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	<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/api.php?action=feedcontributions&amp;feedformat=atom&amp;user=Pietrod21</id>
	<title>Bitcoin Wiki - User contributions [en]</title>
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	<updated>2026-04-24T18:14:14Z</updated>
	<subtitle>User contributions</subtitle>
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	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Bitcoin_symbol&amp;diff=63499</id>
		<title>Bitcoin symbol</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Bitcoin_symbol&amp;diff=63499"/>
		<updated>2017-06-21T00:50:54Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: unicode 10.0&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;By far the most commonly used symbol for Bitcoin is [[:{{ns:File}}:Btc-sans.png|{{BTC}}]], a capital letter &#039;&#039;&#039;B&#039;&#039;&#039; with two vertical lines &amp;quot;going through&amp;quot; it, though the lines are only visible at the top and bottom. This symbol was created by [[Satoshi Nakamoto]] for the icon of an early version of the [[reference client|original Bitcoin client]], though the very first versions of the Bitcoin client used &amp;quot;BC&amp;quot; instead of any special symbol. Presumably the symbol was intended to look similar to other currency symbols. The symbol represents the currency [[Units|unit]] &amp;quot;bitcoin&amp;quot; (100 million [[Satoshi (unit)|satoshi]]), as well as the Bitcoin network and currency itself. The bitcoin currency unit is also commonly given the informal currency code &#039;&#039;&#039;BTC&#039;&#039;&#039;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Bitcoin sign was accepted for Unicode in November 2015&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;https://twitter.com/ken_lunde/status/661351862155669506&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt; with the code point U+20BF (₿). It is part of the Unicode 10.0 standard from June 2017.&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode10.0.0/&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt; Font support for this code point was added to macOS Sierra in October 2016.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Historically, similar looking Unicode symbols such as the Tai Baht have been used because the Unicode standard at the time had not included a symbol for Bitcoin.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Currency code ==&lt;br /&gt;
The [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/ISO_4217 ISO 4217 currency code] for Bitcoin is &#039;&#039;&#039;XBT&#039;&#039;&#039;. However, at the moment it is an [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/ISO_4217#Without_currency_code unofficial code] according to the ISO 4217 standard. The unit name &#039;&#039;&#039;BTC&#039;&#039;&#039; is also commonly used to represent one bitcoin, but it violates ISO 4217 because it begins with &amp;quot;BT&amp;quot;, the country code of Bhutan. Bhutan does not actually use the code BTC for any currency, and XBT has not yet defined which unit it represents (just that it represents &#039;&#039;some&#039;&#039; unit of bitcoin), so the Bitcoin community is likely to continue using mainly BTC as a unit name and currency code for some time.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A [http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-foundation-standardise-bitcoin-symbol-code-next-year/ formal application] by the Financial Standards Working Group of the [[Bitcoin Foundation]] is nearing completion &amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;[still true?]&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt;. This application would request ISO 4217 standard to support XBT.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Inserting the symbol ==&lt;br /&gt;
In lieu of the Bitcoin symbol being included in the Unicode standard and its adoption into typographic fonts, {{BTC}} can be included in many documents by other means.  This section focuses on online publications but the basic concepts apply to all publishing forms.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A package including a high resolution raster image with transparency (PNG), vector image (SVG) and TrueType font (TTF) is available&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;http://www.filedropper.com/bitcoinsymbol&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==== Image ====&lt;br /&gt;
The Bitcoin symbol can be inserted as an image, as is done in the opening sentence of this page.  The benefit of this method is that any client that can display images in line with text will be able to display the symbol.  The down side to this method is that as an image, it does not always degrade as nicely as a font.  If using raster image, scaling the image up/down (to fit with surrounding text) may result in pixelation, inappropriate filtering, and other issues typical of raster images.  If using a vector image, scaling concerns do not apply but the display would still not benefit from font-specific rendering features such as [[wikipedia:hinting|hinting]].  Both forms also suffer from client-specific considerations such as whether or not a box will be drawn around the image and the general inability to easily style its display; applying color requires specific CSS, and italicizing would require a CSS skew transform, for example.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When using an image in running text on a webpage it&#039;s generally a good idea to set the &#039;&#039;alt&#039;&#039; property to an appropriate value.  For example, when depicting amounts you might use &#039;&#039;alt=&amp;quot;BTC&amp;quot;&#039;&#039;.  Text including the symbol copied and pasted will then remain syntactically correct, replacing the symbol with BTC.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Sample HTML code:&lt;br /&gt;
 &amp;lt;nowiki&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
 .btc { height:1em; position:relative; top:0.17em; cursor:text; }&lt;br /&gt;
  ...&lt;br /&gt;
  Please send &amp;lt;img src=&amp;quot;btc-sans.png&amp;quot; alt=&amp;quot;BTC&amp;quot; class=&amp;quot;btc&amp;quot; /&amp;gt;0.01 to ...&lt;br /&gt;
  Please send &amp;lt;img src=&amp;quot;btc-sans.svg&amp;quot; alt=&amp;quot;BTC&amp;quot; class=&amp;quot;btc&amp;quot; /&amp;gt;0.01 to ...&amp;lt;/nowiki&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==== Font Awesome icon ====&lt;br /&gt;
The Font Awesome collection of icons and symbols also includes the Bitcoin symbol.&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;http://fortawesome.github.io/Font-Awesome/icon/btc/&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Sample HTML code:&lt;br /&gt;
 &amp;lt;nowiki&amp;gt; &amp;lt;link rel=&amp;quot;stylesheet&amp;quot; href=&amp;quot;https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.4.0/css/font-awesome.min.css&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
 ...&lt;br /&gt;
 Please send &amp;lt;i class=&amp;quot;fa fa-btc&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/i&amp;gt;0.01 to ...&amp;lt;/nowiki&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==== Font ====&lt;br /&gt;
As few fonts include the Bitcoin symbol, a special font was created by [[User:Theymos]], originally for the [[BitcoinTalk]] forum&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=88647&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;.  The font consists of &#039;&#039;only&#039;&#039; the Bitcoin symbol used in the glyph for the capital letter B.  The text &amp;quot;BTC&amp;quot; can be entered and styled with this font, causing it to be replaced entirely with just the symbol on those systems that support this font, while on other systems the text &amp;quot;BTC&amp;quot; is retained.  Similarly, copying and pasting text will still retain &amp;quot;BTC&amp;quot;.  This method is used on BitcoinTalk and this Bitcoin Wiki.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Sample HTML code:&lt;br /&gt;
 &amp;lt;nowiki&amp;gt; @font-face { font-family: BTC; src: url(BTC.ttf); }&lt;br /&gt;
 ...&lt;br /&gt;
 Please send &amp;lt;span style=&amp;quot;font-family:BTC, sans-serif&amp;quot;&amp;gt;BTC&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;0.01 to ...&amp;lt;/nowiki&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==See Also==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Promotional graphics]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Introduction]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Script&amp;diff=59960</id>
		<title>Script</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Script&amp;diff=59960"/>
		<updated>2016-01-12T13:44:28Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: /* External Links */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Bitcoin uses a scripting system for [[transactions]]. [[Wikipedia:FORTH|Forth]]-like, Script is simple, stack-based, and processed from left to right. It is purposefully not Turing-complete, with no loops.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A script is essentially a list of instructions recorded with each transaction that describe how the next person wanting to spend the Bitcoins being transferred can gain access to them.  The script for a typical Bitcoin transfer to destination Bitcoin address D simply encumbers future spending of the bitcoins with two things: the spender must provide&lt;br /&gt;
# a public key that, when hashed, yields destination address D embedded in the script, and&lt;br /&gt;
# a signature to show evidence of the private key corresponding to the public key just provided.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Scripting provides the flexibility to change the parameters of what&#039;s needed to spend transferred Bitcoins.  For example, the scripting system could be used to require two private keys, or a combination of several, or even no keys at all.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A transaction is valid if nothing in the combined script triggers failure and the top stack item is true (non-zero).  The party who originally &#039;&#039;sent&#039;&#039; the Bitcoins now being spent, dictates the script operations that will occur &#039;&#039;last&#039;&#039; in order to release them for use in another transaction.  The party wanting to spend them must provide the input(s) to the previously recorded script that results in those operations occurring last leaving behind true (non-zero).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The stacks hold byte vectors.&lt;br /&gt;
When used as numbers, byte vectors are interpreted as little-endian variable-length integers with the most significant bit determining the sign of the integer.&lt;br /&gt;
Thus 0x81 represents -1.&lt;br /&gt;
0x80 is another representation of zero (so called negative 0).&lt;br /&gt;
Positive 0 is represented by a null-length vector.&lt;br /&gt;
Byte vectors are interpreted as Booleans where False is represented by any representation of zero, and True is represented by any representation of non-zero.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Words ==&lt;br /&gt;
This is a list of all Script words, also known as opcodes, commands, or functions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are some words which existed in very early versions of Bitcoin but were removed out of a concern that the client might have a bug in their implementation. This fear was motivated by a bug found in OP_LSHIFT which could crash any Bitcoin node if exploited, and by other bugs in how Script worked which allowed anyone to spend anyone&#039;s bitcoins. The removed opcodes are sometimes said to be &amp;quot;disabled&amp;quot; opcodes, but this is something of a misnomer because there is &#039;&#039;absolutely no way&#039;&#039; for anyone using Bitcoin to use these opcodes (they simply &#039;&#039;do not exist anymore&#039;&#039; in the protocol), and there are also no solid plans to ever re-enable all of these opcodes. They are listed here only for historical interest.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
New opcodes can be added by means of a carefully designed and executed [[softfork]] using OP_NOP1-OP_NOP10.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
False is zero or negative zero (using any number of bytes) or an empty array, and True is anything else.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Constants ===&lt;br /&gt;
When talking about scripts, these value-pushing words are usually omitted.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_0, OP_FALSE&lt;br /&gt;
|0&lt;br /&gt;
|0x00&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing.&lt;br /&gt;
|(empty value)&lt;br /&gt;
|An empty array of bytes is pushed onto the stack. (This is not a no-op: an item is added to the stack.)&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|N/A&lt;br /&gt;
|1-75&lt;br /&gt;
|0x01-0x4b&lt;br /&gt;
|(special)&lt;br /&gt;
|data&lt;br /&gt;
|The next &#039;&#039;opcode&#039;&#039; bytes is data to be pushed onto the stack&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PUSHDATA1&lt;br /&gt;
|76&lt;br /&gt;
|0x4c&lt;br /&gt;
|(special)&lt;br /&gt;
|data&lt;br /&gt;
|The next byte contains the number of bytes to be pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PUSHDATA2&lt;br /&gt;
|77&lt;br /&gt;
|0x4d&lt;br /&gt;
|(special)&lt;br /&gt;
|data&lt;br /&gt;
|The next two bytes contain the number of bytes to be pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PUSHDATA4&lt;br /&gt;
|78&lt;br /&gt;
|0x4e&lt;br /&gt;
|(special)&lt;br /&gt;
|data&lt;br /&gt;
|The next four bytes contain the number of bytes to be pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_1NEGATE&lt;br /&gt;
|79&lt;br /&gt;
|0x4f&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing.&lt;br /&gt;
| -1&lt;br /&gt;
|The number -1 is pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_1, OP_TRUE&lt;br /&gt;
|81&lt;br /&gt;
|0x51&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing.&lt;br /&gt;
|1&lt;br /&gt;
|The number 1 is pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2-OP_16&lt;br /&gt;
|82-96&lt;br /&gt;
|0x52-0x60&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing.&lt;br /&gt;
|2-16&lt;br /&gt;
|The number in the word name (2-16) is pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Flow control ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NOP&lt;br /&gt;
|97&lt;br /&gt;
|0x61&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Does nothing.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_IF&lt;br /&gt;
|99&lt;br /&gt;
|0x63&lt;br /&gt;
| colspan=&amp;quot;2&amp;quot;|&amp;lt;expression&amp;gt; if [statements] [else [statements]]* endif&lt;br /&gt;
|If the top stack value is not 0, the statements are executed. The top stack value is removed.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NOTIF&lt;br /&gt;
|100&lt;br /&gt;
|0x64&lt;br /&gt;
| colspan=&amp;quot;2&amp;quot;|&amp;lt;expression&amp;gt; if [statements] [else [statements]]* endif&lt;br /&gt;
|If the top stack value is 0, the statements are executed. The top stack value is removed.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ELSE&lt;br /&gt;
|103&lt;br /&gt;
|0x67&lt;br /&gt;
| colspan=&amp;quot;2&amp;quot;|&amp;lt;expression&amp;gt; if [statements] [else [statements]]* endif&lt;br /&gt;
|If the preceding OP_IF or OP_NOTIF or OP_ELSE was not executed then these statements are and if the preceding OP_IF or OP_NOTIF or OP_ELSE was executed then these statements are not. &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ENDIF&lt;br /&gt;
|104&lt;br /&gt;
|0x68&lt;br /&gt;
| colspan=&amp;quot;2&amp;quot;|&amp;lt;expression&amp;gt; if [statements] [else [statements]]* endif&lt;br /&gt;
|Ends an if/else block. All blocks must end, or the transaction is &#039;&#039;&#039;invalid&#039;&#039;&#039;. An OP_ENDIF without OP_IF earlier is also &#039;&#039;&#039;invalid&#039;&#039;&#039;.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_VERIFY&lt;br /&gt;
|105&lt;br /&gt;
|0x69&lt;br /&gt;
|True / false&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Marks transaction as invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; if top stack value is not true.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|[[OP_RETURN]]&lt;br /&gt;
|106&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6a&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Marks transaction as invalid&#039;&#039;&#039;. A standard way of attaching extra data to transactions is to add a zero-value output with a scriptPubKey consisting of OP_RETURN followed by exactly one pushdata op. Such outputs are provably unspendable, reducing their cost to the network. Currently it is usually considered non-standard (though valid) for a transaction to have more than one OP_RETURN output or an OP_RETURN output with more than one pushdata op.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Stack ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_TOALTSTACK&lt;br /&gt;
|107&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6b&lt;br /&gt;
|x1&lt;br /&gt;
|(alt)x1&lt;br /&gt;
|Puts the input onto the top of the alt stack. Removes it from the main stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_FROMALTSTACK&lt;br /&gt;
|108&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6c&lt;br /&gt;
|(alt)x1&lt;br /&gt;
|x1&lt;br /&gt;
|Puts the input onto the top of the main stack. Removes it from the alt stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_IFDUP&lt;br /&gt;
|115&lt;br /&gt;
|0x73&lt;br /&gt;
|x&lt;br /&gt;
|x / x x&lt;br /&gt;
|If the top stack value is not 0, duplicate it.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_DEPTH&lt;br /&gt;
|116&lt;br /&gt;
|0x74&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;Stack size&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|Puts the number of stack items onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_DROP&lt;br /&gt;
|117&lt;br /&gt;
|0x75&lt;br /&gt;
|x&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Removes the top stack item.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_DUP&lt;br /&gt;
|118&lt;br /&gt;
|0x76&lt;br /&gt;
|x&lt;br /&gt;
|x x&lt;br /&gt;
|Duplicates the top stack item.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NIP&lt;br /&gt;
|119&lt;br /&gt;
|0x77&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Removes the second-to-top stack item.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_OVER&lt;br /&gt;
|120&lt;br /&gt;
|0x78&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x1&lt;br /&gt;
|Copies the second-to-top stack item to the top.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PICK&lt;br /&gt;
|121&lt;br /&gt;
|0x79&lt;br /&gt;
|xn ... x2 x1 x0 &amp;lt;n&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|xn ... x2 x1 x0 xn&lt;br /&gt;
|The item &#039;&#039;n&#039;&#039; back in the stack is copied to the top.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ROLL&lt;br /&gt;
|122&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7a&lt;br /&gt;
|xn ... x2 x1 x0 &amp;lt;n&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|... x2 x1 x0 xn&lt;br /&gt;
|The item &#039;&#039;n&#039;&#039; back in the stack is moved to the top.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ROT&lt;br /&gt;
|123&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7b&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3&lt;br /&gt;
|x2 x3 x1&lt;br /&gt;
|The top three items on the stack are rotated to the left.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SWAP&lt;br /&gt;
|124&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7c&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|x2 x1&lt;br /&gt;
|The top two items on the stack are swapped.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_TUCK&lt;br /&gt;
|125&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7d&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|x2 x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|The item at the top of the stack is copied and inserted before the second-to-top item.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2DROP&lt;br /&gt;
|109&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6d&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Removes the top two stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2DUP&lt;br /&gt;
|110&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6e&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Duplicates the top two stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_3DUP&lt;br /&gt;
|111&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6f&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3 x1 x2 x3&lt;br /&gt;
|Duplicates the top three stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2OVER&lt;br /&gt;
|112&lt;br /&gt;
|0x70&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3 x4&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3 x4 x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Copies the pair of items two spaces back in the stack to the front.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2ROT&lt;br /&gt;
|113&lt;br /&gt;
|0x71&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6&lt;br /&gt;
|x3 x4 x5 x6 x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|The fifth and sixth items back are moved to the top of the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2SWAP&lt;br /&gt;
|114&lt;br /&gt;
|0x72&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3 x4&lt;br /&gt;
|x3 x4 x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Swaps the top two pairs of items.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Splice ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If any opcode marked as disabled is present in a script, it must abort and fail.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CAT&lt;br /&gt;
|126&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7e&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Concatenates two strings. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SUBSTR&lt;br /&gt;
|127&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7f&lt;br /&gt;
|in begin size&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Returns a section of a string. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_LEFT&lt;br /&gt;
|128&lt;br /&gt;
|0x80&lt;br /&gt;
|in size&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Keeps only characters left of the specified point in a string. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RIGHT&lt;br /&gt;
|129&lt;br /&gt;
|0x81&lt;br /&gt;
|in size&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Keeps only characters right of the specified point in a string. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SIZE&lt;br /&gt;
|130&lt;br /&gt;
|0x82&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|in size&lt;br /&gt;
|Pushes the string length of the top element of the stack (without popping it).&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Bitwise logic ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If any opcode marked as disabled is present in a script, it must abort and fail.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_INVERT&lt;br /&gt;
|131&lt;br /&gt;
|0x83&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Flips all of the bits in the input. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_AND&lt;br /&gt;
|132&lt;br /&gt;
|0x84&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Boolean &#039;&#039;and&#039;&#039; between each bit in the inputs. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_OR&lt;br /&gt;
|133&lt;br /&gt;
|0x85&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Boolean &#039;&#039;or&#039;&#039; between each bit in the inputs. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_XOR&lt;br /&gt;
|134&lt;br /&gt;
|0x86&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Boolean &#039;&#039;exclusive or&#039;&#039; between each bit in the inputs. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|135&lt;br /&gt;
|0x87&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|True / false&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if the inputs are exactly equal, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_EQUALVERIFY&lt;br /&gt;
|136&lt;br /&gt;
|0x88&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|Same as OP_EQUAL, but runs OP_VERIFY afterward.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Arithmetic ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Note: Arithmetic inputs are limited to signed 32-bit integers, but may overflow their output.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If any input value for any of these commands is longer than 4 bytes, the script must abort and fail. &lt;br /&gt;
If any opcode marked as &#039;&#039;disabled&#039;&#039; is present in a script - it must also abort and fail.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_1ADD&lt;br /&gt;
|139&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8b&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|1 is added to the input.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_1SUB&lt;br /&gt;
|140&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8c&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|1 is subtracted from the input.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2MUL&lt;br /&gt;
|141&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8d&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|The input is multiplied by 2. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2DIV&lt;br /&gt;
|142&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8e&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|The input is divided by 2. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NEGATE&lt;br /&gt;
|143&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8f&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|The sign of the input is flipped.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ABS&lt;br /&gt;
|144&lt;br /&gt;
|0x90&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is made positive.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NOT&lt;br /&gt;
|145&lt;br /&gt;
|0x91&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|If the input is 0 or 1, it is flipped. Otherwise the output will be 0.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_0NOTEQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|146&lt;br /&gt;
|0x92&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 0 if the input is 0. 1 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ADD&lt;br /&gt;
|147&lt;br /&gt;
|0x93&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|a is added to b.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SUB&lt;br /&gt;
|148&lt;br /&gt;
|0x94&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|b is subtracted from a.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_MUL&lt;br /&gt;
|149&lt;br /&gt;
|0x95&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|a is multiplied by b. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_DIV&lt;br /&gt;
|150&lt;br /&gt;
|0x96&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|a is divided by b. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_MOD&lt;br /&gt;
|151&lt;br /&gt;
|0x97&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Returns the remainder after dividing a by b. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_LSHIFT&lt;br /&gt;
|152&lt;br /&gt;
|0x98&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Shifts a left b bits, preserving sign. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RSHIFT&lt;br /&gt;
|153&lt;br /&gt;
|0x99&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Shifts a right b bits, preserving sign. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_BOOLAND&lt;br /&gt;
|154&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9a&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|If both a and b are not 0, the output is 1. Otherwise 0.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_BOOLOR&lt;br /&gt;
|155&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9b&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|If a or b is not 0, the output is 1. Otherwise 0.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NUMEQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|156&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9c&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if the numbers are equal, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NUMEQUALVERIFY&lt;br /&gt;
|157&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9d&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|Same as OP_NUMEQUAL, but runs OP_VERIFY afterward.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NUMNOTEQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|158&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9e&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if the numbers are not equal, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_LESSTHAN&lt;br /&gt;
|159&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9f&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if a is less than b, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_GREATERTHAN&lt;br /&gt;
|160&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa0&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if a is greater than b, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_LESSTHANOREQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|161&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa1&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if a is less than or equal to b, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_GREATERTHANOREQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|162&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa2&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if a is greater than or equal to b, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_MIN&lt;br /&gt;
|163&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa3&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns the smaller of a and b.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_MAX&lt;br /&gt;
|164&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa4&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns the larger of a and b.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_WITHIN&lt;br /&gt;
|165&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa5&lt;br /&gt;
|x min max&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if x is within the specified range (left-inclusive), 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Crypto ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RIPEMD160&lt;br /&gt;
|166&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa6&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|hash&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is hashed using RIPEMD-160.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SHA1&lt;br /&gt;
|167&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa7&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|hash&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is hashed using SHA-1.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SHA256&lt;br /&gt;
|168&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa8&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|hash&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is hashed using SHA-256.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_HASH160&lt;br /&gt;
|169&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa9&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|hash&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is hashed twice: first with SHA-256 and then with RIPEMD-160.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_HASH256&lt;br /&gt;
|170&lt;br /&gt;
|0xaa&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|hash&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is hashed two times with SHA-256.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CODESEPARATOR&lt;br /&gt;
|171&lt;br /&gt;
|0xab&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|All of the signature checking words will only match signatures to the data after the most recently-executed OP_CODESEPARATOR.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|[[OP_CHECKSIG]]&lt;br /&gt;
|172&lt;br /&gt;
|0xac&lt;br /&gt;
|sig pubkey&lt;br /&gt;
|True / false&lt;br /&gt;
|The entire transaction&#039;s outputs, inputs, and script (from the most recently-executed OP_CODESEPARATOR to the end) are hashed. The signature used by OP_CHECKSIG must be a valid signature for this hash and public key. If it is, 1 is returned, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CHECKSIGVERIFY&lt;br /&gt;
|173&lt;br /&gt;
|0xad&lt;br /&gt;
|sig pubkey&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|Same as OP_CHECKSIG, but OP_VERIFY is executed afterward.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CHECKMULTISIG&lt;br /&gt;
|174&lt;br /&gt;
|0xae&lt;br /&gt;
|x sig1 sig2 ... &amp;lt;number of signatures&amp;gt; pub1 pub2 &amp;lt;number of public keys&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|True / False&lt;br /&gt;
|Compares the first signature against each public key until it finds an ECDSA match. Starting with the subsequent public key, it compares the second signature against each remaining public key until it finds an ECDSA match. The process is repeated until all signatures have been checked or not enough public keys remain to produce a successful result.  All signatures need to match a public key. Because public keys are not checked again if they fail any signature comparison, signatures must be placed in the scriptSig using the same order as their corresponding public keys were placed in the scriptPubKey or redeemScript.  If all signatures are valid, 1 is returned, 0 otherwise. Due to a bug, one extra unused value is removed from the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CHECKMULTISIGVERIFY&lt;br /&gt;
|175&lt;br /&gt;
|0xaf&lt;br /&gt;
|x sig1 sig2 ... &amp;lt;number of signatures&amp;gt; pub1 pub2 ... &amp;lt;number of public keys&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|Same as OP_CHECKMULTISIG, but OP_VERIFY is executed afterward.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Locktime ===&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY (previously OP_NOP2)&lt;br /&gt;
|177&lt;br /&gt;
|0xb1&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Marks transaction as invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; if the top stack item is greater than the transaction&#039;s nLockTime field, otherwise script evaluation continues as though an OP_NOP was executed. Transaction is also invalid if 1. the stack is empty; or 2. the top stack item is negative; or 3. the top stack item is greater than or equal to 500000000 while the transaction&#039;s nLockTime field is less than 500000000, or vice versa; or 4. the input&#039;s nSequence field is equal to 0xffffffff. The precise semantics are described in [[BIP 0065]]&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Pseudo-words===&lt;br /&gt;
These words are used internally for assisting with transaction matching. They are invalid if used in actual scripts.&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PUBKEYHASH&lt;br /&gt;
|253&lt;br /&gt;
|0xfd&lt;br /&gt;
|Represents a public key hashed with OP_HASH160.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PUBKEY&lt;br /&gt;
|254&lt;br /&gt;
|0xfe&lt;br /&gt;
|Represents a public key compatible with OP_CHECKSIG.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_INVALIDOPCODE&lt;br /&gt;
|255&lt;br /&gt;
|0xff&lt;br /&gt;
|Matches any opcode that is not yet assigned.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Reserved words ===&lt;br /&gt;
Any opcode not assigned is also reserved. Using an unassigned opcode makes the transaction &#039;&#039;&#039;invalid&#039;&#039;&#039;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!When used...&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RESERVED&lt;br /&gt;
|80&lt;br /&gt;
|0x50&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; unless occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_VER&lt;br /&gt;
|98&lt;br /&gt;
|0x62&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; unless occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_VERIF&lt;br /&gt;
|101&lt;br /&gt;
|0x65&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid even when occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&#039;&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_VERNOTIF&lt;br /&gt;
|102&lt;br /&gt;
|0x66&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid even when occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&#039;&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RESERVED1&lt;br /&gt;
|137&lt;br /&gt;
|0x89&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; unless occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RESERVED2&lt;br /&gt;
|138&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8a&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; unless occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NOP1, OP_NOP3-OP_NOP10&lt;br /&gt;
|176, 178-185&lt;br /&gt;
|0xb0, 0xb2-0xb9&lt;br /&gt;
|The word is ignored. Does not mark transaction as invalid.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Scripts ==&lt;br /&gt;
This is a list of interesting scripts. Keep in mind that all constants actually use the data-pushing commands above. Note that there is a small number of standard script forms that are relayed from node to node; non-standard scripts are accepted if they are in a block, but nodes will not relay them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Standard Transaction to Bitcoin address (pay-to-pubkey-hash) ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptPubKey: OP_DUP OP_HASH160 &amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt; OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptSig: &amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To demonstrate how scripts look on the wire, here is a raw scriptPubKey:&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;pre&amp;gt;  76       A9             14&lt;br /&gt;
OP_DUP OP_HASH160    Bytes to push&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
89 AB CD EF AB BA AB BA AB BA AB BA AB BA AB BA AB BA AB BA   88         AC&lt;br /&gt;
                      Data to push                     OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG&amp;lt;/pre&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Note: scriptSig is in the input of the spending transaction and scriptPubKey is in the output of the previously unspent i.e. &amp;quot;available&amp;quot; transaction.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Here is how each word is processed:&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
! Stack &lt;br /&gt;
! Script &lt;br /&gt;
! Description &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
| &amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; OP_DUP OP_HASH160 &amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt; OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG &lt;br /&gt;
| scriptSig and scriptPubKey are combined.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
| OP_DUP OP_HASH160 &amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt; OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG &lt;br /&gt;
| Constants are added to the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
| OP_HASH160 &amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt; OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG &lt;br /&gt;
| Top stack item is duplicated.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubHashA&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt; OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
| Top stack item is hashed.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubHashA&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
| Constant added.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
| Equality is checked between the top two stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|true&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
|Signature is checked for top two stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Obsolete pay-to-pubkey transaction ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
OP_CHECKSIG is used directly without first hashing the public key.&lt;br /&gt;
This was used by early versions of Bitcoin where people paid directly to IP addresses, before Bitcoin addresses were introduced.&lt;br /&gt;
scriptPubKeys of this transaction form are still recognized as payments to user by Bitcoin Core.&lt;br /&gt;
The disadvantage of this transaction form is that the whole public key needs to be known in advance, implying longer payment addresses, and that it provides less protection in the event of a break in the ECDSA signature algorithm.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptPubKey: &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptSig: &amp;lt;sig&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Checking process:&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
! Stack &lt;br /&gt;
! Script &lt;br /&gt;
! Description &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
|scriptSig and scriptPubKey are combined.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
| OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
|Constants are added to the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|true&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
|Signature is checked for top two stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Provably Unspendable/Prunable Outputs ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The standard way to mark a transaction as provably unspendable is with a scriptPubKey of the following form:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  scriptPubKey: OP_RETURN {zero or more ops}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
OP_RETURN immediately marks the script as invalid, guaranteeing that no scriptSig exists that could possibly spend that output. Thus the output can be immediately pruned from the UTXO set even if it has not been spent. [http://blockexplorer.com/tx/eb31ca1a4cbd97c2770983164d7560d2d03276ae1aee26f12d7c2c6424252f29 eb31ca1a4cbd97c2770983164d7560d2d03276ae1aee26f12d7c2c6424252f29] is an example: it has a single output of zero value, thus giving the full 0.125BTC fee to the miner who mined the transaction without adding an entry to the UTXO set. You can also use OP_RETURN to add data to a transaction without the data ever appearing in the UTXO set, as seen in 1a2e22a717d626fc5db363582007c46924ae6b28319f07cb1b907776bd8293fc; [[P2Pool]] does this with the share chain hash txout in the coinbase of blocks it creates.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Anyone-Can-Spend Outputs ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Conversely a transaction can be made spendable by anyone at all:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  scriptPubKey: (empty)&lt;br /&gt;
  scriptSig: OP_TRUE&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
With some software changes such transactions can be used as a way to donate funds to miners in addition to transaction fees: any miner who mines such a transaction can also include an additional one after it sending the funds to an address they control. This mechanism may be used in the future for [[fidelity bonds]] to sacrifice funds in a provable way.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Anyone-Can-Spend outputs are currently considered non-standard, and are not relayed on the P2P network.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Transaction puzzle ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Transaction a4bfa8ab6435ae5f25dae9d89e4eb67dfa94283ca751f393c1ddc5a837bbc31b is an interesting puzzle.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptPubKey: OP_HASH256 6fe28c0ab6f1b372c1a6a246ae63f74f931e8365e15a089c68d6190000000000 OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptSig: &amp;lt;data&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To spend the transaction you need to come up with some data such that hashing the data twice results in the given hash.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
! Stack &lt;br /&gt;
! Script &lt;br /&gt;
! Description &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;data&amp;gt; OP_HASH256 &amp;lt;given_hash&amp;gt; OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;data&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_HASH256 &amp;lt;given_hash&amp;gt; OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|scriptSig added to the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;data_hash&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;given_hash&amp;gt; OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|The data is hashed.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;data_hash&amp;gt; &amp;lt;given_hash&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|The given hash is pushed to the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|true&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
|The hashes are compared, leaving true on the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This transaction was successfully spent by 09f691b2263260e71f363d1db51ff3100d285956a40cc0e4f8c8c2c4a80559b1. The required data happened to be the [[Genesis block]], and the given hash was the genesis block hash. Note that while transactions like this are fun, they are not secure, because they do not contain any signatures and thus any transaction attempting to spend them can be replaced with a different transaction sending the funds somewhere else.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==See Also==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Transactions]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Contracts]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== External Links ==&lt;br /&gt;
* Script Playground[http://www.crmarsh.com/script-playground/]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Technical]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Vocabulary]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{Bitcoin Core documentation}}&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Script&amp;diff=59959</id>
		<title>Script</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Script&amp;diff=59959"/>
		<updated>2016-01-12T13:43:34Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: /* External Links */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Bitcoin uses a scripting system for [[transactions]]. [[Wikipedia:FORTH|Forth]]-like, Script is simple, stack-based, and processed from left to right. It is purposefully not Turing-complete, with no loops.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A script is essentially a list of instructions recorded with each transaction that describe how the next person wanting to spend the Bitcoins being transferred can gain access to them.  The script for a typical Bitcoin transfer to destination Bitcoin address D simply encumbers future spending of the bitcoins with two things: the spender must provide&lt;br /&gt;
# a public key that, when hashed, yields destination address D embedded in the script, and&lt;br /&gt;
# a signature to show evidence of the private key corresponding to the public key just provided.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Scripting provides the flexibility to change the parameters of what&#039;s needed to spend transferred Bitcoins.  For example, the scripting system could be used to require two private keys, or a combination of several, or even no keys at all.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A transaction is valid if nothing in the combined script triggers failure and the top stack item is true (non-zero).  The party who originally &#039;&#039;sent&#039;&#039; the Bitcoins now being spent, dictates the script operations that will occur &#039;&#039;last&#039;&#039; in order to release them for use in another transaction.  The party wanting to spend them must provide the input(s) to the previously recorded script that results in those operations occurring last leaving behind true (non-zero).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The stacks hold byte vectors.&lt;br /&gt;
When used as numbers, byte vectors are interpreted as little-endian variable-length integers with the most significant bit determining the sign of the integer.&lt;br /&gt;
Thus 0x81 represents -1.&lt;br /&gt;
0x80 is another representation of zero (so called negative 0).&lt;br /&gt;
Positive 0 is represented by a null-length vector.&lt;br /&gt;
Byte vectors are interpreted as Booleans where False is represented by any representation of zero, and True is represented by any representation of non-zero.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Words ==&lt;br /&gt;
This is a list of all Script words, also known as opcodes, commands, or functions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are some words which existed in very early versions of Bitcoin but were removed out of a concern that the client might have a bug in their implementation. This fear was motivated by a bug found in OP_LSHIFT which could crash any Bitcoin node if exploited, and by other bugs in how Script worked which allowed anyone to spend anyone&#039;s bitcoins. The removed opcodes are sometimes said to be &amp;quot;disabled&amp;quot; opcodes, but this is something of a misnomer because there is &#039;&#039;absolutely no way&#039;&#039; for anyone using Bitcoin to use these opcodes (they simply &#039;&#039;do not exist anymore&#039;&#039; in the protocol), and there are also no solid plans to ever re-enable all of these opcodes. They are listed here only for historical interest.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
New opcodes can be added by means of a carefully designed and executed [[softfork]] using OP_NOP1-OP_NOP10.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
False is zero or negative zero (using any number of bytes) or an empty array, and True is anything else.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Constants ===&lt;br /&gt;
When talking about scripts, these value-pushing words are usually omitted.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_0, OP_FALSE&lt;br /&gt;
|0&lt;br /&gt;
|0x00&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing.&lt;br /&gt;
|(empty value)&lt;br /&gt;
|An empty array of bytes is pushed onto the stack. (This is not a no-op: an item is added to the stack.)&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|N/A&lt;br /&gt;
|1-75&lt;br /&gt;
|0x01-0x4b&lt;br /&gt;
|(special)&lt;br /&gt;
|data&lt;br /&gt;
|The next &#039;&#039;opcode&#039;&#039; bytes is data to be pushed onto the stack&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PUSHDATA1&lt;br /&gt;
|76&lt;br /&gt;
|0x4c&lt;br /&gt;
|(special)&lt;br /&gt;
|data&lt;br /&gt;
|The next byte contains the number of bytes to be pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PUSHDATA2&lt;br /&gt;
|77&lt;br /&gt;
|0x4d&lt;br /&gt;
|(special)&lt;br /&gt;
|data&lt;br /&gt;
|The next two bytes contain the number of bytes to be pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PUSHDATA4&lt;br /&gt;
|78&lt;br /&gt;
|0x4e&lt;br /&gt;
|(special)&lt;br /&gt;
|data&lt;br /&gt;
|The next four bytes contain the number of bytes to be pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_1NEGATE&lt;br /&gt;
|79&lt;br /&gt;
|0x4f&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing.&lt;br /&gt;
| -1&lt;br /&gt;
|The number -1 is pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_1, OP_TRUE&lt;br /&gt;
|81&lt;br /&gt;
|0x51&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing.&lt;br /&gt;
|1&lt;br /&gt;
|The number 1 is pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2-OP_16&lt;br /&gt;
|82-96&lt;br /&gt;
|0x52-0x60&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing.&lt;br /&gt;
|2-16&lt;br /&gt;
|The number in the word name (2-16) is pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Flow control ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NOP&lt;br /&gt;
|97&lt;br /&gt;
|0x61&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Does nothing.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_IF&lt;br /&gt;
|99&lt;br /&gt;
|0x63&lt;br /&gt;
| colspan=&amp;quot;2&amp;quot;|&amp;lt;expression&amp;gt; if [statements] [else [statements]]* endif&lt;br /&gt;
|If the top stack value is not 0, the statements are executed. The top stack value is removed.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NOTIF&lt;br /&gt;
|100&lt;br /&gt;
|0x64&lt;br /&gt;
| colspan=&amp;quot;2&amp;quot;|&amp;lt;expression&amp;gt; if [statements] [else [statements]]* endif&lt;br /&gt;
|If the top stack value is 0, the statements are executed. The top stack value is removed.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ELSE&lt;br /&gt;
|103&lt;br /&gt;
|0x67&lt;br /&gt;
| colspan=&amp;quot;2&amp;quot;|&amp;lt;expression&amp;gt; if [statements] [else [statements]]* endif&lt;br /&gt;
|If the preceding OP_IF or OP_NOTIF or OP_ELSE was not executed then these statements are and if the preceding OP_IF or OP_NOTIF or OP_ELSE was executed then these statements are not. &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ENDIF&lt;br /&gt;
|104&lt;br /&gt;
|0x68&lt;br /&gt;
| colspan=&amp;quot;2&amp;quot;|&amp;lt;expression&amp;gt; if [statements] [else [statements]]* endif&lt;br /&gt;
|Ends an if/else block. All blocks must end, or the transaction is &#039;&#039;&#039;invalid&#039;&#039;&#039;. An OP_ENDIF without OP_IF earlier is also &#039;&#039;&#039;invalid&#039;&#039;&#039;.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_VERIFY&lt;br /&gt;
|105&lt;br /&gt;
|0x69&lt;br /&gt;
|True / false&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Marks transaction as invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; if top stack value is not true.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|[[OP_RETURN]]&lt;br /&gt;
|106&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6a&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Marks transaction as invalid&#039;&#039;&#039;. A standard way of attaching extra data to transactions is to add a zero-value output with a scriptPubKey consisting of OP_RETURN followed by exactly one pushdata op. Such outputs are provably unspendable, reducing their cost to the network. Currently it is usually considered non-standard (though valid) for a transaction to have more than one OP_RETURN output or an OP_RETURN output with more than one pushdata op.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Stack ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_TOALTSTACK&lt;br /&gt;
|107&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6b&lt;br /&gt;
|x1&lt;br /&gt;
|(alt)x1&lt;br /&gt;
|Puts the input onto the top of the alt stack. Removes it from the main stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_FROMALTSTACK&lt;br /&gt;
|108&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6c&lt;br /&gt;
|(alt)x1&lt;br /&gt;
|x1&lt;br /&gt;
|Puts the input onto the top of the main stack. Removes it from the alt stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_IFDUP&lt;br /&gt;
|115&lt;br /&gt;
|0x73&lt;br /&gt;
|x&lt;br /&gt;
|x / x x&lt;br /&gt;
|If the top stack value is not 0, duplicate it.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_DEPTH&lt;br /&gt;
|116&lt;br /&gt;
|0x74&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;Stack size&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|Puts the number of stack items onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_DROP&lt;br /&gt;
|117&lt;br /&gt;
|0x75&lt;br /&gt;
|x&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Removes the top stack item.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_DUP&lt;br /&gt;
|118&lt;br /&gt;
|0x76&lt;br /&gt;
|x&lt;br /&gt;
|x x&lt;br /&gt;
|Duplicates the top stack item.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NIP&lt;br /&gt;
|119&lt;br /&gt;
|0x77&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Removes the second-to-top stack item.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_OVER&lt;br /&gt;
|120&lt;br /&gt;
|0x78&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x1&lt;br /&gt;
|Copies the second-to-top stack item to the top.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PICK&lt;br /&gt;
|121&lt;br /&gt;
|0x79&lt;br /&gt;
|xn ... x2 x1 x0 &amp;lt;n&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|xn ... x2 x1 x0 xn&lt;br /&gt;
|The item &#039;&#039;n&#039;&#039; back in the stack is copied to the top.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ROLL&lt;br /&gt;
|122&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7a&lt;br /&gt;
|xn ... x2 x1 x0 &amp;lt;n&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|... x2 x1 x0 xn&lt;br /&gt;
|The item &#039;&#039;n&#039;&#039; back in the stack is moved to the top.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ROT&lt;br /&gt;
|123&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7b&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3&lt;br /&gt;
|x2 x3 x1&lt;br /&gt;
|The top three items on the stack are rotated to the left.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SWAP&lt;br /&gt;
|124&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7c&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|x2 x1&lt;br /&gt;
|The top two items on the stack are swapped.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_TUCK&lt;br /&gt;
|125&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7d&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|x2 x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|The item at the top of the stack is copied and inserted before the second-to-top item.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2DROP&lt;br /&gt;
|109&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6d&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Removes the top two stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2DUP&lt;br /&gt;
|110&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6e&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Duplicates the top two stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_3DUP&lt;br /&gt;
|111&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6f&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3 x1 x2 x3&lt;br /&gt;
|Duplicates the top three stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2OVER&lt;br /&gt;
|112&lt;br /&gt;
|0x70&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3 x4&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3 x4 x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Copies the pair of items two spaces back in the stack to the front.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2ROT&lt;br /&gt;
|113&lt;br /&gt;
|0x71&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6&lt;br /&gt;
|x3 x4 x5 x6 x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|The fifth and sixth items back are moved to the top of the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2SWAP&lt;br /&gt;
|114&lt;br /&gt;
|0x72&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3 x4&lt;br /&gt;
|x3 x4 x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Swaps the top two pairs of items.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Splice ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If any opcode marked as disabled is present in a script, it must abort and fail.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CAT&lt;br /&gt;
|126&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7e&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Concatenates two strings. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SUBSTR&lt;br /&gt;
|127&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7f&lt;br /&gt;
|in begin size&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Returns a section of a string. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_LEFT&lt;br /&gt;
|128&lt;br /&gt;
|0x80&lt;br /&gt;
|in size&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Keeps only characters left of the specified point in a string. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RIGHT&lt;br /&gt;
|129&lt;br /&gt;
|0x81&lt;br /&gt;
|in size&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Keeps only characters right of the specified point in a string. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SIZE&lt;br /&gt;
|130&lt;br /&gt;
|0x82&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|in size&lt;br /&gt;
|Pushes the string length of the top element of the stack (without popping it).&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Bitwise logic ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If any opcode marked as disabled is present in a script, it must abort and fail.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_INVERT&lt;br /&gt;
|131&lt;br /&gt;
|0x83&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Flips all of the bits in the input. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_AND&lt;br /&gt;
|132&lt;br /&gt;
|0x84&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Boolean &#039;&#039;and&#039;&#039; between each bit in the inputs. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_OR&lt;br /&gt;
|133&lt;br /&gt;
|0x85&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Boolean &#039;&#039;or&#039;&#039; between each bit in the inputs. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_XOR&lt;br /&gt;
|134&lt;br /&gt;
|0x86&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Boolean &#039;&#039;exclusive or&#039;&#039; between each bit in the inputs. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|135&lt;br /&gt;
|0x87&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|True / false&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if the inputs are exactly equal, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_EQUALVERIFY&lt;br /&gt;
|136&lt;br /&gt;
|0x88&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|Same as OP_EQUAL, but runs OP_VERIFY afterward.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Arithmetic ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Note: Arithmetic inputs are limited to signed 32-bit integers, but may overflow their output.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If any input value for any of these commands is longer than 4 bytes, the script must abort and fail. &lt;br /&gt;
If any opcode marked as &#039;&#039;disabled&#039;&#039; is present in a script - it must also abort and fail.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_1ADD&lt;br /&gt;
|139&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8b&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|1 is added to the input.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_1SUB&lt;br /&gt;
|140&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8c&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|1 is subtracted from the input.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2MUL&lt;br /&gt;
|141&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8d&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|The input is multiplied by 2. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2DIV&lt;br /&gt;
|142&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8e&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|The input is divided by 2. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NEGATE&lt;br /&gt;
|143&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8f&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|The sign of the input is flipped.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ABS&lt;br /&gt;
|144&lt;br /&gt;
|0x90&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is made positive.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NOT&lt;br /&gt;
|145&lt;br /&gt;
|0x91&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|If the input is 0 or 1, it is flipped. Otherwise the output will be 0.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_0NOTEQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|146&lt;br /&gt;
|0x92&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 0 if the input is 0. 1 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ADD&lt;br /&gt;
|147&lt;br /&gt;
|0x93&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|a is added to b.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SUB&lt;br /&gt;
|148&lt;br /&gt;
|0x94&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|b is subtracted from a.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_MUL&lt;br /&gt;
|149&lt;br /&gt;
|0x95&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|a is multiplied by b. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_DIV&lt;br /&gt;
|150&lt;br /&gt;
|0x96&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|a is divided by b. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_MOD&lt;br /&gt;
|151&lt;br /&gt;
|0x97&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Returns the remainder after dividing a by b. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_LSHIFT&lt;br /&gt;
|152&lt;br /&gt;
|0x98&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Shifts a left b bits, preserving sign. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RSHIFT&lt;br /&gt;
|153&lt;br /&gt;
|0x99&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Shifts a right b bits, preserving sign. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_BOOLAND&lt;br /&gt;
|154&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9a&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|If both a and b are not 0, the output is 1. Otherwise 0.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_BOOLOR&lt;br /&gt;
|155&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9b&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|If a or b is not 0, the output is 1. Otherwise 0.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NUMEQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|156&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9c&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if the numbers are equal, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NUMEQUALVERIFY&lt;br /&gt;
|157&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9d&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|Same as OP_NUMEQUAL, but runs OP_VERIFY afterward.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NUMNOTEQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|158&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9e&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if the numbers are not equal, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_LESSTHAN&lt;br /&gt;
|159&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9f&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if a is less than b, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_GREATERTHAN&lt;br /&gt;
|160&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa0&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if a is greater than b, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_LESSTHANOREQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|161&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa1&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if a is less than or equal to b, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_GREATERTHANOREQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|162&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa2&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if a is greater than or equal to b, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_MIN&lt;br /&gt;
|163&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa3&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns the smaller of a and b.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_MAX&lt;br /&gt;
|164&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa4&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns the larger of a and b.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_WITHIN&lt;br /&gt;
|165&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa5&lt;br /&gt;
|x min max&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if x is within the specified range (left-inclusive), 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Crypto ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RIPEMD160&lt;br /&gt;
|166&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa6&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|hash&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is hashed using RIPEMD-160.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SHA1&lt;br /&gt;
|167&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa7&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|hash&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is hashed using SHA-1.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SHA256&lt;br /&gt;
|168&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa8&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|hash&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is hashed using SHA-256.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_HASH160&lt;br /&gt;
|169&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa9&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|hash&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is hashed twice: first with SHA-256 and then with RIPEMD-160.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_HASH256&lt;br /&gt;
|170&lt;br /&gt;
|0xaa&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|hash&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is hashed two times with SHA-256.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CODESEPARATOR&lt;br /&gt;
|171&lt;br /&gt;
|0xab&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|All of the signature checking words will only match signatures to the data after the most recently-executed OP_CODESEPARATOR.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|[[OP_CHECKSIG]]&lt;br /&gt;
|172&lt;br /&gt;
|0xac&lt;br /&gt;
|sig pubkey&lt;br /&gt;
|True / false&lt;br /&gt;
|The entire transaction&#039;s outputs, inputs, and script (from the most recently-executed OP_CODESEPARATOR to the end) are hashed. The signature used by OP_CHECKSIG must be a valid signature for this hash and public key. If it is, 1 is returned, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CHECKSIGVERIFY&lt;br /&gt;
|173&lt;br /&gt;
|0xad&lt;br /&gt;
|sig pubkey&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|Same as OP_CHECKSIG, but OP_VERIFY is executed afterward.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CHECKMULTISIG&lt;br /&gt;
|174&lt;br /&gt;
|0xae&lt;br /&gt;
|x sig1 sig2 ... &amp;lt;number of signatures&amp;gt; pub1 pub2 &amp;lt;number of public keys&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|True / False&lt;br /&gt;
|Compares the first signature against each public key until it finds an ECDSA match. Starting with the subsequent public key, it compares the second signature against each remaining public key until it finds an ECDSA match. The process is repeated until all signatures have been checked or not enough public keys remain to produce a successful result.  All signatures need to match a public key. Because public keys are not checked again if they fail any signature comparison, signatures must be placed in the scriptSig using the same order as their corresponding public keys were placed in the scriptPubKey or redeemScript.  If all signatures are valid, 1 is returned, 0 otherwise. Due to a bug, one extra unused value is removed from the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CHECKMULTISIGVERIFY&lt;br /&gt;
|175&lt;br /&gt;
|0xaf&lt;br /&gt;
|x sig1 sig2 ... &amp;lt;number of signatures&amp;gt; pub1 pub2 ... &amp;lt;number of public keys&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|Same as OP_CHECKMULTISIG, but OP_VERIFY is executed afterward.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Locktime ===&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY (previously OP_NOP2)&lt;br /&gt;
|177&lt;br /&gt;
|0xb1&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Marks transaction as invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; if the top stack item is greater than the transaction&#039;s nLockTime field, otherwise script evaluation continues as though an OP_NOP was executed. Transaction is also invalid if 1. the stack is empty; or 2. the top stack item is negative; or 3. the top stack item is greater than or equal to 500000000 while the transaction&#039;s nLockTime field is less than 500000000, or vice versa; or 4. the input&#039;s nSequence field is equal to 0xffffffff. The precise semantics are described in [[BIP 0065]]&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Pseudo-words===&lt;br /&gt;
These words are used internally for assisting with transaction matching. They are invalid if used in actual scripts.&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PUBKEYHASH&lt;br /&gt;
|253&lt;br /&gt;
|0xfd&lt;br /&gt;
|Represents a public key hashed with OP_HASH160.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PUBKEY&lt;br /&gt;
|254&lt;br /&gt;
|0xfe&lt;br /&gt;
|Represents a public key compatible with OP_CHECKSIG.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_INVALIDOPCODE&lt;br /&gt;
|255&lt;br /&gt;
|0xff&lt;br /&gt;
|Matches any opcode that is not yet assigned.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Reserved words ===&lt;br /&gt;
Any opcode not assigned is also reserved. Using an unassigned opcode makes the transaction &#039;&#039;&#039;invalid&#039;&#039;&#039;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!When used...&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RESERVED&lt;br /&gt;
|80&lt;br /&gt;
|0x50&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; unless occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_VER&lt;br /&gt;
|98&lt;br /&gt;
|0x62&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; unless occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_VERIF&lt;br /&gt;
|101&lt;br /&gt;
|0x65&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid even when occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&#039;&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_VERNOTIF&lt;br /&gt;
|102&lt;br /&gt;
|0x66&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid even when occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&#039;&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RESERVED1&lt;br /&gt;
|137&lt;br /&gt;
|0x89&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; unless occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RESERVED2&lt;br /&gt;
|138&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8a&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; unless occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NOP1, OP_NOP3-OP_NOP10&lt;br /&gt;
|176, 178-185&lt;br /&gt;
|0xb0, 0xb2-0xb9&lt;br /&gt;
|The word is ignored. Does not mark transaction as invalid.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Scripts ==&lt;br /&gt;
This is a list of interesting scripts. Keep in mind that all constants actually use the data-pushing commands above. Note that there is a small number of standard script forms that are relayed from node to node; non-standard scripts are accepted if they are in a block, but nodes will not relay them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Standard Transaction to Bitcoin address (pay-to-pubkey-hash) ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptPubKey: OP_DUP OP_HASH160 &amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt; OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptSig: &amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To demonstrate how scripts look on the wire, here is a raw scriptPubKey:&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;pre&amp;gt;  76       A9             14&lt;br /&gt;
OP_DUP OP_HASH160    Bytes to push&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
89 AB CD EF AB BA AB BA AB BA AB BA AB BA AB BA AB BA AB BA   88         AC&lt;br /&gt;
                      Data to push                     OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG&amp;lt;/pre&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Note: scriptSig is in the input of the spending transaction and scriptPubKey is in the output of the previously unspent i.e. &amp;quot;available&amp;quot; transaction.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Here is how each word is processed:&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
! Stack &lt;br /&gt;
! Script &lt;br /&gt;
! Description &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
| &amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; OP_DUP OP_HASH160 &amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt; OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG &lt;br /&gt;
| scriptSig and scriptPubKey are combined.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
| OP_DUP OP_HASH160 &amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt; OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG &lt;br /&gt;
| Constants are added to the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
| OP_HASH160 &amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt; OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG &lt;br /&gt;
| Top stack item is duplicated.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubHashA&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt; OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
| Top stack item is hashed.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubHashA&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
| Constant added.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
| Equality is checked between the top two stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|true&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
|Signature is checked for top two stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Obsolete pay-to-pubkey transaction ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
OP_CHECKSIG is used directly without first hashing the public key.&lt;br /&gt;
This was used by early versions of Bitcoin where people paid directly to IP addresses, before Bitcoin addresses were introduced.&lt;br /&gt;
scriptPubKeys of this transaction form are still recognized as payments to user by Bitcoin Core.&lt;br /&gt;
The disadvantage of this transaction form is that the whole public key needs to be known in advance, implying longer payment addresses, and that it provides less protection in the event of a break in the ECDSA signature algorithm.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptPubKey: &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptSig: &amp;lt;sig&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Checking process:&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
! Stack &lt;br /&gt;
! Script &lt;br /&gt;
! Description &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
|scriptSig and scriptPubKey are combined.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
| OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
|Constants are added to the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|true&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
|Signature is checked for top two stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Provably Unspendable/Prunable Outputs ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The standard way to mark a transaction as provably unspendable is with a scriptPubKey of the following form:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  scriptPubKey: OP_RETURN {zero or more ops}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
OP_RETURN immediately marks the script as invalid, guaranteeing that no scriptSig exists that could possibly spend that output. Thus the output can be immediately pruned from the UTXO set even if it has not been spent. [http://blockexplorer.com/tx/eb31ca1a4cbd97c2770983164d7560d2d03276ae1aee26f12d7c2c6424252f29 eb31ca1a4cbd97c2770983164d7560d2d03276ae1aee26f12d7c2c6424252f29] is an example: it has a single output of zero value, thus giving the full 0.125BTC fee to the miner who mined the transaction without adding an entry to the UTXO set. You can also use OP_RETURN to add data to a transaction without the data ever appearing in the UTXO set, as seen in 1a2e22a717d626fc5db363582007c46924ae6b28319f07cb1b907776bd8293fc; [[P2Pool]] does this with the share chain hash txout in the coinbase of blocks it creates.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Anyone-Can-Spend Outputs ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Conversely a transaction can be made spendable by anyone at all:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  scriptPubKey: (empty)&lt;br /&gt;
  scriptSig: OP_TRUE&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
With some software changes such transactions can be used as a way to donate funds to miners in addition to transaction fees: any miner who mines such a transaction can also include an additional one after it sending the funds to an address they control. This mechanism may be used in the future for [[fidelity bonds]] to sacrifice funds in a provable way.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Anyone-Can-Spend outputs are currently considered non-standard, and are not relayed on the P2P network.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Transaction puzzle ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Transaction a4bfa8ab6435ae5f25dae9d89e4eb67dfa94283ca751f393c1ddc5a837bbc31b is an interesting puzzle.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptPubKey: OP_HASH256 6fe28c0ab6f1b372c1a6a246ae63f74f931e8365e15a089c68d6190000000000 OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptSig: &amp;lt;data&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To spend the transaction you need to come up with some data such that hashing the data twice results in the given hash.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
! Stack &lt;br /&gt;
! Script &lt;br /&gt;
! Description &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;data&amp;gt; OP_HASH256 &amp;lt;given_hash&amp;gt; OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;data&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_HASH256 &amp;lt;given_hash&amp;gt; OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|scriptSig added to the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;data_hash&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;given_hash&amp;gt; OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|The data is hashed.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;data_hash&amp;gt; &amp;lt;given_hash&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|The given hash is pushed to the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|true&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
|The hashes are compared, leaving true on the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This transaction was successfully spent by 09f691b2263260e71f363d1db51ff3100d285956a40cc0e4f8c8c2c4a80559b1. The required data happened to be the [[Genesis block]], and the given hash was the genesis block hash. Note that while transactions like this are fun, they are not secure, because they do not contain any signatures and thus any transaction attempting to spend them can be replaced with a different transaction sending the funds somewhere else.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==See Also==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Transactions]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Contracts]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== External Links ==&lt;br /&gt;
* [Script Playground[http://www.crmarsh.com/script-playground/]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Technical]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Vocabulary]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{Bitcoin Core documentation}}&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Script&amp;diff=59958</id>
		<title>Script</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Script&amp;diff=59958"/>
		<updated>2016-01-12T13:42:02Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: /* External Links */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Bitcoin uses a scripting system for [[transactions]]. [[Wikipedia:FORTH|Forth]]-like, Script is simple, stack-based, and processed from left to right. It is purposefully not Turing-complete, with no loops.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A script is essentially a list of instructions recorded with each transaction that describe how the next person wanting to spend the Bitcoins being transferred can gain access to them.  The script for a typical Bitcoin transfer to destination Bitcoin address D simply encumbers future spending of the bitcoins with two things: the spender must provide&lt;br /&gt;
# a public key that, when hashed, yields destination address D embedded in the script, and&lt;br /&gt;
# a signature to show evidence of the private key corresponding to the public key just provided.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Scripting provides the flexibility to change the parameters of what&#039;s needed to spend transferred Bitcoins.  For example, the scripting system could be used to require two private keys, or a combination of several, or even no keys at all.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A transaction is valid if nothing in the combined script triggers failure and the top stack item is true (non-zero).  The party who originally &#039;&#039;sent&#039;&#039; the Bitcoins now being spent, dictates the script operations that will occur &#039;&#039;last&#039;&#039; in order to release them for use in another transaction.  The party wanting to spend them must provide the input(s) to the previously recorded script that results in those operations occurring last leaving behind true (non-zero).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The stacks hold byte vectors.&lt;br /&gt;
When used as numbers, byte vectors are interpreted as little-endian variable-length integers with the most significant bit determining the sign of the integer.&lt;br /&gt;
Thus 0x81 represents -1.&lt;br /&gt;
0x80 is another representation of zero (so called negative 0).&lt;br /&gt;
Positive 0 is represented by a null-length vector.&lt;br /&gt;
Byte vectors are interpreted as Booleans where False is represented by any representation of zero, and True is represented by any representation of non-zero.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Words ==&lt;br /&gt;
This is a list of all Script words, also known as opcodes, commands, or functions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are some words which existed in very early versions of Bitcoin but were removed out of a concern that the client might have a bug in their implementation. This fear was motivated by a bug found in OP_LSHIFT which could crash any Bitcoin node if exploited, and by other bugs in how Script worked which allowed anyone to spend anyone&#039;s bitcoins. The removed opcodes are sometimes said to be &amp;quot;disabled&amp;quot; opcodes, but this is something of a misnomer because there is &#039;&#039;absolutely no way&#039;&#039; for anyone using Bitcoin to use these opcodes (they simply &#039;&#039;do not exist anymore&#039;&#039; in the protocol), and there are also no solid plans to ever re-enable all of these opcodes. They are listed here only for historical interest.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
New opcodes can be added by means of a carefully designed and executed [[softfork]] using OP_NOP1-OP_NOP10.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
False is zero or negative zero (using any number of bytes) or an empty array, and True is anything else.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Constants ===&lt;br /&gt;
When talking about scripts, these value-pushing words are usually omitted.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_0, OP_FALSE&lt;br /&gt;
|0&lt;br /&gt;
|0x00&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing.&lt;br /&gt;
|(empty value)&lt;br /&gt;
|An empty array of bytes is pushed onto the stack. (This is not a no-op: an item is added to the stack.)&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|N/A&lt;br /&gt;
|1-75&lt;br /&gt;
|0x01-0x4b&lt;br /&gt;
|(special)&lt;br /&gt;
|data&lt;br /&gt;
|The next &#039;&#039;opcode&#039;&#039; bytes is data to be pushed onto the stack&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PUSHDATA1&lt;br /&gt;
|76&lt;br /&gt;
|0x4c&lt;br /&gt;
|(special)&lt;br /&gt;
|data&lt;br /&gt;
|The next byte contains the number of bytes to be pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PUSHDATA2&lt;br /&gt;
|77&lt;br /&gt;
|0x4d&lt;br /&gt;
|(special)&lt;br /&gt;
|data&lt;br /&gt;
|The next two bytes contain the number of bytes to be pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PUSHDATA4&lt;br /&gt;
|78&lt;br /&gt;
|0x4e&lt;br /&gt;
|(special)&lt;br /&gt;
|data&lt;br /&gt;
|The next four bytes contain the number of bytes to be pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_1NEGATE&lt;br /&gt;
|79&lt;br /&gt;
|0x4f&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing.&lt;br /&gt;
| -1&lt;br /&gt;
|The number -1 is pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_1, OP_TRUE&lt;br /&gt;
|81&lt;br /&gt;
|0x51&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing.&lt;br /&gt;
|1&lt;br /&gt;
|The number 1 is pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2-OP_16&lt;br /&gt;
|82-96&lt;br /&gt;
|0x52-0x60&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing.&lt;br /&gt;
|2-16&lt;br /&gt;
|The number in the word name (2-16) is pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Flow control ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NOP&lt;br /&gt;
|97&lt;br /&gt;
|0x61&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Does nothing.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_IF&lt;br /&gt;
|99&lt;br /&gt;
|0x63&lt;br /&gt;
| colspan=&amp;quot;2&amp;quot;|&amp;lt;expression&amp;gt; if [statements] [else [statements]]* endif&lt;br /&gt;
|If the top stack value is not 0, the statements are executed. The top stack value is removed.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NOTIF&lt;br /&gt;
|100&lt;br /&gt;
|0x64&lt;br /&gt;
| colspan=&amp;quot;2&amp;quot;|&amp;lt;expression&amp;gt; if [statements] [else [statements]]* endif&lt;br /&gt;
|If the top stack value is 0, the statements are executed. The top stack value is removed.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ELSE&lt;br /&gt;
|103&lt;br /&gt;
|0x67&lt;br /&gt;
| colspan=&amp;quot;2&amp;quot;|&amp;lt;expression&amp;gt; if [statements] [else [statements]]* endif&lt;br /&gt;
|If the preceding OP_IF or OP_NOTIF or OP_ELSE was not executed then these statements are and if the preceding OP_IF or OP_NOTIF or OP_ELSE was executed then these statements are not. &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ENDIF&lt;br /&gt;
|104&lt;br /&gt;
|0x68&lt;br /&gt;
| colspan=&amp;quot;2&amp;quot;|&amp;lt;expression&amp;gt; if [statements] [else [statements]]* endif&lt;br /&gt;
|Ends an if/else block. All blocks must end, or the transaction is &#039;&#039;&#039;invalid&#039;&#039;&#039;. An OP_ENDIF without OP_IF earlier is also &#039;&#039;&#039;invalid&#039;&#039;&#039;.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_VERIFY&lt;br /&gt;
|105&lt;br /&gt;
|0x69&lt;br /&gt;
|True / false&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Marks transaction as invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; if top stack value is not true.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|[[OP_RETURN]]&lt;br /&gt;
|106&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6a&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Marks transaction as invalid&#039;&#039;&#039;. A standard way of attaching extra data to transactions is to add a zero-value output with a scriptPubKey consisting of OP_RETURN followed by exactly one pushdata op. Such outputs are provably unspendable, reducing their cost to the network. Currently it is usually considered non-standard (though valid) for a transaction to have more than one OP_RETURN output or an OP_RETURN output with more than one pushdata op.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Stack ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_TOALTSTACK&lt;br /&gt;
|107&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6b&lt;br /&gt;
|x1&lt;br /&gt;
|(alt)x1&lt;br /&gt;
|Puts the input onto the top of the alt stack. Removes it from the main stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_FROMALTSTACK&lt;br /&gt;
|108&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6c&lt;br /&gt;
|(alt)x1&lt;br /&gt;
|x1&lt;br /&gt;
|Puts the input onto the top of the main stack. Removes it from the alt stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_IFDUP&lt;br /&gt;
|115&lt;br /&gt;
|0x73&lt;br /&gt;
|x&lt;br /&gt;
|x / x x&lt;br /&gt;
|If the top stack value is not 0, duplicate it.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_DEPTH&lt;br /&gt;
|116&lt;br /&gt;
|0x74&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;Stack size&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|Puts the number of stack items onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_DROP&lt;br /&gt;
|117&lt;br /&gt;
|0x75&lt;br /&gt;
|x&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Removes the top stack item.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_DUP&lt;br /&gt;
|118&lt;br /&gt;
|0x76&lt;br /&gt;
|x&lt;br /&gt;
|x x&lt;br /&gt;
|Duplicates the top stack item.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NIP&lt;br /&gt;
|119&lt;br /&gt;
|0x77&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Removes the second-to-top stack item.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_OVER&lt;br /&gt;
|120&lt;br /&gt;
|0x78&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x1&lt;br /&gt;
|Copies the second-to-top stack item to the top.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PICK&lt;br /&gt;
|121&lt;br /&gt;
|0x79&lt;br /&gt;
|xn ... x2 x1 x0 &amp;lt;n&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|xn ... x2 x1 x0 xn&lt;br /&gt;
|The item &#039;&#039;n&#039;&#039; back in the stack is copied to the top.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ROLL&lt;br /&gt;
|122&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7a&lt;br /&gt;
|xn ... x2 x1 x0 &amp;lt;n&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|... x2 x1 x0 xn&lt;br /&gt;
|The item &#039;&#039;n&#039;&#039; back in the stack is moved to the top.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ROT&lt;br /&gt;
|123&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7b&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3&lt;br /&gt;
|x2 x3 x1&lt;br /&gt;
|The top three items on the stack are rotated to the left.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SWAP&lt;br /&gt;
|124&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7c&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|x2 x1&lt;br /&gt;
|The top two items on the stack are swapped.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_TUCK&lt;br /&gt;
|125&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7d&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|x2 x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|The item at the top of the stack is copied and inserted before the second-to-top item.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2DROP&lt;br /&gt;
|109&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6d&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Removes the top two stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2DUP&lt;br /&gt;
|110&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6e&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Duplicates the top two stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_3DUP&lt;br /&gt;
|111&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6f&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3 x1 x2 x3&lt;br /&gt;
|Duplicates the top three stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2OVER&lt;br /&gt;
|112&lt;br /&gt;
|0x70&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3 x4&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3 x4 x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Copies the pair of items two spaces back in the stack to the front.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2ROT&lt;br /&gt;
|113&lt;br /&gt;
|0x71&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6&lt;br /&gt;
|x3 x4 x5 x6 x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|The fifth and sixth items back are moved to the top of the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2SWAP&lt;br /&gt;
|114&lt;br /&gt;
|0x72&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3 x4&lt;br /&gt;
|x3 x4 x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Swaps the top two pairs of items.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Splice ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If any opcode marked as disabled is present in a script, it must abort and fail.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CAT&lt;br /&gt;
|126&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7e&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Concatenates two strings. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SUBSTR&lt;br /&gt;
|127&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7f&lt;br /&gt;
|in begin size&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Returns a section of a string. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_LEFT&lt;br /&gt;
|128&lt;br /&gt;
|0x80&lt;br /&gt;
|in size&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Keeps only characters left of the specified point in a string. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RIGHT&lt;br /&gt;
|129&lt;br /&gt;
|0x81&lt;br /&gt;
|in size&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Keeps only characters right of the specified point in a string. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SIZE&lt;br /&gt;
|130&lt;br /&gt;
|0x82&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|in size&lt;br /&gt;
|Pushes the string length of the top element of the stack (without popping it).&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Bitwise logic ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If any opcode marked as disabled is present in a script, it must abort and fail.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_INVERT&lt;br /&gt;
|131&lt;br /&gt;
|0x83&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Flips all of the bits in the input. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_AND&lt;br /&gt;
|132&lt;br /&gt;
|0x84&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Boolean &#039;&#039;and&#039;&#039; between each bit in the inputs. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_OR&lt;br /&gt;
|133&lt;br /&gt;
|0x85&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Boolean &#039;&#039;or&#039;&#039; between each bit in the inputs. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_XOR&lt;br /&gt;
|134&lt;br /&gt;
|0x86&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Boolean &#039;&#039;exclusive or&#039;&#039; between each bit in the inputs. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|135&lt;br /&gt;
|0x87&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|True / false&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if the inputs are exactly equal, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_EQUALVERIFY&lt;br /&gt;
|136&lt;br /&gt;
|0x88&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|Same as OP_EQUAL, but runs OP_VERIFY afterward.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Arithmetic ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Note: Arithmetic inputs are limited to signed 32-bit integers, but may overflow their output.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If any input value for any of these commands is longer than 4 bytes, the script must abort and fail. &lt;br /&gt;
If any opcode marked as &#039;&#039;disabled&#039;&#039; is present in a script - it must also abort and fail.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_1ADD&lt;br /&gt;
|139&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8b&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|1 is added to the input.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_1SUB&lt;br /&gt;
|140&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8c&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|1 is subtracted from the input.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2MUL&lt;br /&gt;
|141&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8d&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|The input is multiplied by 2. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2DIV&lt;br /&gt;
|142&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8e&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|The input is divided by 2. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NEGATE&lt;br /&gt;
|143&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8f&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|The sign of the input is flipped.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ABS&lt;br /&gt;
|144&lt;br /&gt;
|0x90&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is made positive.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NOT&lt;br /&gt;
|145&lt;br /&gt;
|0x91&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|If the input is 0 or 1, it is flipped. Otherwise the output will be 0.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_0NOTEQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|146&lt;br /&gt;
|0x92&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 0 if the input is 0. 1 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ADD&lt;br /&gt;
|147&lt;br /&gt;
|0x93&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|a is added to b.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SUB&lt;br /&gt;
|148&lt;br /&gt;
|0x94&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|b is subtracted from a.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_MUL&lt;br /&gt;
|149&lt;br /&gt;
|0x95&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|a is multiplied by b. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_DIV&lt;br /&gt;
|150&lt;br /&gt;
|0x96&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|a is divided by b. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_MOD&lt;br /&gt;
|151&lt;br /&gt;
|0x97&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Returns the remainder after dividing a by b. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_LSHIFT&lt;br /&gt;
|152&lt;br /&gt;
|0x98&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Shifts a left b bits, preserving sign. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RSHIFT&lt;br /&gt;
|153&lt;br /&gt;
|0x99&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Shifts a right b bits, preserving sign. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_BOOLAND&lt;br /&gt;
|154&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9a&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|If both a and b are not 0, the output is 1. Otherwise 0.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_BOOLOR&lt;br /&gt;
|155&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9b&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|If a or b is not 0, the output is 1. Otherwise 0.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NUMEQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|156&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9c&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if the numbers are equal, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NUMEQUALVERIFY&lt;br /&gt;
|157&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9d&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|Same as OP_NUMEQUAL, but runs OP_VERIFY afterward.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NUMNOTEQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|158&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9e&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if the numbers are not equal, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_LESSTHAN&lt;br /&gt;
|159&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9f&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if a is less than b, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_GREATERTHAN&lt;br /&gt;
|160&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa0&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if a is greater than b, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_LESSTHANOREQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|161&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa1&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if a is less than or equal to b, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_GREATERTHANOREQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|162&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa2&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if a is greater than or equal to b, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_MIN&lt;br /&gt;
|163&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa3&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns the smaller of a and b.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_MAX&lt;br /&gt;
|164&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa4&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns the larger of a and b.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_WITHIN&lt;br /&gt;
|165&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa5&lt;br /&gt;
|x min max&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if x is within the specified range (left-inclusive), 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Crypto ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RIPEMD160&lt;br /&gt;
|166&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa6&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|hash&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is hashed using RIPEMD-160.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SHA1&lt;br /&gt;
|167&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa7&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|hash&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is hashed using SHA-1.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SHA256&lt;br /&gt;
|168&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa8&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|hash&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is hashed using SHA-256.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_HASH160&lt;br /&gt;
|169&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa9&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|hash&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is hashed twice: first with SHA-256 and then with RIPEMD-160.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_HASH256&lt;br /&gt;
|170&lt;br /&gt;
|0xaa&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|hash&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is hashed two times with SHA-256.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CODESEPARATOR&lt;br /&gt;
|171&lt;br /&gt;
|0xab&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|All of the signature checking words will only match signatures to the data after the most recently-executed OP_CODESEPARATOR.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|[[OP_CHECKSIG]]&lt;br /&gt;
|172&lt;br /&gt;
|0xac&lt;br /&gt;
|sig pubkey&lt;br /&gt;
|True / false&lt;br /&gt;
|The entire transaction&#039;s outputs, inputs, and script (from the most recently-executed OP_CODESEPARATOR to the end) are hashed. The signature used by OP_CHECKSIG must be a valid signature for this hash and public key. If it is, 1 is returned, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CHECKSIGVERIFY&lt;br /&gt;
|173&lt;br /&gt;
|0xad&lt;br /&gt;
|sig pubkey&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|Same as OP_CHECKSIG, but OP_VERIFY is executed afterward.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CHECKMULTISIG&lt;br /&gt;
|174&lt;br /&gt;
|0xae&lt;br /&gt;
|x sig1 sig2 ... &amp;lt;number of signatures&amp;gt; pub1 pub2 &amp;lt;number of public keys&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|True / False&lt;br /&gt;
|Compares the first signature against each public key until it finds an ECDSA match. Starting with the subsequent public key, it compares the second signature against each remaining public key until it finds an ECDSA match. The process is repeated until all signatures have been checked or not enough public keys remain to produce a successful result.  All signatures need to match a public key. Because public keys are not checked again if they fail any signature comparison, signatures must be placed in the scriptSig using the same order as their corresponding public keys were placed in the scriptPubKey or redeemScript.  If all signatures are valid, 1 is returned, 0 otherwise. Due to a bug, one extra unused value is removed from the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CHECKMULTISIGVERIFY&lt;br /&gt;
|175&lt;br /&gt;
|0xaf&lt;br /&gt;
|x sig1 sig2 ... &amp;lt;number of signatures&amp;gt; pub1 pub2 ... &amp;lt;number of public keys&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|Same as OP_CHECKMULTISIG, but OP_VERIFY is executed afterward.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Locktime ===&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY (previously OP_NOP2)&lt;br /&gt;
|177&lt;br /&gt;
|0xb1&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Marks transaction as invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; if the top stack item is greater than the transaction&#039;s nLockTime field, otherwise script evaluation continues as though an OP_NOP was executed. Transaction is also invalid if 1. the stack is empty; or 2. the top stack item is negative; or 3. the top stack item is greater than or equal to 500000000 while the transaction&#039;s nLockTime field is less than 500000000, or vice versa; or 4. the input&#039;s nSequence field is equal to 0xffffffff. The precise semantics are described in [[BIP 0065]]&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Pseudo-words===&lt;br /&gt;
These words are used internally for assisting with transaction matching. They are invalid if used in actual scripts.&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PUBKEYHASH&lt;br /&gt;
|253&lt;br /&gt;
|0xfd&lt;br /&gt;
|Represents a public key hashed with OP_HASH160.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PUBKEY&lt;br /&gt;
|254&lt;br /&gt;
|0xfe&lt;br /&gt;
|Represents a public key compatible with OP_CHECKSIG.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_INVALIDOPCODE&lt;br /&gt;
|255&lt;br /&gt;
|0xff&lt;br /&gt;
|Matches any opcode that is not yet assigned.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Reserved words ===&lt;br /&gt;
Any opcode not assigned is also reserved. Using an unassigned opcode makes the transaction &#039;&#039;&#039;invalid&#039;&#039;&#039;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!When used...&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RESERVED&lt;br /&gt;
|80&lt;br /&gt;
|0x50&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; unless occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_VER&lt;br /&gt;
|98&lt;br /&gt;
|0x62&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; unless occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_VERIF&lt;br /&gt;
|101&lt;br /&gt;
|0x65&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid even when occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&#039;&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_VERNOTIF&lt;br /&gt;
|102&lt;br /&gt;
|0x66&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid even when occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&#039;&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RESERVED1&lt;br /&gt;
|137&lt;br /&gt;
|0x89&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; unless occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RESERVED2&lt;br /&gt;
|138&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8a&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; unless occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NOP1, OP_NOP3-OP_NOP10&lt;br /&gt;
|176, 178-185&lt;br /&gt;
|0xb0, 0xb2-0xb9&lt;br /&gt;
|The word is ignored. Does not mark transaction as invalid.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Scripts ==&lt;br /&gt;
This is a list of interesting scripts. Keep in mind that all constants actually use the data-pushing commands above. Note that there is a small number of standard script forms that are relayed from node to node; non-standard scripts are accepted if they are in a block, but nodes will not relay them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Standard Transaction to Bitcoin address (pay-to-pubkey-hash) ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptPubKey: OP_DUP OP_HASH160 &amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt; OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptSig: &amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To demonstrate how scripts look on the wire, here is a raw scriptPubKey:&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;pre&amp;gt;  76       A9             14&lt;br /&gt;
OP_DUP OP_HASH160    Bytes to push&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
89 AB CD EF AB BA AB BA AB BA AB BA AB BA AB BA AB BA AB BA   88         AC&lt;br /&gt;
                      Data to push                     OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG&amp;lt;/pre&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Note: scriptSig is in the input of the spending transaction and scriptPubKey is in the output of the previously unspent i.e. &amp;quot;available&amp;quot; transaction.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Here is how each word is processed:&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
! Stack &lt;br /&gt;
! Script &lt;br /&gt;
! Description &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
| &amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; OP_DUP OP_HASH160 &amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt; OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG &lt;br /&gt;
| scriptSig and scriptPubKey are combined.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
| OP_DUP OP_HASH160 &amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt; OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG &lt;br /&gt;
| Constants are added to the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
| OP_HASH160 &amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt; OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG &lt;br /&gt;
| Top stack item is duplicated.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubHashA&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt; OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
| Top stack item is hashed.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubHashA&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
| Constant added.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
| Equality is checked between the top two stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|true&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
|Signature is checked for top two stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Obsolete pay-to-pubkey transaction ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
OP_CHECKSIG is used directly without first hashing the public key.&lt;br /&gt;
This was used by early versions of Bitcoin where people paid directly to IP addresses, before Bitcoin addresses were introduced.&lt;br /&gt;
scriptPubKeys of this transaction form are still recognized as payments to user by Bitcoin Core.&lt;br /&gt;
The disadvantage of this transaction form is that the whole public key needs to be known in advance, implying longer payment addresses, and that it provides less protection in the event of a break in the ECDSA signature algorithm.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptPubKey: &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptSig: &amp;lt;sig&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Checking process:&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
! Stack &lt;br /&gt;
! Script &lt;br /&gt;
! Description &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
|scriptSig and scriptPubKey are combined.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
| OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
|Constants are added to the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|true&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
|Signature is checked for top two stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Provably Unspendable/Prunable Outputs ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The standard way to mark a transaction as provably unspendable is with a scriptPubKey of the following form:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  scriptPubKey: OP_RETURN {zero or more ops}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
OP_RETURN immediately marks the script as invalid, guaranteeing that no scriptSig exists that could possibly spend that output. Thus the output can be immediately pruned from the UTXO set even if it has not been spent. [http://blockexplorer.com/tx/eb31ca1a4cbd97c2770983164d7560d2d03276ae1aee26f12d7c2c6424252f29 eb31ca1a4cbd97c2770983164d7560d2d03276ae1aee26f12d7c2c6424252f29] is an example: it has a single output of zero value, thus giving the full 0.125BTC fee to the miner who mined the transaction without adding an entry to the UTXO set. You can also use OP_RETURN to add data to a transaction without the data ever appearing in the UTXO set, as seen in 1a2e22a717d626fc5db363582007c46924ae6b28319f07cb1b907776bd8293fc; [[P2Pool]] does this with the share chain hash txout in the coinbase of blocks it creates.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Anyone-Can-Spend Outputs ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Conversely a transaction can be made spendable by anyone at all:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  scriptPubKey: (empty)&lt;br /&gt;
  scriptSig: OP_TRUE&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
With some software changes such transactions can be used as a way to donate funds to miners in addition to transaction fees: any miner who mines such a transaction can also include an additional one after it sending the funds to an address they control. This mechanism may be used in the future for [[fidelity bonds]] to sacrifice funds in a provable way.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Anyone-Can-Spend outputs are currently considered non-standard, and are not relayed on the P2P network.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Transaction puzzle ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Transaction a4bfa8ab6435ae5f25dae9d89e4eb67dfa94283ca751f393c1ddc5a837bbc31b is an interesting puzzle.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptPubKey: OP_HASH256 6fe28c0ab6f1b372c1a6a246ae63f74f931e8365e15a089c68d6190000000000 OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptSig: &amp;lt;data&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To spend the transaction you need to come up with some data such that hashing the data twice results in the given hash.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
! Stack &lt;br /&gt;
! Script &lt;br /&gt;
! Description &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;data&amp;gt; OP_HASH256 &amp;lt;given_hash&amp;gt; OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;data&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_HASH256 &amp;lt;given_hash&amp;gt; OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|scriptSig added to the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;data_hash&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;given_hash&amp;gt; OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|The data is hashed.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;data_hash&amp;gt; &amp;lt;given_hash&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|The given hash is pushed to the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|true&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
|The hashes are compared, leaving true on the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This transaction was successfully spent by 09f691b2263260e71f363d1db51ff3100d285956a40cc0e4f8c8c2c4a80559b1. The required data happened to be the [[Genesis block]], and the given hash was the genesis block hash. Note that while transactions like this are fun, they are not secure, because they do not contain any signatures and thus any transaction attempting to spend them can be replaced with a different transaction sending the funds somewhere else.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==See Also==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Transactions]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Contracts]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== External Links ==&lt;br /&gt;
* {{Resource|http://www.crmarsh.com/script-playground/|Script Playground}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Technical]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Vocabulary]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{Bitcoin Core documentation}}&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Script&amp;diff=59957</id>
		<title>Script</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Script&amp;diff=59957"/>
		<updated>2016-01-12T13:41:27Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Bitcoin uses a scripting system for [[transactions]]. [[Wikipedia:FORTH|Forth]]-like, Script is simple, stack-based, and processed from left to right. It is purposefully not Turing-complete, with no loops.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A script is essentially a list of instructions recorded with each transaction that describe how the next person wanting to spend the Bitcoins being transferred can gain access to them.  The script for a typical Bitcoin transfer to destination Bitcoin address D simply encumbers future spending of the bitcoins with two things: the spender must provide&lt;br /&gt;
# a public key that, when hashed, yields destination address D embedded in the script, and&lt;br /&gt;
# a signature to show evidence of the private key corresponding to the public key just provided.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Scripting provides the flexibility to change the parameters of what&#039;s needed to spend transferred Bitcoins.  For example, the scripting system could be used to require two private keys, or a combination of several, or even no keys at all.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A transaction is valid if nothing in the combined script triggers failure and the top stack item is true (non-zero).  The party who originally &#039;&#039;sent&#039;&#039; the Bitcoins now being spent, dictates the script operations that will occur &#039;&#039;last&#039;&#039; in order to release them for use in another transaction.  The party wanting to spend them must provide the input(s) to the previously recorded script that results in those operations occurring last leaving behind true (non-zero).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The stacks hold byte vectors.&lt;br /&gt;
When used as numbers, byte vectors are interpreted as little-endian variable-length integers with the most significant bit determining the sign of the integer.&lt;br /&gt;
Thus 0x81 represents -1.&lt;br /&gt;
0x80 is another representation of zero (so called negative 0).&lt;br /&gt;
Positive 0 is represented by a null-length vector.&lt;br /&gt;
Byte vectors are interpreted as Booleans where False is represented by any representation of zero, and True is represented by any representation of non-zero.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Words ==&lt;br /&gt;
This is a list of all Script words, also known as opcodes, commands, or functions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are some words which existed in very early versions of Bitcoin but were removed out of a concern that the client might have a bug in their implementation. This fear was motivated by a bug found in OP_LSHIFT which could crash any Bitcoin node if exploited, and by other bugs in how Script worked which allowed anyone to spend anyone&#039;s bitcoins. The removed opcodes are sometimes said to be &amp;quot;disabled&amp;quot; opcodes, but this is something of a misnomer because there is &#039;&#039;absolutely no way&#039;&#039; for anyone using Bitcoin to use these opcodes (they simply &#039;&#039;do not exist anymore&#039;&#039; in the protocol), and there are also no solid plans to ever re-enable all of these opcodes. They are listed here only for historical interest.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
New opcodes can be added by means of a carefully designed and executed [[softfork]] using OP_NOP1-OP_NOP10.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
False is zero or negative zero (using any number of bytes) or an empty array, and True is anything else.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Constants ===&lt;br /&gt;
When talking about scripts, these value-pushing words are usually omitted.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_0, OP_FALSE&lt;br /&gt;
|0&lt;br /&gt;
|0x00&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing.&lt;br /&gt;
|(empty value)&lt;br /&gt;
|An empty array of bytes is pushed onto the stack. (This is not a no-op: an item is added to the stack.)&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|N/A&lt;br /&gt;
|1-75&lt;br /&gt;
|0x01-0x4b&lt;br /&gt;
|(special)&lt;br /&gt;
|data&lt;br /&gt;
|The next &#039;&#039;opcode&#039;&#039; bytes is data to be pushed onto the stack&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PUSHDATA1&lt;br /&gt;
|76&lt;br /&gt;
|0x4c&lt;br /&gt;
|(special)&lt;br /&gt;
|data&lt;br /&gt;
|The next byte contains the number of bytes to be pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PUSHDATA2&lt;br /&gt;
|77&lt;br /&gt;
|0x4d&lt;br /&gt;
|(special)&lt;br /&gt;
|data&lt;br /&gt;
|The next two bytes contain the number of bytes to be pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PUSHDATA4&lt;br /&gt;
|78&lt;br /&gt;
|0x4e&lt;br /&gt;
|(special)&lt;br /&gt;
|data&lt;br /&gt;
|The next four bytes contain the number of bytes to be pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_1NEGATE&lt;br /&gt;
|79&lt;br /&gt;
|0x4f&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing.&lt;br /&gt;
| -1&lt;br /&gt;
|The number -1 is pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_1, OP_TRUE&lt;br /&gt;
|81&lt;br /&gt;
|0x51&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing.&lt;br /&gt;
|1&lt;br /&gt;
|The number 1 is pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2-OP_16&lt;br /&gt;
|82-96&lt;br /&gt;
|0x52-0x60&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing.&lt;br /&gt;
|2-16&lt;br /&gt;
|The number in the word name (2-16) is pushed onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Flow control ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NOP&lt;br /&gt;
|97&lt;br /&gt;
|0x61&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Does nothing.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_IF&lt;br /&gt;
|99&lt;br /&gt;
|0x63&lt;br /&gt;
| colspan=&amp;quot;2&amp;quot;|&amp;lt;expression&amp;gt; if [statements] [else [statements]]* endif&lt;br /&gt;
|If the top stack value is not 0, the statements are executed. The top stack value is removed.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NOTIF&lt;br /&gt;
|100&lt;br /&gt;
|0x64&lt;br /&gt;
| colspan=&amp;quot;2&amp;quot;|&amp;lt;expression&amp;gt; if [statements] [else [statements]]* endif&lt;br /&gt;
|If the top stack value is 0, the statements are executed. The top stack value is removed.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ELSE&lt;br /&gt;
|103&lt;br /&gt;
|0x67&lt;br /&gt;
| colspan=&amp;quot;2&amp;quot;|&amp;lt;expression&amp;gt; if [statements] [else [statements]]* endif&lt;br /&gt;
|If the preceding OP_IF or OP_NOTIF or OP_ELSE was not executed then these statements are and if the preceding OP_IF or OP_NOTIF or OP_ELSE was executed then these statements are not. &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ENDIF&lt;br /&gt;
|104&lt;br /&gt;
|0x68&lt;br /&gt;
| colspan=&amp;quot;2&amp;quot;|&amp;lt;expression&amp;gt; if [statements] [else [statements]]* endif&lt;br /&gt;
|Ends an if/else block. All blocks must end, or the transaction is &#039;&#039;&#039;invalid&#039;&#039;&#039;. An OP_ENDIF without OP_IF earlier is also &#039;&#039;&#039;invalid&#039;&#039;&#039;.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_VERIFY&lt;br /&gt;
|105&lt;br /&gt;
|0x69&lt;br /&gt;
|True / false&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Marks transaction as invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; if top stack value is not true.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|[[OP_RETURN]]&lt;br /&gt;
|106&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6a&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Marks transaction as invalid&#039;&#039;&#039;. A standard way of attaching extra data to transactions is to add a zero-value output with a scriptPubKey consisting of OP_RETURN followed by exactly one pushdata op. Such outputs are provably unspendable, reducing their cost to the network. Currently it is usually considered non-standard (though valid) for a transaction to have more than one OP_RETURN output or an OP_RETURN output with more than one pushdata op.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Stack ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_TOALTSTACK&lt;br /&gt;
|107&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6b&lt;br /&gt;
|x1&lt;br /&gt;
|(alt)x1&lt;br /&gt;
|Puts the input onto the top of the alt stack. Removes it from the main stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_FROMALTSTACK&lt;br /&gt;
|108&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6c&lt;br /&gt;
|(alt)x1&lt;br /&gt;
|x1&lt;br /&gt;
|Puts the input onto the top of the main stack. Removes it from the alt stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_IFDUP&lt;br /&gt;
|115&lt;br /&gt;
|0x73&lt;br /&gt;
|x&lt;br /&gt;
|x / x x&lt;br /&gt;
|If the top stack value is not 0, duplicate it.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_DEPTH&lt;br /&gt;
|116&lt;br /&gt;
|0x74&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;Stack size&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|Puts the number of stack items onto the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_DROP&lt;br /&gt;
|117&lt;br /&gt;
|0x75&lt;br /&gt;
|x&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Removes the top stack item.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_DUP&lt;br /&gt;
|118&lt;br /&gt;
|0x76&lt;br /&gt;
|x&lt;br /&gt;
|x x&lt;br /&gt;
|Duplicates the top stack item.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NIP&lt;br /&gt;
|119&lt;br /&gt;
|0x77&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Removes the second-to-top stack item.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_OVER&lt;br /&gt;
|120&lt;br /&gt;
|0x78&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x1&lt;br /&gt;
|Copies the second-to-top stack item to the top.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PICK&lt;br /&gt;
|121&lt;br /&gt;
|0x79&lt;br /&gt;
|xn ... x2 x1 x0 &amp;lt;n&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|xn ... x2 x1 x0 xn&lt;br /&gt;
|The item &#039;&#039;n&#039;&#039; back in the stack is copied to the top.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ROLL&lt;br /&gt;
|122&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7a&lt;br /&gt;
|xn ... x2 x1 x0 &amp;lt;n&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|... x2 x1 x0 xn&lt;br /&gt;
|The item &#039;&#039;n&#039;&#039; back in the stack is moved to the top.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ROT&lt;br /&gt;
|123&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7b&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3&lt;br /&gt;
|x2 x3 x1&lt;br /&gt;
|The top three items on the stack are rotated to the left.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SWAP&lt;br /&gt;
|124&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7c&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|x2 x1&lt;br /&gt;
|The top two items on the stack are swapped.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_TUCK&lt;br /&gt;
|125&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7d&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|x2 x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|The item at the top of the stack is copied and inserted before the second-to-top item.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2DROP&lt;br /&gt;
|109&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6d&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Removes the top two stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2DUP&lt;br /&gt;
|110&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6e&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Duplicates the top two stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_3DUP&lt;br /&gt;
|111&lt;br /&gt;
|0x6f&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3 x1 x2 x3&lt;br /&gt;
|Duplicates the top three stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2OVER&lt;br /&gt;
|112&lt;br /&gt;
|0x70&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3 x4&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3 x4 x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Copies the pair of items two spaces back in the stack to the front.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2ROT&lt;br /&gt;
|113&lt;br /&gt;
|0x71&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6&lt;br /&gt;
|x3 x4 x5 x6 x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|The fifth and sixth items back are moved to the top of the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2SWAP&lt;br /&gt;
|114&lt;br /&gt;
|0x72&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2 x3 x4&lt;br /&gt;
|x3 x4 x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Swaps the top two pairs of items.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Splice ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If any opcode marked as disabled is present in a script, it must abort and fail.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CAT&lt;br /&gt;
|126&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7e&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Concatenates two strings. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SUBSTR&lt;br /&gt;
|127&lt;br /&gt;
|0x7f&lt;br /&gt;
|in begin size&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Returns a section of a string. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_LEFT&lt;br /&gt;
|128&lt;br /&gt;
|0x80&lt;br /&gt;
|in size&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Keeps only characters left of the specified point in a string. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RIGHT&lt;br /&gt;
|129&lt;br /&gt;
|0x81&lt;br /&gt;
|in size&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Keeps only characters right of the specified point in a string. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SIZE&lt;br /&gt;
|130&lt;br /&gt;
|0x82&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|in size&lt;br /&gt;
|Pushes the string length of the top element of the stack (without popping it).&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Bitwise logic ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If any opcode marked as disabled is present in a script, it must abort and fail.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_INVERT&lt;br /&gt;
|131&lt;br /&gt;
|0x83&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Flips all of the bits in the input. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_AND&lt;br /&gt;
|132&lt;br /&gt;
|0x84&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Boolean &#039;&#039;and&#039;&#039; between each bit in the inputs. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_OR&lt;br /&gt;
|133&lt;br /&gt;
|0x85&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Boolean &#039;&#039;or&#039;&#039; between each bit in the inputs. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_XOR&lt;br /&gt;
|134&lt;br /&gt;
|0x86&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Boolean &#039;&#039;exclusive or&#039;&#039; between each bit in the inputs. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|135&lt;br /&gt;
|0x87&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|True / false&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if the inputs are exactly equal, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_EQUALVERIFY&lt;br /&gt;
|136&lt;br /&gt;
|0x88&lt;br /&gt;
|x1 x2&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|Same as OP_EQUAL, but runs OP_VERIFY afterward.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Arithmetic ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Note: Arithmetic inputs are limited to signed 32-bit integers, but may overflow their output.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If any input value for any of these commands is longer than 4 bytes, the script must abort and fail. &lt;br /&gt;
If any opcode marked as &#039;&#039;disabled&#039;&#039; is present in a script - it must also abort and fail.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_1ADD&lt;br /&gt;
|139&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8b&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|1 is added to the input.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_1SUB&lt;br /&gt;
|140&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8c&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|1 is subtracted from the input.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2MUL&lt;br /&gt;
|141&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8d&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|The input is multiplied by 2. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_2DIV&lt;br /&gt;
|142&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8e&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|The input is divided by 2. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NEGATE&lt;br /&gt;
|143&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8f&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|The sign of the input is flipped.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ABS&lt;br /&gt;
|144&lt;br /&gt;
|0x90&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is made positive.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NOT&lt;br /&gt;
|145&lt;br /&gt;
|0x91&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|If the input is 0 or 1, it is flipped. Otherwise the output will be 0.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_0NOTEQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|146&lt;br /&gt;
|0x92&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 0 if the input is 0. 1 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_ADD&lt;br /&gt;
|147&lt;br /&gt;
|0x93&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|a is added to b.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SUB&lt;br /&gt;
|148&lt;br /&gt;
|0x94&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|b is subtracted from a.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_MUL&lt;br /&gt;
|149&lt;br /&gt;
|0x95&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|a is multiplied by b. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_DIV&lt;br /&gt;
|150&lt;br /&gt;
|0x96&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|a is divided by b. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_MOD&lt;br /&gt;
|151&lt;br /&gt;
|0x97&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Returns the remainder after dividing a by b. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_LSHIFT&lt;br /&gt;
|152&lt;br /&gt;
|0x98&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Shifts a left b bits, preserving sign. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RSHIFT&lt;br /&gt;
|153&lt;br /&gt;
|0x99&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|style=&amp;quot;background:#D97171;&amp;quot;|Shifts a right b bits, preserving sign. &#039;&#039;disabled.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_BOOLAND&lt;br /&gt;
|154&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9a&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|If both a and b are not 0, the output is 1. Otherwise 0.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_BOOLOR&lt;br /&gt;
|155&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9b&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|If a or b is not 0, the output is 1. Otherwise 0.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NUMEQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|156&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9c&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if the numbers are equal, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NUMEQUALVERIFY&lt;br /&gt;
|157&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9d&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|Same as OP_NUMEQUAL, but runs OP_VERIFY afterward.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NUMNOTEQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|158&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9e&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if the numbers are not equal, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_LESSTHAN&lt;br /&gt;
|159&lt;br /&gt;
|0x9f&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if a is less than b, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_GREATERTHAN&lt;br /&gt;
|160&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa0&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if a is greater than b, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_LESSTHANOREQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|161&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa1&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if a is less than or equal to b, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_GREATERTHANOREQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|162&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa2&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if a is greater than or equal to b, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_MIN&lt;br /&gt;
|163&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa3&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns the smaller of a and b.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_MAX&lt;br /&gt;
|164&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa4&lt;br /&gt;
|a b&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns the larger of a and b.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_WITHIN&lt;br /&gt;
|165&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa5&lt;br /&gt;
|x min max&lt;br /&gt;
|out&lt;br /&gt;
|Returns 1 if x is within the specified range (left-inclusive), 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Crypto ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RIPEMD160&lt;br /&gt;
|166&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa6&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|hash&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is hashed using RIPEMD-160.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SHA1&lt;br /&gt;
|167&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa7&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|hash&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is hashed using SHA-1.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_SHA256&lt;br /&gt;
|168&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa8&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|hash&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is hashed using SHA-256.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_HASH160&lt;br /&gt;
|169&lt;br /&gt;
|0xa9&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|hash&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is hashed twice: first with SHA-256 and then with RIPEMD-160.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_HASH256&lt;br /&gt;
|170&lt;br /&gt;
|0xaa&lt;br /&gt;
|in&lt;br /&gt;
|hash&lt;br /&gt;
|The input is hashed two times with SHA-256.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CODESEPARATOR&lt;br /&gt;
|171&lt;br /&gt;
|0xab&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|All of the signature checking words will only match signatures to the data after the most recently-executed OP_CODESEPARATOR.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|[[OP_CHECKSIG]]&lt;br /&gt;
|172&lt;br /&gt;
|0xac&lt;br /&gt;
|sig pubkey&lt;br /&gt;
|True / false&lt;br /&gt;
|The entire transaction&#039;s outputs, inputs, and script (from the most recently-executed OP_CODESEPARATOR to the end) are hashed. The signature used by OP_CHECKSIG must be a valid signature for this hash and public key. If it is, 1 is returned, 0 otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CHECKSIGVERIFY&lt;br /&gt;
|173&lt;br /&gt;
|0xad&lt;br /&gt;
|sig pubkey&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|Same as OP_CHECKSIG, but OP_VERIFY is executed afterward.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CHECKMULTISIG&lt;br /&gt;
|174&lt;br /&gt;
|0xae&lt;br /&gt;
|x sig1 sig2 ... &amp;lt;number of signatures&amp;gt; pub1 pub2 &amp;lt;number of public keys&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|True / False&lt;br /&gt;
|Compares the first signature against each public key until it finds an ECDSA match. Starting with the subsequent public key, it compares the second signature against each remaining public key until it finds an ECDSA match. The process is repeated until all signatures have been checked or not enough public keys remain to produce a successful result.  All signatures need to match a public key. Because public keys are not checked again if they fail any signature comparison, signatures must be placed in the scriptSig using the same order as their corresponding public keys were placed in the scriptPubKey or redeemScript.  If all signatures are valid, 1 is returned, 0 otherwise. Due to a bug, one extra unused value is removed from the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CHECKMULTISIGVERIFY&lt;br /&gt;
|175&lt;br /&gt;
|0xaf&lt;br /&gt;
|x sig1 sig2 ... &amp;lt;number of signatures&amp;gt; pub1 pub2 ... &amp;lt;number of public keys&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|Same as OP_CHECKMULTISIG, but OP_VERIFY is executed afterward.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Locktime ===&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Input&lt;br /&gt;
!Output&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY (previously OP_NOP2)&lt;br /&gt;
|177&lt;br /&gt;
|0xb1&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing&lt;br /&gt;
|Nothing / &#039;&#039;fail&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Marks transaction as invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; if the top stack item is greater than the transaction&#039;s nLockTime field, otherwise script evaluation continues as though an OP_NOP was executed. Transaction is also invalid if 1. the stack is empty; or 2. the top stack item is negative; or 3. the top stack item is greater than or equal to 500000000 while the transaction&#039;s nLockTime field is less than 500000000, or vice versa; or 4. the input&#039;s nSequence field is equal to 0xffffffff. The precise semantics are described in [[BIP 0065]]&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Pseudo-words===&lt;br /&gt;
These words are used internally for assisting with transaction matching. They are invalid if used in actual scripts.&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!Description&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PUBKEYHASH&lt;br /&gt;
|253&lt;br /&gt;
|0xfd&lt;br /&gt;
|Represents a public key hashed with OP_HASH160.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_PUBKEY&lt;br /&gt;
|254&lt;br /&gt;
|0xfe&lt;br /&gt;
|Represents a public key compatible with OP_CHECKSIG.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_INVALIDOPCODE&lt;br /&gt;
|255&lt;br /&gt;
|0xff&lt;br /&gt;
|Matches any opcode that is not yet assigned.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Reserved words ===&lt;br /&gt;
Any opcode not assigned is also reserved. Using an unassigned opcode makes the transaction &#039;&#039;&#039;invalid&#039;&#039;&#039;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
!Word&lt;br /&gt;
!Opcode&lt;br /&gt;
!Hex&lt;br /&gt;
!When used...&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RESERVED&lt;br /&gt;
|80&lt;br /&gt;
|0x50&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; unless occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_VER&lt;br /&gt;
|98&lt;br /&gt;
|0x62&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; unless occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_VERIF&lt;br /&gt;
|101&lt;br /&gt;
|0x65&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid even when occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&#039;&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_VERNOTIF&lt;br /&gt;
|102&lt;br /&gt;
|0x66&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid even when occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&#039;&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RESERVED1&lt;br /&gt;
|137&lt;br /&gt;
|0x89&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; unless occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_RESERVED2&lt;br /&gt;
|138&lt;br /&gt;
|0x8a&lt;br /&gt;
|&#039;&#039;&#039;Transaction is invalid&#039;&#039;&#039; unless occuring in an unexecuted OP_IF branch&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_NOP1, OP_NOP3-OP_NOP10&lt;br /&gt;
|176, 178-185&lt;br /&gt;
|0xb0, 0xb2-0xb9&lt;br /&gt;
|The word is ignored. Does not mark transaction as invalid.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Scripts ==&lt;br /&gt;
This is a list of interesting scripts. Keep in mind that all constants actually use the data-pushing commands above. Note that there is a small number of standard script forms that are relayed from node to node; non-standard scripts are accepted if they are in a block, but nodes will not relay them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Standard Transaction to Bitcoin address (pay-to-pubkey-hash) ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptPubKey: OP_DUP OP_HASH160 &amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt; OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptSig: &amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To demonstrate how scripts look on the wire, here is a raw scriptPubKey:&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;pre&amp;gt;  76       A9             14&lt;br /&gt;
OP_DUP OP_HASH160    Bytes to push&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
89 AB CD EF AB BA AB BA AB BA AB BA AB BA AB BA AB BA AB BA   88         AC&lt;br /&gt;
                      Data to push                     OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG&amp;lt;/pre&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Note: scriptSig is in the input of the spending transaction and scriptPubKey is in the output of the previously unspent i.e. &amp;quot;available&amp;quot; transaction.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Here is how each word is processed:&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
! Stack &lt;br /&gt;
! Script &lt;br /&gt;
! Description &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
| &amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; OP_DUP OP_HASH160 &amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt; OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG &lt;br /&gt;
| scriptSig and scriptPubKey are combined.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
| OP_DUP OP_HASH160 &amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt; OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG &lt;br /&gt;
| Constants are added to the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
| OP_HASH160 &amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt; OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG &lt;br /&gt;
| Top stack item is duplicated.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubHashA&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt; OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
| Top stack item is hashed.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubHashA&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKeyHash&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
| Constant added.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
| Equality is checked between the top two stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|true&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
|Signature is checked for top two stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Obsolete pay-to-pubkey transaction ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
OP_CHECKSIG is used directly without first hashing the public key.&lt;br /&gt;
This was used by early versions of Bitcoin where people paid directly to IP addresses, before Bitcoin addresses were introduced.&lt;br /&gt;
scriptPubKeys of this transaction form are still recognized as payments to user by Bitcoin Core.&lt;br /&gt;
The disadvantage of this transaction form is that the whole public key needs to be known in advance, implying longer payment addresses, and that it provides less protection in the event of a break in the ECDSA signature algorithm.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptPubKey: &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptSig: &amp;lt;sig&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Checking process:&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
! Stack &lt;br /&gt;
! Script &lt;br /&gt;
! Description &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt; OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
|scriptSig and scriptPubKey are combined.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;sig&amp;gt; &amp;lt;pubKey&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
| OP_CHECKSIG&lt;br /&gt;
|Constants are added to the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|true&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
|Signature is checked for top two stack items.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Provably Unspendable/Prunable Outputs ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The standard way to mark a transaction as provably unspendable is with a scriptPubKey of the following form:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  scriptPubKey: OP_RETURN {zero or more ops}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
OP_RETURN immediately marks the script as invalid, guaranteeing that no scriptSig exists that could possibly spend that output. Thus the output can be immediately pruned from the UTXO set even if it has not been spent. [http://blockexplorer.com/tx/eb31ca1a4cbd97c2770983164d7560d2d03276ae1aee26f12d7c2c6424252f29 eb31ca1a4cbd97c2770983164d7560d2d03276ae1aee26f12d7c2c6424252f29] is an example: it has a single output of zero value, thus giving the full 0.125BTC fee to the miner who mined the transaction without adding an entry to the UTXO set. You can also use OP_RETURN to add data to a transaction without the data ever appearing in the UTXO set, as seen in 1a2e22a717d626fc5db363582007c46924ae6b28319f07cb1b907776bd8293fc; [[P2Pool]] does this with the share chain hash txout in the coinbase of blocks it creates.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Anyone-Can-Spend Outputs ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Conversely a transaction can be made spendable by anyone at all:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  scriptPubKey: (empty)&lt;br /&gt;
  scriptSig: OP_TRUE&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
With some software changes such transactions can be used as a way to donate funds to miners in addition to transaction fees: any miner who mines such a transaction can also include an additional one after it sending the funds to an address they control. This mechanism may be used in the future for [[fidelity bonds]] to sacrifice funds in a provable way.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Anyone-Can-Spend outputs are currently considered non-standard, and are not relayed on the P2P network.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Transaction puzzle ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Transaction a4bfa8ab6435ae5f25dae9d89e4eb67dfa94283ca751f393c1ddc5a837bbc31b is an interesting puzzle.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptPubKey: OP_HASH256 6fe28c0ab6f1b372c1a6a246ae63f74f931e8365e15a089c68d6190000000000 OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
 scriptSig: &amp;lt;data&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To spend the transaction you need to come up with some data such that hashing the data twice results in the given hash.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
! Stack &lt;br /&gt;
! Script &lt;br /&gt;
! Description &lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;data&amp;gt; OP_HASH256 &amp;lt;given_hash&amp;gt; OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;data&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_HASH256 &amp;lt;given_hash&amp;gt; OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|scriptSig added to the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;data_hash&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;given_hash&amp;gt; OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|The data is hashed.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|&amp;lt;data_hash&amp;gt; &amp;lt;given_hash&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
|OP_EQUAL&lt;br /&gt;
|The given hash is pushed to the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|true&lt;br /&gt;
|Empty.&lt;br /&gt;
|The hashes are compared, leaving true on the stack.&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This transaction was successfully spent by 09f691b2263260e71f363d1db51ff3100d285956a40cc0e4f8c8c2c4a80559b1. The required data happened to be the [[Genesis block]], and the given hash was the genesis block hash. Note that while transactions like this are fun, they are not secure, because they do not contain any signatures and thus any transaction attempting to spend them can be replaced with a different transaction sending the funds somewhere else.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==See Also==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Transactions]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Contracts]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== External Links ==&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Script playground]]&lt;br /&gt;
* {{http://www.crmarsh.com/script-playground/|Script Playground}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Technical]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Vocabulary]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{Bitcoin Core documentation}}&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Testnet&amp;diff=59926</id>
		<title>Testnet</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Testnet&amp;diff=59926"/>
		<updated>2016-01-09T04:35:02Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;The &#039;&#039;&#039;testnet&#039;&#039;&#039; is an alternative Bitcoin [[block chain]], to be used for testing. Testnet coins are separate and distinct from actual bitcoins, and are never supposed to have any value. This allows application developers or bitcoin testers to experiment, without having to use real bitcoins or worrying about breaking the main bitcoin chain.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Run bitcoin or bitcoind with the -testnet flag to use the testnet (or put testnet=1 in the bitcoin.conf file).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There have been three generations of testnet. Testnet2 was just the first testnet reset with a different genesis block, because people were starting to trade testnet coins for real money. &#039;&#039;&#039;Testnet3&#039;&#039;&#039; is the current test network. It was introduced with the 0.7 release, introduced a third genesis block, a new rule to avoid the &amp;quot;difficulty was too high, is now too low, and transactions take too long to verify&amp;quot; problem, and contains blocks with edge-case transactions designed to test implementation compatibility. On the December 21 of 2015 SegNet was deployed, to test the Wuille&#039;s Segregated Witness proposal.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Differences==&lt;br /&gt;
* Default Bitcoin network protocol listen port is 18333 (instead of 8333)&lt;br /&gt;
* Default RPC connection port is 18332 (instead of 8332)&lt;br /&gt;
* Bootstrapping uses different DNS seeds.&lt;br /&gt;
* A different value of ADDRESSVERSION field ensures no testnet Bitcoin addresses will work on the production network. (0x6F rather than 0x00)&lt;br /&gt;
* The protocol message header bytes are 0x0B110907 (instead of 0xF9BEB4D9) &lt;br /&gt;
* Minimum [[difficulty]] of 1.0 on testnet is equal to difficulty of 0.5 on mainnet. This means that the mainnet-equivalent of any testnet difficulty is half the testnet difficulty. In addition, if no block has been found in 20 minutes, the difficulty automatically resets back to the minimum for a single block, after which it returns to its previous value.&lt;br /&gt;
* A new genesis block&lt;br /&gt;
* The IsStandard() check is disabled so that non-standard transactions can be experimented with.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Genesis Block==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Testnet uses a different genesis block to the main network. You can find it [https://www.biteasy.com/testnet/blocks/000000000933ea01ad0ee984209779baaec3ced90fa3f408719526f8d77f4943 here] or [http://blockexplorer.com/testnet/b/0 here].&lt;br /&gt;
The testnet was [https://github.com/gavinandresen/bitcoin-git/commit/feeb761ba07af74a7cd78b8c8f7c2a961fd9ea1c reset with a new genesis block] for the 0.7 bitcoin release.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Mining==&lt;br /&gt;
[[solo.ckpool]] has a testnet bitcoin solo mining implementation available, without the need to set up bitcoind locally.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==External links==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/?topic=4483.0 Testnet in a box forum topic]&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/testnet-in-a-box/ Testnet-In-A-Box self-contained testnet]&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://github.com/freewil/bitcoin-testnet-box Forked/Updated testnet-box]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Wallets===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Online testnet wallets to help you test your application.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://testnetwallet.com/ TestnetWallet.com]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Faucets===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Once you&#039;re done with your test coins, it is a nice gesture to send them back to the faucets, so they become available to other developers.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://bitcoinfaucet.uo1.net/ UO1 Testnet Faucet]&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://tpfaucet.appspot.com/ TP&#039;s TestNet Faucet]&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://faucet.luis.im/ luis.im Mojocoin Testnet3 Faucet]&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mycelium.testnetwallet Mycelium Testnet Wallet for Android with integrated Testnet &amp;quot;faucet&amp;quot; function (Local Trader)]&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://kuttler.eu/bitcoin/btc/faucet/ nkuttler&#039;s Bitcoin Testnet Faucet]&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://accounts.blockcypher.com/testnet-faucet BlockCypher Testnet Faucet], also provided as a [http://dev.blockcypher.com/#faucets Testnet faucet API] for test automation&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://testnet.manu.backend.hamburg/faucet flyingkiwi&#039;s TestNet Faucet]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Block explorers===&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://www.biteasy.com/testnet/blocks Biteasy.com Testnet Blockexplorer]&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://blockexplorer.com/testnet Testnet Block Explorer]&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://tbtc.blockr.io/ Bitcoin Testnet on Blockr.io]&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://test-insight.bitpay.com/ Bitcoin Testnet on insight.bitpay.com]&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://www.blocktrail.com/tBTC BlockTrail Testnet Explorer, Testnet API and Testnet Faucet]&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://live.blockcypher.com/btc-testnet/ BlockCypher Testnet Explorer]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Technical]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Developer]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{Bitcoin Core documentation}}&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Talk:Satoshi_Client_Node_Discovery&amp;diff=59453</id>
		<title>Talk:Satoshi Client Node Discovery</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Talk:Satoshi_Client_Node_Discovery&amp;diff=59453"/>
		<updated>2015-11-30T18:15:48Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: /* Check IP for external ip address discovery */ new section&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;===Information about how onlynet=tor configured do initial node discovery===&lt;br /&gt;
I am missing information about how onlynet=tor configured nodes do initial node discovery. I heard something about IPv6-DNS-encoded Onion addresses. I got it only working with temporarily adding &amp;quot;addnode=bpdlwholl7rnkrkw.onion&amp;quot; (from the fallback node wiki page) with node version 0.8.6&lt;br /&gt;
--[[User:W52WmqXDm4DZFN|W52WmqXDm4DZFN]] ([[User talk:W52WmqXDm4DZFN|talk]]) 09:59, 17 April 2015 (UTC)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Check IP for external ip address discovery ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I think this ip is not more the one the article talking about 74.208.43.192 probably also the other one, admin or anybody else can check this?&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:FAQ&amp;diff=53362</id>
		<title>Help:FAQ</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:FAQ&amp;diff=53362"/>
		<updated>2014-12-06T01:13:20Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: /* What do I call the various denominations of bitcoin? */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Here you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== General ==&lt;br /&gt;
=== What is Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin is a distributed peer-to-peer digital currency that can be transferred instantly and securely between any two people in the world. It&#039;s like electronic cash that you can use to pay friends or merchants.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What are bitcoins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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”).&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How can I get bitcoins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are a variety of ways to acquire bitcoins:&lt;br /&gt;
* 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] .&lt;br /&gt;
* Accept bitcoins as payment for goods or services.&lt;br /&gt;
* The most common way to buy bitcoins are the [[Buying bitcoins|Bitcoin Exchanges]]&lt;br /&gt;
* Visit [http://bitcoinx.io bitcoinx.io] for peer-to-peer ratings and reviews of bitcoin exchanges to see where to buy bitcoins&lt;br /&gt;
* There are several services where you can [[Buying_Bitcoins_(the_noob_version)|trade them]] for traditional currency.&lt;br /&gt;
* Find someone to trade cash for bitcoins in-person through a [https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:Directories local directory].&lt;br /&gt;
* Participate in a [[Pooled mining|mining pool]].&lt;br /&gt;
* 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).&lt;br /&gt;
* Visit sites that provide [[Trade#Free_Samples_and_Offers|free samples and offers]].&lt;br /&gt;
* 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&#039;s pools and more.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Does Bitcoin guarantee an influx of free money?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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:&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;ol style=&amp;quot;list-style-type: upper-alpha;&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  &amp;lt;li&amp;gt;Some sort of online &#039;get-rich-quick&#039; scam.&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  &amp;lt;li&amp;gt;A loophole in the market economy, the installation of which guarantees a steady influx of cash.&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  &amp;lt;li&amp;gt;A sure investment that will almost certainly yield a profit.&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/ol&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In fact, none of the above are true.  Let&#039;s look at them independently.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;Is Bitcoin a &#039;get-rich-quick&#039; scheme?&lt;br /&gt;
:If you&#039;ve spent much time on the Internet, you&#039;ve probably seen ads for many &#039;get-rich-quick&#039; 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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:Bitcoin is in no way similar to these schemes. Bitcoin doesn&#039;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&#039;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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:A more detailed answer to this question can be found [http://bitcointalk.org/?topic=7815.0 here].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;Will I make money by installing the client?&lt;br /&gt;
:Most people who use Bitcoin don&#039;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 &amp;quot;&#039;&#039;mining&#039;&#039;&amp;quot; (generating new bitcoins, see [[#What is mining?|What is mining?]]) with special software, but joining Bitcoin shouldn&#039;t be construed as being the road to riches.  Most Bitcoin users get involved because they find the project conceptually interesting and don&#039;t earn anything by doing so.  This is also why you won&#039;t find much speculation about the political or economic repercussions of Bitcoin anywhere on this site: Bitcoin developers owe their dedication to the project&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;As an investment, is Bitcoin a sure thing?&lt;br /&gt;
: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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Can I buy bitcoins with Paypal? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Where can I find a forum to discuss Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please visit the  [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums_on_various_platforms|Community Portal]] for links to Bitcoin-related forums.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How are new bitcoins created? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
New bitcoins are generated by the network through the process of &amp;quot;[[#What is mining?|&#039;&#039;mining&#039;&#039;]]&amp;quot;. 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]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What&#039;s the current total number of bitcoins in existence?  ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[http://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc Current count]. Also see [https://blockchain.info/charts/total-bitcoins Total bitcoins in circulation chart]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How divisible are bitcoins?  ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What do I call the various denominations of bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There is a lot of discussion about the naming of these fractions of bitcoins. The leading candidates are:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* 1 BTC = 1 bitcoin&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.01 BTC = 1 cBTC = 1 centibitcoin (also referred to as bitcent)&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.001 BTC = 1 mBTC = 1 millibitcoin (also referred to as mbit (pronounced em-bit) or millibit or even bitmill)&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.000 001 BTC = 1 μBTC = 1 microbitcoin (also referred to as ubit (pronounced yu-bit) or microbit)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The above follows the accepted international SI prefixes for hundredths, thousandths, and millionths. 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&#039;t be the equivalent of 0.01 USD, GBP or EUR). Equally, the inclusion of existing national currency denominations such as &amp;quot;cent&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;nickel&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;dime&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;pence&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;pound&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;kopek&amp;quot; and so on are to be discouraged; this is a worldwide currency.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
One exception is the &amp;quot;satoshi&amp;quot; which is smallest denomination currently possible &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.000 000 01 BTC = 1 satoshi (pronounced sa-toh-shee)&lt;br /&gt;
which is so named in honour of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of the inventor of Bitcoin.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Another units proposed on [[reddit]] it&#039;s [[bits]]; equal to 0.000 000 1 BTC.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For an overview of all defined units of Bitcoin (including less common and niche units), see [[Units]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Further discussion on this topic can be found on the forums here:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=14438.msg195287#msg195287 We need names]&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=8282.0 What to call 0.001 BTC]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How does the halving work when the number gets really small? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Eventually the reward will go from 0.00000001 BTC to zero and no more bitcoins will be created.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
With an initial block reward of 50 BTC, it will take many 4-year periods for the block reward to reach zero.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How long will it take to generate all the coins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== If no more coins are going to be generated, will more blocks be created? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== But if no more coins are generated, what happens when Bitcoins are lost? Won&#039;t that be a problem? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &#039;&#039;&#039;de&#039;&#039;&#039;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 (&amp;quot;Millies&amp;quot;) or microbitcoins (&amp;quot;Mikes&amp;quot;).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Bitcoin protocol uses a base unit of one hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin (&amp;quot;a Satoshi&amp;quot;), but unused bits are available in the protocol fields that could be used to denote even smaller subdivisions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== If every transaction is broadcast via the network, does Bitcoin scale? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Learn more about [[Scalability]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Economy==&lt;br /&gt;
=== Where does the value of Bitcoin stem from? What backs up Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When we say that a currency is backed up by gold, we mean that there&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It&#039;s a common misconception that Bitcoins gain their value from the cost of electricity required to generate them. Cost doesn&#039;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&#039;t make anything valuable. For example, your fingerprints are scarce, but that doesn&#039;t mean they have any exchange value.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Is Bitcoin a bubble? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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 &amp;quot;bubble&amp;quot; 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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The fact that early adopters benefit more doesn&#039;t alone make anything a Ponzi scheme. All good investments in successful companies have this quality.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Doesn&#039;t Bitcoin unfairly benefit early adopters? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Won&#039;t loss of wallets and the finite amount of Bitcoins create excessive deflation, destroying Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s inception, and the units are created at a predictable rate.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Also, Bitcoin users are faced with a danger that doesn&#039;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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For more information, see the [[Deflationary spiral]] page.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What if someone bought up all the existing Bitcoins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t get at them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t obligated to sell their bitcoins so not all bitcoins will make it to the markets even.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This situation doesn&#039;t suggest, however, that the markets aren&#039;t vulnerable to price manipulation.  It doesn&#039;t take significant amounts of money to move the market price up or down, and thus Bitcoin remains a volatile asset.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===What if someone creates a new block chain, or a new digital currency that renders Bitcoin obsolete?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This may sound rather foreboding, so bear in mind that the introduction of new and possibly better virtual currencies will not necessarily herald Bitcoin&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Is Bitcoin open to value manipulation? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This is only a problem if you are investing in Bitcoin for short period of time. A manipulator can&#039;t change the fundamentals, and over a period of 5-10 years, the fundamentals will win over any short term manipulations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Sending and Receiving Payments==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Why do I have to wait 10 minutes before I can spend money I received? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Blocks]] (shown as &amp;quot;confirmations&amp;quot; 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&#039;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!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[File:TransactionConfirmationTimesExample.PNG]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Do you have to wait until my transactions are confirmed in order to buy or sell things with Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t choose the time of the attack, it isn&#039;t a risk for merchants such as supermarkets where you can&#039;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&#039;s less than a confirm.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== I was sent some bitcoins and they haven&#039;t arrived yet! Where are they? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Don&#039;t panic!  There are a number of reasons why your bitcoins might not show up yet, and a number of ways to diagnose them.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s status.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If it has not caught up then it&#039;s possible that your transaction hasn&#039;t been included in a block yet.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s a matter of waiting until it gets included in a block before it will show in your client.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Why does my Bitcoin address keep changing? ===&lt;br /&gt;
{{seealso|Address reuse}}&lt;br /&gt;
Unlike postal and email addresses, Bitcoin addresses are designed to be used exactly once only, for a single transaction.&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
While it is technically possible to use an address for an arbitrary number of payments, this works by accident and harms both yourself &#039;&#039;and other unrelated third parties&#039;&#039;, so it is considered a bad practice.&lt;br /&gt;
The most important concerns with such misuse involve loss of privacy and security:&lt;br /&gt;
both can be put into jeopardy when addresses are used for more than a single transaction only.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===How much will the transaction fee be?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t always able to do so: The funds in your wallet might be new or composed of many tiny payments. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 (&#039;&#039;e.g.&#039;&#039; 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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What happens when someone sends me a bitcoin but my computer is powered off? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoins are not actually &amp;quot;sent&amp;quot; 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&#039;ve received.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How long does &amp;quot;synchronizing&amp;quot; take when the Bitcoin client is first installed? What&#039;s it doing? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The popular Bitcoin client software from bitcoin.org implements a &amp;quot;full&amp;quot; Bitcoin node: It can carry out all the duties of the Bitcoin P2P system, it isn&#039;t simply a &amp;quot;client&amp;quot;. One of the principles behind the operation of full Bitcoin nodes is that they don&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In normal operation, after synchronizing, the software should use a hardly noticeable amount of your computer&#039;s resources.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When the wallet client program is first installed, its initial validation requires a lot of work from your computer&#039;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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &amp;quot;lite&amp;quot; client such as Multibit or a super-light client like electrum, though these clients have somewhat weaker security, are less mature, and don&#039;t contribute to the health of the P2P network.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Networking==&lt;br /&gt;
=== Do I need to configure my firewall to run Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If you want to restrict your firewall rules to a few IPs, you can find stable nodes in the [[Fallback Nodes|fallback nodes list]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How does the peer finding mechanism work? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin finds peers primarily by forwarding peer announcements within its own network and each node saves a database of peers that it&#039;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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Mining==&lt;br /&gt;
===What is mining?===&lt;br /&gt;
[[Mining]] is the process of spending computation power to secure Bitcoin transactions against reversal and introducing new Bitcoins to the system.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Is mining used for some useful computation?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Is it not a waste of energy?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Why don&#039;t we use calculations that are also useful for some other purpose?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===How can we stop miners from creating zero transaction blocks?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===How does the proof-of-work system help secure Bitcoin?===&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin uses the [[Hashcash]] proof of work with a minor adaption.  To give a general idea of the mining process, imagine this setup:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  payload = &amp;lt;some data related to things happening on the Bitcoin network&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  nonce = 1&lt;br /&gt;
  hash = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( payload + nonce ) )&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The work performed by a miner consists of repeatedly increasing &amp;quot;nonce&amp;quot; until&lt;br /&gt;
the hash function yields a value, that has the rare property of being below a certain&lt;br /&gt;
target threshold. (In other words: The hash &amp;quot;starts with a certain number of zeroes&amp;quot;,&lt;br /&gt;
if you display it in the fixed-length representation, that is typically used.)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As can be seen, the mining process doesn&#039;t compute anything special. It merely&lt;br /&gt;
tries to find a number (also referred to as nonce) which - in combination with the payload -&lt;br /&gt;
results in a hash with special properties.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &amp;quot;proof of work&amp;quot; that someone invested a lot of computing power to find the correct nonce for this payload.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This feature is then used in the Bitcoin network to secure various aspects. An attacker&lt;br /&gt;
that wants to introduce malicious payload data into the network, will need to do the&lt;br /&gt;
required proof of work before it will be accepted. And as long as honest miners have more&lt;br /&gt;
computing power, they can always outpace an attacker.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Why was the &amp;quot;Generate coin&amp;quot; option of the client software removed?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The option wasn&#039;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&#039;s current [[difficulty|security level]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Security==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Could miners collude to give themselves money or to fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are two questions in here.  Let&#039;s look at them separately.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;Could miners gang up and give themselves money?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &#039;mined&#039;, or rather, generated, by  Bitcoin clients correctly guessing sequences of characters in codes called &#039;hashes,&#039; which are created using information from previous blocks.  Bitcoin users may download specialized &#039;mining&#039; 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.&lt;br /&gt;
	&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
	&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Of course, the real question is:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;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?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin isn&#039;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&#039; best interests in mind.  Every currency in the world (other than Bitcoin) is controlled by large institutions who keep track of what&#039;s done with it, and who can manipulate its value.  And every other currency has value because people trust the institutions that control them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin doesn&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nonetheless, there are a few ways that one can acquire Bitcoins dishonestly.  Firstly, one can steal private keys.  Key theft isn&#039;t something that Bitcoin security has been designed to prevent: it&#039;s up to users to keep their keys safe.  But the cryptography is designed so that it is completely impossible to deduce someone&#039;s private key from their public one. As long as you keep your private key to yourself, you don&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s only going to get harder with time.  Bitcoin isn&#039;t impenetrable, but it&#039;s close enough to put any real worries in the peripherals.&lt;br /&gt;
	&lt;br /&gt;
;Could miners fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Once again, almost certainly not.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
And thus, it is more or less impossible for anyone to change the function of Bitcoin to their advantage.  If users don&#039;t like the changes, they won&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Help==&lt;br /&gt;
===I&#039;d like to learn more.  Where can I get help?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* Read the [[Introduction|introduction to bitcoin]] &lt;br /&gt;
* See the videos, podcasts, and blog posts from the [[Press]]&lt;br /&gt;
* Read and post on the [[:Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums|forums]]&lt;br /&gt;
* Chat on one of the [[:Bitcoin:Community_portal#IRC_Chat|Bitcoin IRC]] channels&lt;br /&gt;
* Listen to [http://omegataupodcast.net/2011/03/59-bitcoin-a-digital-decentralized-currency/ this podcast], which goes into the details of how bitcoin works&lt;br /&gt;
* Ask questions on the [http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com Bitcoin Stack Exchange]&lt;br /&gt;
* Use [http://wheretobuycryptocoins.com WhereToBuyCryptocoins]. It shows an cryptocurrency introduction, a getting started guide for beginners, also lists of markets, faucets, exchanges.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==See Also==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Man page]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Introduction]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==References==&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;references&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;references/&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
{{Reflist|2}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[de:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[zh-cn:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[fr:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[ru:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Technical]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Vocabulary]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:FAQ&amp;diff=53361</id>
		<title>Help:FAQ</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:FAQ&amp;diff=53361"/>
		<updated>2014-12-06T01:11:44Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: /* What do I call the various denominations of bitcoin? */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Here you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== General ==&lt;br /&gt;
=== What is Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin is a distributed peer-to-peer digital currency that can be transferred instantly and securely between any two people in the world. It&#039;s like electronic cash that you can use to pay friends or merchants.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What are bitcoins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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”).&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How can I get bitcoins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are a variety of ways to acquire bitcoins:&lt;br /&gt;
* 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] .&lt;br /&gt;
* Accept bitcoins as payment for goods or services.&lt;br /&gt;
* The most common way to buy bitcoins are the [[Buying bitcoins|Bitcoin Exchanges]]&lt;br /&gt;
* Visit [http://bitcoinx.io bitcoinx.io] for peer-to-peer ratings and reviews of bitcoin exchanges to see where to buy bitcoins&lt;br /&gt;
* There are several services where you can [[Buying_Bitcoins_(the_noob_version)|trade them]] for traditional currency.&lt;br /&gt;
* Find someone to trade cash for bitcoins in-person through a [https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:Directories local directory].&lt;br /&gt;
* Participate in a [[Pooled mining|mining pool]].&lt;br /&gt;
* 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).&lt;br /&gt;
* Visit sites that provide [[Trade#Free_Samples_and_Offers|free samples and offers]].&lt;br /&gt;
* 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&#039;s pools and more.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Does Bitcoin guarantee an influx of free money?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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:&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;ol style=&amp;quot;list-style-type: upper-alpha;&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  &amp;lt;li&amp;gt;Some sort of online &#039;get-rich-quick&#039; scam.&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  &amp;lt;li&amp;gt;A loophole in the market economy, the installation of which guarantees a steady influx of cash.&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  &amp;lt;li&amp;gt;A sure investment that will almost certainly yield a profit.&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/ol&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In fact, none of the above are true.  Let&#039;s look at them independently.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;Is Bitcoin a &#039;get-rich-quick&#039; scheme?&lt;br /&gt;
:If you&#039;ve spent much time on the Internet, you&#039;ve probably seen ads for many &#039;get-rich-quick&#039; 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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:Bitcoin is in no way similar to these schemes. Bitcoin doesn&#039;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&#039;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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:A more detailed answer to this question can be found [http://bitcointalk.org/?topic=7815.0 here].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;Will I make money by installing the client?&lt;br /&gt;
:Most people who use Bitcoin don&#039;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 &amp;quot;&#039;&#039;mining&#039;&#039;&amp;quot; (generating new bitcoins, see [[#What is mining?|What is mining?]]) with special software, but joining Bitcoin shouldn&#039;t be construed as being the road to riches.  Most Bitcoin users get involved because they find the project conceptually interesting and don&#039;t earn anything by doing so.  This is also why you won&#039;t find much speculation about the political or economic repercussions of Bitcoin anywhere on this site: Bitcoin developers owe their dedication to the project&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;As an investment, is Bitcoin a sure thing?&lt;br /&gt;
: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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Can I buy bitcoins with Paypal? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Where can I find a forum to discuss Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please visit the  [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums_on_various_platforms|Community Portal]] for links to Bitcoin-related forums.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How are new bitcoins created? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
New bitcoins are generated by the network through the process of &amp;quot;[[#What is mining?|&#039;&#039;mining&#039;&#039;]]&amp;quot;. 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]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What&#039;s the current total number of bitcoins in existence?  ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[http://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc Current count]. Also see [https://blockchain.info/charts/total-bitcoins Total bitcoins in circulation chart]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How divisible are bitcoins?  ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What do I call the various denominations of bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There is a lot of discussion about the naming of these fractions of bitcoins. The leading candidates are:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* 1 BTC = 1 bitcoin&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.01 BTC = 1 cBTC = 1 centibitcoin (also referred to as bitcent)&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.001 BTC = 1 mBTC = 1 millibitcoin (also referred to as mbit (pronounced em-bit) or millibit or even bitmill)&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.000 001 BTC = 1 μBTC = 1 microbitcoin (also referred to as ubit (pronounced yu-bit) or microbit)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The above follows the accepted international SI prefixes for hundredths, thousandths, and millionths. 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&#039;t be the equivalent of 0.01 USD, GBP or EUR). Equally, the inclusion of existing national currency denominations such as &amp;quot;cent&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;nickel&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;dime&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;pence&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;pound&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;kopek&amp;quot; and so on are to be discouraged; this is a worldwide currency.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
One exception is the &amp;quot;satoshi&amp;quot; which is smallest denomination currently possible &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.000 000 01 BTC = 1 satoshi (pronounced sa-toh-shee)&lt;br /&gt;
which is so named in honour of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of the inventor of Bitcoin.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Another units proposed it&#039;s [[bits]]; equal to 0.000 000 1 BTC.&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;{{url=http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1rmto3/its_bits/|title=bits}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For an overview of all defined units of Bitcoin (including less common and niche units), see [[Units]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Further discussion on this topic can be found on the forums here:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=14438.msg195287#msg195287 We need names]&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=8282.0 What to call 0.001 BTC]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How does the halving work when the number gets really small? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Eventually the reward will go from 0.00000001 BTC to zero and no more bitcoins will be created.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
With an initial block reward of 50 BTC, it will take many 4-year periods for the block reward to reach zero.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How long will it take to generate all the coins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== If no more coins are going to be generated, will more blocks be created? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== But if no more coins are generated, what happens when Bitcoins are lost? Won&#039;t that be a problem? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &#039;&#039;&#039;de&#039;&#039;&#039;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 (&amp;quot;Millies&amp;quot;) or microbitcoins (&amp;quot;Mikes&amp;quot;).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Bitcoin protocol uses a base unit of one hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin (&amp;quot;a Satoshi&amp;quot;), but unused bits are available in the protocol fields that could be used to denote even smaller subdivisions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== If every transaction is broadcast via the network, does Bitcoin scale? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Learn more about [[Scalability]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Economy==&lt;br /&gt;
=== Where does the value of Bitcoin stem from? What backs up Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When we say that a currency is backed up by gold, we mean that there&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It&#039;s a common misconception that Bitcoins gain their value from the cost of electricity required to generate them. Cost doesn&#039;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&#039;t make anything valuable. For example, your fingerprints are scarce, but that doesn&#039;t mean they have any exchange value.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Is Bitcoin a bubble? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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 &amp;quot;bubble&amp;quot; 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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The fact that early adopters benefit more doesn&#039;t alone make anything a Ponzi scheme. All good investments in successful companies have this quality.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Doesn&#039;t Bitcoin unfairly benefit early adopters? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Won&#039;t loss of wallets and the finite amount of Bitcoins create excessive deflation, destroying Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s inception, and the units are created at a predictable rate.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Also, Bitcoin users are faced with a danger that doesn&#039;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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For more information, see the [[Deflationary spiral]] page.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What if someone bought up all the existing Bitcoins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t get at them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t obligated to sell their bitcoins so not all bitcoins will make it to the markets even.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This situation doesn&#039;t suggest, however, that the markets aren&#039;t vulnerable to price manipulation.  It doesn&#039;t take significant amounts of money to move the market price up or down, and thus Bitcoin remains a volatile asset.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===What if someone creates a new block chain, or a new digital currency that renders Bitcoin obsolete?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This may sound rather foreboding, so bear in mind that the introduction of new and possibly better virtual currencies will not necessarily herald Bitcoin&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Is Bitcoin open to value manipulation? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This is only a problem if you are investing in Bitcoin for short period of time. A manipulator can&#039;t change the fundamentals, and over a period of 5-10 years, the fundamentals will win over any short term manipulations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Sending and Receiving Payments==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Why do I have to wait 10 minutes before I can spend money I received? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Blocks]] (shown as &amp;quot;confirmations&amp;quot; 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&#039;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!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[File:TransactionConfirmationTimesExample.PNG]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Do you have to wait until my transactions are confirmed in order to buy or sell things with Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t choose the time of the attack, it isn&#039;t a risk for merchants such as supermarkets where you can&#039;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&#039;s less than a confirm.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== I was sent some bitcoins and they haven&#039;t arrived yet! Where are they? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Don&#039;t panic!  There are a number of reasons why your bitcoins might not show up yet, and a number of ways to diagnose them.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s status.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If it has not caught up then it&#039;s possible that your transaction hasn&#039;t been included in a block yet.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s a matter of waiting until it gets included in a block before it will show in your client.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Why does my Bitcoin address keep changing? ===&lt;br /&gt;
{{seealso|Address reuse}}&lt;br /&gt;
Unlike postal and email addresses, Bitcoin addresses are designed to be used exactly once only, for a single transaction.&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
While it is technically possible to use an address for an arbitrary number of payments, this works by accident and harms both yourself &#039;&#039;and other unrelated third parties&#039;&#039;, so it is considered a bad practice.&lt;br /&gt;
The most important concerns with such misuse involve loss of privacy and security:&lt;br /&gt;
both can be put into jeopardy when addresses are used for more than a single transaction only.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===How much will the transaction fee be?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t always able to do so: The funds in your wallet might be new or composed of many tiny payments. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 (&#039;&#039;e.g.&#039;&#039; 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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What happens when someone sends me a bitcoin but my computer is powered off? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoins are not actually &amp;quot;sent&amp;quot; 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&#039;ve received.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How long does &amp;quot;synchronizing&amp;quot; take when the Bitcoin client is first installed? What&#039;s it doing? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The popular Bitcoin client software from bitcoin.org implements a &amp;quot;full&amp;quot; Bitcoin node: It can carry out all the duties of the Bitcoin P2P system, it isn&#039;t simply a &amp;quot;client&amp;quot;. One of the principles behind the operation of full Bitcoin nodes is that they don&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In normal operation, after synchronizing, the software should use a hardly noticeable amount of your computer&#039;s resources.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When the wallet client program is first installed, its initial validation requires a lot of work from your computer&#039;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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &amp;quot;lite&amp;quot; client such as Multibit or a super-light client like electrum, though these clients have somewhat weaker security, are less mature, and don&#039;t contribute to the health of the P2P network.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Networking==&lt;br /&gt;
=== Do I need to configure my firewall to run Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If you want to restrict your firewall rules to a few IPs, you can find stable nodes in the [[Fallback Nodes|fallback nodes list]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How does the peer finding mechanism work? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin finds peers primarily by forwarding peer announcements within its own network and each node saves a database of peers that it&#039;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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Mining==&lt;br /&gt;
===What is mining?===&lt;br /&gt;
[[Mining]] is the process of spending computation power to secure Bitcoin transactions against reversal and introducing new Bitcoins to the system.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Is mining used for some useful computation?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Is it not a waste of energy?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Why don&#039;t we use calculations that are also useful for some other purpose?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===How can we stop miners from creating zero transaction blocks?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===How does the proof-of-work system help secure Bitcoin?===&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin uses the [[Hashcash]] proof of work with a minor adaption.  To give a general idea of the mining process, imagine this setup:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  payload = &amp;lt;some data related to things happening on the Bitcoin network&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  nonce = 1&lt;br /&gt;
  hash = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( payload + nonce ) )&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The work performed by a miner consists of repeatedly increasing &amp;quot;nonce&amp;quot; until&lt;br /&gt;
the hash function yields a value, that has the rare property of being below a certain&lt;br /&gt;
target threshold. (In other words: The hash &amp;quot;starts with a certain number of zeroes&amp;quot;,&lt;br /&gt;
if you display it in the fixed-length representation, that is typically used.)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As can be seen, the mining process doesn&#039;t compute anything special. It merely&lt;br /&gt;
tries to find a number (also referred to as nonce) which - in combination with the payload -&lt;br /&gt;
results in a hash with special properties.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &amp;quot;proof of work&amp;quot; that someone invested a lot of computing power to find the correct nonce for this payload.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This feature is then used in the Bitcoin network to secure various aspects. An attacker&lt;br /&gt;
that wants to introduce malicious payload data into the network, will need to do the&lt;br /&gt;
required proof of work before it will be accepted. And as long as honest miners have more&lt;br /&gt;
computing power, they can always outpace an attacker.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Why was the &amp;quot;Generate coin&amp;quot; option of the client software removed?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The option wasn&#039;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&#039;s current [[difficulty|security level]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Security==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Could miners collude to give themselves money or to fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are two questions in here.  Let&#039;s look at them separately.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;Could miners gang up and give themselves money?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &#039;mined&#039;, or rather, generated, by  Bitcoin clients correctly guessing sequences of characters in codes called &#039;hashes,&#039; which are created using information from previous blocks.  Bitcoin users may download specialized &#039;mining&#039; 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.&lt;br /&gt;
	&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
	&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Of course, the real question is:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;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?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin isn&#039;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&#039; best interests in mind.  Every currency in the world (other than Bitcoin) is controlled by large institutions who keep track of what&#039;s done with it, and who can manipulate its value.  And every other currency has value because people trust the institutions that control them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin doesn&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nonetheless, there are a few ways that one can acquire Bitcoins dishonestly.  Firstly, one can steal private keys.  Key theft isn&#039;t something that Bitcoin security has been designed to prevent: it&#039;s up to users to keep their keys safe.  But the cryptography is designed so that it is completely impossible to deduce someone&#039;s private key from their public one. As long as you keep your private key to yourself, you don&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s only going to get harder with time.  Bitcoin isn&#039;t impenetrable, but it&#039;s close enough to put any real worries in the peripherals.&lt;br /&gt;
	&lt;br /&gt;
;Could miners fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Once again, almost certainly not.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
And thus, it is more or less impossible for anyone to change the function of Bitcoin to their advantage.  If users don&#039;t like the changes, they won&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Help==&lt;br /&gt;
===I&#039;d like to learn more.  Where can I get help?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* Read the [[Introduction|introduction to bitcoin]] &lt;br /&gt;
* See the videos, podcasts, and blog posts from the [[Press]]&lt;br /&gt;
* Read and post on the [[:Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums|forums]]&lt;br /&gt;
* Chat on one of the [[:Bitcoin:Community_portal#IRC_Chat|Bitcoin IRC]] channels&lt;br /&gt;
* Listen to [http://omegataupodcast.net/2011/03/59-bitcoin-a-digital-decentralized-currency/ this podcast], which goes into the details of how bitcoin works&lt;br /&gt;
* Ask questions on the [http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com Bitcoin Stack Exchange]&lt;br /&gt;
* Use [http://wheretobuycryptocoins.com WhereToBuyCryptocoins]. It shows an cryptocurrency introduction, a getting started guide for beginners, also lists of markets, faucets, exchanges.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==See Also==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Man page]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Introduction]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==References==&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;references&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;references/&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
{{Reflist|2}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[de:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[zh-cn:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[fr:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[ru:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Technical]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Vocabulary]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:FAQ&amp;diff=53360</id>
		<title>Help:FAQ</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:FAQ&amp;diff=53360"/>
		<updated>2014-12-06T01:06:43Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: /* What do I call the various denominations of bitcoin? */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Here you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== General ==&lt;br /&gt;
=== What is Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin is a distributed peer-to-peer digital currency that can be transferred instantly and securely between any two people in the world. It&#039;s like electronic cash that you can use to pay friends or merchants.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What are bitcoins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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”).&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How can I get bitcoins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are a variety of ways to acquire bitcoins:&lt;br /&gt;
* 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] .&lt;br /&gt;
* Accept bitcoins as payment for goods or services.&lt;br /&gt;
* The most common way to buy bitcoins are the [[Buying bitcoins|Bitcoin Exchanges]]&lt;br /&gt;
* Visit [http://bitcoinx.io bitcoinx.io] for peer-to-peer ratings and reviews of bitcoin exchanges to see where to buy bitcoins&lt;br /&gt;
* There are several services where you can [[Buying_Bitcoins_(the_noob_version)|trade them]] for traditional currency.&lt;br /&gt;
* Find someone to trade cash for bitcoins in-person through a [https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:Directories local directory].&lt;br /&gt;
* Participate in a [[Pooled mining|mining pool]].&lt;br /&gt;
* 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).&lt;br /&gt;
* Visit sites that provide [[Trade#Free_Samples_and_Offers|free samples and offers]].&lt;br /&gt;
* 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&#039;s pools and more.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Does Bitcoin guarantee an influx of free money?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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:&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;ol style=&amp;quot;list-style-type: upper-alpha;&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  &amp;lt;li&amp;gt;Some sort of online &#039;get-rich-quick&#039; scam.&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  &amp;lt;li&amp;gt;A loophole in the market economy, the installation of which guarantees a steady influx of cash.&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  &amp;lt;li&amp;gt;A sure investment that will almost certainly yield a profit.&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/ol&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In fact, none of the above are true.  Let&#039;s look at them independently.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;Is Bitcoin a &#039;get-rich-quick&#039; scheme?&lt;br /&gt;
:If you&#039;ve spent much time on the Internet, you&#039;ve probably seen ads for many &#039;get-rich-quick&#039; 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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:Bitcoin is in no way similar to these schemes. Bitcoin doesn&#039;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&#039;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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:A more detailed answer to this question can be found [http://bitcointalk.org/?topic=7815.0 here].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;Will I make money by installing the client?&lt;br /&gt;
:Most people who use Bitcoin don&#039;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 &amp;quot;&#039;&#039;mining&#039;&#039;&amp;quot; (generating new bitcoins, see [[#What is mining?|What is mining?]]) with special software, but joining Bitcoin shouldn&#039;t be construed as being the road to riches.  Most Bitcoin users get involved because they find the project conceptually interesting and don&#039;t earn anything by doing so.  This is also why you won&#039;t find much speculation about the political or economic repercussions of Bitcoin anywhere on this site: Bitcoin developers owe their dedication to the project&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;As an investment, is Bitcoin a sure thing?&lt;br /&gt;
: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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Can I buy bitcoins with Paypal? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Where can I find a forum to discuss Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please visit the  [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums_on_various_platforms|Community Portal]] for links to Bitcoin-related forums.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How are new bitcoins created? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
New bitcoins are generated by the network through the process of &amp;quot;[[#What is mining?|&#039;&#039;mining&#039;&#039;]]&amp;quot;. 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]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What&#039;s the current total number of bitcoins in existence?  ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[http://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc Current count]. Also see [https://blockchain.info/charts/total-bitcoins Total bitcoins in circulation chart]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How divisible are bitcoins?  ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What do I call the various denominations of bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There is a lot of discussion about the naming of these fractions of bitcoins. The leading candidates are:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* 1 BTC = 1 bitcoin&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.01 BTC = 1 cBTC = 1 centibitcoin (also referred to as bitcent)&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.001 BTC = 1 mBTC = 1 millibitcoin (also referred to as mbit (pronounced em-bit) or millibit or even bitmill)&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.000 001 BTC = 1 μBTC = 1 microbitcoin (also referred to as ubit (pronounced yu-bit) or microbit)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The above follows the accepted international SI prefixes for hundredths, thousandths, and millionths. 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&#039;t be the equivalent of 0.01 USD, GBP or EUR). Equally, the inclusion of existing national currency denominations such as &amp;quot;cent&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;nickel&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;dime&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;pence&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;pound&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;kopek&amp;quot; and so on are to be discouraged; this is a worldwide currency.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
One exception is the &amp;quot;satoshi&amp;quot; which is smallest denomination currently possible &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.000 000 01 BTC = 1 satoshi (pronounced sa-toh-shee)&lt;br /&gt;
which is so named in honour of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of the inventor of Bitcoin.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Another units proposed it&#039;s [[bits]]; equal to 0.000 000 1 BTC.&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;{{cite web|url=http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1rmto3/its_bits/|title=bits}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For an overview of all defined units of Bitcoin (including less common and niche units), see [[Units]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Further discussion on this topic can be found on the forums here:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=14438.msg195287#msg195287 We need names]&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=8282.0 What to call 0.001 BTC]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How does the halving work when the number gets really small? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Eventually the reward will go from 0.00000001 BTC to zero and no more bitcoins will be created.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
With an initial block reward of 50 BTC, it will take many 4-year periods for the block reward to reach zero.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How long will it take to generate all the coins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== If no more coins are going to be generated, will more blocks be created? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== But if no more coins are generated, what happens when Bitcoins are lost? Won&#039;t that be a problem? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &#039;&#039;&#039;de&#039;&#039;&#039;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 (&amp;quot;Millies&amp;quot;) or microbitcoins (&amp;quot;Mikes&amp;quot;).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Bitcoin protocol uses a base unit of one hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin (&amp;quot;a Satoshi&amp;quot;), but unused bits are available in the protocol fields that could be used to denote even smaller subdivisions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== If every transaction is broadcast via the network, does Bitcoin scale? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Learn more about [[Scalability]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Economy==&lt;br /&gt;
=== Where does the value of Bitcoin stem from? What backs up Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When we say that a currency is backed up by gold, we mean that there&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It&#039;s a common misconception that Bitcoins gain their value from the cost of electricity required to generate them. Cost doesn&#039;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&#039;t make anything valuable. For example, your fingerprints are scarce, but that doesn&#039;t mean they have any exchange value.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Is Bitcoin a bubble? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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 &amp;quot;bubble&amp;quot; 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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The fact that early adopters benefit more doesn&#039;t alone make anything a Ponzi scheme. All good investments in successful companies have this quality.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Doesn&#039;t Bitcoin unfairly benefit early adopters? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Won&#039;t loss of wallets and the finite amount of Bitcoins create excessive deflation, destroying Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s inception, and the units are created at a predictable rate.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Also, Bitcoin users are faced with a danger that doesn&#039;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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For more information, see the [[Deflationary spiral]] page.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What if someone bought up all the existing Bitcoins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t get at them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t obligated to sell their bitcoins so not all bitcoins will make it to the markets even.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This situation doesn&#039;t suggest, however, that the markets aren&#039;t vulnerable to price manipulation.  It doesn&#039;t take significant amounts of money to move the market price up or down, and thus Bitcoin remains a volatile asset.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===What if someone creates a new block chain, or a new digital currency that renders Bitcoin obsolete?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This may sound rather foreboding, so bear in mind that the introduction of new and possibly better virtual currencies will not necessarily herald Bitcoin&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Is Bitcoin open to value manipulation? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This is only a problem if you are investing in Bitcoin for short period of time. A manipulator can&#039;t change the fundamentals, and over a period of 5-10 years, the fundamentals will win over any short term manipulations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Sending and Receiving Payments==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Why do I have to wait 10 minutes before I can spend money I received? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Blocks]] (shown as &amp;quot;confirmations&amp;quot; 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&#039;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!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[File:TransactionConfirmationTimesExample.PNG]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Do you have to wait until my transactions are confirmed in order to buy or sell things with Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t choose the time of the attack, it isn&#039;t a risk for merchants such as supermarkets where you can&#039;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&#039;s less than a confirm.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== I was sent some bitcoins and they haven&#039;t arrived yet! Where are they? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Don&#039;t panic!  There are a number of reasons why your bitcoins might not show up yet, and a number of ways to diagnose them.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s status.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If it has not caught up then it&#039;s possible that your transaction hasn&#039;t been included in a block yet.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s a matter of waiting until it gets included in a block before it will show in your client.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Why does my Bitcoin address keep changing? ===&lt;br /&gt;
{{seealso|Address reuse}}&lt;br /&gt;
Unlike postal and email addresses, Bitcoin addresses are designed to be used exactly once only, for a single transaction.&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
While it is technically possible to use an address for an arbitrary number of payments, this works by accident and harms both yourself &#039;&#039;and other unrelated third parties&#039;&#039;, so it is considered a bad practice.&lt;br /&gt;
The most important concerns with such misuse involve loss of privacy and security:&lt;br /&gt;
both can be put into jeopardy when addresses are used for more than a single transaction only.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===How much will the transaction fee be?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t always able to do so: The funds in your wallet might be new or composed of many tiny payments. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 (&#039;&#039;e.g.&#039;&#039; 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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What happens when someone sends me a bitcoin but my computer is powered off? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoins are not actually &amp;quot;sent&amp;quot; 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&#039;ve received.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How long does &amp;quot;synchronizing&amp;quot; take when the Bitcoin client is first installed? What&#039;s it doing? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The popular Bitcoin client software from bitcoin.org implements a &amp;quot;full&amp;quot; Bitcoin node: It can carry out all the duties of the Bitcoin P2P system, it isn&#039;t simply a &amp;quot;client&amp;quot;. One of the principles behind the operation of full Bitcoin nodes is that they don&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In normal operation, after synchronizing, the software should use a hardly noticeable amount of your computer&#039;s resources.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When the wallet client program is first installed, its initial validation requires a lot of work from your computer&#039;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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &amp;quot;lite&amp;quot; client such as Multibit or a super-light client like electrum, though these clients have somewhat weaker security, are less mature, and don&#039;t contribute to the health of the P2P network.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Networking==&lt;br /&gt;
=== Do I need to configure my firewall to run Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If you want to restrict your firewall rules to a few IPs, you can find stable nodes in the [[Fallback Nodes|fallback nodes list]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How does the peer finding mechanism work? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin finds peers primarily by forwarding peer announcements within its own network and each node saves a database of peers that it&#039;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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Mining==&lt;br /&gt;
===What is mining?===&lt;br /&gt;
[[Mining]] is the process of spending computation power to secure Bitcoin transactions against reversal and introducing new Bitcoins to the system.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Is mining used for some useful computation?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Is it not a waste of energy?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Why don&#039;t we use calculations that are also useful for some other purpose?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===How can we stop miners from creating zero transaction blocks?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===How does the proof-of-work system help secure Bitcoin?===&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin uses the [[Hashcash]] proof of work with a minor adaption.  To give a general idea of the mining process, imagine this setup:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  payload = &amp;lt;some data related to things happening on the Bitcoin network&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  nonce = 1&lt;br /&gt;
  hash = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( payload + nonce ) )&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The work performed by a miner consists of repeatedly increasing &amp;quot;nonce&amp;quot; until&lt;br /&gt;
the hash function yields a value, that has the rare property of being below a certain&lt;br /&gt;
target threshold. (In other words: The hash &amp;quot;starts with a certain number of zeroes&amp;quot;,&lt;br /&gt;
if you display it in the fixed-length representation, that is typically used.)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As can be seen, the mining process doesn&#039;t compute anything special. It merely&lt;br /&gt;
tries to find a number (also referred to as nonce) which - in combination with the payload -&lt;br /&gt;
results in a hash with special properties.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &amp;quot;proof of work&amp;quot; that someone invested a lot of computing power to find the correct nonce for this payload.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This feature is then used in the Bitcoin network to secure various aspects. An attacker&lt;br /&gt;
that wants to introduce malicious payload data into the network, will need to do the&lt;br /&gt;
required proof of work before it will be accepted. And as long as honest miners have more&lt;br /&gt;
computing power, they can always outpace an attacker.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Why was the &amp;quot;Generate coin&amp;quot; option of the client software removed?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The option wasn&#039;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&#039;s current [[difficulty|security level]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Security==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Could miners collude to give themselves money or to fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are two questions in here.  Let&#039;s look at them separately.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;Could miners gang up and give themselves money?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &#039;mined&#039;, or rather, generated, by  Bitcoin clients correctly guessing sequences of characters in codes called &#039;hashes,&#039; which are created using information from previous blocks.  Bitcoin users may download specialized &#039;mining&#039; 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.&lt;br /&gt;
	&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
	&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Of course, the real question is:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;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?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin isn&#039;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&#039; best interests in mind.  Every currency in the world (other than Bitcoin) is controlled by large institutions who keep track of what&#039;s done with it, and who can manipulate its value.  And every other currency has value because people trust the institutions that control them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin doesn&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nonetheless, there are a few ways that one can acquire Bitcoins dishonestly.  Firstly, one can steal private keys.  Key theft isn&#039;t something that Bitcoin security has been designed to prevent: it&#039;s up to users to keep their keys safe.  But the cryptography is designed so that it is completely impossible to deduce someone&#039;s private key from their public one. As long as you keep your private key to yourself, you don&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s only going to get harder with time.  Bitcoin isn&#039;t impenetrable, but it&#039;s close enough to put any real worries in the peripherals.&lt;br /&gt;
	&lt;br /&gt;
;Could miners fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Once again, almost certainly not.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
And thus, it is more or less impossible for anyone to change the function of Bitcoin to their advantage.  If users don&#039;t like the changes, they won&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Help==&lt;br /&gt;
===I&#039;d like to learn more.  Where can I get help?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* Read the [[Introduction|introduction to bitcoin]] &lt;br /&gt;
* See the videos, podcasts, and blog posts from the [[Press]]&lt;br /&gt;
* Read and post on the [[:Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums|forums]]&lt;br /&gt;
* Chat on one of the [[:Bitcoin:Community_portal#IRC_Chat|Bitcoin IRC]] channels&lt;br /&gt;
* Listen to [http://omegataupodcast.net/2011/03/59-bitcoin-a-digital-decentralized-currency/ this podcast], which goes into the details of how bitcoin works&lt;br /&gt;
* Ask questions on the [http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com Bitcoin Stack Exchange]&lt;br /&gt;
* Use [http://wheretobuycryptocoins.com WhereToBuyCryptocoins]. It shows an cryptocurrency introduction, a getting started guide for beginners, also lists of markets, faucets, exchanges.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==See Also==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Man page]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Introduction]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==References==&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;references&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;references/&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
{{Reflist|2}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[de:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[zh-cn:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[fr:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[ru:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Technical]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Vocabulary]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:FAQ&amp;diff=53359</id>
		<title>Help:FAQ</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:FAQ&amp;diff=53359"/>
		<updated>2014-12-06T01:04:34Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: /* References */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Here you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== General ==&lt;br /&gt;
=== What is Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin is a distributed peer-to-peer digital currency that can be transferred instantly and securely between any two people in the world. It&#039;s like electronic cash that you can use to pay friends or merchants.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What are bitcoins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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”).&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How can I get bitcoins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are a variety of ways to acquire bitcoins:&lt;br /&gt;
* 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] .&lt;br /&gt;
* Accept bitcoins as payment for goods or services.&lt;br /&gt;
* The most common way to buy bitcoins are the [[Buying bitcoins|Bitcoin Exchanges]]&lt;br /&gt;
* Visit [http://bitcoinx.io bitcoinx.io] for peer-to-peer ratings and reviews of bitcoin exchanges to see where to buy bitcoins&lt;br /&gt;
* There are several services where you can [[Buying_Bitcoins_(the_noob_version)|trade them]] for traditional currency.&lt;br /&gt;
* Find someone to trade cash for bitcoins in-person through a [https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:Directories local directory].&lt;br /&gt;
* Participate in a [[Pooled mining|mining pool]].&lt;br /&gt;
* 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).&lt;br /&gt;
* Visit sites that provide [[Trade#Free_Samples_and_Offers|free samples and offers]].&lt;br /&gt;
* 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&#039;s pools and more.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Does Bitcoin guarantee an influx of free money?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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:&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;ol style=&amp;quot;list-style-type: upper-alpha;&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  &amp;lt;li&amp;gt;Some sort of online &#039;get-rich-quick&#039; scam.&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  &amp;lt;li&amp;gt;A loophole in the market economy, the installation of which guarantees a steady influx of cash.&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  &amp;lt;li&amp;gt;A sure investment that will almost certainly yield a profit.&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/ol&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In fact, none of the above are true.  Let&#039;s look at them independently.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;Is Bitcoin a &#039;get-rich-quick&#039; scheme?&lt;br /&gt;
:If you&#039;ve spent much time on the Internet, you&#039;ve probably seen ads for many &#039;get-rich-quick&#039; 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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:Bitcoin is in no way similar to these schemes. Bitcoin doesn&#039;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&#039;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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:A more detailed answer to this question can be found [http://bitcointalk.org/?topic=7815.0 here].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;Will I make money by installing the client?&lt;br /&gt;
:Most people who use Bitcoin don&#039;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 &amp;quot;&#039;&#039;mining&#039;&#039;&amp;quot; (generating new bitcoins, see [[#What is mining?|What is mining?]]) with special software, but joining Bitcoin shouldn&#039;t be construed as being the road to riches.  Most Bitcoin users get involved because they find the project conceptually interesting and don&#039;t earn anything by doing so.  This is also why you won&#039;t find much speculation about the political or economic repercussions of Bitcoin anywhere on this site: Bitcoin developers owe their dedication to the project&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;As an investment, is Bitcoin a sure thing?&lt;br /&gt;
: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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Can I buy bitcoins with Paypal? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Where can I find a forum to discuss Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please visit the  [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums_on_various_platforms|Community Portal]] for links to Bitcoin-related forums.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How are new bitcoins created? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
New bitcoins are generated by the network through the process of &amp;quot;[[#What is mining?|&#039;&#039;mining&#039;&#039;]]&amp;quot;. 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]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What&#039;s the current total number of bitcoins in existence?  ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[http://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc Current count]. Also see [https://blockchain.info/charts/total-bitcoins Total bitcoins in circulation chart]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How divisible are bitcoins?  ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What do I call the various denominations of bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There is a lot of discussion about the naming of these fractions of bitcoins. The leading candidates are:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* 1 BTC = 1 bitcoin&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.01 BTC = 1 cBTC = 1 centibitcoin (also referred to as bitcent)&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.001 BTC = 1 mBTC = 1 millibitcoin (also referred to as mbit (pronounced em-bit) or millibit or even bitmill)&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.000 001 BTC = 1 μBTC = 1 microbitcoin (also referred to as ubit (pronounced yu-bit) or microbit)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The above follows the accepted international SI prefixes for hundredths, thousandths, and millionths. 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&#039;t be the equivalent of 0.01 USD, GBP or EUR). Equally, the inclusion of existing national currency denominations such as &amp;quot;cent&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;nickel&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;dime&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;pence&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;pound&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;kopek&amp;quot; and so on are to be discouraged; this is a worldwide currency.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
One exception is the &amp;quot;satoshi&amp;quot; which is smallest denomination currently possible &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.000 000 01 BTC = 1 satoshi (pronounced sa-toh-shee)&lt;br /&gt;
which is so named in honour of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of the inventor of Bitcoin.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Another units proposed it&#039;s [[bits]]; equal to 0.000 000 1 BTC.&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;{{url=http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1rmto3/its_bits/|title=bits}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For an overview of all defined units of Bitcoin (including less common and niche units), see [[Units]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Further discussion on this topic can be found on the forums here:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=14438.msg195287#msg195287 We need names]&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=8282.0 What to call 0.001 BTC]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How does the halving work when the number gets really small? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Eventually the reward will go from 0.00000001 BTC to zero and no more bitcoins will be created.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
With an initial block reward of 50 BTC, it will take many 4-year periods for the block reward to reach zero.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How long will it take to generate all the coins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== If no more coins are going to be generated, will more blocks be created? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== But if no more coins are generated, what happens when Bitcoins are lost? Won&#039;t that be a problem? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &#039;&#039;&#039;de&#039;&#039;&#039;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 (&amp;quot;Millies&amp;quot;) or microbitcoins (&amp;quot;Mikes&amp;quot;).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Bitcoin protocol uses a base unit of one hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin (&amp;quot;a Satoshi&amp;quot;), but unused bits are available in the protocol fields that could be used to denote even smaller subdivisions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== If every transaction is broadcast via the network, does Bitcoin scale? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Learn more about [[Scalability]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Economy==&lt;br /&gt;
=== Where does the value of Bitcoin stem from? What backs up Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When we say that a currency is backed up by gold, we mean that there&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It&#039;s a common misconception that Bitcoins gain their value from the cost of electricity required to generate them. Cost doesn&#039;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&#039;t make anything valuable. For example, your fingerprints are scarce, but that doesn&#039;t mean they have any exchange value.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Is Bitcoin a bubble? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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 &amp;quot;bubble&amp;quot; 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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The fact that early adopters benefit more doesn&#039;t alone make anything a Ponzi scheme. All good investments in successful companies have this quality.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Doesn&#039;t Bitcoin unfairly benefit early adopters? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Won&#039;t loss of wallets and the finite amount of Bitcoins create excessive deflation, destroying Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s inception, and the units are created at a predictable rate.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Also, Bitcoin users are faced with a danger that doesn&#039;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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For more information, see the [[Deflationary spiral]] page.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What if someone bought up all the existing Bitcoins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t get at them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t obligated to sell their bitcoins so not all bitcoins will make it to the markets even.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This situation doesn&#039;t suggest, however, that the markets aren&#039;t vulnerable to price manipulation.  It doesn&#039;t take significant amounts of money to move the market price up or down, and thus Bitcoin remains a volatile asset.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===What if someone creates a new block chain, or a new digital currency that renders Bitcoin obsolete?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This may sound rather foreboding, so bear in mind that the introduction of new and possibly better virtual currencies will not necessarily herald Bitcoin&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Is Bitcoin open to value manipulation? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This is only a problem if you are investing in Bitcoin for short period of time. A manipulator can&#039;t change the fundamentals, and over a period of 5-10 years, the fundamentals will win over any short term manipulations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Sending and Receiving Payments==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Why do I have to wait 10 minutes before I can spend money I received? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Blocks]] (shown as &amp;quot;confirmations&amp;quot; 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&#039;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!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[File:TransactionConfirmationTimesExample.PNG]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Do you have to wait until my transactions are confirmed in order to buy or sell things with Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t choose the time of the attack, it isn&#039;t a risk for merchants such as supermarkets where you can&#039;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&#039;s less than a confirm.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== I was sent some bitcoins and they haven&#039;t arrived yet! Where are they? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Don&#039;t panic!  There are a number of reasons why your bitcoins might not show up yet, and a number of ways to diagnose them.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s status.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If it has not caught up then it&#039;s possible that your transaction hasn&#039;t been included in a block yet.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s a matter of waiting until it gets included in a block before it will show in your client.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Why does my Bitcoin address keep changing? ===&lt;br /&gt;
{{seealso|Address reuse}}&lt;br /&gt;
Unlike postal and email addresses, Bitcoin addresses are designed to be used exactly once only, for a single transaction.&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
While it is technically possible to use an address for an arbitrary number of payments, this works by accident and harms both yourself &#039;&#039;and other unrelated third parties&#039;&#039;, so it is considered a bad practice.&lt;br /&gt;
The most important concerns with such misuse involve loss of privacy and security:&lt;br /&gt;
both can be put into jeopardy when addresses are used for more than a single transaction only.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===How much will the transaction fee be?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t always able to do so: The funds in your wallet might be new or composed of many tiny payments. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 (&#039;&#039;e.g.&#039;&#039; 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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What happens when someone sends me a bitcoin but my computer is powered off? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoins are not actually &amp;quot;sent&amp;quot; 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&#039;ve received.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How long does &amp;quot;synchronizing&amp;quot; take when the Bitcoin client is first installed? What&#039;s it doing? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The popular Bitcoin client software from bitcoin.org implements a &amp;quot;full&amp;quot; Bitcoin node: It can carry out all the duties of the Bitcoin P2P system, it isn&#039;t simply a &amp;quot;client&amp;quot;. One of the principles behind the operation of full Bitcoin nodes is that they don&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In normal operation, after synchronizing, the software should use a hardly noticeable amount of your computer&#039;s resources.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When the wallet client program is first installed, its initial validation requires a lot of work from your computer&#039;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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &amp;quot;lite&amp;quot; client such as Multibit or a super-light client like electrum, though these clients have somewhat weaker security, are less mature, and don&#039;t contribute to the health of the P2P network.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Networking==&lt;br /&gt;
=== Do I need to configure my firewall to run Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If you want to restrict your firewall rules to a few IPs, you can find stable nodes in the [[Fallback Nodes|fallback nodes list]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How does the peer finding mechanism work? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin finds peers primarily by forwarding peer announcements within its own network and each node saves a database of peers that it&#039;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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Mining==&lt;br /&gt;
===What is mining?===&lt;br /&gt;
[[Mining]] is the process of spending computation power to secure Bitcoin transactions against reversal and introducing new Bitcoins to the system.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Is mining used for some useful computation?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Is it not a waste of energy?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Why don&#039;t we use calculations that are also useful for some other purpose?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===How can we stop miners from creating zero transaction blocks?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===How does the proof-of-work system help secure Bitcoin?===&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin uses the [[Hashcash]] proof of work with a minor adaption.  To give a general idea of the mining process, imagine this setup:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  payload = &amp;lt;some data related to things happening on the Bitcoin network&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  nonce = 1&lt;br /&gt;
  hash = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( payload + nonce ) )&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The work performed by a miner consists of repeatedly increasing &amp;quot;nonce&amp;quot; until&lt;br /&gt;
the hash function yields a value, that has the rare property of being below a certain&lt;br /&gt;
target threshold. (In other words: The hash &amp;quot;starts with a certain number of zeroes&amp;quot;,&lt;br /&gt;
if you display it in the fixed-length representation, that is typically used.)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As can be seen, the mining process doesn&#039;t compute anything special. It merely&lt;br /&gt;
tries to find a number (also referred to as nonce) which - in combination with the payload -&lt;br /&gt;
results in a hash with special properties.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &amp;quot;proof of work&amp;quot; that someone invested a lot of computing power to find the correct nonce for this payload.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This feature is then used in the Bitcoin network to secure various aspects. An attacker&lt;br /&gt;
that wants to introduce malicious payload data into the network, will need to do the&lt;br /&gt;
required proof of work before it will be accepted. And as long as honest miners have more&lt;br /&gt;
computing power, they can always outpace an attacker.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Why was the &amp;quot;Generate coin&amp;quot; option of the client software removed?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The option wasn&#039;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&#039;s current [[difficulty|security level]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Security==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Could miners collude to give themselves money or to fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are two questions in here.  Let&#039;s look at them separately.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;Could miners gang up and give themselves money?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &#039;mined&#039;, or rather, generated, by  Bitcoin clients correctly guessing sequences of characters in codes called &#039;hashes,&#039; which are created using information from previous blocks.  Bitcoin users may download specialized &#039;mining&#039; 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.&lt;br /&gt;
	&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
	&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Of course, the real question is:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;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?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin isn&#039;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&#039; best interests in mind.  Every currency in the world (other than Bitcoin) is controlled by large institutions who keep track of what&#039;s done with it, and who can manipulate its value.  And every other currency has value because people trust the institutions that control them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin doesn&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nonetheless, there are a few ways that one can acquire Bitcoins dishonestly.  Firstly, one can steal private keys.  Key theft isn&#039;t something that Bitcoin security has been designed to prevent: it&#039;s up to users to keep their keys safe.  But the cryptography is designed so that it is completely impossible to deduce someone&#039;s private key from their public one. As long as you keep your private key to yourself, you don&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s only going to get harder with time.  Bitcoin isn&#039;t impenetrable, but it&#039;s close enough to put any real worries in the peripherals.&lt;br /&gt;
	&lt;br /&gt;
;Could miners fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Once again, almost certainly not.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
And thus, it is more or less impossible for anyone to change the function of Bitcoin to their advantage.  If users don&#039;t like the changes, they won&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Help==&lt;br /&gt;
===I&#039;d like to learn more.  Where can I get help?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* Read the [[Introduction|introduction to bitcoin]] &lt;br /&gt;
* See the videos, podcasts, and blog posts from the [[Press]]&lt;br /&gt;
* Read and post on the [[:Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums|forums]]&lt;br /&gt;
* Chat on one of the [[:Bitcoin:Community_portal#IRC_Chat|Bitcoin IRC]] channels&lt;br /&gt;
* Listen to [http://omegataupodcast.net/2011/03/59-bitcoin-a-digital-decentralized-currency/ this podcast], which goes into the details of how bitcoin works&lt;br /&gt;
* Ask questions on the [http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com Bitcoin Stack Exchange]&lt;br /&gt;
* Use [http://wheretobuycryptocoins.com WhereToBuyCryptocoins]. It shows an cryptocurrency introduction, a getting started guide for beginners, also lists of markets, faucets, exchanges.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==See Also==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Man page]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Introduction]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==References==&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;references&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;references/&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
{{Reflist|2}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[de:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[zh-cn:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[fr:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[ru:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Technical]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Vocabulary]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:FAQ&amp;diff=53358</id>
		<title>Help:FAQ</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:FAQ&amp;diff=53358"/>
		<updated>2014-12-06T01:03:35Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Here you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== General ==&lt;br /&gt;
=== What is Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin is a distributed peer-to-peer digital currency that can be transferred instantly and securely between any two people in the world. It&#039;s like electronic cash that you can use to pay friends or merchants.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What are bitcoins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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”).&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How can I get bitcoins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are a variety of ways to acquire bitcoins:&lt;br /&gt;
* 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] .&lt;br /&gt;
* Accept bitcoins as payment for goods or services.&lt;br /&gt;
* The most common way to buy bitcoins are the [[Buying bitcoins|Bitcoin Exchanges]]&lt;br /&gt;
* Visit [http://bitcoinx.io bitcoinx.io] for peer-to-peer ratings and reviews of bitcoin exchanges to see where to buy bitcoins&lt;br /&gt;
* There are several services where you can [[Buying_Bitcoins_(the_noob_version)|trade them]] for traditional currency.&lt;br /&gt;
* Find someone to trade cash for bitcoins in-person through a [https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:Directories local directory].&lt;br /&gt;
* Participate in a [[Pooled mining|mining pool]].&lt;br /&gt;
* 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).&lt;br /&gt;
* Visit sites that provide [[Trade#Free_Samples_and_Offers|free samples and offers]].&lt;br /&gt;
* 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&#039;s pools and more.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Does Bitcoin guarantee an influx of free money?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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:&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;ol style=&amp;quot;list-style-type: upper-alpha;&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  &amp;lt;li&amp;gt;Some sort of online &#039;get-rich-quick&#039; scam.&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  &amp;lt;li&amp;gt;A loophole in the market economy, the installation of which guarantees a steady influx of cash.&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  &amp;lt;li&amp;gt;A sure investment that will almost certainly yield a profit.&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/ol&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In fact, none of the above are true.  Let&#039;s look at them independently.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;Is Bitcoin a &#039;get-rich-quick&#039; scheme?&lt;br /&gt;
:If you&#039;ve spent much time on the Internet, you&#039;ve probably seen ads for many &#039;get-rich-quick&#039; 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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:Bitcoin is in no way similar to these schemes. Bitcoin doesn&#039;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&#039;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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:A more detailed answer to this question can be found [http://bitcointalk.org/?topic=7815.0 here].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;Will I make money by installing the client?&lt;br /&gt;
:Most people who use Bitcoin don&#039;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 &amp;quot;&#039;&#039;mining&#039;&#039;&amp;quot; (generating new bitcoins, see [[#What is mining?|What is mining?]]) with special software, but joining Bitcoin shouldn&#039;t be construed as being the road to riches.  Most Bitcoin users get involved because they find the project conceptually interesting and don&#039;t earn anything by doing so.  This is also why you won&#039;t find much speculation about the political or economic repercussions of Bitcoin anywhere on this site: Bitcoin developers owe their dedication to the project&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;As an investment, is Bitcoin a sure thing?&lt;br /&gt;
: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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Can I buy bitcoins with Paypal? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Where can I find a forum to discuss Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please visit the  [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums_on_various_platforms|Community Portal]] for links to Bitcoin-related forums.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How are new bitcoins created? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
New bitcoins are generated by the network through the process of &amp;quot;[[#What is mining?|&#039;&#039;mining&#039;&#039;]]&amp;quot;. 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]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What&#039;s the current total number of bitcoins in existence?  ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[http://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc Current count]. Also see [https://blockchain.info/charts/total-bitcoins Total bitcoins in circulation chart]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How divisible are bitcoins?  ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What do I call the various denominations of bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There is a lot of discussion about the naming of these fractions of bitcoins. The leading candidates are:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* 1 BTC = 1 bitcoin&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.01 BTC = 1 cBTC = 1 centibitcoin (also referred to as bitcent)&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.001 BTC = 1 mBTC = 1 millibitcoin (also referred to as mbit (pronounced em-bit) or millibit or even bitmill)&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.000 001 BTC = 1 μBTC = 1 microbitcoin (also referred to as ubit (pronounced yu-bit) or microbit)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The above follows the accepted international SI prefixes for hundredths, thousandths, and millionths. 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&#039;t be the equivalent of 0.01 USD, GBP or EUR). Equally, the inclusion of existing national currency denominations such as &amp;quot;cent&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;nickel&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;dime&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;pence&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;pound&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;kopek&amp;quot; and so on are to be discouraged; this is a worldwide currency.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
One exception is the &amp;quot;satoshi&amp;quot; which is smallest denomination currently possible &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.000 000 01 BTC = 1 satoshi (pronounced sa-toh-shee)&lt;br /&gt;
which is so named in honour of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of the inventor of Bitcoin.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Another units proposed it&#039;s [[bits]]; equal to 0.000 000 1 BTC.&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;{{url=http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1rmto3/its_bits/|title=bits}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For an overview of all defined units of Bitcoin (including less common and niche units), see [[Units]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Further discussion on this topic can be found on the forums here:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=14438.msg195287#msg195287 We need names]&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=8282.0 What to call 0.001 BTC]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How does the halving work when the number gets really small? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Eventually the reward will go from 0.00000001 BTC to zero and no more bitcoins will be created.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
With an initial block reward of 50 BTC, it will take many 4-year periods for the block reward to reach zero.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How long will it take to generate all the coins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== If no more coins are going to be generated, will more blocks be created? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== But if no more coins are generated, what happens when Bitcoins are lost? Won&#039;t that be a problem? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &#039;&#039;&#039;de&#039;&#039;&#039;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 (&amp;quot;Millies&amp;quot;) or microbitcoins (&amp;quot;Mikes&amp;quot;).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Bitcoin protocol uses a base unit of one hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin (&amp;quot;a Satoshi&amp;quot;), but unused bits are available in the protocol fields that could be used to denote even smaller subdivisions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== If every transaction is broadcast via the network, does Bitcoin scale? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Learn more about [[Scalability]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Economy==&lt;br /&gt;
=== Where does the value of Bitcoin stem from? What backs up Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When we say that a currency is backed up by gold, we mean that there&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It&#039;s a common misconception that Bitcoins gain their value from the cost of electricity required to generate them. Cost doesn&#039;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&#039;t make anything valuable. For example, your fingerprints are scarce, but that doesn&#039;t mean they have any exchange value.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Is Bitcoin a bubble? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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 &amp;quot;bubble&amp;quot; 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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The fact that early adopters benefit more doesn&#039;t alone make anything a Ponzi scheme. All good investments in successful companies have this quality.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Doesn&#039;t Bitcoin unfairly benefit early adopters? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Won&#039;t loss of wallets and the finite amount of Bitcoins create excessive deflation, destroying Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s inception, and the units are created at a predictable rate.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Also, Bitcoin users are faced with a danger that doesn&#039;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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For more information, see the [[Deflationary spiral]] page.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What if someone bought up all the existing Bitcoins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t get at them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t obligated to sell their bitcoins so not all bitcoins will make it to the markets even.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This situation doesn&#039;t suggest, however, that the markets aren&#039;t vulnerable to price manipulation.  It doesn&#039;t take significant amounts of money to move the market price up or down, and thus Bitcoin remains a volatile asset.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===What if someone creates a new block chain, or a new digital currency that renders Bitcoin obsolete?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This may sound rather foreboding, so bear in mind that the introduction of new and possibly better virtual currencies will not necessarily herald Bitcoin&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Is Bitcoin open to value manipulation? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This is only a problem if you are investing in Bitcoin for short period of time. A manipulator can&#039;t change the fundamentals, and over a period of 5-10 years, the fundamentals will win over any short term manipulations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Sending and Receiving Payments==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Why do I have to wait 10 minutes before I can spend money I received? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Blocks]] (shown as &amp;quot;confirmations&amp;quot; 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&#039;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!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[File:TransactionConfirmationTimesExample.PNG]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Do you have to wait until my transactions are confirmed in order to buy or sell things with Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t choose the time of the attack, it isn&#039;t a risk for merchants such as supermarkets where you can&#039;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&#039;s less than a confirm.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== I was sent some bitcoins and they haven&#039;t arrived yet! Where are they? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Don&#039;t panic!  There are a number of reasons why your bitcoins might not show up yet, and a number of ways to diagnose them.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s status.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If it has not caught up then it&#039;s possible that your transaction hasn&#039;t been included in a block yet.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s a matter of waiting until it gets included in a block before it will show in your client.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Why does my Bitcoin address keep changing? ===&lt;br /&gt;
{{seealso|Address reuse}}&lt;br /&gt;
Unlike postal and email addresses, Bitcoin addresses are designed to be used exactly once only, for a single transaction.&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
While it is technically possible to use an address for an arbitrary number of payments, this works by accident and harms both yourself &#039;&#039;and other unrelated third parties&#039;&#039;, so it is considered a bad practice.&lt;br /&gt;
The most important concerns with such misuse involve loss of privacy and security:&lt;br /&gt;
both can be put into jeopardy when addresses are used for more than a single transaction only.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===How much will the transaction fee be?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t always able to do so: The funds in your wallet might be new or composed of many tiny payments. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 (&#039;&#039;e.g.&#039;&#039; 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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What happens when someone sends me a bitcoin but my computer is powered off? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoins are not actually &amp;quot;sent&amp;quot; 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&#039;ve received.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How long does &amp;quot;synchronizing&amp;quot; take when the Bitcoin client is first installed? What&#039;s it doing? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The popular Bitcoin client software from bitcoin.org implements a &amp;quot;full&amp;quot; Bitcoin node: It can carry out all the duties of the Bitcoin P2P system, it isn&#039;t simply a &amp;quot;client&amp;quot;. One of the principles behind the operation of full Bitcoin nodes is that they don&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In normal operation, after synchronizing, the software should use a hardly noticeable amount of your computer&#039;s resources.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When the wallet client program is first installed, its initial validation requires a lot of work from your computer&#039;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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &amp;quot;lite&amp;quot; client such as Multibit or a super-light client like electrum, though these clients have somewhat weaker security, are less mature, and don&#039;t contribute to the health of the P2P network.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Networking==&lt;br /&gt;
=== Do I need to configure my firewall to run Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If you want to restrict your firewall rules to a few IPs, you can find stable nodes in the [[Fallback Nodes|fallback nodes list]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How does the peer finding mechanism work? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin finds peers primarily by forwarding peer announcements within its own network and each node saves a database of peers that it&#039;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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Mining==&lt;br /&gt;
===What is mining?===&lt;br /&gt;
[[Mining]] is the process of spending computation power to secure Bitcoin transactions against reversal and introducing new Bitcoins to the system.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Is mining used for some useful computation?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Is it not a waste of energy?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Why don&#039;t we use calculations that are also useful for some other purpose?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===How can we stop miners from creating zero transaction blocks?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===How does the proof-of-work system help secure Bitcoin?===&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin uses the [[Hashcash]] proof of work with a minor adaption.  To give a general idea of the mining process, imagine this setup:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  payload = &amp;lt;some data related to things happening on the Bitcoin network&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  nonce = 1&lt;br /&gt;
  hash = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( payload + nonce ) )&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The work performed by a miner consists of repeatedly increasing &amp;quot;nonce&amp;quot; until&lt;br /&gt;
the hash function yields a value, that has the rare property of being below a certain&lt;br /&gt;
target threshold. (In other words: The hash &amp;quot;starts with a certain number of zeroes&amp;quot;,&lt;br /&gt;
if you display it in the fixed-length representation, that is typically used.)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As can be seen, the mining process doesn&#039;t compute anything special. It merely&lt;br /&gt;
tries to find a number (also referred to as nonce) which - in combination with the payload -&lt;br /&gt;
results in a hash with special properties.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &amp;quot;proof of work&amp;quot; that someone invested a lot of computing power to find the correct nonce for this payload.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This feature is then used in the Bitcoin network to secure various aspects. An attacker&lt;br /&gt;
that wants to introduce malicious payload data into the network, will need to do the&lt;br /&gt;
required proof of work before it will be accepted. And as long as honest miners have more&lt;br /&gt;
computing power, they can always outpace an attacker.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Why was the &amp;quot;Generate coin&amp;quot; option of the client software removed?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The option wasn&#039;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&#039;s current [[difficulty|security level]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Security==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Could miners collude to give themselves money or to fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are two questions in here.  Let&#039;s look at them separately.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;Could miners gang up and give themselves money?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &#039;mined&#039;, or rather, generated, by  Bitcoin clients correctly guessing sequences of characters in codes called &#039;hashes,&#039; which are created using information from previous blocks.  Bitcoin users may download specialized &#039;mining&#039; 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.&lt;br /&gt;
	&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
	&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Of course, the real question is:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;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?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin isn&#039;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&#039; best interests in mind.  Every currency in the world (other than Bitcoin) is controlled by large institutions who keep track of what&#039;s done with it, and who can manipulate its value.  And every other currency has value because people trust the institutions that control them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin doesn&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nonetheless, there are a few ways that one can acquire Bitcoins dishonestly.  Firstly, one can steal private keys.  Key theft isn&#039;t something that Bitcoin security has been designed to prevent: it&#039;s up to users to keep their keys safe.  But the cryptography is designed so that it is completely impossible to deduce someone&#039;s private key from their public one. As long as you keep your private key to yourself, you don&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s only going to get harder with time.  Bitcoin isn&#039;t impenetrable, but it&#039;s close enough to put any real worries in the peripherals.&lt;br /&gt;
	&lt;br /&gt;
;Could miners fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Once again, almost certainly not.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
And thus, it is more or less impossible for anyone to change the function of Bitcoin to their advantage.  If users don&#039;t like the changes, they won&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Help==&lt;br /&gt;
===I&#039;d like to learn more.  Where can I get help?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* Read the [[Introduction|introduction to bitcoin]] &lt;br /&gt;
* See the videos, podcasts, and blog posts from the [[Press]]&lt;br /&gt;
* Read and post on the [[:Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums|forums]]&lt;br /&gt;
* Chat on one of the [[:Bitcoin:Community_portal#IRC_Chat|Bitcoin IRC]] channels&lt;br /&gt;
* Listen to [http://omegataupodcast.net/2011/03/59-bitcoin-a-digital-decentralized-currency/ this podcast], which goes into the details of how bitcoin works&lt;br /&gt;
* Ask questions on the [http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com Bitcoin Stack Exchange]&lt;br /&gt;
* Use [http://wheretobuycryptocoins.com WhereToBuyCryptocoins]. It shows an cryptocurrency introduction, a getting started guide for beginners, also lists of markets, faucets, exchanges.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==See Also==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Man page]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Introduction]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==References==&lt;br /&gt;
{{Reflist|2}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[de:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[zh-cn:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[fr:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[ru:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Technical]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Vocabulary]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:FAQ&amp;diff=53357</id>
		<title>Help:FAQ</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:FAQ&amp;diff=53357"/>
		<updated>2014-12-06T01:02:16Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: /* What do I call the various denominations of bitcoin? */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Here you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== General ==&lt;br /&gt;
=== What is Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin is a distributed peer-to-peer digital currency that can be transferred instantly and securely between any two people in the world. It&#039;s like electronic cash that you can use to pay friends or merchants.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What are bitcoins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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”).&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How can I get bitcoins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are a variety of ways to acquire bitcoins:&lt;br /&gt;
* 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] .&lt;br /&gt;
* Accept bitcoins as payment for goods or services.&lt;br /&gt;
* The most common way to buy bitcoins are the [[Buying bitcoins|Bitcoin Exchanges]]&lt;br /&gt;
* Visit [http://bitcoinx.io bitcoinx.io] for peer-to-peer ratings and reviews of bitcoin exchanges to see where to buy bitcoins&lt;br /&gt;
* There are several services where you can [[Buying_Bitcoins_(the_noob_version)|trade them]] for traditional currency.&lt;br /&gt;
* Find someone to trade cash for bitcoins in-person through a [https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:Directories local directory].&lt;br /&gt;
* Participate in a [[Pooled mining|mining pool]].&lt;br /&gt;
* 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).&lt;br /&gt;
* Visit sites that provide [[Trade#Free_Samples_and_Offers|free samples and offers]].&lt;br /&gt;
* 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&#039;s pools and more.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Does Bitcoin guarantee an influx of free money?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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:&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;ol style=&amp;quot;list-style-type: upper-alpha;&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  &amp;lt;li&amp;gt;Some sort of online &#039;get-rich-quick&#039; scam.&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  &amp;lt;li&amp;gt;A loophole in the market economy, the installation of which guarantees a steady influx of cash.&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  &amp;lt;li&amp;gt;A sure investment that will almost certainly yield a profit.&amp;lt;/li&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/ol&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In fact, none of the above are true.  Let&#039;s look at them independently.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;Is Bitcoin a &#039;get-rich-quick&#039; scheme?&lt;br /&gt;
:If you&#039;ve spent much time on the Internet, you&#039;ve probably seen ads for many &#039;get-rich-quick&#039; 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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:Bitcoin is in no way similar to these schemes. Bitcoin doesn&#039;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&#039;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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:A more detailed answer to this question can be found [http://bitcointalk.org/?topic=7815.0 here].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;Will I make money by installing the client?&lt;br /&gt;
:Most people who use Bitcoin don&#039;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 &amp;quot;&#039;&#039;mining&#039;&#039;&amp;quot; (generating new bitcoins, see [[#What is mining?|What is mining?]]) with special software, but joining Bitcoin shouldn&#039;t be construed as being the road to riches.  Most Bitcoin users get involved because they find the project conceptually interesting and don&#039;t earn anything by doing so.  This is also why you won&#039;t find much speculation about the political or economic repercussions of Bitcoin anywhere on this site: Bitcoin developers owe their dedication to the project&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;As an investment, is Bitcoin a sure thing?&lt;br /&gt;
: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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Can I buy bitcoins with Paypal? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Where can I find a forum to discuss Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please visit the  [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums_on_various_platforms|Community Portal]] for links to Bitcoin-related forums.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How are new bitcoins created? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
New bitcoins are generated by the network through the process of &amp;quot;[[#What is mining?|&#039;&#039;mining&#039;&#039;]]&amp;quot;. 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]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What&#039;s the current total number of bitcoins in existence?  ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[http://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc Current count]. Also see [https://blockchain.info/charts/total-bitcoins Total bitcoins in circulation chart]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How divisible are bitcoins?  ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What do I call the various denominations of bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There is a lot of discussion about the naming of these fractions of bitcoins. The leading candidates are:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* 1 BTC = 1 bitcoin&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.01 BTC = 1 cBTC = 1 centibitcoin (also referred to as bitcent)&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.001 BTC = 1 mBTC = 1 millibitcoin (also referred to as mbit (pronounced em-bit) or millibit or even bitmill)&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.000 001 BTC = 1 μBTC = 1 microbitcoin (also referred to as ubit (pronounced yu-bit) or microbit)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The above follows the accepted international SI prefixes for hundredths, thousandths, and millionths. 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&#039;t be the equivalent of 0.01 USD, GBP or EUR). Equally, the inclusion of existing national currency denominations such as &amp;quot;cent&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;nickel&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;dime&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;pence&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;pound&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;kopek&amp;quot; and so on are to be discouraged; this is a worldwide currency.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
One exception is the &amp;quot;satoshi&amp;quot; which is smallest denomination currently possible &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* 0.000 000 01 BTC = 1 satoshi (pronounced sa-toh-shee)&lt;br /&gt;
which is so named in honour of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of the inventor of Bitcoin.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Another units proposed it&#039;s [[bits]]; equal to 0.000 000 1 BTC.&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;{{url=http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1rmto3/its_bits/|title=bits}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For an overview of all defined units of Bitcoin (including less common and niche units), see [[Units]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Further discussion on this topic can be found on the forums here:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=14438.msg195287#msg195287 We need names]&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=8282.0 What to call 0.001 BTC]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How does the halving work when the number gets really small? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Eventually the reward will go from 0.00000001 BTC to zero and no more bitcoins will be created.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
With an initial block reward of 50 BTC, it will take many 4-year periods for the block reward to reach zero.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How long will it take to generate all the coins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== If no more coins are going to be generated, will more blocks be created? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== But if no more coins are generated, what happens when Bitcoins are lost? Won&#039;t that be a problem? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &#039;&#039;&#039;de&#039;&#039;&#039;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 (&amp;quot;Millies&amp;quot;) or microbitcoins (&amp;quot;Mikes&amp;quot;).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Bitcoin protocol uses a base unit of one hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin (&amp;quot;a Satoshi&amp;quot;), but unused bits are available in the protocol fields that could be used to denote even smaller subdivisions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== If every transaction is broadcast via the network, does Bitcoin scale? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Learn more about [[Scalability]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Economy==&lt;br /&gt;
=== Where does the value of Bitcoin stem from? What backs up Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When we say that a currency is backed up by gold, we mean that there&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It&#039;s a common misconception that Bitcoins gain their value from the cost of electricity required to generate them. Cost doesn&#039;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&#039;t make anything valuable. For example, your fingerprints are scarce, but that doesn&#039;t mean they have any exchange value.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Is Bitcoin a bubble? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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 &amp;quot;bubble&amp;quot; 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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The fact that early adopters benefit more doesn&#039;t alone make anything a Ponzi scheme. All good investments in successful companies have this quality.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Doesn&#039;t Bitcoin unfairly benefit early adopters? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Won&#039;t loss of wallets and the finite amount of Bitcoins create excessive deflation, destroying Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s inception, and the units are created at a predictable rate.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Also, Bitcoin users are faced with a danger that doesn&#039;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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For more information, see the [[Deflationary spiral]] page.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What if someone bought up all the existing Bitcoins? ===&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t get at them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t obligated to sell their bitcoins so not all bitcoins will make it to the markets even.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This situation doesn&#039;t suggest, however, that the markets aren&#039;t vulnerable to price manipulation.  It doesn&#039;t take significant amounts of money to move the market price up or down, and thus Bitcoin remains a volatile asset.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===What if someone creates a new block chain, or a new digital currency that renders Bitcoin obsolete?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This may sound rather foreboding, so bear in mind that the introduction of new and possibly better virtual currencies will not necessarily herald Bitcoin&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Is Bitcoin open to value manipulation? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This is only a problem if you are investing in Bitcoin for short period of time. A manipulator can&#039;t change the fundamentals, and over a period of 5-10 years, the fundamentals will win over any short term manipulations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Sending and Receiving Payments==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Why do I have to wait 10 minutes before I can spend money I received? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Blocks]] (shown as &amp;quot;confirmations&amp;quot; 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&#039;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!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[File:TransactionConfirmationTimesExample.PNG]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Do you have to wait until my transactions are confirmed in order to buy or sell things with Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t choose the time of the attack, it isn&#039;t a risk for merchants such as supermarkets where you can&#039;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&#039;s less than a confirm.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== I was sent some bitcoins and they haven&#039;t arrived yet! Where are they? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Don&#039;t panic!  There are a number of reasons why your bitcoins might not show up yet, and a number of ways to diagnose them.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s status.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If it has not caught up then it&#039;s possible that your transaction hasn&#039;t been included in a block yet.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s a matter of waiting until it gets included in a block before it will show in your client.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Why does my Bitcoin address keep changing? ===&lt;br /&gt;
{{seealso|Address reuse}}&lt;br /&gt;
Unlike postal and email addresses, Bitcoin addresses are designed to be used exactly once only, for a single transaction.&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
While it is technically possible to use an address for an arbitrary number of payments, this works by accident and harms both yourself &#039;&#039;and other unrelated third parties&#039;&#039;, so it is considered a bad practice.&lt;br /&gt;
The most important concerns with such misuse involve loss of privacy and security:&lt;br /&gt;
both can be put into jeopardy when addresses are used for more than a single transaction only.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===How much will the transaction fee be?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;t always able to do so: The funds in your wallet might be new or composed of many tiny payments. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 (&#039;&#039;e.g.&#039;&#039; 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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== What happens when someone sends me a bitcoin but my computer is powered off? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoins are not actually &amp;quot;sent&amp;quot; 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&#039;ve received.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How long does &amp;quot;synchronizing&amp;quot; take when the Bitcoin client is first installed? What&#039;s it doing? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The popular Bitcoin client software from bitcoin.org implements a &amp;quot;full&amp;quot; Bitcoin node: It can carry out all the duties of the Bitcoin P2P system, it isn&#039;t simply a &amp;quot;client&amp;quot;. One of the principles behind the operation of full Bitcoin nodes is that they don&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In normal operation, after synchronizing, the software should use a hardly noticeable amount of your computer&#039;s resources.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When the wallet client program is first installed, its initial validation requires a lot of work from your computer&#039;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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &amp;quot;lite&amp;quot; client such as Multibit or a super-light client like electrum, though these clients have somewhat weaker security, are less mature, and don&#039;t contribute to the health of the P2P network.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Networking==&lt;br /&gt;
=== Do I need to configure my firewall to run Bitcoin? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If you want to restrict your firewall rules to a few IPs, you can find stable nodes in the [[Fallback Nodes|fallback nodes list]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== How does the peer finding mechanism work? ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin finds peers primarily by forwarding peer announcements within its own network and each node saves a database of peers that it&#039;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&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Mining==&lt;br /&gt;
===What is mining?===&lt;br /&gt;
[[Mining]] is the process of spending computation power to secure Bitcoin transactions against reversal and introducing new Bitcoins to the system.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Is mining used for some useful computation?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Is it not a waste of energy?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Why don&#039;t we use calculations that are also useful for some other purpose?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===How can we stop miners from creating zero transaction blocks?===&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===How does the proof-of-work system help secure Bitcoin?===&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin uses the [[Hashcash]] proof of work with a minor adaption.  To give a general idea of the mining process, imagine this setup:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  payload = &amp;lt;some data related to things happening on the Bitcoin network&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  nonce = 1&lt;br /&gt;
  hash = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( payload + nonce ) )&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The work performed by a miner consists of repeatedly increasing &amp;quot;nonce&amp;quot; until&lt;br /&gt;
the hash function yields a value, that has the rare property of being below a certain&lt;br /&gt;
target threshold. (In other words: The hash &amp;quot;starts with a certain number of zeroes&amp;quot;,&lt;br /&gt;
if you display it in the fixed-length representation, that is typically used.)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As can be seen, the mining process doesn&#039;t compute anything special. It merely&lt;br /&gt;
tries to find a number (also referred to as nonce) which - in combination with the payload -&lt;br /&gt;
results in a hash with special properties.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &amp;quot;proof of work&amp;quot; that someone invested a lot of computing power to find the correct nonce for this payload.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This feature is then used in the Bitcoin network to secure various aspects. An attacker&lt;br /&gt;
that wants to introduce malicious payload data into the network, will need to do the&lt;br /&gt;
required proof of work before it will be accepted. And as long as honest miners have more&lt;br /&gt;
computing power, they can always outpace an attacker.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Why was the &amp;quot;Generate coin&amp;quot; option of the client software removed?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The option wasn&#039;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&#039;s current [[difficulty|security level]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Security==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Could miners collude to give themselves money or to fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are two questions in here.  Let&#039;s look at them separately.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;Could miners gang up and give themselves money?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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 &#039;mined&#039;, or rather, generated, by  Bitcoin clients correctly guessing sequences of characters in codes called &#039;hashes,&#039; which are created using information from previous blocks.  Bitcoin users may download specialized &#039;mining&#039; 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.&lt;br /&gt;
	&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.  &lt;br /&gt;
	&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Of course, the real question is:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
;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?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin isn&#039;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&#039; best interests in mind.  Every currency in the world (other than Bitcoin) is controlled by large institutions who keep track of what&#039;s done with it, and who can manipulate its value.  And every other currency has value because people trust the institutions that control them.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin doesn&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nonetheless, there are a few ways that one can acquire Bitcoins dishonestly.  Firstly, one can steal private keys.  Key theft isn&#039;t something that Bitcoin security has been designed to prevent: it&#039;s up to users to keep their keys safe.  But the cryptography is designed so that it is completely impossible to deduce someone&#039;s private key from their public one. As long as you keep your private key to yourself, you don&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;s only going to get harder with time.  Bitcoin isn&#039;t impenetrable, but it&#039;s close enough to put any real worries in the peripherals.&lt;br /&gt;
	&lt;br /&gt;
;Could miners fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Once again, almost certainly not.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
And thus, it is more or less impossible for anyone to change the function of Bitcoin to their advantage.  If users don&#039;t like the changes, they won&#039;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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Help==&lt;br /&gt;
===I&#039;d like to learn more.  Where can I get help?===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* Read the [[Introduction|introduction to bitcoin]] &lt;br /&gt;
* See the videos, podcasts, and blog posts from the [[Press]]&lt;br /&gt;
* Read and post on the [[:Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums|forums]]&lt;br /&gt;
* Chat on one of the [[:Bitcoin:Community_portal#IRC_Chat|Bitcoin IRC]] channels&lt;br /&gt;
* Listen to [http://omegataupodcast.net/2011/03/59-bitcoin-a-digital-decentralized-currency/ this podcast], which goes into the details of how bitcoin works&lt;br /&gt;
* Ask questions on the [http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com Bitcoin Stack Exchange]&lt;br /&gt;
* Use [http://wheretobuycryptocoins.com WhereToBuyCryptocoins]. It shows an cryptocurrency introduction, a getting started guide for beginners, also lists of markets, faucets, exchanges.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==See Also==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Man page]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Introduction]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[de:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[zh-cn:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[fr:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[ru:FAQ]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Technical]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Vocabulary]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Satoshi_Nakamoto&amp;diff=50715</id>
		<title>Satoshi Nakamoto</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Satoshi_Nakamoto&amp;diff=50715"/>
		<updated>2014-09-03T18:35:20Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{{infobox person|name=Satoshi Nakamoto|image=&lt;br /&gt;
|names=Satoshi Nakamoto&lt;br /&gt;
|disappeared=2011&lt;br /&gt;
|active=2008-2011&lt;br /&gt;
|knownfor=[[Bitcoin]]&lt;br /&gt;
|bitcointalk=[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3 satoshi]}}&#039;&#039;&#039;Satoshi Nakamoto&#039;&#039;&#039; is the pseudonymous person or group of people who designed and created the original [[Bitcoin]] software, currently known as [[Bitcoin-Qt]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
His involvement in the original [[Bitcoin]] software does not appear to extend past mid-2010.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Identity==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are no records of Nakamoto&#039;s identity or identities prior to the creation of [[Bitcoin]]. On his [http://p2pfoundation.ning.com/profile/SatoshiNakamoto P2P foundation profile], Nakamoto claimed to be an individual male at the age of 37 and living in Japan, which was met with great skepticism due to his use of English and his Bitcoin [[software]] not being documented nor labeled in Japanese.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
British formatting in his written work implies Nakamoto is of British origin. However, he also sometimes used American spelling, which may indicate that he was intentionally trying (but failed) to mask his writing style, or that he is more than one person.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The first release of his original [[Bitcoin]] software is speculated to be of a collaborative effort, leading some to claim that Satoshi Nakamoto was a collective pseudonym for a group of people.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Investigations into the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto have been attempted by &#039;&#039;The New Yorker&#039;&#039; and &#039;&#039;Fast Company&#039;&#039;. &#039;&#039;The New Yorker&#039;&#039; arrived at Michael Clear, a young graduate student in cryptography at Trinity College in Dublin, who was named the top computer-science undergraduate at Trinity in 2008. The next year, he was hired by Allied Irish Banks to improve its currency-trading software, and he co-authored an academic paper on peer-to-peer technology.&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;[http://betabeat.com/2011/10/did-the-new-yorkers-joshua-davis-nail-the-identity-of-bitcoin-creator-satoshi-nakamoto/ The New Yorker’s Joshua Davis Attempts to Identify Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto]&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;Fast Company&#039;&#039;&#039;s investigation brought up circumstantial evidence that indicated a link between an encryption patent application filed by Neal King, Vladimir Oksman and Charles Bry on 15 August 2008, and the bitcoin.org domain name which was registered 72 hours later. The [http://www.google.com/patents/US20100042841 patent application] contained networking and encryption technologies similar to Bitcoin&#039;s. After textual analysis, the phrase &amp;quot;...computationally impractical to reverse&amp;quot; was found in both the patent application and bitcoin&#039;s whitepaper.&amp;lt;ref name=&amp;quot;whitepaper&amp;quot;&amp;gt;{{cite web |last= Nakamoto |first= Satoshi |title= Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System |url= http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf |date= 24 May 2009}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt; All three inventors explicitly denied being Satoshi Nakamoto.&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;{{cite web|last= Penenberg |first= Adam |title= The Bitcoin Crypto-Currency Mystery Reopened |url= http://www.fastcompany.com/1785445/bitcoin-crypto-currency-mystery-reopened |publisher= FastCompany |accessdate= 16 February 2013}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;{{cite web|last= Greenfield |first= Rebecca |title= The Race to Unmask Bitcoin&#039;s Inventor(s) |url= http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2011/10/race-unmask-bitcoins-inventors/43535/ |publisher= The Atlantic |date=11 October 2011|accessdate= 16 February 2013}}&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Work==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nakamoto has claimed that he has been working on [[Bitcoin]] since 2007. In 2008, he published a [[Bitcoin_white_paper|paper]] on The Cryptography Mailing List at metzdowd.com describing the Bitcoin [[digital currency]]. In 2009, he released the first Bitcoin software that launched the network and the first units of the Bitcoin currency.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Version 0.1 was for Windows only and had no command-line interface. It was compiled using Microsoft Visual Studio. The code was elegant in some ways and inelegant in others. The code does not appear to have been written by either a total amateur or a professional programmer; some people speculate based on this that Satoshi was an academic with a lot of theoretical knowledge but not much programming experience. Version 0.1 was remarkably complete. If Satoshi truly only worked on it alone for two years, he must have spent a massive amount of time on the project.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nakamoto was active in making modifications to the Bitcoin software and posting technical information on the [[Bitcoin Forum]] until his contact with other Bitcoin developers and the community gradually began to fade in mid-2010. Until a few months before he left, almost all modifications to the source code were done by Satoshi -- he accepted contributions relatively rarely. Just before he left, he set up [[User:Gavinandresen|Gavin Andresen]] as his successor by giving him access to the Bitcoin SourceForge project and a copy of the [[Alerts|alert key]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Motives==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Nakamoto&#039;s work appears to be politically motivated, as quoted:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;Yes, [we will not find a solution to political problems in cryptography,] but we can win a major battle in the arms race and gain a new territory of freedom for several years. Governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally controlled networks like Napster, but pure P2P networks like Gnutella and Tor seem to be holding their own.&amp;quot; - Satoshi Nakamoto&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;[Bitcoin is] very attractive to the libertarian viewpoint if we can explain it properly. I&#039;m better with code than with words though.&amp;quot; - Satoshi Nakamoto&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In the Bitcoin network&#039;s transaction database, the original entry has a note by Nakamoto that reads as:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Some claim this quote implies Nakamoto had great concern or contempt for the current [[central banking]] system.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Influence==&lt;br /&gt;
The smallest unit of the [[Bitcoin]] currency (1/100,000,000) has been named &amp;quot;satoshi&amp;quot; in collective homage to his founding of [[Bitcoin]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==References==&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;references/&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==External Links==&lt;br /&gt;
*[http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/11/mf_bitcoin/ The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin]&lt;br /&gt;
*[http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/10/111010fa_fact_davis The Crypto-Currency: Bitcoin and its mysterious inventor]&lt;br /&gt;
*[http://www.mail-archive.com/search?l=cryptography@metzdowd.com&amp;amp;q=from:%22Satoshi+Nakamoto%22 Satoshi&#039;s posts to Cryptography mailing list]&lt;br /&gt;
*[[Bitcoin white paper]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Pseudonyms]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[de:Satoshi Nakamoto]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[es:Satoshi Nakamoto]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Individuals]]&lt;br /&gt;
{{wp|Satoshi_Nakamoto}}{{good}}&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Scalability&amp;diff=50431</id>
		<title>Scalability</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Scalability&amp;diff=50431"/>
		<updated>2014-08-22T17:25:05Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: tps visa data&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;The core Bitcoin network can scale to much higher transaction rates than are seen today, assuming that nodes in the network are primarily running on high end servers rather than desktops. Bitcoin was designed to support lightweight clients that only process small parts of the block chain (see &#039;&#039;simplified payment verification&#039;&#039; below for more details on this). A configuration in which the vast majority of users sync lightweight clients to more powerful backbone nodes is capable of scaling to millions of users and tens of thousands of transactions per second.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Scalability targets==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
VISA handles on average around 2,000 transactions per second (tps), so call it a daily peak rate of 47,000 tps. [http://www.visa.com/blogarchives/us/2013/10/10/stress-test-prepares-visanet-for-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year/index.html]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
PayPal, in contrast, handles around 4 million transactions per day for an average of 46 tps or a probably peak rate of 100 tps.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Let&#039;s take 4,000 tps as starting goal. Obviously if we want Bitcoin to scale to all economic transactions worldwide, including cash, it&#039;d be a lot higher than that, perhaps more in the region of a few hundred thousand tps. And the need to be able to withstand DoS attacks (which VISA does not have to deal with) implies we would want to scale far beyond the standard peak rates. Still, picking a target let us do some basic calculations even if it&#039;s a little arbitrary.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Current bottlenecks==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Today the Bitcoin network is restricted to a sustained rate of 7 tps by some artificial limits. These were put in place to stop people from ballooning the size of the block chain before the network and community was ready for it. Once those limits are lifted, the maximum transaction rate will go up significantly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==CPU==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The protocol has two parts. Nodes send &amp;quot;inv&amp;quot; messages to other nodes telling them they have a new transaction. If the receiving node doesn&#039;t have that transaction it requests it with a getdata.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The big cost is the crypto and block chain lookups involved with verifying the transaction. Verifying a transaction means some hashing and some ECDSA signature verifications. RIPEMD-160 runs at 106 megabytes/sec (call it 100 for simplicity) and SHA256 is about the same. So hashing 1 megabyte should take around 10 milliseconds and hashing 1 kilobyte would take 0.01 milliseconds - fast enough that we can ignore it.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin is currently able (with a couple of simple optimizations that are prototyped but not merged yet) to perform around 8000 signature verifications per second on an quad core [http://ark.intel.com/products/53469 Intel Core i7-2670QM 2.2Ghz processor]. The average number of inputs per transaction is around 2, so we must halve the rate. This means 4000 tps is easily achievable CPU-wise with a single fairly mainstream CPU.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As we can see, this means as long as Bitcoin nodes are allowed to max out at least 4 cores of the machines they run on, we will not run out of CPU capacity for signature checking unless Bitcoin is handling 100 times as much traffic as PayPal. As of late 2012 the network is handling 0.5 transactions/second, so even assuming enormous growth in popularity we will not reach this level for a long time.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Of course Bitcoin does other things beyond signature checking, most obviously, managing the database. We use LevelDB which does the bulk of the heavy lifting on a separate thread, and is capable of very high read/write loads. Overall Bitcoin&#039;s CPU usage is dominated by ECDSA.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Network==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Let&#039;s assume an average rate of 2000tps, so just VISA. Transactions vary in size from about 0.2 kilobytes to over 1 kilobyte, but it&#039;s averaging half a kilobyte today.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
That means that you need to keep up with around 8 megabits/second of transaction data (2000tps * 512 bytes) / 1024 bytes in a kilobyte / 1024 kilobytes in a megabyte = 0.97 megabytes per second * 8 = 7.8 megabits/second.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This sort of bandwidth is already common for even residential connections today, and is certainly at the low end of what colocation providers would expect to provide you with.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When blocks are solved, the current protocol will send the transactions again, even if a peer has already seen it at broadcast time. Fixing this to make blocks just list of hashes would resolve the issue and make the bandwidth needed for block broadcast negligable. So whilst this optimization isn&#039;t fully implemented today, we do not consider block transmission bandwidth here.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Storage==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
At very high transaction rates each block can be over half a gigabyte in size.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It is not required for most fully validating nodes to store the entire chain. In Satoshi&#039;s paper he describes &amp;quot;pruning&amp;quot;, a way to delete unnecessary data about transactions that are fully spent. This reduces the amount of data that is needed for a fully validating node to be only the size of the current unspent output size, plus some additional data that is needed to handle re-orgs. As of October 2012 (block 203258) there have been 7,979,231 transactions, however the size of the unspent output set is less than 100MiB, which is small enough to easily fit in RAM for even quite old computers.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Only a small number of archival nodes need to store the full chain going back to the genesis block. These nodes can be used to bootstrap new fully validating nodes from scratch but are otherwise unnecessary.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The primary limiting factor in Bitcoin&#039;s performance is disk seeks once the unspent transaction output set stops fitting in memory. It is quite possible that the set will always fit in memory on dedicated server class machines, if hardware advances faster than Bitcoin usage does.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Optimizations==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The description above applies to the current software with only minor optimizations assumed (the type that can and have been done by one man in a few weeks). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
However there is potential for even greater optimizations to be made in future, at the cost of some additional complexity.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===CPU===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Pieter Wuille has implemented a custom verifier tuned for secp256k1 that can go beyond 20,000 signature verifications per second. It would require careful review by professional cryptographers to gain as much confidence as OpenSSL, but this can easily halve CPU load.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Algorithms exist to accelerate batch verification over elliptic curve signatures. This means if there are several inputs that are signing with the same key, it&#039;s possible to check their signatures simultaneously for another 9x speedup. This is a somewhat more complex implementation, however, it can work with existing signatures (clients don&#039;t need upgrading).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Newly developed digital signature algorithms, like [http://ed25519.cr.yp.to/ed25519-20110705.pdf ed25519] have extremely efficient software implementations that can reach speeds of nearly 80,000 verifications per second, even on an old Westmere CPU. That is a 10x improvement over secp256k1, and most likely is even higher on more modern CPUs. Supporting this in Bitcoin would mean a chain fork. This ECC algorithm has also been shown to be [http://eprint.iacr.org/2014/198 easily accelerated using GPUs], yielding scalar point multiplication times of less than a microsecond (i.e. a million point multiplications per second).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
At these speeds it is likely that disk and memory bandwidth would become the primary limiting factor, rather than signature checking.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Simplified payment verification===&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;!-- &amp;quot;Simplified payment verification&amp;quot; redirects here. Update the redirect if you change the section title --&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It&#039;s possible to build a Bitcoin implementation that does not verify everything, but instead relies on either connecting to a trusted node, or puts its faith in high difficulty as a proxy for proof of validity. [[bitcoinj]] is an implementation of this mode.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In Simplified Payment Verification (SPV) mode, named after the section of Satoshi&#039;s paper that describes it, clients connect to an arbitrary full node and download only the block headers. They verify the chain headers connect together correctly and that the difficulty is high enough. They then request transactions matching particular patterns from the remote node (ie, payments to your addresses), which provides copies of those transactions along with a Merkle branch linking them to the block in which they appeared. This exploits the Merkle tree structure to allow proof of inclusion without needing the full contents of the block. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As a further optimization, block headers that are buried sufficiently deep can be thrown away after some time (eg, you only really need to store say 5000 blocks).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The level of difficulty required to obtain confidence the remote node is not feeding you fictional transactions depends on your threat model. If you are connecting to a node that is known to be reliable, the difficulty doesn&#039;t matter. If you want to pick a random node, the cost for an attacker to mine a block sequence containing a bogus transaction should be higher than the value to be obtained by defrauding you. By changing how deeply buried the block must be, you can trade off confirmation time vs cost of an attack.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Programs implementing this approach can have fixed storage/network overhead in the null case of no usage, and resource usage proportional to received/sent transactions.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
See also: [[Thin Client Security]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Related work ==&lt;br /&gt;
There are a few proposals for optimizing Bitcoin&#039;s scalability. Some of these require an alt-chain / hard fork.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=88208.0 Ultimate blockchain compression] - the idea that the blockchain can be compressed to achieve &amp;quot;trust-free lite nodes&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://www.bitfreak.info/files/pp2p-ccmbc-rev1.pdf The Finite Blockchain] paper that describes splitting the blockchain into three data structures, each better suited for its purpose. The three data structures are a finite blockchain (keep N blocks into the past), an &amp;quot;account tree&amp;quot; which keeps account balance for every address with a non-zero balance, and a &amp;quot;proof chain&amp;quot; which is an (ever growing) slimmed down version of the blockchain.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Technical]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=API_reference_(JSON-RPC)&amp;diff=49716</id>
		<title>API reference (JSON-RPC)</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=API_reference_(JSON-RPC)&amp;diff=49716"/>
		<updated>2014-08-11T00:48:54Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: /* Python */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;== Controlling Bitcoin ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Run &#039;&#039;bitcoind&#039;&#039; or &#039;&#039;bitcoin-qt -server&#039;&#039;. You can control it via the command-line or by [http://json-rpc.org/wiki/specification HTTP JSON-RPC] commands.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
You must create a bitcoin.conf configuration file setting an rpcuser and rpcpassword; see [[Running Bitcoin]] for details.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Now run:&lt;br /&gt;
  $ ./bitcoind -daemon&lt;br /&gt;
  bitcoin server starting&lt;br /&gt;
  $ ./bitcoind help&lt;br /&gt;
  # shows the help text&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A [[Original Bitcoin client/API Calls list|list of RPC calls]] will be shown.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  $ ./bitcoind getbalance&lt;br /&gt;
  2000.00000&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== JSON-RPC ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Running Bitcoin with the -server argument (or running bitcoind) tells it to function as a [http://json-rpc.org/wiki/specification HTTP JSON-RPC] server, but &lt;br /&gt;
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_access_authentication Basic access authentication] must be used when communicating with it, and, for security, by default, the server only accepts connections from other processes on the same machine.  If your HTTP or JSON library requires you to specify which &#039;realm&#039; is authenticated, use &#039;jsonrpc&#039;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin supports SSL (https) JSON-RPC connections beginning with version 0.3.14.  See the [[Enabling SSL on original client daemon|rpcssl wiki page]] for setup instructions and a list of all bitcoin.conf configuration options.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Allowing arbitrary machines to access the JSON-RPC port (using the rpcallowip [[Running_Bitcoin|configuration option]]) is dangerous and &#039;&#039;&#039;strongly discouraged&#039;&#039;&#039;-- access should be strictly limited to trusted machines.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To access the server you should find a [http://json-rpc.org/wiki/implementations suitable library] for your language.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Proper money handling ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
See the [[Proper Money Handling (JSON-RPC)|proper money handling page]] for notes on avoiding rounding errors when handling bitcoin values.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Python ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[http://json-rpc.org/wiki/python-json-rpc python-jsonrpc] is the official JSON-RPC implementation for Python.&lt;br /&gt;
It automatically generates Python methods for RPC calls.&lt;br /&gt;
However, due to its design for supporting old versions of Python, it is also rather inefficient.&lt;br /&gt;
[[User:jgarzik|jgarzik]] has forked it as [https://github.com/jgarzik/python-bitcoinrpc Python-BitcoinRPC] and optimized it for current versions.&lt;br /&gt;
Generally, this version is recommended.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
While BitcoinRPC lacks a few obscure features from jsonrpc, software using only the ServiceProxy class can be written the same to work with either version the user might choose to install:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;python&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
from jsonrpc import ServiceProxy&lt;br /&gt;
  &lt;br /&gt;
access = ServiceProxy(&amp;quot;http://user:password@127.0.0.1:8332&amp;quot;)&lt;br /&gt;
access.getinfo()&lt;br /&gt;
access.listreceivedbyaddress(6)&lt;br /&gt;
#access.sendtoaddress(&amp;quot;11yEmxiMso2RsFVfBcCa616npBvGgxiBX&amp;quot;, 10)&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The latest version of python-bitcoinrpc has a new syntax.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;python&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
from bitcoinrpc.authproxy import AuthServiceProxy&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Ruby ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;ruby&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
require &#039;net/http&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
require &#039;uri&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
require &#039;json&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
class BitcoinRPC&lt;br /&gt;
  def initialize(service_url)&lt;br /&gt;
    @uri = URI.parse(service_url)&lt;br /&gt;
  end&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  def method_missing(name, *args)&lt;br /&gt;
    post_body = { &#039;method&#039; =&amp;gt; name, &#039;params&#039; =&amp;gt; args, &#039;id&#039; =&amp;gt; &#039;jsonrpc&#039; }.to_json&lt;br /&gt;
    resp = JSON.parse( http_post_request(post_body) )&lt;br /&gt;
    raise JSONRPCError, resp[&#039;error&#039;] if resp[&#039;error&#039;]&lt;br /&gt;
    resp[&#039;result&#039;]&lt;br /&gt;
  end&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  def http_post_request(post_body)&lt;br /&gt;
    http    = Net::HTTP.new(@uri.host, @uri.port)&lt;br /&gt;
    request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(@uri.request_uri)&lt;br /&gt;
    request.basic_auth @uri.user, @uri.password&lt;br /&gt;
    request.content_type = &#039;application/json&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
    request.body = post_body&lt;br /&gt;
    http.request(request).body&lt;br /&gt;
  end&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  class JSONRPCError &amp;lt; RuntimeError; end&lt;br /&gt;
end&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
if $0 == __FILE__&lt;br /&gt;
  h = BitcoinRPC.new(&#039;http://user:password@127.0.0.1:8332&#039;)&lt;br /&gt;
  p h.getbalance&lt;br /&gt;
  p h.getinfo&lt;br /&gt;
  p h.getnewaddress&lt;br /&gt;
  p h.dumpprivkey( h.getnewaddress )&lt;br /&gt;
  # also see: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Original_Bitcoin_client/API_Calls_list&lt;br /&gt;
end&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== PHP ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The [http://jsonrpcphp.org/ JSON-RPC PHP] library also makes it very easy to connect to Bitcoin.  For example:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;php&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  require_once &#039;jsonRPCClient.php&#039;;&lt;br /&gt;
  &lt;br /&gt;
  $bitcoin = new jsonRPCClient(&#039;http://user:password@127.0.0.1:8332/&#039;);&lt;br /&gt;
   &lt;br /&gt;
  echo &amp;quot;&amp;lt;pre&amp;gt;\n&amp;quot;;&lt;br /&gt;
  print_r($bitcoin-&amp;gt;getinfo()); echo &amp;quot;\n&amp;quot;;&lt;br /&gt;
  echo &amp;quot;Received: &amp;quot;.$bitcoin-&amp;gt;getreceivedbylabel(&amp;quot;Your Address&amp;quot;).&amp;quot;\n&amp;quot;;&lt;br /&gt;
  echo &amp;quot;&amp;lt;/pre&amp;gt;&amp;quot;;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;&#039;Note:&#039;&#039;&#039; The jsonRPCClient library uses fopen() and will throw an exception saying &amp;quot;Unable to connect&amp;quot; if it receives a 404 or 500 error from bitcoind. This prevents you from being able to see error messages generated by bitcoind (as they are sent with status 404 or 500). The [https://github.com/aceat64/EasyBitcoin-PHP EasyBitcoin-PHP library] is similar in function to JSON-RPC PHP but does not have this issue.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Java ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The easiest way to tell Java to use HTTP Basic authentication is to set a default Authenticator:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;java&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  final String rpcuser =&amp;quot;...&amp;quot;;&lt;br /&gt;
  final String rpcpassword =&amp;quot;...&amp;quot;;&lt;br /&gt;
  &lt;br /&gt;
  Authenticator.setDefault(new Authenticator() {&lt;br /&gt;
      protected PasswordAuthentication getPasswordAuthentication() {&lt;br /&gt;
          return new PasswordAuthentication (rpcuser, rpcpassword.toCharArray());&lt;br /&gt;
      }&lt;br /&gt;
  });&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Once that is done, [http://json-rpc.org/wiki/implementations any JSON-RPC library for Java] (or ordinary URL POSTs) may be used to communicate with the Bitcoin server.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Perl ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The JSON::RPC package from CPAN can be used to communicate with Bitcoin.  You must set the client&#039;s credentials; for example:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;perl&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  use JSON::RPC::Client;&lt;br /&gt;
  use Data::Dumper;&lt;br /&gt;
   &lt;br /&gt;
  my $client = new JSON::RPC::Client;&lt;br /&gt;
  &lt;br /&gt;
  $client-&amp;gt;ua-&amp;gt;credentials(&lt;br /&gt;
     &#039;localhost:8332&#039;, &#039;jsonrpc&#039;, &#039;user&#039; =&amp;gt; &#039;password&#039;  # REPLACE WITH YOUR bitcoin.conf rpcuser/rpcpassword&lt;br /&gt;
      );&lt;br /&gt;
  &lt;br /&gt;
  my $uri = &#039;http://localhost:8332/&#039;;&lt;br /&gt;
  my $obj = {&lt;br /&gt;
      method  =&amp;gt; &#039;getinfo&#039;,&lt;br /&gt;
      params  =&amp;gt; [],&lt;br /&gt;
   };&lt;br /&gt;
   &lt;br /&gt;
  my $res = $client-&amp;gt;call( $uri, $obj );&lt;br /&gt;
   &lt;br /&gt;
  if ($res){&lt;br /&gt;
      if ($res-&amp;gt;is_error) { print &amp;quot;Error : &amp;quot;, $res-&amp;gt;error_message; }&lt;br /&gt;
      else { print Dumper($res-&amp;gt;result); }&lt;br /&gt;
  } else {&lt;br /&gt;
      print $client-&amp;gt;status_line;&lt;br /&gt;
  }&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Go ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The [https://github.com/conformal/btcrpcclient btcrpcclient package] can be used to communicate with Bitcoin.  You must provide credentials to match the client you are communicating with.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;go&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
package main&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
import (&lt;br /&gt;
	&amp;quot;github.com/conformal/btcnet&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
	&amp;quot;github.com/conformal/btcrpcclient&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
	&amp;quot;github.com/conformal/btcutil&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
	&amp;quot;log&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
func main() {&lt;br /&gt;
	// create new client instance&lt;br /&gt;
	client, err := btcrpcclient.New(&amp;amp;btcrpcclient.ConnConfig{&lt;br /&gt;
		HttpPostMode: true,&lt;br /&gt;
		DisableTLS:   true,&lt;br /&gt;
		Host:         &amp;quot;127.0.0.1:8332&amp;quot;,&lt;br /&gt;
		User:         &amp;quot;rpcUsername&amp;quot;,&lt;br /&gt;
		Pass:         &amp;quot;rpcPassword&amp;quot;,&lt;br /&gt;
	}, nil)&lt;br /&gt;
	if err != nil {&lt;br /&gt;
		log.Fatalf(&amp;quot;error creating new btc client: %v&amp;quot;, err)&lt;br /&gt;
	}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
	// list accounts&lt;br /&gt;
	accounts, err := client.ListAccounts()&lt;br /&gt;
	if err != nil {&lt;br /&gt;
		log.Fatalf(&amp;quot;error listing accounts: %v&amp;quot;, err)&lt;br /&gt;
	}&lt;br /&gt;
	// iterate over accounts (map[string]btcutil.Amount) and write to stdout&lt;br /&gt;
	for label, amount := range accounts {&lt;br /&gt;
		log.Printf(&amp;quot;%s: %s&amp;quot;, label, amount)&lt;br /&gt;
	}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
	// prepare a sendMany transaction&lt;br /&gt;
	receiver1, err := btcutil.DecodeAddress(&amp;quot;1someAddressThatIsActuallyReal&amp;quot;, &amp;amp;btcnet.MainNetParams)&lt;br /&gt;
	if err != nil {&lt;br /&gt;
		log.Fatalf(&amp;quot;address receiver1 seems to be invalid: %v&amp;quot;, err)&lt;br /&gt;
	}&lt;br /&gt;
	receiver2, err := btcutil.DecodeAddress(&amp;quot;1anotherAddressThatsPrettyReal&amp;quot;, &amp;amp;btcnet.MainNetParams)&lt;br /&gt;
	if err != nil {&lt;br /&gt;
		log.Fatalf(&amp;quot;address receiver2 seems to be invalid: %v&amp;quot;, err)&lt;br /&gt;
	}&lt;br /&gt;
	receivers := map[btcutil.Address]btcutil.Amount{&lt;br /&gt;
		receiver1: 42,  // 42 satoshi&lt;br /&gt;
		receiver2: 100, // 100 satoshi&lt;br /&gt;
	}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
	// create and send the sendMany tx&lt;br /&gt;
	txSha, err := client.SendMany(&amp;quot;some-account-label-from-which-to-send&amp;quot;, receivers)&lt;br /&gt;
	if err != nil {&lt;br /&gt;
		log.Fatalf(&amp;quot;error sendMany: %v&amp;quot;, err)&lt;br /&gt;
	}&lt;br /&gt;
	log.Printf(&amp;quot;sendMany completed! tx sha is: %s&amp;quot;, txSha.String())&lt;br /&gt;
}&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== .NET (C#) ==&lt;br /&gt;
The communication with rpc service can be achieved using the standard http request/response objects.&lt;br /&gt;
A library for serialising and deserializing Json will make your life a lot easier:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Json.Net ( http://james.newtonking.com/json ) is a high performance JSON package for .Net.  It is also available via NuGet from the package manager console ( Install-Package Newtonsoft.Json ).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The following example uses Json.Net:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;csharp&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
 HttpWebRequest webRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(&amp;quot;http://localhost.:8332&amp;quot;);&lt;br /&gt;
 webRequest.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(&amp;quot;user&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;pwd&amp;quot;);&lt;br /&gt;
 /// important, otherwise the service can&#039;t desirialse your request properly&lt;br /&gt;
 webRequest.ContentType = &amp;quot;application/json-rpc&amp;quot;;&lt;br /&gt;
 webRequest.Method = &amp;quot;POST&amp;quot;;&lt;br /&gt;
  &lt;br /&gt;
 JObject joe = new JObject();&lt;br /&gt;
 joe.Add(new JProperty(&amp;quot;jsonrpc&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;1.0&amp;quot;));&lt;br /&gt;
 joe.Add(new JProperty(&amp;quot;id&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;1&amp;quot;));&lt;br /&gt;
 joe.Add(new JProperty(&amp;quot;method&amp;quot;, Method));&lt;br /&gt;
 // params is a collection values which the method requires..&lt;br /&gt;
 if (Params.Keys.Count == 0)&lt;br /&gt;
 {&lt;br /&gt;
  joe.Add(new JProperty(&amp;quot;params&amp;quot;, new JArray()));&lt;br /&gt;
 }&lt;br /&gt;
 else&lt;br /&gt;
 {&lt;br /&gt;
     JArray props = new JArray();&lt;br /&gt;
     // add the props in the reverse order!&lt;br /&gt;
     for (int i = Params.Keys.Count - 1; i &amp;gt;= 0; i--)&lt;br /&gt;
     {&lt;br /&gt;
        .... // add the params&lt;br /&gt;
     }&lt;br /&gt;
     joe.Add(new JProperty(&amp;quot;params&amp;quot;, props));&lt;br /&gt;
     }&lt;br /&gt;
  &lt;br /&gt;
     // serialize json for the request&lt;br /&gt;
     string s = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(joe);&lt;br /&gt;
     byte[] byteArray = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(s);&lt;br /&gt;
     webRequest.ContentLength = byteArray.Length;&lt;br /&gt;
     Stream dataStream = webRequest.GetRequestStream();&lt;br /&gt;
     dataStream.Write(byteArray, 0, byteArray.Length);&lt;br /&gt;
     dataStream.Close();&lt;br /&gt;
     &lt;br /&gt;
     &lt;br /&gt;
     WebResponse webResponse = webRequest.GetResponse();&lt;br /&gt;
     &lt;br /&gt;
     ... // deserialze the response&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There is also a wrapper for Json.NET called Bitnet (https://sourceforge.net/projects/bitnet)&lt;br /&gt;
implementing Bitcoin API in more convenient way:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;csharp&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
     BitnetClient bc = new BitnetClient(&amp;quot;http://127.0.0.1:8332&amp;quot;);&lt;br /&gt;
     bc.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(&amp;quot;user&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;pass&amp;quot;);&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
     var p = bc.GetDifficulty();&lt;br /&gt;
     Console.WriteLine(&amp;quot;Difficulty:&amp;quot; + p.ToString());&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
     var inf = bc.GetInfo();&lt;br /&gt;
     Console.WriteLine(&amp;quot;Balance:&amp;quot; + inf[&amp;quot;balance&amp;quot;]);&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Node.js ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://github.com/freewil/node-bitcoin node-bitcoin] (npm: bitcoin) &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Example using node-bitcoin:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;javascript&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
var bitcoin = require(&#039;bitcoin&#039;);&lt;br /&gt;
var client = new bitcoin.Client({&lt;br /&gt;
  host: &#039;localhost&#039;,&lt;br /&gt;
  port: 8332,&lt;br /&gt;
  user: &#039;user&#039;,&lt;br /&gt;
  pass: &#039;pass&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
});&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
client.getDifficulty(function(err, difficulty) {&lt;br /&gt;
  if (err) {&lt;br /&gt;
    return console.error(err);&lt;br /&gt;
  }&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  console.log(&#039;Difficulty: &#039; + difficulty);&lt;br /&gt;
});&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Example using Kapitalize:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&#039;javascript&#039;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
var client = require(&#039;kapitalize&#039;)()&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
client.auth(&#039;user&#039;, &#039;password&#039;)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
client&lt;br /&gt;
.getInfo()&lt;br /&gt;
.getDifficulty(function(err, difficulty) {&lt;br /&gt;
  console.log(&#039;Dificulty: &#039;, difficulty)&lt;br /&gt;
})&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Command line (cURL) ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
You can also send commands and see results using [http://curl.haxx.se/ cURL] or some other command-line HTTP-fetching utility; for example:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;bash&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  curl --user user --data-binary &#039;{&amp;quot;jsonrpc&amp;quot;: &amp;quot;1.0&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;id&amp;quot;:&amp;quot;curltest&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;method&amp;quot;: &amp;quot;getinfo&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;params&amp;quot;: [] }&#039; &lt;br /&gt;
    -H &#039;content-type: text/plain;&#039; http://127.0.0.1:8332/&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
You will be prompted for your rpcpassword, and then will see something like:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;javascript&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  {&amp;quot;result&amp;quot;:{&amp;quot;balance&amp;quot;:0.000000000000000,&amp;quot;blocks&amp;quot;:59952,&amp;quot;connections&amp;quot;:48,&amp;quot;proxy&amp;quot;:&amp;quot;&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;generate&amp;quot;:false,&lt;br /&gt;
     &amp;quot;genproclimit&amp;quot;:-1,&amp;quot;difficulty&amp;quot;:16.61907875185736,&amp;quot;error&amp;quot;:null,&amp;quot;id&amp;quot;:&amp;quot;curltest&amp;quot;}&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Clojure ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[https://github.com/aviad/clj-btc clj-btc] is a Clojure wrapper for the bitcoin API.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;clojure&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
user=&amp;gt; (require &#039;[clj-btc.core :as btc])&lt;br /&gt;
nil&lt;br /&gt;
user=&amp;gt; (btc/getinfo)&lt;br /&gt;
{&amp;quot;timeoffset&amp;quot; 0, &amp;quot;protocolversion&amp;quot; 70001, &amp;quot;blocks&amp;quot; 111908, &amp;quot;errors&amp;quot; &amp;quot;&amp;quot;,&lt;br /&gt;
 &amp;quot;testnet&amp;quot; true, &amp;quot;proxy&amp;quot; &amp;quot;&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;connections&amp;quot; 4, &amp;quot;version&amp;quot; 80500,&lt;br /&gt;
 &amp;quot;keypoololdest&amp;quot; 1380388750, &amp;quot;paytxfee&amp;quot; 0E-8M,&lt;br /&gt;
 &amp;quot;difficulty&amp;quot; 4642.44443532M, &amp;quot;keypoolsize&amp;quot; 101, &amp;quot;balance&amp;quot; 0E-8M,&lt;br /&gt;
 &amp;quot;walletversion&amp;quot; 60000}&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== See Also==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Original_Bitcoin_client/API_Calls_list|API calls list]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Running Bitcoin]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Lazy API]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[PHP developer intro]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Raw_Transactions|Raw Transactions API]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://blockchain.info/api/json_rpc_api Web Based JSON RPC interface.]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Technical]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Developer]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[zh-cn:API_reference_(JSON-RPC)]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=API_reference_(JSON-RPC)&amp;diff=49715</id>
		<title>API reference (JSON-RPC)</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=API_reference_(JSON-RPC)&amp;diff=49715"/>
		<updated>2014-08-11T00:47:28Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: /* Python */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;== Controlling Bitcoin ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Run &#039;&#039;bitcoind&#039;&#039; or &#039;&#039;bitcoin-qt -server&#039;&#039;. You can control it via the command-line or by [http://json-rpc.org/wiki/specification HTTP JSON-RPC] commands.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
You must create a bitcoin.conf configuration file setting an rpcuser and rpcpassword; see [[Running Bitcoin]] for details.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Now run:&lt;br /&gt;
  $ ./bitcoind -daemon&lt;br /&gt;
  bitcoin server starting&lt;br /&gt;
  $ ./bitcoind help&lt;br /&gt;
  # shows the help text&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A [[Original Bitcoin client/API Calls list|list of RPC calls]] will be shown.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  $ ./bitcoind getbalance&lt;br /&gt;
  2000.00000&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== JSON-RPC ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Running Bitcoin with the -server argument (or running bitcoind) tells it to function as a [http://json-rpc.org/wiki/specification HTTP JSON-RPC] server, but &lt;br /&gt;
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_access_authentication Basic access authentication] must be used when communicating with it, and, for security, by default, the server only accepts connections from other processes on the same machine.  If your HTTP or JSON library requires you to specify which &#039;realm&#039; is authenticated, use &#039;jsonrpc&#039;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bitcoin supports SSL (https) JSON-RPC connections beginning with version 0.3.14.  See the [[Enabling SSL on original client daemon|rpcssl wiki page]] for setup instructions and a list of all bitcoin.conf configuration options.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Allowing arbitrary machines to access the JSON-RPC port (using the rpcallowip [[Running_Bitcoin|configuration option]]) is dangerous and &#039;&#039;&#039;strongly discouraged&#039;&#039;&#039;-- access should be strictly limited to trusted machines.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To access the server you should find a [http://json-rpc.org/wiki/implementations suitable library] for your language.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Proper money handling ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
See the [[Proper Money Handling (JSON-RPC)|proper money handling page]] for notes on avoiding rounding errors when handling bitcoin values.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Python ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[http://json-rpc.org/wiki/python-json-rpc python-jsonrpc] is the official JSON-RPC implementation for Python.&lt;br /&gt;
It automatically generates Python methods for RPC calls.&lt;br /&gt;
However, due to its design for supporting old versions of Python, it is also rather inefficient.&lt;br /&gt;
[[User:jgarzik|jgarzik]] has forked it as [https://github.com/jgarzik/python-bitcoinrpc Python-BitcoinRPC] and optimized it for current versions.&lt;br /&gt;
Generally, this version is recommended.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
While BitcoinRPC lacks a few obscure features from jsonrpc, software using only the ServiceProxy class can be written the same to work with either version the user might choose to install:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;python&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
from jsonrpc import ServiceProxy&lt;br /&gt;
  &lt;br /&gt;
access = ServiceProxy(&amp;quot;http://user:password@127.0.0.1:8332&amp;quot;)&lt;br /&gt;
access.getinfo()&lt;br /&gt;
access.listreceivedbyaddress(6)&lt;br /&gt;
#access.sendtoaddress(&amp;quot;11yEmxiMso2RsFVfBcCa616npBvGgxiBX&amp;quot;, 10)&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The latest version of python-bitcoinrpc has a new syntax.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;python&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  from bitcoinrpc.authproxy import AuthServiceProxy&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Ruby ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;ruby&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
require &#039;net/http&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
require &#039;uri&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
require &#039;json&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
class BitcoinRPC&lt;br /&gt;
  def initialize(service_url)&lt;br /&gt;
    @uri = URI.parse(service_url)&lt;br /&gt;
  end&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  def method_missing(name, *args)&lt;br /&gt;
    post_body = { &#039;method&#039; =&amp;gt; name, &#039;params&#039; =&amp;gt; args, &#039;id&#039; =&amp;gt; &#039;jsonrpc&#039; }.to_json&lt;br /&gt;
    resp = JSON.parse( http_post_request(post_body) )&lt;br /&gt;
    raise JSONRPCError, resp[&#039;error&#039;] if resp[&#039;error&#039;]&lt;br /&gt;
    resp[&#039;result&#039;]&lt;br /&gt;
  end&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  def http_post_request(post_body)&lt;br /&gt;
    http    = Net::HTTP.new(@uri.host, @uri.port)&lt;br /&gt;
    request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(@uri.request_uri)&lt;br /&gt;
    request.basic_auth @uri.user, @uri.password&lt;br /&gt;
    request.content_type = &#039;application/json&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
    request.body = post_body&lt;br /&gt;
    http.request(request).body&lt;br /&gt;
  end&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  class JSONRPCError &amp;lt; RuntimeError; end&lt;br /&gt;
end&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
if $0 == __FILE__&lt;br /&gt;
  h = BitcoinRPC.new(&#039;http://user:password@127.0.0.1:8332&#039;)&lt;br /&gt;
  p h.getbalance&lt;br /&gt;
  p h.getinfo&lt;br /&gt;
  p h.getnewaddress&lt;br /&gt;
  p h.dumpprivkey( h.getnewaddress )&lt;br /&gt;
  # also see: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Original_Bitcoin_client/API_Calls_list&lt;br /&gt;
end&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== PHP ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The [http://jsonrpcphp.org/ JSON-RPC PHP] library also makes it very easy to connect to Bitcoin.  For example:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;php&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  require_once &#039;jsonRPCClient.php&#039;;&lt;br /&gt;
  &lt;br /&gt;
  $bitcoin = new jsonRPCClient(&#039;http://user:password@127.0.0.1:8332/&#039;);&lt;br /&gt;
   &lt;br /&gt;
  echo &amp;quot;&amp;lt;pre&amp;gt;\n&amp;quot;;&lt;br /&gt;
  print_r($bitcoin-&amp;gt;getinfo()); echo &amp;quot;\n&amp;quot;;&lt;br /&gt;
  echo &amp;quot;Received: &amp;quot;.$bitcoin-&amp;gt;getreceivedbylabel(&amp;quot;Your Address&amp;quot;).&amp;quot;\n&amp;quot;;&lt;br /&gt;
  echo &amp;quot;&amp;lt;/pre&amp;gt;&amp;quot;;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;&#039;Note:&#039;&#039;&#039; The jsonRPCClient library uses fopen() and will throw an exception saying &amp;quot;Unable to connect&amp;quot; if it receives a 404 or 500 error from bitcoind. This prevents you from being able to see error messages generated by bitcoind (as they are sent with status 404 or 500). The [https://github.com/aceat64/EasyBitcoin-PHP EasyBitcoin-PHP library] is similar in function to JSON-RPC PHP but does not have this issue.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Java ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The easiest way to tell Java to use HTTP Basic authentication is to set a default Authenticator:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;java&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  final String rpcuser =&amp;quot;...&amp;quot;;&lt;br /&gt;
  final String rpcpassword =&amp;quot;...&amp;quot;;&lt;br /&gt;
  &lt;br /&gt;
  Authenticator.setDefault(new Authenticator() {&lt;br /&gt;
      protected PasswordAuthentication getPasswordAuthentication() {&lt;br /&gt;
          return new PasswordAuthentication (rpcuser, rpcpassword.toCharArray());&lt;br /&gt;
      }&lt;br /&gt;
  });&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Once that is done, [http://json-rpc.org/wiki/implementations any JSON-RPC library for Java] (or ordinary URL POSTs) may be used to communicate with the Bitcoin server.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Perl ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The JSON::RPC package from CPAN can be used to communicate with Bitcoin.  You must set the client&#039;s credentials; for example:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;perl&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  use JSON::RPC::Client;&lt;br /&gt;
  use Data::Dumper;&lt;br /&gt;
   &lt;br /&gt;
  my $client = new JSON::RPC::Client;&lt;br /&gt;
  &lt;br /&gt;
  $client-&amp;gt;ua-&amp;gt;credentials(&lt;br /&gt;
     &#039;localhost:8332&#039;, &#039;jsonrpc&#039;, &#039;user&#039; =&amp;gt; &#039;password&#039;  # REPLACE WITH YOUR bitcoin.conf rpcuser/rpcpassword&lt;br /&gt;
      );&lt;br /&gt;
  &lt;br /&gt;
  my $uri = &#039;http://localhost:8332/&#039;;&lt;br /&gt;
  my $obj = {&lt;br /&gt;
      method  =&amp;gt; &#039;getinfo&#039;,&lt;br /&gt;
      params  =&amp;gt; [],&lt;br /&gt;
   };&lt;br /&gt;
   &lt;br /&gt;
  my $res = $client-&amp;gt;call( $uri, $obj );&lt;br /&gt;
   &lt;br /&gt;
  if ($res){&lt;br /&gt;
      if ($res-&amp;gt;is_error) { print &amp;quot;Error : &amp;quot;, $res-&amp;gt;error_message; }&lt;br /&gt;
      else { print Dumper($res-&amp;gt;result); }&lt;br /&gt;
  } else {&lt;br /&gt;
      print $client-&amp;gt;status_line;&lt;br /&gt;
  }&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Go ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The [https://github.com/conformal/btcrpcclient btcrpcclient package] can be used to communicate with Bitcoin.  You must provide credentials to match the client you are communicating with.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;go&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
package main&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
import (&lt;br /&gt;
	&amp;quot;github.com/conformal/btcnet&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
	&amp;quot;github.com/conformal/btcrpcclient&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
	&amp;quot;github.com/conformal/btcutil&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
	&amp;quot;log&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
func main() {&lt;br /&gt;
	// create new client instance&lt;br /&gt;
	client, err := btcrpcclient.New(&amp;amp;btcrpcclient.ConnConfig{&lt;br /&gt;
		HttpPostMode: true,&lt;br /&gt;
		DisableTLS:   true,&lt;br /&gt;
		Host:         &amp;quot;127.0.0.1:8332&amp;quot;,&lt;br /&gt;
		User:         &amp;quot;rpcUsername&amp;quot;,&lt;br /&gt;
		Pass:         &amp;quot;rpcPassword&amp;quot;,&lt;br /&gt;
	}, nil)&lt;br /&gt;
	if err != nil {&lt;br /&gt;
		log.Fatalf(&amp;quot;error creating new btc client: %v&amp;quot;, err)&lt;br /&gt;
	}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
	// list accounts&lt;br /&gt;
	accounts, err := client.ListAccounts()&lt;br /&gt;
	if err != nil {&lt;br /&gt;
		log.Fatalf(&amp;quot;error listing accounts: %v&amp;quot;, err)&lt;br /&gt;
	}&lt;br /&gt;
	// iterate over accounts (map[string]btcutil.Amount) and write to stdout&lt;br /&gt;
	for label, amount := range accounts {&lt;br /&gt;
		log.Printf(&amp;quot;%s: %s&amp;quot;, label, amount)&lt;br /&gt;
	}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
	// prepare a sendMany transaction&lt;br /&gt;
	receiver1, err := btcutil.DecodeAddress(&amp;quot;1someAddressThatIsActuallyReal&amp;quot;, &amp;amp;btcnet.MainNetParams)&lt;br /&gt;
	if err != nil {&lt;br /&gt;
		log.Fatalf(&amp;quot;address receiver1 seems to be invalid: %v&amp;quot;, err)&lt;br /&gt;
	}&lt;br /&gt;
	receiver2, err := btcutil.DecodeAddress(&amp;quot;1anotherAddressThatsPrettyReal&amp;quot;, &amp;amp;btcnet.MainNetParams)&lt;br /&gt;
	if err != nil {&lt;br /&gt;
		log.Fatalf(&amp;quot;address receiver2 seems to be invalid: %v&amp;quot;, err)&lt;br /&gt;
	}&lt;br /&gt;
	receivers := map[btcutil.Address]btcutil.Amount{&lt;br /&gt;
		receiver1: 42,  // 42 satoshi&lt;br /&gt;
		receiver2: 100, // 100 satoshi&lt;br /&gt;
	}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
	// create and send the sendMany tx&lt;br /&gt;
	txSha, err := client.SendMany(&amp;quot;some-account-label-from-which-to-send&amp;quot;, receivers)&lt;br /&gt;
	if err != nil {&lt;br /&gt;
		log.Fatalf(&amp;quot;error sendMany: %v&amp;quot;, err)&lt;br /&gt;
	}&lt;br /&gt;
	log.Printf(&amp;quot;sendMany completed! tx sha is: %s&amp;quot;, txSha.String())&lt;br /&gt;
}&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== .NET (C#) ==&lt;br /&gt;
The communication with rpc service can be achieved using the standard http request/response objects.&lt;br /&gt;
A library for serialising and deserializing Json will make your life a lot easier:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Json.Net ( http://james.newtonking.com/json ) is a high performance JSON package for .Net.  It is also available via NuGet from the package manager console ( Install-Package Newtonsoft.Json ).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The following example uses Json.Net:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;csharp&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
 HttpWebRequest webRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(&amp;quot;http://localhost.:8332&amp;quot;);&lt;br /&gt;
 webRequest.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(&amp;quot;user&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;pwd&amp;quot;);&lt;br /&gt;
 /// important, otherwise the service can&#039;t desirialse your request properly&lt;br /&gt;
 webRequest.ContentType = &amp;quot;application/json-rpc&amp;quot;;&lt;br /&gt;
 webRequest.Method = &amp;quot;POST&amp;quot;;&lt;br /&gt;
  &lt;br /&gt;
 JObject joe = new JObject();&lt;br /&gt;
 joe.Add(new JProperty(&amp;quot;jsonrpc&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;1.0&amp;quot;));&lt;br /&gt;
 joe.Add(new JProperty(&amp;quot;id&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;1&amp;quot;));&lt;br /&gt;
 joe.Add(new JProperty(&amp;quot;method&amp;quot;, Method));&lt;br /&gt;
 // params is a collection values which the method requires..&lt;br /&gt;
 if (Params.Keys.Count == 0)&lt;br /&gt;
 {&lt;br /&gt;
  joe.Add(new JProperty(&amp;quot;params&amp;quot;, new JArray()));&lt;br /&gt;
 }&lt;br /&gt;
 else&lt;br /&gt;
 {&lt;br /&gt;
     JArray props = new JArray();&lt;br /&gt;
     // add the props in the reverse order!&lt;br /&gt;
     for (int i = Params.Keys.Count - 1; i &amp;gt;= 0; i--)&lt;br /&gt;
     {&lt;br /&gt;
        .... // add the params&lt;br /&gt;
     }&lt;br /&gt;
     joe.Add(new JProperty(&amp;quot;params&amp;quot;, props));&lt;br /&gt;
     }&lt;br /&gt;
  &lt;br /&gt;
     // serialize json for the request&lt;br /&gt;
     string s = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(joe);&lt;br /&gt;
     byte[] byteArray = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(s);&lt;br /&gt;
     webRequest.ContentLength = byteArray.Length;&lt;br /&gt;
     Stream dataStream = webRequest.GetRequestStream();&lt;br /&gt;
     dataStream.Write(byteArray, 0, byteArray.Length);&lt;br /&gt;
     dataStream.Close();&lt;br /&gt;
     &lt;br /&gt;
     &lt;br /&gt;
     WebResponse webResponse = webRequest.GetResponse();&lt;br /&gt;
     &lt;br /&gt;
     ... // deserialze the response&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There is also a wrapper for Json.NET called Bitnet (https://sourceforge.net/projects/bitnet)&lt;br /&gt;
implementing Bitcoin API in more convenient way:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;csharp&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
     BitnetClient bc = new BitnetClient(&amp;quot;http://127.0.0.1:8332&amp;quot;);&lt;br /&gt;
     bc.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(&amp;quot;user&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;pass&amp;quot;);&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
     var p = bc.GetDifficulty();&lt;br /&gt;
     Console.WriteLine(&amp;quot;Difficulty:&amp;quot; + p.ToString());&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
     var inf = bc.GetInfo();&lt;br /&gt;
     Console.WriteLine(&amp;quot;Balance:&amp;quot; + inf[&amp;quot;balance&amp;quot;]);&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Node.js ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://github.com/freewil/node-bitcoin node-bitcoin] (npm: bitcoin) &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Example using node-bitcoin:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;javascript&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
var bitcoin = require(&#039;bitcoin&#039;);&lt;br /&gt;
var client = new bitcoin.Client({&lt;br /&gt;
  host: &#039;localhost&#039;,&lt;br /&gt;
  port: 8332,&lt;br /&gt;
  user: &#039;user&#039;,&lt;br /&gt;
  pass: &#039;pass&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
});&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
client.getDifficulty(function(err, difficulty) {&lt;br /&gt;
  if (err) {&lt;br /&gt;
    return console.error(err);&lt;br /&gt;
  }&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
  console.log(&#039;Difficulty: &#039; + difficulty);&lt;br /&gt;
});&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Example using Kapitalize:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&#039;javascript&#039;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
var client = require(&#039;kapitalize&#039;)()&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
client.auth(&#039;user&#039;, &#039;password&#039;)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
client&lt;br /&gt;
.getInfo()&lt;br /&gt;
.getDifficulty(function(err, difficulty) {&lt;br /&gt;
  console.log(&#039;Dificulty: &#039;, difficulty)&lt;br /&gt;
})&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Command line (cURL) ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
You can also send commands and see results using [http://curl.haxx.se/ cURL] or some other command-line HTTP-fetching utility; for example:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;bash&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  curl --user user --data-binary &#039;{&amp;quot;jsonrpc&amp;quot;: &amp;quot;1.0&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;id&amp;quot;:&amp;quot;curltest&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;method&amp;quot;: &amp;quot;getinfo&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;params&amp;quot;: [] }&#039; &lt;br /&gt;
    -H &#039;content-type: text/plain;&#039; http://127.0.0.1:8332/&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
You will be prompted for your rpcpassword, and then will see something like:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;javascript&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
  {&amp;quot;result&amp;quot;:{&amp;quot;balance&amp;quot;:0.000000000000000,&amp;quot;blocks&amp;quot;:59952,&amp;quot;connections&amp;quot;:48,&amp;quot;proxy&amp;quot;:&amp;quot;&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;generate&amp;quot;:false,&lt;br /&gt;
     &amp;quot;genproclimit&amp;quot;:-1,&amp;quot;difficulty&amp;quot;:16.61907875185736,&amp;quot;error&amp;quot;:null,&amp;quot;id&amp;quot;:&amp;quot;curltest&amp;quot;}&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Clojure ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[https://github.com/aviad/clj-btc clj-btc] is a Clojure wrapper for the bitcoin API.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;source lang=&amp;quot;clojure&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
user=&amp;gt; (require &#039;[clj-btc.core :as btc])&lt;br /&gt;
nil&lt;br /&gt;
user=&amp;gt; (btc/getinfo)&lt;br /&gt;
{&amp;quot;timeoffset&amp;quot; 0, &amp;quot;protocolversion&amp;quot; 70001, &amp;quot;blocks&amp;quot; 111908, &amp;quot;errors&amp;quot; &amp;quot;&amp;quot;,&lt;br /&gt;
 &amp;quot;testnet&amp;quot; true, &amp;quot;proxy&amp;quot; &amp;quot;&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;connections&amp;quot; 4, &amp;quot;version&amp;quot; 80500,&lt;br /&gt;
 &amp;quot;keypoololdest&amp;quot; 1380388750, &amp;quot;paytxfee&amp;quot; 0E-8M,&lt;br /&gt;
 &amp;quot;difficulty&amp;quot; 4642.44443532M, &amp;quot;keypoolsize&amp;quot; 101, &amp;quot;balance&amp;quot; 0E-8M,&lt;br /&gt;
 &amp;quot;walletversion&amp;quot; 60000}&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/source&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== See Also==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Original_Bitcoin_client/API_Calls_list|API calls list]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Running Bitcoin]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Lazy API]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[PHP developer intro]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Raw_Transactions|Raw Transactions API]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://blockchain.info/api/json_rpc_api Web Based JSON RPC interface.]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Technical]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Developer]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[zh-cn:API_reference_(JSON-RPC)]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=User:Pietrod21&amp;diff=49683</id>
		<title>User:Pietrod21</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=User:Pietrod21&amp;diff=49683"/>
		<updated>2014-08-10T04:22:27Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: Short info&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;I&#039;m interested in the possibility that the protocol and the blockchain offers, I look forward to create a p2p currency not only from the side of storing the ledger but also on the emission side.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I&#039;m a bitcoin code noob and want to know more about that!&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Talk:OP_CHECKSIG&amp;diff=49682</id>
		<title>Talk:OP CHECKSIG</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Talk:OP_CHECKSIG&amp;diff=49682"/>
		<updated>2014-08-10T04:21:02Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;=Redundant step?=&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Under &amp;quot;How it works&amp;quot;, we have steps 2 and 6:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
- 2. A new subscript is created from the instruction from the most recent OP_CODESEPARATOR to the end of the script. If there is no OP_CODESEPARATOR the entire script becomes the subscript (hereby referred to as subScript)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
- 6. All OP_CODESEPARATORS are removed from subScript&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
However, doesn&#039;t step 6 seem redundant? [[User:Vegard|Vegard]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Answer: ([[User:sirk390|sirk390]])&lt;br /&gt;
The comment for step 6. in the bitcoin sources help to understand this (script.cpp:882)&lt;br /&gt;
       // In case concatenating two scripts ends up with two codeseparators,&lt;br /&gt;
       // or an extra one at the end, this prevents all those possible incompatibilities. &lt;br /&gt;
In step 2, only OP_CODESEPARATOR before OP_CHECKSIG are removed. In step OP_CODESEPARATOR after OP_CHECKSIG are also removed.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Update with OP_RETURN==&lt;br /&gt;
I&#039;m searching a schema like the one from jenjix but updated with the OP_RETURN code, anyone can updare the page to add this new feature information in the raw transaction explanation? I also see that for now doesn&#039;t exist either a page on the OP_RETURN on this wiki... [[User:Pietrod21|Pietrod]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
= More info =&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Maybe add short description from here [[Contracts#Theory]] for all SIGHASH_*? [[User:Mad|Mad]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
= Code samples and raw dumps = &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I think there is some error in the section &amp;quot;Code samples and raw dumps&amp;quot; - The input script is:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;04 11 db 93 e1 dc db 8a &lt;br /&gt;
01 6b 49 84 0f 8c 53 bc &lt;br /&gt;
1e b6 8a 38 2e 97 b1 48 &lt;br /&gt;
2e ca d7 b1 48 a6 90 9a &lt;br /&gt;
5c b2 e0 ea dd fb 84 cc &lt;br /&gt;
f9 74 44 64 f8 2e 16 0b &lt;br /&gt;
fa 9b 8b 64 f9 d4 c0 3f &lt;br /&gt;
99 9b 86 43 f6 56 b4 12 &lt;br /&gt;
a3&lt;br /&gt;
ac&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
and should probably be &amp;quot;304402204e45e16932b8af514961a1d3a1a25fdf3f4f7732e9d624c6c61548ab5fb8cd410220181522ec8eca07de4860a4acdd12909d831cc56cbbac4622082221a8768d1d0901&amp;quot;, at least according to the Block Explorer:&lt;br /&gt;
http://blockexplorer.com/rawtx/f4184fc596403b9d638783cf57adfe4c75c605f6356fbc91338530e9831e9e16&lt;br /&gt;
--[[User:ThePiachu|ThePiachu]] 22:46, 21 March 2012 (GMT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:Indeed, I had noticed the same problem. I have fixed the example.&lt;br /&gt;
:[[User:OneEyed|OneEyed]] ([[User talk:OneEyed|talk]]) 18:16, 4 August 2012 (GMT)&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=48847</id>
		<title>HolyTransaction</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=48847"/>
		<updated>2014-07-17T03:21:37Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: /* History */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{{infobox company|name=HolyTransaction|image=[[Image:HolyTransaction_Logo.png|256px]]&lt;br /&gt;
|trading_name=HolyTransaction&lt;br /&gt;
|industry=[[Wallet]]&lt;br /&gt;
|foundation=2014-02-16&lt;br /&gt;
|location= Sunnyvale, CA&lt;br /&gt;
|founder= [http://noveltylab.com NoveltyLab]&lt;br /&gt;
|owner=&lt;br /&gt;
|parent=&lt;br /&gt;
|pairs&lt;br /&gt;
|website=https://www.holytransaction.com&lt;br /&gt;
}}&lt;br /&gt;
[https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] is your universal multi-currency wallet. It offers a simple and instant exchange among top cryptocurrencies. It&#039;s designed for nontechnical users. Mobile wallet client available on any device with HTML5 support.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Universal Wallet==&lt;br /&gt;
Accept Bitcoin, Blackcoin, Darkcoin, Dogecoin, Litecoin and Peercoin, all in one place? Yes! Easily receive your cryptocurrency with HolyTransaction on your online wallet at any time. You can send payments in one digital currency, and receive in another.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Digital Currency Exchange==&lt;br /&gt;
HolyTransaction is a multi-currency online wallet with simple and instant conversion between supported currencies - we are the simplest exchange among top cryptocurrencies. Send Litecoin to a Bitcoin address and we carry the instant conversion.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Send Bitcoin to anyone!==&lt;br /&gt;
Send cryptocurrencies to a friend through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, email. You can send Bitcoin, Litecoin and other supported cryptocurrencies to anyone, anywhere. If they don’t have a wallet, they will receive a notification with a link to redeem the funds.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Free for all==&lt;br /&gt;
You can send cryptocurrency to anyone for free. If you don’t exchange coins, you don’t pay any fees; our fee is included in the exchange you make.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Cutting Edge Security==&lt;br /&gt;
We follow industry best practices and guarantee that your money is safe. We utilize both hot &amp;amp; cold storage.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==API==&lt;br /&gt;
Integrate cryptocurrency support into a website of any kind, from invoice processing to white-labeled multi-currency wallets.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==History==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* HolyTransaction Beta: February 16th 2014&lt;br /&gt;
* HolyTransaction v1: April 30th 2014&lt;br /&gt;
* HolyTransaction v1.5: July 14th 2014&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==External Links==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] Official website&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=472248.0 on BitcoinTalk] BitcoinTalk&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://twitter.com/holytransaction HolyTransaction on Twitter]&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://www.facebook.com/HolyTransaction HolyTransaction Facebook] Facebook page&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://plus.googleapis.com/108905880098500076417 HolyTransaction on Google+ ] Google+ page&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Screenshots==&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_1.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_2.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:EWallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Wallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Exchange]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Services]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Financial]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Clients]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Frontends]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=48538</id>
		<title>HolyTransaction</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=48538"/>
		<updated>2014-06-30T05:18:24Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{{infobox company|name=HolyTransaction|image=[[Image:HolyTransaction_Logo.png|256px]]&lt;br /&gt;
|trading_name=HolyTransaction&lt;br /&gt;
|industry=[[Wallet]]&lt;br /&gt;
|foundation=2014-02-16&lt;br /&gt;
|location= Sunnyvale, CA&lt;br /&gt;
|founder= [http://noveltylab.com NoveltyLab]&lt;br /&gt;
|owner=&lt;br /&gt;
|parent=&lt;br /&gt;
|pairs&lt;br /&gt;
|website=https://www.holytransaction.com&lt;br /&gt;
}}&lt;br /&gt;
[https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] is your universal multi-currency wallet. It offers a simple and instant exchange among top cryptocurrencies. It&#039;s designed for nontechnical users. Mobile wallet client available on any device with HTML5 support.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Universal Wallet==&lt;br /&gt;
Accept Bitcoin, Blackcoin, Darkcoin, Dogecoin, Litecoin and Peercoin, all in one place? Yes! Easily receive your cryptocurrency with HolyTransaction on your online wallet at any time. You can send payments in one digital currency, and receive in another.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Digital Currency Exchange==&lt;br /&gt;
HolyTransaction is a multi-currency online wallet with simple and instant conversion between supported currencies - we are the simplest exchange among top cryptocurrencies. Send Litecoin to a Bitcoin address and we carry the instant conversion.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Send Bitcoin to anyone!==&lt;br /&gt;
Send cryptocurrencies to a friend through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, email. You can send Bitcoin, Litecoin and other supported cryptocurrencies to anyone, anywhere. If they don’t have a wallet, they will receive a notification with a link to redeem the funds.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Free for all==&lt;br /&gt;
You can send cryptocurrency to anyone for free. If you don’t exchange coins, you don’t pay any fees; our fee is included in the exchange you make.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Cutting Edge Security==&lt;br /&gt;
We follow industry best practices and guarantee that your money is safe. We utilize both hot &amp;amp; cold storage.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==API==&lt;br /&gt;
Integrate cryptocurrency support into a website of any kind, from invoice processing to white-labeled multi-currency wallets.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==History==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* HolyTransaction Beta: February 16th 2014&lt;br /&gt;
* HolyTransaction v1: April 30th 2014&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==External Links==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] Official website&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=472248.0 on BitcoinTalk] BitcoinTalk&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://twitter.com/holytransaction HolyTransaction on Twitter]&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://www.facebook.com/HolyTransaction HolyTransaction Facebook] Facebook page&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://plus.googleapis.com/108905880098500076417 HolyTransaction on Google+ ] Google+ page&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Screenshots==&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_1.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_2.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:EWallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Wallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Exchange]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Services]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Financial]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Clients]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Frontends]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Wallet&amp;diff=48537</id>
		<title>Wallet</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Wallet&amp;diff=48537"/>
		<updated>2014-06-30T05:16:32Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: /* HolyTransaction */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;A Bitcoin &#039;&#039;&#039;wallet&#039;&#039;&#039; is a file that contains a collection of private keys. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Bitcoin Qt ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The original Bitcoin  [[Clients|client]] wallet file is named &#039;&#039;&#039;wallet.dat&#039;&#039;&#039; and contains&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4448.0 Wallet import/export: bitkeys format]&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* keypairs for each of your [[address|addresses]]&lt;br /&gt;
* transactions done from/to your addresses&lt;br /&gt;
* user preferences &lt;br /&gt;
* default key&lt;br /&gt;
* reserve keys&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Accounts_explained|accounts]]&lt;br /&gt;
* a version number&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Key pool]]&lt;br /&gt;
* Since 0.3.21: information about the current best chain, to be able to rescan automatically when restoring from a backup.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The data file for the wallet is wallet.dat and is located in the [[data directory|Bitcoin data directory]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It is intended that a wallet be used on only one installation of Bitcoin at a time.  Attempting to clone a wallet for use on multiple computers will result in &amp;quot;weird behavior&amp;quot;&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;[http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=5324.msg77896#msg77896 Multiple instance of bitcoin with the same wallet]&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The format of this file is Berkeley DB.  Tools that can manipulate wallet files include [[pywallet]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Armory ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Armory client uses a custom [http://bitcoinarmory.com/developers/armory-wallet-files/ binary wallet format].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Blockchain.info ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Blockchain.info use a plain text JSON wallet format documented [https://blockchain.info/wallet/wallet-format here]. Private keys Keys are stored in base58.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== [[Coinkite]] ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[File:Coinkite.gif|20px|link=https://coinkite.com]] [https://coinkite.com/promo/wiki Coinkite] is the only web wallet using [https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0032 &amp;quot;HD Wallet (BIP32)&amp;quot;] technology, which can be shared partially or entirely with different systems, each with or without the ability to spend coins  [https://coinkite.com/faq here]. Private keys Keys are sent to you encrypted with AES-256-CBC.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== [[HolyTransaction]] ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] is your universal multi-currency wallet with instant exchange. You can send payments in one digital currency, and receive in another. It&#039;s designed for nontechnical users. Mobile wallet client available on any device with HTML5 support.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Multibit ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Multibit uses the bitcoinj [http://code.google.com/p/protobuf/ protobuf] wallet file.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== [[Coinprism]] ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[File:Coinprism_Favicon.png|16px|link=https://www.coinprism.com]] [https://www.coinprism.com Coinprism] is the first colored coin web wallet. Coinprism is similar to other web wallets, except you can store, issue, send and receive colored coins and not only normal Bitcoins. Note that the site is currently in invite-only beta.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== [[Bitcoin Wallet]] ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[File:bitcoin_wallet.png|192px]] Bitcoin Wallet uses the bitcoinj [http://code.google.com/p/protobuf/ protobuf] format for its wallet file. However, due to Android isolation of applications, it is impossible to access the wallet file as a non-root user.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Email Tip Bot ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[http://emailtipbot.com Email Tip Bot] is a wallet that works entirely through email. This makes it the only native solution to sending bitcoins on iOS devices, like the iPhone and iPad. It is secure against email spoofing, but can be compromised by anyone who has read access to your email.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==See Also==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Securing your wallet]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[EWallet]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Deterministic Wallet]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://bitcoinx.io/wallets Finding a Wallet]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==References==&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;references /&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=48536</id>
		<title>HolyTransaction</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=48536"/>
		<updated>2014-06-30T05:13:48Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{{infobox company|name=HolyTransaction|image=[[Image:HolyTransaction_Logo.png|256px]]&lt;br /&gt;
|trading_name=HolyTransaction&lt;br /&gt;
|industry=[[Wallet]]&lt;br /&gt;
|foundation=2014-02-16&lt;br /&gt;
|location= Sunnyvale, CA&lt;br /&gt;
|founder= [http://noveltylab.com NoveltyLab]&lt;br /&gt;
|owner=&lt;br /&gt;
|parent=&lt;br /&gt;
|pairs&lt;br /&gt;
|website=https://www.holytransaction.com&lt;br /&gt;
}}&lt;br /&gt;
[https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] is your universal multi-currency wallet. It offers a simple and instant exchange among top cryptocurrencies. Mobile wallet svailable on any device with HTML5 support. It&#039;s designed for non-technical users. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Universal Wallet==&lt;br /&gt;
Accept Bitcoin, Blackcoin, Darkcoin, Dogecoin, Litecoin and Peercoin, all in one place? Yes! Easily receive your cryptocurrency with HolyTransaction on your online wallet at any time. You can send payments in one digital currency, and receive in another.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Digital Currency Exchange==&lt;br /&gt;
HolyTransaction is a multi-currency online wallet with simple and instant conversion between supported currencies - we are the simplest exchange among top cryptocurrencies. Send Litecoin to a Bitcoin address and we carry the instant conversion.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Send Bitcoin to anyone!==&lt;br /&gt;
Send cryptocurrencies to a friend through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, email. You can send Bitcoin, Litecoin and other supported cryptocurrencies to anyone, anywhere. If they don’t have a wallet, they will receive a notification with a link to redeem the funds.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Free for all==&lt;br /&gt;
You can send cryptocurrency to anyone for free. If you don’t exchange coins, you don’t pay any fees; our fee is included in the exchange you make.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Cutting Edge Security==&lt;br /&gt;
We follow industry best practices and guarantee that your money is safe. We utilize both hot &amp;amp; cold storage.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==API==&lt;br /&gt;
Integrate cryptocurrency support into a website of any kind, from invoice processing to white-labeled multi-currency wallets.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==History==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* HolyTransaction Beta: February 16th 2014&lt;br /&gt;
* HolyTransaction v1: April 30th 2014&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==External Links==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] Official website&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=472248.0 on BitcoinTalk] BitcoinTalk&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://twitter.com/holytransaction HolyTransaction on Twitter]&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://www.facebook.com/HolyTransaction HolyTransaction Facebook] Facebook page&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://plus.googleapis.com/108905880098500076417 HolyTransaction on Google+ ] Google+ page&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Software development==&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://noveltylab.com NoveltyLab]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Screenshots==&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_1.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_2.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:EWallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Wallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Exchange]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Services]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Financial]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Clients]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Frontends]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Wallet&amp;diff=48501</id>
		<title>Wallet</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Wallet&amp;diff=48501"/>
		<updated>2014-06-28T10:31:52Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;A Bitcoin &#039;&#039;&#039;wallet&#039;&#039;&#039; is a file that contains a collection of private keys. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Bitcoin Qt ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The original Bitcoin  [[Clients|client]] wallet file is named &#039;&#039;&#039;wallet.dat&#039;&#039;&#039; and contains&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4448.0 Wallet import/export: bitkeys format]&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* keypairs for each of your [[address|addresses]]&lt;br /&gt;
* transactions done from/to your addresses&lt;br /&gt;
* user preferences &lt;br /&gt;
* default key&lt;br /&gt;
* reserve keys&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Accounts_explained|accounts]]&lt;br /&gt;
* a version number&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Key pool]]&lt;br /&gt;
* Since 0.3.21: information about the current best chain, to be able to rescan automatically when restoring from a backup.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The data file for the wallet is wallet.dat and is located in the [[data directory|Bitcoin data directory]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It is intended that a wallet be used on only one installation of Bitcoin at a time.  Attempting to clone a wallet for use on multiple computers will result in &amp;quot;weird behavior&amp;quot;&amp;lt;ref&amp;gt;[http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=5324.msg77896#msg77896 Multiple instance of bitcoin with the same wallet]&amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The format of this file is Berkeley DB.  Tools that can manipulate wallet files include [[pywallet]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Armory ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The Armory client uses a custom [http://bitcoinarmory.com/developers/armory-wallet-files/ binary wallet format].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Blockchain.info ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Blockchain.info use a plain text JSON wallet format documented [https://blockchain.info/wallet/wallet-format here]. Private keys Keys are stored in base58.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== [[Coinkite]] ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[File:Coinkite.gif|20px|link=https://coinkite.com]] [https://coinkite.com/promo/wiki Coinkite] is the only web wallet using [https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0032 &amp;quot;HD Wallet (BIP32)&amp;quot;] technology, which can be shared partially or entirely with different systems, each with or without the ability to spend coins  [https://coinkite.com/faq here]. Private keys Keys are sent to you encrypted with AES-256-CBC.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== [[HolyTransaction]] ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] is your universal multi-currency wallet with instant exchange. You can send payments in one digital currency, and receive in another. HTML5&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Multibit ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Multibit uses the bitcoinj [http://code.google.com/p/protobuf/ protobuf] wallet file.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== [[Coinprism]] ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[File:Coinprism_Favicon.png|16px|link=https://www.coinprism.com]] [https://www.coinprism.com Coinprism] is the first colored coin web wallet. Coinprism is similar to other web wallets, except you can store, issue, send and receive colored coins and not only normal Bitcoins. Note that the site is currently in invite-only beta.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== [[Bitcoin Wallet]] ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[File:bitcoin_wallet.png|192px]] Bitcoin Wallet uses the bitcoinj [http://code.google.com/p/protobuf/ protobuf] format for its wallet file. However, due to Android isolation of applications, it is impossible to access the wallet file as a non-root user.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Email Tip Bot ===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[http://emailtipbot.com Email Tip Bot] is a wallet that works entirely through email. This makes it the only native solution to sending bitcoins on iOS devices, like the iPhone and iPad. It is secure against email spoofing, but can be compromised by anyone who has read access to your email.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==See Also==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Securing your wallet]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[EWallet]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Deterministic Wallet]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://bitcoinx.io/wallets Finding a Wallet]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==References==&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;references /&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=46716</id>
		<title>HolyTransaction</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=46716"/>
		<updated>2014-04-23T13:51:02Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: /* Specifications */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;[[Image:HolyTransaction_Logo.png|300px]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] is a multi currency online wallet for nontechnical users that offers a simple and instant exchange among top cryptocurrencies. Users can send and receive cryptocurrency from mobile wallet or over social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Specifications==&lt;br /&gt;
HolyTransaction is the first consumer-oriented digital wallet that offers instant conversion into multiple digital cryptocurrencies and secure storage.&lt;br /&gt;
You can send any-coin to any-coin: in that case you send [[Bitcoin]] to another cryptocurrency address we perform instant exchange.&lt;br /&gt;
With just an email, users can send and receive Bitcoin, [[Dogecoin]], [[Litecoin]] and [[Peercoin]] from anyone. Instant gift-code to send and receive cryptocurrency from mobile browser and over social networks.&lt;br /&gt;
You can read about how it works in our [https://holytransaction.com/page/faq FAQ]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Multi-currency, Mobile support, Instant Exchange, Instant GiftCode, Cold-Storage Security, Google Authenticator 2FA, QR Codes, transaction history, exchange history, Open API for merchants and more. Android and iOS friendly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==History==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* HolyTransaction Beta launch: February 16th 2014&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==External Links==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] Official website&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=472248.0 on BitcoinTalk] BitcoinTalk&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://twitter.com/NoveltyLab HolyTransaction on Twitter]&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://www.facebook.com/HolyTransaction HolyTransaction Facebook] Facebook page&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://plus.googleapis.com/108905880098500076417 HolyTransaction on Google+ ] Google+ page&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Software development==&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://noveltylab.com NoveltyLab]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Screenshots==&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_1.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_2.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:EWallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Wallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Services]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Financial]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Clients]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Frontends]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=46715</id>
		<title>HolyTransaction</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=46715"/>
		<updated>2014-04-23T13:50:43Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: /* Specifications */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;[[Image:HolyTransaction_Logo.png|300px]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] is a multi currency online wallet for nontechnical users that offers a simple and instant exchange among top cryptocurrencies. Users can send and receive cryptocurrency from mobile wallet or over social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Specifications==&lt;br /&gt;
HolyTransaction is the first consumer-oriented digital wallet that offers instant conversion into multiple digital cryptocurrencies and secure storage.&lt;br /&gt;
You can send any-coin to any-coin: in that case you send [[Bitcoin]] to another cryptocurrency address we perform instant exchange.&lt;br /&gt;
With just an email, users can send and receive Bitcoin, [[Dogecoin]], [[Litecoin]] and [[Peercoin]] from anyone. Instant gift-code to send and receive cryptocurrency from mobile browser and over social networks.&lt;br /&gt;
You can read about how it works in our [https://holytransaction.com/page/faq FAQ]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
With just an email, users can send and receive Bitcoin from anyone, instantly.&lt;br /&gt;
Multi-currency, Mobile support, Instant Exchange, Instant GiftCode, Cold-Storage Security, Google Authenticator 2FA, QR Codes, transaction history, exchange history, Open API for merchants and more. Android and iOS friendly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==History==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* HolyTransaction Beta launch: February 16th 2014&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==External Links==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] Official website&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=472248.0 on BitcoinTalk] BitcoinTalk&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://twitter.com/NoveltyLab HolyTransaction on Twitter]&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://www.facebook.com/HolyTransaction HolyTransaction Facebook] Facebook page&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://plus.googleapis.com/108905880098500076417 HolyTransaction on Google+ ] Google+ page&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Software development==&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://noveltylab.com NoveltyLab]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Screenshots==&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_1.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_2.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:EWallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Wallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Services]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Financial]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Clients]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Frontends]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=46714</id>
		<title>HolyTransaction</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=46714"/>
		<updated>2014-04-23T13:42:18Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: /* External Links */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;[[Image:HolyTransaction_Logo.png|300px]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] is a multi currency online wallet for nontechnical users that offers a simple and instant exchange among top cryptocurrencies. Users can send and receive cryptocurrency from mobile wallet or over social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Specifications==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
With just an email, users can send and receive Bitcoin from anyone, instantly.&lt;br /&gt;
Multi-currency, Mobile support, Instant Exchange, Instant GiftCode, Cold-Storage Security, Google Authenticator 2FA, QR Codes, transaction history, exchange history, Open API for merchants and more. Android and iOS friendly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==History==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* HolyTransaction Beta launch: February 16th 2014&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==External Links==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] Official website&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=472248.0 on BitcoinTalk] BitcoinTalk&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://twitter.com/NoveltyLab HolyTransaction on Twitter]&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://www.facebook.com/HolyTransaction HolyTransaction Facebook] Facebook page&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://plus.googleapis.com/108905880098500076417 HolyTransaction on Google+ ] Google+ page&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Software development==&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://noveltylab.com NoveltyLab]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Screenshots==&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_1.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_2.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:EWallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Wallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Services]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Financial]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Clients]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Frontends]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=46713</id>
		<title>HolyTransaction</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=46713"/>
		<updated>2014-04-23T13:39:46Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: /* External Links */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;[[Image:HolyTransaction_Logo.png|300px]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] is a multi currency online wallet for nontechnical users that offers a simple and instant exchange among top cryptocurrencies. Users can send and receive cryptocurrency from mobile wallet or over social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Specifications==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
With just an email, users can send and receive Bitcoin from anyone, instantly.&lt;br /&gt;
Multi-currency, Mobile support, Instant Exchange, Instant GiftCode, Cold-Storage Security, Google Authenticator 2FA, QR Codes, transaction history, exchange history, Open API for merchants and more. Android and iOS friendly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==History==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* HolyTransaction Beta launch: February 16th 2014&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==External Links==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] Official website&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=472248.0 on BitcoinTalk] BitcoinTalk&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://twitter.com/@NobeltyLab HolyTransaction on Twitter]&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://www.facebook.com/HolyTransaction HolyTransaction Facebook] Facebook page&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://plus.googleapis.com/108905880098500076417 HolyTransaction on Google+ ] Google+ page&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Software development==&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://noveltylab.com NoveltyLab]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Screenshots==&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_1.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_2.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:EWallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Wallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Services]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Financial]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Clients]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Frontends]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=46712</id>
		<title>HolyTransaction</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=46712"/>
		<updated>2014-04-23T13:39:28Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: /* External Links */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;[[Image:HolyTransaction_Logo.png|300px]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] is a multi currency online wallet for nontechnical users that offers a simple and instant exchange among top cryptocurrencies. Users can send and receive cryptocurrency from mobile wallet or over social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Specifications==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
With just an email, users can send and receive Bitcoin from anyone, instantly.&lt;br /&gt;
Multi-currency, Mobile support, Instant Exchange, Instant GiftCode, Cold-Storage Security, Google Authenticator 2FA, QR Codes, transaction history, exchange history, Open API for merchants and more. Android and iOS friendly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==History==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* HolyTransaction Beta launch: February 16th 2014&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==External Links==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] Official website&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=472248.0 on BitcoinTalk] BitcoinTalk&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://twitter.com/@NobeltyLabHolyTransaction on Twitter]&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://www.facebook.com/HolyTransaction HolyTransaction Facebook] Facebook page&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://plus.googleapis.com/108905880098500076417 HolyTransaction on Google+ ] Google+ page&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Software development==&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://noveltylab.com NoveltyLab]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Screenshots==&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_1.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_2.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:EWallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Wallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Services]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Financial]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Clients]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Frontends]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=File:Holytransaction_Screenshot_2.png&amp;diff=46711</id>
		<title>File:Holytransaction Screenshot 2.png</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=File:Holytransaction_Screenshot_2.png&amp;diff=46711"/>
		<updated>2014-04-23T13:36:07Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: Holytransaction Screenshot 2&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Holytransaction Screenshot 2&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=File:Holytransaction_Screenshot_1.png&amp;diff=46710</id>
		<title>File:Holytransaction Screenshot 1.png</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=File:Holytransaction_Screenshot_1.png&amp;diff=46710"/>
		<updated>2014-04-23T13:35:40Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: Holytransaction Screenshot 1&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Holytransaction Screenshot 1&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=46709</id>
		<title>HolyTransaction</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=46709"/>
		<updated>2014-04-23T13:33:42Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: /* Screenshots */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;[[Image:HolyTransaction_Logo.png|300px]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] is a multi currency online wallet for nontechnical users that offers a simple and instant exchange among top cryptocurrencies. Users can send and receive cryptocurrency from mobile wallet or over social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Specifications==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
With just an email, users can send and receive Bitcoin from anyone, instantly.&lt;br /&gt;
Multi-currency, Mobile support, Instant Exchange, Instant GiftCode, Cold-Storage Security, Google Authenticator 2FA, QR Codes, transaction history, exchange history, Open API for merchants and more. Android and iOS friendly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==History==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* HolyTransaction Beta launch: February 16th 2014&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==External Links==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] Official website&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=472248.0 on BitcoinTalk] BitcoinTalk&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://twitter.com/NoveltyLab@NobeltyLab] Twitter&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://www.facebook.com/HolyTransaction HolyTransaction Facebook] Facebook page&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://plus.googleapis.com/108905880098500076417 HolyTransaction on Google+ ] Google+ page&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Software development==&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://noveltylab.com NoveltyLab]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Screenshots==&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_1.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_2.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:EWallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Wallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Services]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Financial]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Clients]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Frontends]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=46708</id>
		<title>HolyTransaction</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=46708"/>
		<updated>2014-04-23T13:33:08Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: /* Screenshots */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;[[Image:HolyTransaction_Logo.png|300px]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] is a multi currency online wallet for nontechnical users that offers a simple and instant exchange among top cryptocurrencies. Users can send and receive cryptocurrency from mobile wallet or over social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Specifications==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
With just an email, users can send and receive Bitcoin from anyone, instantly.&lt;br /&gt;
Multi-currency, Mobile support, Instant Exchange, Instant GiftCode, Cold-Storage Security, Google Authenticator 2FA, QR Codes, transaction history, exchange history, Open API for merchants and more. Android and iOS friendly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==History==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* HolyTransaction Beta launch: February 16th 2014&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==External Links==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] Official website&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=472248.0 on BitcoinTalk] BitcoinTalk&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://twitter.com/NoveltyLab@NobeltyLab] Twitter&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://www.facebook.com/HolyTransaction HolyTransaction Facebook] Facebook page&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://plus.googleapis.com/108905880098500076417 HolyTransaction on Google+ ] Google+ page&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Software development==&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://noveltylab.com NoveltyLab]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Screenshots==&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_1.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_2.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_3.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:EWallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Wallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Services]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Financial]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Clients]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Frontends]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=46707</id>
		<title>HolyTransaction</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=46707"/>
		<updated>2014-04-23T13:31:50Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;[[Image:HolyTransaction_Logo.png|300px]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] is a multi currency online wallet for nontechnical users that offers a simple and instant exchange among top cryptocurrencies. Users can send and receive cryptocurrency from mobile wallet or over social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Specifications==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
With just an email, users can send and receive Bitcoin from anyone, instantly.&lt;br /&gt;
Multi-currency, Mobile support, Instant Exchange, Instant GiftCode, Cold-Storage Security, Google Authenticator 2FA, QR Codes, transaction history, exchange history, Open API for merchants and more. Android and iOS friendly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==History==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* HolyTransaction Beta launch: February 16th 2014&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==External Links==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] Official website&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=472248.0 on BitcoinTalk] BitcoinTalk&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://twitter.com/NoveltyLab@NobeltyLab] Twitter&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://www.facebook.com/HolyTransaction HolyTransaction Facebook] Facebook page&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://plus.googleapis.com/108905880098500076417 HolyTransaction on Google+ ] Google+ page&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Software development==&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://noveltylab.com NoveltyLab]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Screenshots==&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_1.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:EWallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Wallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Services]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Financial]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Clients]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Frontends]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=File:HolyTransaction_Logo.png&amp;diff=46706</id>
		<title>File:HolyTransaction Logo.png</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=File:HolyTransaction_Logo.png&amp;diff=46706"/>
		<updated>2014-04-23T13:29:36Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: HolyTransaction Logo&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;HolyTransaction Logo&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=46704</id>
		<title>HolyTransaction</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=HolyTransaction&amp;diff=46704"/>
		<updated>2014-04-23T13:20:53Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Pietrod21: HolyTransaction&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;[[Image:Logo_Holytransaction.png‎‎|300px]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] is a multi currency online wallet for nontechnical users that offers a simple and instant exchange among top cryptocurrencies. Users can send and receive cryptocurrency from mobile wallet or over social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Specifications==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
With just an email, users can send and receive Bitcoin from anyone, instantly.&lt;br /&gt;
Multi-currency, Mobile support, Instant Exchange, Instant GiftCode, Cold-Storage Security, Google Authenticator 2FA, QR Codes, transaction history, exchange history, Open API for merchants and more. Android and iOS friendly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==History==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* HolyTransaction Beta launch: February 16th 2014&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==External Links==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://www.holytransaction.com HolyTransaction] Official website&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=472248.0 on BitcoinTalk] BitcoinTalk&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://twitter.com/NoveltyLab@NobeltyLab] Twitter&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://www.facebook.com/HolyTransaction HolyTransaction Facebook] Facebook page&lt;br /&gt;
* [https://plus.googleapis.com/108905880098500076417 HolyTransaction on Google+ ] Google+ page&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Software development==&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://noveltylab.com NoveltyLab]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Screenshots==&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Holytransaction_Screenshot_1.png‎‎|400px]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:EWallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Wallets]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Services]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Financial]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Clients]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Frontends]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Pietrod21</name></author>
	</entry>
</feed>