.

==Networking==
=== Do I need to configure my firewall to run bitcoin? ===

Bitcoin will connect to other nodes, usually on tcp port 8333. You will need to allow outgoing TCP connections to port 8333 if you want to allow your bitcoin client to connect to many nodes. [[Testnet]] uses tcp port 18333 instead of 8333.

If you want to restrict your firewall rules to a few ips, you can find stable nodes in the [[Fallback Nodes|fallback nodes list]].

=== How does the peer finding mechanism work? ===

Bitcoin finds peers primarily by forwarding peer announcements within its own network and each node saves a database of peers that it's aware of for use in the future. In order to bootstrap this process Bitcoin needs a list of initial peers, these can be provided manually but normally it obtains them by querying a set of DNS domain names which have automatically updated lists, if that doesn't work it falls back to a build-in list which is updated from time to time in new versions of the software. There is also an IRC based mechanism but it is disabled by default.

==Mining==
===What is mining?===
[[Mining]] is the process of spending computation power to secure Bitcoin transactions against reversal and introducing new Bitcoins to the system.

Technically speaking, mining is the calculation of a [[hash]] of the a block header, which includes among other things a reference to the previous block, a hash of a set of transactions and a [[nonce]]. If the hash value is found to be less than the current [[target]] (which is inversely proportional to the [[difficulty]]), a new block is formed and the miner gets the newly generated Bitcoins (50 per block at current levels). If the hash is not less than the current target, a new nonce is tried, and a new hash is calculated. This is done millions of times per second by each miner.

===Is mining used for some useful computation?===
The computations done when mining are internal to Bitcoin and not related to any other distributed computing projects. They serve the purpose of securing the Bitcoin network, which is useful.

===Is it not a waste of energy?===
Spending energy on creating and securing a free monetary system is hardly a waste. Also, services necessary for the operation of currently widespread monetary systems, such as banks and credit card companies, also spend energy, arguably more than Bitcoin would.

===Why don't we use calculations that are also useful for some other purpose?===
To provide security for the Bitcoin network, the calculations involved need to have some very specific features. These features are incompatible with leveraging the computation for other purposes.

===How does the proof-of-work system help secure Bitcoin?===
To give a general idea of the mining process, imagine this setup:

payload = <some data related to things happening on the Bitcoin network>
nonce = 1
hash = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( payload + nonce ) )

The work performed by a miner consists of repeatedly increasing "nonce" until
the hash function yields a value, that has the rare property of being below a certain
target threshold. (In other words: The hash "starts with a certain number of zeroes",
if you display it in the fixed-length representation, that is typically used.)

As can be seen, the mining process doesn't compute anything special. It merely
tries to find a number (also referred to as nonce) which - in combination with the payload -
results in a hash with special properties.

The advantage of using such a mechanism consists of the fact, that it is very easy to check a result: Given
the payload and a specific nonce, only a single call of the hashing function
is needed to verify that the hash has the required properties. Since there is no
known way to find these hashes other than brute force, this can be used as a "proof of work"
that someone invested a lot of computing power to find the correct nonce for this payload.

This feature is then used in the Bitcoin network to secure various aspects. An attacker
that wants to introduce malicious payload data into the network, will need to do the
required proof of work before it will be accepted. And as long as honest miners have more
computing power, they can always outpace an attacker.

Also see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof-of-work_system Proof-of-work system] on Wikipedia.

===Why was the "Generate coin" option of the client software removed?===

In the early days of Bitcoin, it was easy for anyone to find new blocks using standard CPUs. As more and more people started mining, the [[difficulty]] of finding new blocks has greatly increased to the point where the average time for a CPU to find a single block can be many years. The only cost-effective method of [[Mining|mining]] is using a high-end graphics card with special software (see also [[Why a GPU mines faster than a CPU]]) and/or joining a [[Bitcoin Pool|mining pool]]. Since solo CPU mining is essentially useless, it was removed from the GUI of the Bitcoin software.

==Security==

===Could miners collude to give themselves money or to fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?===

There are two questions in here. Let's look at them separately.

'''Could miners gang up and give themselves money?'''

Mining itself is the process of creating new blocks in the block chain. Each block contains a list of all the transactions that have taken place across the entire Bitcoin network since the last block was created, as well as a hash of the previous block. New blocks are 'mined', or rather, generated, by Bitcoin clients correctly guessing sequences of characters in codes called 'hashes,' which are created using information from previous blocks. Bitcoin users may download specialized 'mining' software, which allows them to dedicate some amount of their processing power – however large or small – to guessing at strings within the hash of the previous block. Whoever makes the right guess first, thus creating a new block, receives a reward in Bitcoins.

The block chain is one of the two structures that makes Bitcoin secure, the other being the public-key encryption system on which Bitcoin trade is based. The block chain assures that not only is every single transaction that ever takes place recorded, but that every single transaction is recorded on the computer of anyone who chooses to store the relevant information. Many, many users have complete records of every transaction in Bitcoins history readily available to them at any point, and anyone who wants in the information can obtain it with ease. These things make Bitcoin very hard to fool.

The Bitcoin network takes considerable processing power to run, and since those with the most processing power can make the most guesses, those who put the most power toward to sustaining the network earn the most currency. Each correct guess yields, at present, fifty Bitcoins, and as Bitcoins are presently worth something (although the value still fluctuates) every miner who earns any number of Bitcoins makes money. Some miners pull in Bitcoins on their own; and some also join or form pools wherein all who contribute earn a share of the profits.

Therefore, first answer is a vehement “yes” – no only can miners collude to get more money, Bitcoin is designed to encourage them to do so. Bitcoin pools are communal affairs, and there is nothing dishonest or underhanded about them.

Of course, the real question is:

'''Can they do so in ways not sanction by Bitcoin developers? Is there any way to rip off the network and make loads of money dishonestly?'''

Bitcoin isn't infallible. It can be cheated. But doing so is extremely difficult. Bitcoin was designed to evade some of the central problems with modern currencies – namely, that their trustworthiness hinges upon that of people who might not have user's best interests in mind. Every currency in the world (other than Bitcoin) is controlled by large institutions who keep track of what's done with done with it, and who can manipulate it's value. And every other currency has value because people trust the institutions that control them.

Bitcoin doesn't ask that it users trust any institution. Its security is based on the cryptography that is an integral part of its structure, and that is readily available for any and all to see. Instead of one entity keeping track of transactions, the entire network does, so Bitcoins are astoundingly difficult to steal, or double-spend. Bitcoins are created in a regular and predictable fashion, and by many different users, so no one can decide to make a whole lot more and lessen their value. In short, Bitcoin is designed to be inflation-proof, double-spend-proof and completely distributed.

Nonetheless, there are a few ways that one can acquire Bitcoins dishonestly. Firstly, one can steal private keys. Key theft isn't something that Bitcoin security has been designed to prevent: it's up to users to keep their's safe. But the cryptography is designed so that it is completely impossible to deduce someone's private from their public one. So long as you keep your private key to yourself, you don't have much to worry about. Furthermore, one could theoretically create a new block chain, but due to the way in which the block chain is constructed, this would be extremely difficult and require massive amounts of processing power. A full explanation of the difficulties involved can be found in the [[block chain]] article.

Bitcoin can be ripped off – but doing so would be extremely hard and require considerable expertise and a staggering amount of processing power. And it's only going to get harder with the passage of time. Bitcoin is isn't impenetrable, but it's close enough to put any real worries in the peripherals.

'''Could miners fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?'''

Once again, almost certainly not.

Bitcoin is a distributed network, so any changes implemented to the system must be accepted by all users. Someone trying to change the way Bitcoins are generated would have to convince every user to download and use their software – so the only changes that would go through are those that would be equally benefit all users.

And thus, it is more or less impossible for any person to change the function of Bitcoin to their advantage. If users don't like the changes, they won't take, and if uses do like them, then they'll help everyone equally. Of course, one can conceive of a situation where someone manages to get a change pushed through that provides them with an advantage that no one notices, but given that Bitcoin is structurally relatively simple, it is unlikely that any major changes will go through without someone noticing first.

The fact that such changes are so difficult to make testifies to the fully distributed nature of Bitcoin. Any centrally-controlled currency can be modified by its central agency without the consent of its adherents. Bitcoin has no central authority, so it changes only at the behest of the whole community. Bitcoins development represents a kind of collective evolution; the first of its kind among currencies.

==Help==
===I'd like to learn more. Where can I get help?===

* Read the [[Introduction|introduction to bitcoin]]
* See the videos, podcasts, and blog posts from the [[Press]]
* Read and post on the [[Project:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums|forums]]
* Chat on one of the [[Project:Community_portal#IRC_Chat|Bitcoin IRC]] channels
* Listen to [http://omegataupodcast.net/2011/03/59-bitcoin-a-digital-decentralized-currency/ this podcast], which goes into the details of how bitcoin works
* Ask questions on the [http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com Bitcoin Stack Exchange]

==See Also==

* [[Man page]]
* [[Introduction]]

[[de:FAQ]]
[[zh-cn:FAQ]]
[[fr:FAQ]]
[[ru:FAQ]]

[[Category:Technical]]
[[Category:Vocabulary]]

User:Na7coldwater/Contributors Award

2015-05-11T09:20:18Z

Bawolff: Bitcoin -> Project

<div style="float:left; border:1px solid #999; margin:1px;">
{| cellspacing="0" style="width:238px; background:#EEE;"
! style="width:45px; height:45px; background:#DDD; text-align:center; font-size:14pt; color:black; padding:0 1px 0 0; line-height:1.25em; vertical-align: middle;" {{!}} CA
| style="text-align:left; font-size:8pt; padding:0 4px 0 4px; height:45px; line-height:1.25em; color:black; vertical-align: middle;" | ''This user is eligible for the [[Project:Contributors Award|Contributors Award]]''
|}</div>

People

2015-05-11T09:19:48Z

Bawolff:

A list of active contributors to Bitcoin, ordered by first name.

[[Andreas Schildbach]] ([https://profiles.google.com/andreas.schildbach Profile]) - original developer of [https://market.android.com/details?id=de.schildbach.wallet Bitcoin Wallet for Android] ([http://code.google.com/p/bitcoin-wallet/ Google Code Project]).

[[Amir Taaki]] aka genjix- creator of the [[Britcoin]] and [[Intersango]] exchanges, [[libbitcoin]] library for Bitcoin, [[Spesmilo]], [[Bitcoin Consultancy]], [[Vibanko]], [[GLBSE]] client, Bitcoin poker client, [https://gitorious.org/freecoin/freecoin Python bindings] for Bitcoin, [[Pastecoin]] and others.

[[ArtForz|Art Forz]]- developed the first GPU miner and at one time his GPU mining farm (the ArtFarm) was mining over a third of all blocks.

[[Gary Rowe]] [https://plus.google.com/u/0/115295932487523951663/about (Profile)] - Contributor to the [[MultiBit]] (http://multibit.org) and [[BitCoinJ]] (http://code.google.com/p/bitcoinj/) projects. Working on various Bitcoin based businesses.

[[User:Gavinandresen|Gavin Andresen]] - [https://profiles.google.com/u/0/gavinandresen/about (Profile)] Former [[Satoshi client]] maintainer. He previously worked at Silicon Graphics and now runs his own company.

[[Hal Finney]]- one of the creators of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy PGP] and one of the earliest contributors to the Bitcoin project. First to identify a type of double-spending attack that now bears his name -- the [[Double-spending#Finney_attack|Finney attack]].

James McCarthy aka Nefario- creator of the first bitcoin stock exchange [[GLBSE]]

[[Jed McCaleb]], original developer of [[MtGox]]. Previously created [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDonkey2000 eDonkey2000].

[[Jeff Garzik]]- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Garzik (Wikipedia Entry)] [[Satoshi client]] core developer, GPU poold software and the founder of [[Bitcoin Watch]]. Works for BitPay.

[[Luke Dashjr]] aka Luke-Jr- [[Eligius]] founder, maintains [[BFGMiner]] and maintainer of [[bitcoind]]/[[Bitcoin-Qt]] stable branches.

[[Mark Karpeles]] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Karpeles (Wikipedia)] aka MagicalTux- Former owner of [[MtGox]] and this wiki.

[[Sirius|Martti Malmi]] aka Sirius- Former Bitcoin developer. Operates the domain names bitcoin.org and bitcointalk.org.

[[Matt Corallo]] aka BlueMatt- [[Satoshi client]] developer.

[[Michael Hendrix]] aka mndrix- creator of the now defunct CoinPal and CoinCard services

[[Michael Marquardt]] aka theymos- creator of the widely used blockexplorer.com site, and BitcoinTalk Forum

[[Mike Hearn]] [https://profiles.google.com/mh.in.england/about (Profile)]- Google engineer who works on Gmail and developed [[BitCoinJ]] (http://code.google.com/p/bitcoinj/) and [[Lighthouse]].

[[User:Tcatm|Nils Schneider]] aka tcatm - Bitcoin developer, owner of BitcoinWatch, creator and owner of BitcoinCharts, GPU mining software and JS web interface.

[[Patrick McFarland]] aka Diablo-D3 - DiabloMiner author, and former BitcoinTalk forum moderator.

[[Patrick Strateman]] aka phantomcircuit - Bitcoin developer, creator of [[Intersango]], member of [[Bitcoin Consultancy]] and creator of Python Bitcoin implementation.

[[Peter Todd]] - Bitcoin developer. Involved with Bitcoin related startup [[Coinkite]] and [[DarkWallet]].

[[Pieter Wuille]] aka sipa- [[Satoshi client]] developer and maintainer of the network graphs http://bitcoin.sipa.be

[[Stefan Thomas]] aka justmoon- creator of the WeUseCoins.com site/video and WebCoin.

[[Tamas Blummer]] aka grau - author of Bits of Proof, the enterprise-ready implementation of the Bitcoin protocol. http://bitsofproof.com

[[Vladimir Marchenko]]- [https://profiles.google.com/u/0/vmartchenko/about?hl=en Profile], runs [[Marchenko Ltd]] which sells mining contracts, previously developed the figator.org search engine.

[[Wladimir J. van der Laan]] - [[Satoshi client]] maintainer.

==See Also==
* [[Original client developers]]
* [[Developers]]
* Wiki list of [[:Special:ListUsers|users]]
* [[Project:Community_portal|Community portal]]
* [[:Category:People]]

Bitcoin.org

2015-05-11T09:19:13Z

Bawolff: Bitcoin -> Project

==History==

The Bitcoin.org domain was registered on August 18, 2008 -- presumably by [[Satoshi Nakamoto]] before even publishing the Bitcoin design paper<ref>[http://en.bitcoin.it/w/History Bitcoin History]</ref>.

The Bitcoin.org site has been hosted on [http://pages.github.com Pages.GitHub.com] since 2011.

==External Links==

* [http://www.Bitcoin.org Bitcoin.org] website
* [[Project:Community_portal|Community portal]]

==References==

<references />

MediaWiki:Badaccess-groups

2015-05-11T09:11:22Z

Bawolff: fix link to anti-spam thing

The action you have requested is limited to users in {{PLURAL:$2|the group|one of the groups}}: $1. Have you [[Project:Editing privileges|activated your account]] yet?

MediaWiki:Loginstart

2015-05-11T08:54:10Z

Bawolff: fix link

<table><tr><td style="vertical-align:top;">[[File:Warning Symbol.png|18px|link=]]</td><td style="color:#a00;">You must have cookies enabled to log in to the wiki.</td></tr><tr><td style="vertical-align:top;">[[File:Information orange.png|18px|link=]]</td><td style="color:#cf8244;">'''Learn how to enable edit privileges for your account [[Project:Editing privileges|here]].'''</td></tr></table>

User:Bawolff

2015-05-11T08:46:53Z

Bawolff: test to make sure update worked

Hello

I help maintain the technical aspects of this wiki. If you're experiencing any issues with the wiki, please don't hesitate to ask.

User:Bawolff

2015-05-11T08:31:22Z

Bawolff:

Hello

I help maintain the technical aspects of this wiki. If you're experiencing any issues with the wiki, please don't hesitate to ask.

Bitcoin Wiki talk:Community portal

2015-05-07T23:19:49Z

Bawolff: that should be fixed

{{project}}

Is there a wiki community portal as well?

It would be good if new users wouldn't show up in [[Special:Recentchanges]], not until they have been verified at least. [[User:Guaka|Guaka]] ([[User talk:Guaka|talk]]) 15:20, 14 June 2013 (GMT)
:They should no longer show up there. [[User:Bawolff|Bawolff]] ([[User talk:Bawolff|talk]]) 23:19, 7 May 2015 (UTC)

User:Bawolff

2015-05-07T23:05:49Z

Bawolff: Created page with "Hello I help maintain the technical aspects of this wiki. If you're experiencing any issues with the wiki, please don't hesitate to ask."

Hello

I help maintain the technical aspects of this wiki. If you're experiencing any issues with the wiki, please don't hesitate to ask.