https://en.bitcoin.it/w/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=BashCo&feedformat=atomBitcoin Wiki - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T11:13:16ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Category:History&diff=53180Category:History2014-11-23T22:50:35Z<p>BashCo: updated broken New Liberty Standard link from October 5 2009</p>
<hr />
<div>{{outdated}}<br />
Two fantastic compilations of Bitcoin history are available at the [http://historyofbitcoin.org HistoryOfBitcoin.org] and [http://igotbitcoin.com/milestones igotbitcoin.com/milestones] sites.<br />
<br />
== Important milestones of the Bitcoin project ==<br />
=== 2008 ===<br />
{| style="text-align: left"<br />
|-<br />
! width="8em" | August 18<br />
|| Domain name "bitcoin.org" registered<ref>[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=103369.msg1135218#msg1135218 According to theymos], Satoshi registered bitcoin.org via https://www.anonymousspeech.com/ which allows to anonymously register domains.</ref>.<br />
|-<br />
! October 31<br />
|| [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.encryption.general/12588/ Bitcoin design paper] published<br />
|-<br />
! November 09<br />
|| Bitcoin project registered at SourceForge.net<br />
|}<br />
<br />
=== 2009 ===<br />
{| style="text-align: left"<br />
|-<br />
! width="8em" | January 3<br />
|| [http://www.BlockExplorer.com/b/0 Genesis block] established at 18:15:05 GMT<br />
|-<br />
! January 9<br />
|| Bitcoin v0.1 released and announced on the [http://www.mail-archive.com/cryptography@metzdowd.com/msg10152.html cryptography mailing list]<br />
|-<br />
! January 12<br />
|| First Bitcoin transaction, [http://www.BlockExplorer.com/b/170 in block 170] - from [[Satoshi]] to Hal Finney<ref>[http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=91806.msg1012234#msg1012234 Earliest Block With A Spend]</ref>.<br />
|-<br />
! October 5<br />
|| Exchange rates [http://newlibertystandard.wikifoundry.com/page/2009+Exchange+Rate published] by New Liberty Standard. $1 = 1,309.03 BTC (and [[User:theymos|theymos]] thought NLS was overcharging<ref>[http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=104287.msg1143955#msg1143955 Historical Price Data for 2009]</ref>)<br />
|-<br />
! October 9<br />
|| #bitcoin-dev channel registered on freenode IRC.<br />
|-<br />
! December 16<br />
|| Bitcoin v0.2 released<br />
|-<br />
! December 30<br />
|| First difficulty increase at 06:11:04 GMT<br />
|}<br />
<br />
=== 2010 ===<br />
{| style="text-align: left"<br />
|-<br />
! width="8em" | February 6<br />
|| [[Bitcoin Market]] established<br />
|-<br />
! May 22<br />
|| laszlo first to buy pizza with Bitcoins agreeing upon paying 10,000 BTC for ~$25 worth of pizza courtesy of jercos<ref>[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=137.msg1195#msg1195 bitcointalk post] where laszlo confirmed having bought pizza</ref><br />
|-<br />
! July 7<br />
|| Bitcoin v0.3 released<br />
|-<br />
! July 11<br />
|| Bitcoin v0.3 release mentioned on slashdot<ref>[http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/07/11/1747245/Bitcoin-Releases-Version-03 slashdot] metiones Bitcoin</ref>, bringing a large influx of new bitcoin users.<br />
|-<br />
! July 12<br />
|| Beginning of a 10x increase in exchange value over a 5 day period, from about $0.008/BTC to $0.08/BTC<br />
|-<br />
! July 17<br />
|| [[MtGox]] established<br />
|-<br />
! July 18<br />
|| ArtForz generated his first block after establishing his personal OpenCL GPU hash farm<br />
|-<br />
! August 15<br />
|| Bug in the bitcoin code allows a bad transaction into block 74638. Users quickly adopt fixed code and the "good" block chain overtook the bad one at a block height of 74691, 53 blocks later ([[Incidents#Value_overflow]]).<br />
|-<br />
! September 14<br />
|| jgarzik [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=133.msg12921#msg12921 offered] 10,000 BTC (valued at ~$600-650) to puddinpop to open source their windows-based CUDA client<br />
|-<br />
! September 14<br />
|| Block [http://blockexplorer.com/b/79764 79,764] is first to be mined using split allocation of the generation reward.<br />
|-<br />
! September 18<br />
|| puddinpop [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=133.msg13135#msg13135 released] source to their windows-based CUDA client under MIT license<br />
|-<br />
! September 29<br />
|| kermit [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1306.0 discovered] a microtransactions exploit which precipitated the Bitcoin v0.3.13 release<br />
|-<br />
! October 01<br />
|| [https://bitcointalk.org/?topic=1334.0 First public OpenCL miner] released<br />
|-<br />
! October 04<br />
|| Original Bitcoin History wiki page (this page) established (ooh so meta) on Bitcoin.org's wiki.<br />
|-<br />
! October 07<br />
|| Exchange rate started climbing up from $0.06/BTC after several flat months.<br />
|-<br />
! October 16<br />
|| First recorded escrowed bitcoin trade conducted, between nanotube and Diablo-D3, escrowed by theymos.<br />
|-<br />
! October 17<br />
|| [[Bitcoin_OTC|#bitcoin-otc]] trading channel established on freenode IRC.<br />
|-<br />
! October 28<br />
|| First bitcoin short sale transaction initiated, with a loan of 100 BTC by nanotube to [[User:Kiba|kiba]], facilitated by the [[Bitcoin-otc|#bitcoin-otc]] market.<br />
|-<br />
! November 6<br />
|| The [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1672 Bitcoin economy passed US $1 million]. The MtGox price touched USD $0.50/BTC.<br />
|-<br />
! December 7<br />
|| Bitcoind was compiled for the Nokia N900 mobile computer by doublec. The following day, ribuck sent him 0.42 BTC in the first portable-to-portable Bitcoin transaction.<br />
|-<br />
! December 9<br />
|| The generation difficulty passed 10,000.<br />
|-<br />
|<br />
|| First bitcoin call option contract sold, from nanotube to [[User:Sgornick|sgornick]], via the [[Bitcoin-otc|#bitcoin-otc]] market.<br />
|-<br />
! December 16<br />
|| [http://mining.bitcoin.cz/ Bitcoin Pooled Mining], operated by slush, found its first block<br />
|}<br />
<br />
=== 2011 ===<br />
{| style="text-align: left"<br />
|-<br />
! width="8em" | January 2<br />
|| [[Tonal Bitcoin]] units standardized.<br />
|-<br />
! January 8<br />
|| [[History of Bitcoin]] page (this page) created after replicating from original Bitcoin History page on Bitcoin.org.<br />
|-<br />
|<br />
|| Bitcoin Pooled Mining reached a total of 10,000 Mhash/s<br />
|-<br />
! January 27<br />
|| Largest numeric value ever traded for bitcoins thus far occurred on this date. Three currency bills from Zimbabwe, known as Zimdollars, were traded on [[Bitcoin-otc|#bitcoin-otc]] at the rate of 4 BTC for each of the one-hundred trillion dollar ($100,000,000,000,000) Zimbabwe notes<ref>Serial numbers for Zimdollars sold: AA1669317, AA1669318 and AA1669319</ref><br />
|-<br />
! January 28<br />
|| Block 105000 was generated. This means that 5.25 million bitcoins have been generated, which is just over one-quarter of the eventual total of nearly 21 million.<br />
|-<br />
! February 9<br />
|| Bitcoin reached parity with the US dollar, touching $1 per BTC at [[MtGox]].<br />
|-<br />
! February 10<br />
|| Bitcoin.org website struggles to handle [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3444.0 traffic] resulting from mentions on Slashdot<ref>[http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/02/10/189246/Online-Only-Currency-BitCoin-Reaches-Dollar-Parity Online-Only Currency BitCoin Reaches Dollar Parity]</ref>, Hacker News and Twitter following the news that parity had been reached.<br />
|-<br />
! February 14<br />
|| A vehicle was, for the first time, offered in exchange for a certain number of bitcoins<ref>[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3485.0 Car for Sale - Australia]</ref>.<br />
|-<br />
! March 1<br />
|| [[MagicalTux]] buys mtgox.com from its founder [[Jed McCaleb]]<br />
|-<br />
! March 6<br />
|| Total Bitcoin network computation speed for a short time reached a new high of almost 900Ghash/sec, dropping to 500Ghash/sec soon after. Some speculate that this was due to some supercomputer or bot-net that joined the network ([http://bitcoin.atspace.com/mysteryminer.html mystery miner]).<br />
|-<br />
! March 18<br />
|| BTC/USD exchange rate reaches a 6-week low point at almost $0.70/BTC, after what appeared to be a short burst of, possibly automated, BTC sales at progressively lower prices. BTC price had been declining since the February 9 high.<br />
|-<br />
! March 25<br />
|| Difficulty decreased nearly 10%. A decrease has only occurred once before, and this decrease of nearly 10% was the largest.<br />
|-<br />
! March 27<br />
|| The first market for exchanging bitcoins to and from the British Pound Sterling BTC/GBP, [[Britcoin]], opens.<br />
|-<br />
! March 31<br />
|| The first market for exchanging bitcoins to and from Brazilian Reals, [[Bitcoin Brazil]], opens.<br />
|-<br />
! April 5<br />
|| The first market for exchanging bitcoins to and from the Polish złoty, [[BitMarket.eu]], opens.<br />
|-<br />
! April 12<br />
|| First bitcoin put option contract sold via the [[Bitcoin-otc|#bitcoin-otc]] market.<br />
|-<br />
! April 16<br />
|| TIME does [http://techland.time.com/2011/04/16/online-cash-bitcoin-could-challenge-governments/ an article on Bitcoin].<br />
|-<br />
! April 23<br />
|| BTC/USD exchange rate reaches and passes parity with the Euro (EUR) on [[MtGox]] exchange.<br />
|-<br />
|<br />
|| BTC/USD exchange rate reaches and passes parity with the British Sterling Pound (GBP) on [[MtGox]] exchange.<br />
|-<br />
|<br />
|| Value of the Bitcoin money stock at current exchange rate passes $10 million USD threshold.<br />
|-<br />
! April 27<br />
|| [[VirWoX]] opens first market to trade bitcoins against a virtual currency on BTC/SL (Second Life Lindens) exchange.<br />
|-<br />
! April 30<br />
|| The generation difficulty passed 100,000.<br />
|-<br />
! June 2<br />
|| The exchange rate at [[MtGox]] touched 10 USD per BTC.<br />
|-<br />
! June 3<br />
|| [[Tonal Bitcoin]] reached parity with the US cent, touching 1¢ per TBC at [[Bitcoin Market]].<br />
|-<br />
! June 8<br />
|| The [[MtGox]] exchange rate peaked at 31.91 USD, at a "market capitalization" of about $206 M [http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/2047/market-capitalization-over-time].<br />
|-<br />
! June 12<br />
|| The [[MtGox]] exchange rate briefly dropped to near 10 USD four days after the peak, in its largest percentage price retreat to date.<br />
|-<br />
! June 13<br />
|| Forum user allinvain claimed to have had [http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=16457.0 25,000 BTC stolen] from his Bitcoin wallet (approx. USD equivalent $375,000).<br />
|-<br />
! June 19<br />
|| The MtGox database was compromised and the user table was leaked, containing details of 60,000 usernames, email addresses and password hashes, some of which were overly simple to brute force passwords.<br />
|-<br />
! June 19<br />
|| Someone was able to access an admin account at MtGox and issue sell orders for hundreds of thousands of fake bitcoins, forcing the MtGox price down from $17.51 per bitcoin to $0.01. MtGox announced that these trades would be reversed. Trading was halted at MtGox for 7 days (and also briefly at TradeHill and Britcoin while their security was reviewed).<br />
|-<br />
! June 19<br />
|| Some of the users on the leaked MtGox database had used the same username at MyBitcoin and had their passwords hacked. About 600 of them had their balance [http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=22221.msg279396#msg279396 stolen from their MyBitcoin accounts]. One user lost over 2000 BTC.<br />
|-<br />
! June 20<br />
|| The EFF announced that it was no longer accepting Bitcoin donations due to legal uncertainties.<br />
|-<br />
! June 24<br />
|| The generation difficulty passed 1,000,000 with Block [http://blockexplorer.com/b/133056 133056].<br />
|-<br />
! July 19<br />
|| "Let it go on record that at 4:05pm CET [19 July 2011], my manager Tadek was the first person in the world to receive [testnet] Bitcoins via NFC ;)" - Mike Hearn<br />
|-<br />
! July 22<br />
|| [[BitCoins Mobile]], the first Bitcoin application for iPad was released by [http://www.intervex.net Intervex Digital].<br />
|-<br />
! July 26<br />
|| [http://www.room77.de/ Room77] [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=32162.0 becomes] the first brick-and-mortar business (bar) to accept Bitcoin as a means of payment.<br />
|-<br />
! July 30<br />
|| [http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=BUB3dygQ Tribute to Len Sassaman] included in the blockchain<ref>[http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=33618.msg420597#msg420597 A Tribute to Len "rabbi" Sassama]</ref>. <br />
|-<br />
! August 20<br />
|| First Bitcoin Conference and World Expo held, in NYC.<ref>[http://bitcoinme.com/index.php/conference/ New York Conference 2011]</ref><br />
|-<br />
! August 23<br />
|| [[P2Pool]], the first P2P decentralized pool, mines its first Bitcoin mainnet block (Block [http://blockexplorer.com/b/142312 142,312]).<br />
|-<br />
! August 30<br />
|| Difficulty adjustment at block [http://blockexplorer.com/b/143136 143,136] marks the first back-to-back drop.<br />
|-<br />
! November 15<br />
|| First CVE (CVE-2011-4447) assigned to a Bitcoin client exploit.<br />
|-<br />
! November 25<br />
|| First European Bitcoin Conference in Prague, Czech Rep.<ref>[http://bitgroups.org/ Prague Conference 2011]</ref><br />
|-<br />
! December 12<br />
|| Largest amount of fees, to-date, in a single transaction, and most fees in a single block. A [http://blockexplorer.com/tx/1d7749c65c90c32f5e2c036217a2574f3f4403da39174626b246eefa620b58d9 transaction] paid 171 BTC in fees in [http://blockexplorer.com/b/157235 block 157235]<ref>[http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=88423.msg973509#msg973509 Largest fee ever?]</ref>.<br />
|}<br />
<br />
=== 2012 ===<br />
{| style="text-align: left"<br />
|-<br />
! width="8em" | March 1<br />
|| Largest theft of bitcoins to-date occurred (near 50K BTC) after security breach at web host Linode.<br />
|-<br />
! width="8em" | April 1<br />
|| Pay-to-script-hash ([[P2SH]]) as defined through [[BIP 0016]] goes live.<br />
|-<br />
! May 08<br />
|| A single service, [[SatoshiDICE]] becomes responsible for over half the transaction volume on the Bitcoin blockchain.<br />
|-<br />
! June 3<br />
|| Largest block (most transactions), to-date (June 3), is [http://BlockExplorer.com/b/181919 block 181919] with 1322 transactions<ref>[http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=85353.msg939859#msg939859 Largest block to date]</ref>.<br />
|-<br />
! July 22<br />
|| One millionth topic reply was posted on the unofficial [[Bitcoin Forum]] <ref>[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=94608.0 Topic about one millionth forum post]</ref>.<br />
|-<br />
! September 15-16<br />
|| Bitcoin Conference in London <ref>[http://bitcoin2012.com/ London Conference 2012]</ref>.<br />
|-<br />
! September 27<br />
|| Formation of the [[Bitcoin Foundation]].<br />
|-<br />
! November 28<br />
|| Halving day. [http://blockexplorer.com/b/210000 Block 210,000] is the first with a block reward subsidy of only 25 BTC.<br />
|-<br />
! December 6<br />
|| First Bitcoin exchange [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=129461.0 licensed "as a bank" in europe] (actually a PSP which is like a bank, without debt-money issuing).<br />
|}<br />
<br />
=== 2013 ===<br />
{| style="text-align: left"<br />
|-<br />
! width="8em" | February 19<br />
|| Bitcoin Client v0.8 released featuring improved download speed and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom_filter Bloom Filtering]<br />
|-<br />
! February 28<br />
|| The [[MtGox]] exchange rate broke the June 8 2011 peak of 31.91 USD. The first all time high since 601 days<br />
|-<br />
! March 12<br />
|| A previously undiscovered protocol rule results in a [http://bitcoin.org/chainfork.html hard fork of the 0.8.0 reference client].<br />
|-<br />
! March 18<br />
|| The United States federal agency charged with enforcing laws against money laundering (FinCEN) declares that Bitcoin users are subject to regulation only at the point of USD-BTC exchange.<ref>[http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/03/us-regulator-bitcoin-exchanges-must-comply-with-money-laundering-laws/ US regulator: Bitcoin exchanges must comply with money-laundering laws]</ref><br />
|-<br />
! March 28<br />
|| Total Bitcoin market cap passes $1 billion. <ref>http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/networks/bitcoin-hits-1billion</ref><br />
|-<br />
! April 1<br />
|| Bitcoin price breaks 100 USD on [[MtGox]] and other major exchanges.<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
* [[Bitcoin Firsts]]<br />
* [[Press]]<br />
* [https://bitcoinhelp.net/know/more/price-chart-history Bitcoin Price Chart with Historic Events]<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<references /></div>BashCohttps://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=BIP_0065&diff=53078BIP 00652014-11-12T21:31:41Z<p>BashCo: Created page with "{{bip}} <pre> BIP: 65 Title: OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY Author: Peter Todd <pete@petertodd.org> Status: Draft Type: Standards Track Created: 2014-10-01 </pre> {{BipM..."</p>
<hr />
<div>{{bip}}<br />
<br />
<pre><br />
BIP: 65<br />
Title: OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY<br />
Author: Peter Todd <pete@petertodd.org><br />
Status: Draft<br />
Type: Standards Track<br />
Created: 2014-10-01<br />
</pre><br />
<br />
{{BipMoved|bip-0065.mediawiki|BIP 0065}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:BIP|D]]<br />
[[Category:Developer]]<br />
[[Category:Technical]]</div>BashCohttps://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Bitcoin_Improvement_Proposals&diff=53077Bitcoin Improvement Proposals2014-11-12T21:28:42Z<p>BashCo: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{BipMoved|README.mediawiki|README}}<br />
<br />
People wishing to submit BIPs, first should propose their idea or document to [http://sourceforge.net/p/bitcoin/mailman/bitcoin-development/ the mailing list]. After discussion they should email Greg Maxwell <gmaxwell@gmail.com>. After copy-editing and acceptance, it will be published here.<br />
<br />
We are fairly liberal with approving BIPs, and try not to be too involved in decision making on behalf of the community. The exception is in very rare cases of dispute resolution when a decision is contentious and cannot be agreed upon. In those cases, the conservative option will always be preferred.<br />
<br />
Having a BIP here does not make it a formally accepted standard until its status becomes Active. For a BIP to become Active requires the mutual consent of the community.<br />
<br />
Those proposing changes should consider that ultimately consent may rest with the consensus of the Bitcoin users (see also: [[economic majority]]).<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="width: auto; text-align: center; font-size: smaller; table-layout: fixed;"<br />
!Number<br />
!Title<br />
!Owner<br />
!Status<br />
|- style="background-color: #cfffcf"<br />
| [[BIP 0001|1]]<br />
| BIP Purpose and Guidelines<br />
| Amir Taaki<br />
| Active<br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0010|10]]<br />
| Multi-Sig Transaction Distribution<br />
| Alan Reiner<br />
| Draft<br />
|- style="background-color: #cfffcf"<br />
| [[BIP 0011|11]]<br />
| M-of-N Standard Transactions<br />
| Gavin Andresen<br />
| Accepted<br />
|- style="background-color: #ffcfcf"<br />
| [[BIP 0012|12]]<br />
| OP_EVAL<br />
| Gavin Andresen<br />
| Withdrawn<br />
|- style="background-color: #cfffcf"<br />
| [[BIP 0013|13]]<br />
| Address Format for pay-to-script-hash<br />
| Gavin Andresen<br />
| Final<br />
|- style="background-color: #cfffcf"<br />
| [[BIP 0014|14]]<br />
| Protocol Version and User Agent<br />
| Amir Taaki, Patrick Strateman<br />
| Accepted<br />
|- style="background-color: #ffcfcf"<br />
| [[BIP 0015|15]]<br />
| Aliases<br />
| Amir Taaki<br />
| Withdrawn<br />
|- style="background-color: #cfffcf"<br />
| [[BIP 0016|16]]<br />
| Pay To Script Hash<br />
| Gavin Andresen<br />
| Accepted<br />
|- style="background-color: #ffcfcf"<br />
| [[BIP 0017|17]]<br />
| OP_CHECKHASHVERIFY (CHV)<br />
| Luke Dashjr<br />
| Withdrawn<br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0018|18]]<br />
| hashScriptCheck<br />
| Luke Dashjr<br />
| Draft<br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0019|19]]<br />
| M-of-N Standard Transactions (Low SigOp)<br />
| Luke Dashjr<br />
| Draft<br />
|- style="background-color: #ffcfcf"<br />
| [[BIP 0020|20]]<br />
| URI Scheme<br />
| Luke Dashjr<br />
| Replaced<br />
|- style="background-color: #cfffcf"<br />
| [[BIP 0021|21]]<br />
| URI Scheme<br />
| Nils Schneider, Matt Corallo<br />
| Accepted<br />
|- style="background-color: #cfffcf"<br />
| [[BIP 0022|22]]<br />
| getblocktemplate - Fundamentals<br />
| Luke Dashjr<br />
| Accepted<br />
|- style="background-color: #cfffcf"<br />
| [[BIP 0023|23]]<br />
| getblocktemplate - Pooled Mining<br />
| Luke Dashjr<br />
| Accepted<br />
|- style="background-color: #cfffcf"<br />
| [[BIP 0030|30]]<br />
| Duplicate transactions<br />
| Pieter Wuille<br />
| Accepted<br />
|- style="background-color: #cfffcf"<br />
| [[BIP 0031|31]]<br />
| Pong message<br />
| Mike Hearn<br />
| Accepted<br />
|- style="background-color: #cfffcf"<br />
| [[BIP 0032|32]]<br />
| Hierarchical Deterministic Wallets<br />
| Pieter Wuille<br />
| Accepted<br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0033|33]]<br />
| Stratized Nodes<br />
| Amir Taaki<br />
| Draft<br />
|- style="background-color: #cfffcf"<br />
| [[BIP 0034|34]]<br />
| Block v2, Height in coinbase<br />
| Gavin Andresen<br />
| Accepted<br />
|- style="background-color: #cfffcf"<br />
| [[BIP 0035|35]]<br />
| mempool message<br />
| Jeff Garzik<br />
| Accepted<br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0036|36]]<br />
| Custom Services<br />
| Stefan Thomas<br />
| Draft<br />
|- style="background-color: #cfffcf"<br />
| [[BIP 0037|37]]<br />
| Bloom filtering<br />
| Mike Hearn and Matt Corallo<br />
| Accepted<br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0038|38]]<br />
| Passphrase-protected private key<br />
| Mike Caldwell<br />
| Draft<br />
|- <br />
| [[BIP 0039|39]]<br />
| Deterministic key mnemonics<br />
| Slush<br />
| BIP number allocated<br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0040|40]]<br />
| Stratum wire protocol<br />
| Slush<br />
| BIP number allocated<br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0041|41]]<br />
| Stratum mining protocol<br />
| Slush<br />
| BIP number allocated<br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0042|42]]<br />
| A finite monetary supply for Bitcoin<br />
| Pieter Wuille<br />
| Draft<br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0043|43]]<br />
| Purpose Field for Deterministic Wallets<br />
| Slush<br />
| Draft<br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0044|44]]<br />
| Multi-Account Hierarchy for Deterministic Wallets<br />
| Slush<br />
| Draft<br />
<br />
<!-- 45-49 reserved for stratum extensions --><br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0050|50]]<br />
| March 2013 Chain Fork Post-Mortem<br />
| Gavin Andresen<br />
| Draft<br />
<!-- 50 series reserved for a group of post-mortems --><br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0060|60]]<br />
| Fixed Length "version" Message (Relay-Transactions Field)<br />
| Amir Taaki<br />
| Draft<br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0061|61]]<br />
| "reject" P2P message<br />
| Gavin Andresen<br />
| Draft<br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0062|62]]<br />
| Non-malleable transactions<br />
| Pieter Wuille<br />
| Draft<br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0063|63]]<br />
| Stealth Addresses<br />
| Peter Todd<br />
| BIP number allocated<br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0064|64]]<br />
| getutxos message<br />
| Mike Hearn<br />
| Draft<br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0065|65]]<br />
| OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY<br />
| Peter Todd<br />
| Draft<br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0070|70]]<br />
| Payment protocol<br />
| Gavin Andresen<br />
| Draft<br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0071|71]]<br />
| Payment protocol MIME types<br />
| Gavin Andresen<br />
| Draft<br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0072|72]]<br />
| Payment protocol URIs<br />
| Gavin Andresen<br />
| Draft<br />
|-<br />
| [[BIP 0073|73]]<br />
| Use "Accept" header with Payment Request URLs <br />
| Stephen Pair<br />
| Draft<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<!-- IMPORTANT! See the instructions at the top of this page, do NOT JUST add BIPs here! --><br />
<br />
[[Hardfork Wishlist]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:BIP|Z]]<br />
<br />
[[es:Propuestas de mejora de Bitcoin]]</div>BashCohttps://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Scalability&diff=52752Scalability2014-11-05T11:46:06Z<p>BashCo: PayPal tps update and citation</p>
<hr />
<div>The core Bitcoin network cannot scale to much higher transaction rates than are seen today without changing a core principle of the bitcoin protocol as defined in the Satoshi white paper, and 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 ''simplified payment verification'' 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.<br />
<br />
==Scalability targets==<br />
<br />
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]<br />
<br />
PayPal, in contrast, handles around 10 million transactions per day for an average of 115 tps. [https://www.paypal-media.com/about]<br />
<br />
Let's take 4,000 tps as starting goal. Obviously if we want Bitcoin to scale to all economic transactions worldwide, including cash, it'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's a little arbitrary.<br />
<br />
==Current bottlenecks==<br />
<br />
Today the Bitcoin network is restricted to a sustained rate of 7 tps due to the bitcoin protocol restricting block sizes to 1MB.<br />
<br />
==CPU==<br />
<br />
The protocol has two parts. Nodes send "inv" messages to other nodes telling them they have a new transaction. If the receiving node doesn't have that transaction it requests it with a getdata.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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's CPU usage is dominated by ECDSA.<br />
<br />
==Network==<br />
<br />
Let'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's averaging half a kilobyte today.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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't fully implemented today, we do not consider block transmission bandwidth here.<br />
<br />
==Storage==<br />
<br />
At very high transaction rates each block can be over half a gigabyte in size.<br />
<br />
It is not required for most fully validating nodes to store the entire chain. In Satoshi's paper he describes "pruning", 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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
The primary limiting factor in Bitcoin'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.<br />
<br />
==Optimizations==<br />
<br />
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). <br />
<br />
However there is potential for even greater optimizations to be made in future, at the cost of some additional complexity.<br />
<br />
===CPU===<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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'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't need upgrading).<br />
<br />
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).<br />
<br />
At these speeds it is likely that disk and memory bandwidth would become the primary limiting factor, rather than signature checking.<br />
<br />
===Simplified payment verification===<br />
<!-- "Simplified payment verification" redirects here. Update the redirect if you change the section title --><br />
<br />
It'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.<br />
<br />
In Simplified Payment Verification (SPV) mode, named after the section of Satoshi'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. <br />
<br />
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).<br />
<br />
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'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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
See also: [[Thin Client Security]].<br />
<br />
== Related work ==<br />
There are a few proposals for optimizing Bitcoin's scalability. Some of these require an alt-chain / hard fork.<br />
<br />
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=88208.0 Ultimate blockchain compression] - the idea that the blockchain can be compressed to achieve "trust-free lite nodes"<br />
* [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 "account tree" which keeps account balance for every address with a non-zero balance, and a "proof chain" which is an (ever growing) slimmed down version of the blockchain.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Technical]]</div>BashCohttps://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Bitcoin_roulette&diff=48503Bitcoin roulette2014-06-28T11:28:03Z<p>BashCo: replaced casinobitco.in referral link with correct link</p>
<hr />
<div>The Bitcoin roulette that is mostly offered in gambling and roulette sites is based on the European roulette. In this way, you can ensure that you will have more chances of scoring big payouts as there is only one zero on the wheel. <br />
<br />
When you bet on roulette with bitcoins, you will notice that you wager on inside and outside bets, just like in roulette games offered by regular online casinos. However, thanks to the use of bitcoins, the process of betting has become a lot easier.<br />
<br />
Some roulette sites allow players to simply send their wager directly from their BTC wallet to the dynamically registered address of their bets. This process doesn’t require a registered account. On the other hand, some gambling sites require players to create an account and deposit bitcoins so that they can place their bets.<br />
<br />
== Free Bitcoin Roulette ==<br />
<br />
Play for fun on a [http://www.88bitcoinroulette.com/bitcoin-roulette/free-bitcoin-roulette/ Free Bitcoin Roulette] and have more ways of developing your skills and strategies over time! Make the most of this opportunity to be experienced in this game before you play roulette for bitcoins.<br />
<br />
== List of Website that offers Bitcoin Roulette ==<br />
<br />
* [https://coinroyale.com/roulette CoinRoyale Roulette] HTML5 provably fair Roulette. Instant play after deposit, no registration required, low house edge and of course, Provably Fair.<br />
* [https://www.casinobitco.in/casino/roulette/ CasinoBitco.in Casino]<br />
* [https://funnybtc.com FunnyBTC.com Casino]<br />
* [http://www.betchain.com/bitcoin-roulette BetChain Roulette]<br />
* [https://casinobum.com/roulette/ CasinoBum.com Roulette] 100% provably fair '''Roulette'''<br />
* [https://88bitcoinroulette.com/ 88 Bitcoin Roulette]<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<br />
* [http://www.bestbitcoinroulette.com/ Best Bitcoin Roulette]<br />
* [http://www.bestbitcoincasino.com/games/roulette/ Bitcoin Roulette]<br />
* [http://bitcoinchaser.com/casino/roulette Bitcoin Roulette Reviews] Reviews of the best places to play Roulette with Bitcoins</div>BashCohttps://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Bitcoin_Hi-lo&diff=48502Bitcoin Hi-lo2014-06-28T11:27:56Z<p>BashCo: replaced casinobitco.in referral link with correct link</p>
<hr />
<div><br />
== List of Website that offers Bitcoin Hi-Lo ==<br />
<br />
* [https://www.casinobitco.in/casino/hi-lo/ CasinoBitco.in Casino] Offers HTML5 Provably fair Blackjack, Baccarat and Roulette as well as a full service sportsbook. Featuring Instant Deposits and Quick Withdrawals.</div>BashCohttps://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Talk:AnonBitcoinShuffle&diff=48406Talk:AnonBitcoinShuffle2014-06-26T07:12:34Z<p>BashCo: </p>
<hr />
<div>User Johnycash has repeatedly removed criticism directed at bitcoinshuffle. His actions and deceptive marketing attempts strike me as highly suspicious. Users beware. - BashCo</div>BashCohttps://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Talk:AnonBitcoinShuffle&diff=48405Talk:AnonBitcoinShuffle2014-06-26T07:12:13Z<p>BashCo: Created page with "User Johnycash has repeatedly removed criticism directed at bitcoinshuffle. His actions and deceptive marketing attempts strike me as highly suspicious. Users beware."</p>
<hr />
<div>User Johnycash has repeatedly removed criticism directed at bitcoinshuffle. His actions and deceptive marketing attempts strike me as highly suspicious. Users beware.</div>BashCohttps://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Safewallet.in&diff=48356Safewallet.in2014-06-25T17:59:28Z<p>BashCo: Undo revision 48346 by Goldfish (talk)</p>
<hr />
<div><br />
[http://safewallet.in SafeWallet] is an online bitcoin wallet and bitcoin mixing service.<br />
<br />
==Scam Accusations==<br />
SafeWallet has been accused of taking deposits without crediting people.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
* [[Anonymity]]<br />
* [http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=2893.0 RFC: Bitcoin Mixnet]<br />
<br />
==External Links==<br />
<br />
* [http://safewallet.in Safewallet website]<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:Services]]<br />
[[Category:Frontends]]<br />
[[Category:Clients]]<br />
[[Category:eWallets]]<br />
[[Category:HybridEWallets]]<br />
[[Category:Mixing_Services]]<br />
[[Category:Wallets]]<br />
[[Category:Software]]</div>BashCohttps://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Buying_bitcoins&diff=48035Buying bitcoins2014-06-09T11:03:07Z<p>BashCo: Removed TheDuche's Coinbase referral link.</p>
<hr />
<div>There are various methods available for '''buying bitcoins'''. If you are located in the USA, [http://coinbase.com Coinbase] is your best option. See [[Buying Bitcoins (the noob version)|here for a Newb-friendly version]] of this page.<br />
<br />
'''NOTE:''' For taking advantage of Bitcoin volatility you are able to trade CFDs through [http://www.avatrade.com/lp/trade-bitcoin?tag=39206&tag2 AvaTrade] or [http://www.plus500.com/Instruments/BTCUSD?id=73407&pl=2 Plus500]. When trading online your capital may be at risk. Trading CFDs is suitable for more experienced traders.<br />
<br />
{{Counterparty-warning}}<br />
<br />
==Market Exchanges==<br />
<br />
Market exchanges are those in which buy orders are matched with sell orders, so the price offered depends on the market. If a service quotes a price then it is not operating a [http://bitcoincharts.com/markets market] but instead is a broker that buys and/or sells coins. Those exchanges are found in the list of [[Buying bitcoins#Fixed_Rate_Exchanges_.26_Others|fixed-rate exchanges]].<br />
<br />
Exchanges are listed in alphabetical order.<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
| Exchange || Adding Funds || Withdrawing Funds || Notes <br />
|-<br />
| [[File:Minilogo.png|35px|link=https://www.1bse.com]] [https://1bse.com 1Bse] ([[1Bse|info]])|| BTC<br /> LTC<br /> DOGE<br /> HKD (International Bank Wire)<br /> HKD (Local Bank Transfer)<br /> USD (International Bank Wire)<br /> USD (Payeer.com including Yandex.money, Perfect Money, QIWI)<br /> USD (Local Bank Transfer)<br /> EUR (International Bank Wire)<br /> EUR (Local Bank Transfer)<br /> EUR (Payeer.com including Yandex.money, Perfect Money, QIWI)<br /> SGD (International Bank Wire)<br /> SGD (Local Bank Transfer)<br /> CNY (Local Bank Transfer)<br /> CNY (International Bank Wire)<br /> || BTC<br /> LTC<br /> DOGE<br /> HKD (International Bank Wire)<br /> HKD (Local Bank Transfer)<br /> USD (International Bank Wire)<br /> USD (Payeer.com including Yandex.money, Perfect Money, QIWI)<br /> USD (Local Bank Transfer)<br /> EUR (International Bank Wire)<br /> EUR (Local Bank Transfer)<br /> EUR (Payeer.com including Yandex.money, Perfect Money, QIWI)<br /> SGD (International Bank Wire)<br /> SGD (Local Bank Transfer)<br /> CNY (Local Bank Transfer)<br /> CNY (International Bank Wire)<br /> ||<ul><li>Two-Factor Authentication</li><li>Protection from session steal</li><li>24/7 trading monitoring</li><li>No Fees for transfer funds between 1Bse users</li><li>Fees for transaction - 0.15%</li><li>Based in Hong Kong</li><li>Language: English</li></ul><br />
|-<br />
| [[File:ANXIcon.png|20px|link=https://anxbtc.com]] [https://anxbtc.com ANXBTC]([https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Asia_Nexgen_Bitcoin_Exchange info)] || BTC<br />HKD (International Bank Wire)<br />HKD (Local Bank Transfer)<br />HKD (In Store Cash Deposit)<br />USD (International Bank Wire)<br />USD (EgoPay)<br />AUD (Local Bank Transfer)<br />AUD (International Bank Wire)<br />CAD (International Bank Wire)<br />CHF (International Bank Wire)<br />EUR (SEPA)<br />EUR (International Bank Wire)<br />EUR (EgoPay)<br />GBP (International Bank Wire)<br />JPY (International Bank Wire)<br />NZD (International Bank Wire)<br />SGD (International Bank Wire)<br /> || BTC<br />HKD (International Bank Wire)<br />HKD (Local Bank Transfer)<br />USD (International Bank Wire)<br />USD (EgoPay)<br />AUD (Local Bank Transfer)<br />AUD (International Bank Wire)<br />CAD (International Bank Wire)<br />CHF (International Bank Wire)<br />EUR (SEPA)<br />EUR (International Bank Wire)<br />EUR (EgoPay)<br />GBP (International Bank Wire)<br />JPY (International Bank Wire)<br />NZD (International Bank Wire)<br />SGD (International Bank Wire)<br /> || <ul> <li>Trading Fees as low as 0.05%</li><li>Zero Bank Transfer Deposit Fees</li><li> Daily processing of withdrawals and deposits Mon-Fri<li>All 10 fiat currency orders are maintained within a single order book</li><li> Registered and based in Hong Kong</li><li> An approved Money Services Operator (MSO) with a license issued by the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department</li><li>Gox compatible trading API Available</li><li> Multilingual support (English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese)<li>Two-Factor Authentication</li><li>Accepts cash deposits at the world's first Bitcoin retail store</li><li>Native wallet apps for both [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.anxbtc.android Android] and [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/anx-vault-your-bitcoin-wallet/id855057847?ls=1&mt=8 iOS]</li></ul> <br />
|-<br />
| [[File:ANXIcon.png|20px|link=https://anxpro.com]] [https://anxpro.com ANXPRO]([https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Asia_Nexgen_Bitcoin_Exchange info)] || BTC<br />LTC<br />PPC<br />NMC<br />DOGE<br />HKD (International Bank Wire)<br />HKD (Local Bank Transfer)<br />HKD (In Store Cash Deposit)<br />USD (International Bank Wire)<br />USD (EgoPay)<br />AUD (Local Bank Transfer)<br />AUD (International Bank Wire)<br />CAD (International Bank Wire)<br />CHF (International Bank Wire)<br />EUR (SEPA)<br />EUR (International Bank Wire)<br />EUR (EgoPay)<br />GBP (International Bank Wire)<br />JPY (International Bank Wire)<br />NZD (International Bank Wire)<br />SGD (International Bank Wire)<br /> || BTC<br />LTC<br />PPC<br />NMC<br />DOGE<br />HKD (International Bank Wire)<br />HKD (Local Bank Transfer)<br />USD (International Bank Wire)<br />USD (EgoPay)<br />AUD (Local Bank Transfer)<br />AUD (International Bank Wire)<br />CAD (International Bank Wire)<br />CHF (International Bank Wire)<br />EUR (SEPA)<br />EUR (International Bank Wire)<br />EUR (EgoPay)<br />GBP (International Bank Wire)<br />JPY (International Bank Wire)<br />NZD (International Bank Wire)<br />SGD (International Bank Wire)<br /> || <ul> <li>Trading Fees as low as 0.05%</li><li>Zero Bank Transfer Deposit Fees</li><li>The only crypto-currency exchange in the world that facilitates Altcoin trading in ALL major currencies</li><li> Daily processing of withdrawals and deposits Mon-Fri<li>All 10 fiat currency orders are maintained within a single order book</li><li> Registered and based in Hong Kong</li><li> An approved Money Services Operator (MSO) with a license issued by the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department</li><li>Gox compatible trading API Available, inc. support for Altcoins</li><li> Multilingual support (English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese)<li>Two-Factor Authentication</li><li>Accepts cash deposits at the world's first Bitcoin retail store</li><li>Advanced trading interface including support for keyboard hotkeys (i.e. 'B' for Buy, 'L' for Limit, 'Enter' to execute, etc)</li><li>Native wallet apps for both [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.anxbtc.android Android] and [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/anx-vault-your-bitcoin-wallet/id855057847?ls=1&mt=8 iOS]</li></ul> <br />
|-<br />
| [[File:BitQuickco.png|20px|link=https://www.bitquick.co]] [https://www.bitquick.co BitQuick.co]([https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BitQuick.co info)] || BTC<br/>Cash Deposit <br/> SEPA Transfer (International) || BTC|| Connects buyers to sellers around the globe via bank cash deposit or SEPA transfer. No registration required. Instant deposit to any bitcoin address after cash deposit or SEPA transfer receipt received.<br />
|-<br />
| [https://www.bitsource.org BitSource.org]([https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BitSource info)] || BTC<br />LTC<br />PPC<br />Visa<br />Mastercard<br />Cash Deposit <br/> SEPA Transfer (International)<br />OKPay<br /> Payeer<br /> EgoPay<br /> SWIFT Transfers/Bank wire<br /> PerfectMoney<br /> MoneyPak || BTC<br />LTC<br />PPC<br />Bank Wire|| BitSource.org is a crypto-currency exchange platform focused on simplifying the purchase and sale of Bitcoin, Litecoin, and other crypto-currencies. The company holds up to 98% of customer funds in cold wallets and offline in bank vaults to prevent theft or loss. <br />
|-<br />
| [[Bitcoin Central]] || BTC<br/>EUR (SEPA bank transfer)<br/>International wire transfer || BTC<br/>EUR (SEPA bank transfer)<br />International wire transfer || <br />
|-<br />
| [[bitNZ]] || BTC<br/>NZD (Cash depost as Westbank) || BTC<br/>NZD (Domestic bank transfer) || <br />
|-<br />
| [https://www.bitfinex.com/ Bitfinex] || BTC<br />USD (Intl wire)|| BTC<br />USD (Intl wire) ||<br />
|-<br />
| [[Bitstamp]] || BTC<br />EUR (SEPA transfer)<br />USD (Intl wire)<br />USD ([[Ripple]])<br />CHF || BTC<br />BTC (Redeemable code)<br />EUR (SEPA transfer)<br />USD (Intl wire)<br />USD (Ripple)<br />CHF || EUR and CHF deposits converted to/from USD for trading<br />
|-<br />
| [https://bitcoin-24.com Bitcoin-24] || BTC<br />EUR (SEPA transfer)<br />EUR (Credit Card)<br />EUR (SOFORT Überweisung || BTC<br />EUR (SEPA transfer) || SOFORT Überweisung and Credit Card deposits are instant<br />
|-<br />
| [https://BTCMarkets.net BTCMarkets.net] || BTC<br />LTC<br/>AUD (Local Bank Transfer)<br />AUD (Westpac Branch Cash Deposit) || BTC<br />LTC<br/>AUD (Local Bank Transfer) || <ul><li>Australia's only locally based full service Bitcoin and Litecoin exchange.</li><li>Branch cash deposits (1-3 hours to clear)</li><li>Fast domestic bank transfers (1-2 business days to clear)</li><li>No deposit or withdrawal fees</li><li>No international bank or currency conversion fees</li><li>Australian owned and operated company with local support</li><li>Trading fees from as low as 0.6%.</li><li>[https://BTCMarkets.net BTCMarkets.net]</li></ul> <br />
|-<br />
| [http://BTCTurk.com BTCTurk.com] || BTC<br />TL (Bank transfer)<br /> || BTC<br />TL (Bank transfer)<br /> || <ul><li> The first Bitcoin exchange to allow trades in Turkish Lira.</li><li> Available in Turkish language. </li></ul> <br />
|-<br />
| [[BTC-E]] || BTC<br />BTC (BTC-e redeemable code)<br />USD (Cash deposit at Post of Russia)<br />USD (Cash deposit at banks including Privatbank, Savings Bank of Russia (Sberbank), RU/UA Terminals, & more)<br />USD (Interkassa)<br />USD (WebMoney - WMZ)<br />USD (Yandex)<br />USD (LiqPay)<br />USD (Perfect Money)<br />USD (QIWI)<br />USD (OKPay)<br />USD (RBK Money)<br />USD (Ditial currencies including НСМЭП (NSMEP), Единый Кошелек (Unified Purse), TeleMoney, & more)<br />USD (International bank wire)<br />EUR (SEPA bank transfer)<br />RUB (QIWI)<br />RUB (LiqPay)<br />RUB (WebMoney-WMR)<br />RUB (BTC-e Redeemable code)<br />RUB (Bank transfer) || BTC<br/>BTC (BTC-e redeemble code)<br />USD (Webmoney - WMZ)<br />USD (Perfect Money)<br />USD (LiqPay)<br />USD (QIWI)<br />USD (PayPal)<br />USD (OKPay)<br />USD (Payza/AlertPay)<br />USD (Privat, Privat UAH)<br />USD (Cash deposit into Savings Bank/Sberbank, Telebank, Alfa Bank)<br />USD (BTC-e Redeemable Code)<br />USD (International Wire Transfer)<br />EUR (SEPA bank transfer)<br />RUB (Cash delivery, possible in Moscow)<br />RUB (QIWI)<br />RUB (LiqPay)<br />RUB (WebMoney WMR)<br />RUB (Яндекс.Деньги Yandex)<br />RUB (RBK Money)<br />Cash deposit (into account at Сбербанка России!/Savings Bank/Sberbank, Телебанк (Telebank), and АльфаБанк (Alfa Bank)<br />RUB (Transfer to credit card VISA & MasterCard)<br />RUB (BTC-e Redeemable code)<br />RUB (Bank transfer) || Language: English, Russian. Interkassa can be funded from Webmoney and many other methods.<br />BitInstant Can be funding option includes QIWI, Cyberplat.<br />
|-<br />
| [https://CampBX.com/ CampBX] (CBX) || BTC <br/> USD ([[Dwolla]])<br/>USD (P2P bank transfer at Chase, B&nbsp;of&nbsp;A, Wells Fargo and ING. Credited after three business days).<br />USD (Personal Check)<br />USD (USPS Postal money order, Canada Post money order) || BTC<br />USD ([[Dwolla]])<br/>USD (ACH Direct Deposit)<br />USD (USPS Postal Money Order)<br/>USD (Domestic bank wire)<br/>USD (International bank wire) || <ul> <li> Security certification from McAfee</li><li> Advanced trading options with AON/FOK/Market</li> <li>STOPLOSS and Short-Selling in Pipeline</li><li> Trading API available</li><li> Wallet API available </li><li> CBX Instant Bitcoin Transfers Feature </li><li> Stoploss / Custom Order Expiry Date/Time </li><li> SMS (Text Message) Notifications </li> <li> Two-Factor Authentication </li> <li> Based in USA - Atlanta </li> </ul> <br />
|-<br />
| [[CoinMKT]] || | BTC | LTC | PPC | TRC | NVC | NMC | FTC <br/> USD ([[Dwolla]])<br/>USD (P2P bank transfer at any US bank, credited after three business days).<br />USD (Personal Check)<br />USD (USPS Postal money order, Canada Post money order) || | BTC | LTC | PPC | TRC | NVC | NMC | FTC <br />USD ([[Dwolla]])<br/>USD (USPS Postal Money Order)<br/>USD (Domestic bank wire)<br/>USD (International bank wire) || <ul> <li>Trade any currency pair</li><li>Fast, web-based ID verification</li><li>Focused on user experience</li><li>Play money trading</li> <li> Based in Santa Monica, CA </li> </ul> <br />
|-<br />
| [[File:e-cointrade.com logo.png|link=https://www.e-cointrade.com/cointrade/content.jsp?language=English&ref=en.bitcoin.it&id=Home]] <br/> [https://www.e-cointrade.com/cointrade/content.jsp?language=English&ref=en.bitcoin.it&id=Home e-CoinTrade.com] ([[e-cointrade.com|info]]) || | Deposits:<br/><br/>BTC | LTC | FTC | IXC | NVC | MNC | TRC | PPC<br/>USD ([[Perfect Money]])<br/>EUR ([[Perfect Money]]) || | Withdrawals:<br/><br/>BTC | LTC | FTC | IXC | NVC | MNC | TRC | PPC<br/>USD ([[Perfect Money]])<br/>EUR ([[Perfect Money]]) || <ul><li> Focused in '''symplicity''' for the average user.</li><li> Full multilanguage, available in: English, Deutche, Español, Pусский, Français. </li> <li> Automatic trading platform.</li><li> Trade in any combination of the currency pairs.</li><li> Live ''chatbox'' for users.</li></ul><br />
|-<br />
| [[FYB-SG]] || BTC <br/> SGD(Internet Bank Transfer)<br/>SGD (Annonymous Cash Deposit at any UOB Cash Deposit Machine in Singapore).<br /> || BTC<br/>SGD(Internet Bank Transfer)<br/> || Based in Singapore<br />
|-<br />
| [[FYB-SE]] || BTC <br/> SEK(Internet Bank Transfer)<br/> || BTC<br/>SEK(Internet Bank Transfer)<br/> || Based in Sweden<br />
|-<br />
| [[File:Hit_20.png|20px|link=https://www.hitbtc.com]][[HITBTC]] || | BTC<br/>LTC<br/>EUR (Wire Transfer)<br/>USD (Wire Transfer) || | BTC<br/>LTC<br/>EUR (Wire Transfer)<br/>USD (Wire Transfer) || <ul> <li>Cutting-edge technology places and matches order in milliseconds</li><li>Two-factor Authentication</li><li>WebSocket subscription for prices and trades</li><li>Asynchronous WebSocket-based trading interface</li><li>FOK and IOC orders</li><li>API</li><br />
|-<br />
| [https://www.itbit.com itBit] || BTC <br/> SGD(Bank Wire/GIRO)<br/>USD (Bank Wire)<br /> EUR(Bank Wire)|| BTC <br/> SGD(Bank Wire/GIRO)<br/>USD (Bank Wire)<br /> EUR(Bank Wire) || Based in Singapore<br />
|-<br />
| [http://ice3x.co.za iceCUBED] || BTC<br />LTC<br/>ZAR (Local and International Bank Transfer) || BTC<br />LTC<br/>ZAR (Local and International Bank Transfer) || <ul><li>South Africa's only locally based full-service Bitcoin and Litecoin exchange</li><li>Fast domestic bank transfers (1-2 business days to clear)</li><li>No deposit or withdrawal fees</li><li>No international bank or currency conversion fees</li><li>South African owned and operated company with local support</li><li>Trading fees from as low as 0.6%.</li><li>[http://ice3x.co.za iceCUBED]</li></ul> <br />
|-<br />
| [[Justcoin]] || | BTC | XRP | LTC <br/>NOK (Domestic transfer)<br/>EUR (SEPA/International wire transfer)<br/>USD (SEPA/International wire transfer) || | BTC | XRP | LTC <br/>NOK (Domestic transfer)<br/>EUR (SEPA/International wire transfer)<br/>USD (SEPA/International wire transfer) || <ul> <li>Based in Oslo, Norway</li><li>Two-factor Authentication</li><li>API</li><br />
|-<br />
| [[Kapiton.se]] || BTC<br/>SEK (Bankgiro Bank Transfer) || BTC<br/>SEK (Bankgiro Bank Transfer) || <br />
|-<br />
| [[Kraken]] || | BTC | XRP | LTC | XVN<br/>EUR (SEPA transfer)<br />EUR (International bank wire)<br />USD (Domestic bank wire)<br />USD (International bank wire) || | BTC | XRP | LTC | XVN<br/>EUR (SEPA transfer)<br/>EUR (International bank wire)<br />USD (Domestic bank wire)<br />USD (International bank wire)<br/>USD (ACH) || <ul> <li>Legally compliant</li><li>Advanced Stop Orders</li><li>Margin Trading</li><li>Based in San Francisco, CA</li><li>Two-factor Authentication</li><li>API</li><br />
|-<br />
| [[File:MMB.png|20px|link=https://www.mengmengbi.cn]] [https://www.mengmengbi.cn Mengmengbi (萌萌币)]([https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mengmengbi info)] || BTC<br />LTC<br />PPC<br />NMC<br />DOGE<br />CNY(Local Bank Transfer)<br /> || BTC<br />LTC<br />PPC<br />NMC<br />DOGE<br />CNY(Local Bank Transfer)<br /> || <ul> <li>Powered by [https://www.anxpro.com ANX] </li><li>Zero Trading Fees</li><li> Instant processing of CNY deposits</li><li> Near realtime processing of CNY withdraways (Mon-Fri)</li><li>Gox compatible Trading API with BTC, DOGE, LTC, PPC, NMC support</li><li>Zero bank transfer fees</li><li>Shared liquidity with ANX, one of the top 10 Bitcoin exchanges in the world</li><li> Multilingual support (English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese)<li>Two-Factor Authentication</li></ul> <br />
|-<br />
| [[Rock Currency Exchange]] || BTC<br/>EUR (SEPA transfer)<br />SLL (Second Life)<br />USD (Dwolla) || BTC<br/>EUR (SEPA transfer)<br />SLL (Second Life)<br />USD (Dwolla) || <br />
|-<br />
| [[VirtEx]] || BTC<br/>CAD (cash deposit at Bank of Montreal or ScotiaBank)<br />CAD (Online bill payment)<br />CAD (Wire transfer) || BTC<br/>CAD (direct deposit)<br />CAD (Canada Xpress Post Bank Draft send by mail)<br />CAD Payza (formerly AlertPay) || <br />
|-<br />
| [https://www.virwox.com/ VirWox] || BTC<br/>SLL (Second Life)<br/>ACD (Avination)<br/>OMC (OpenSim)<br/>USD,EUR,GBP,CHF ([[PayPal]])<br/>USD,EUR,GBP (Credit & Debit cards via [[Skrill]]/Moneybookers)<br/>USD,EUR,GBP ([http://www.neteller.com NETELLER])<br/>EUR (DIRECTebanking / Sofortuberweisung)<br/>USD,EUR,GBP,CHF ([http://www.paysafecard.com PaySafe Card])<br/>EUR (SEPA bank transfer)<br />USD ([[UKash]] vouchers) || BTC<br/>SLL (Second Life)<br/>ACD (Avination)<br/>OMC (OpenSim)<br/>USD,EUR,GBP,CHF ([[PayPal]])<br />USD,EUR,GBP ([[Skrill]]/Moneybookers)<br/>USD,EUR,GBP ([http://www.neteller.com NETELLER])<br/>EUR (SEPA bank transfer) || Trading through Second Life Linden Dollars.<br/>Variable limits on PayPal and Credit Card deposits. <br />
|-<br />
| [https://www.bitcointoyou.com BitcoinToYou] || BTC<br />BRL<br />USD<br />EUR<br /> || BTC<br />BRL<br />USD<br />EUR<br /> || Language: Portuguese (português), customer can buy in cash ou bank deposit at HSBC, SANTANDER, ITAÚ, CAIXA, BRADESCO and BANCO DO BRASIL.<br />
|-<br />
| [[MORREX]] || BTC<br/>CAD <br />CAD (Online bill payment)<br />CAD (Wire transfer) || BTC<br/>CAD <br />CAD (Canada Xpress Post Bank Draft send by mail)<br />CAD || <br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Fixed Rate Exchanges & Others==<br />
For smaller amounts, the options are limited due to bank transfer fees, conversion fees and transaction size restrictions. Options include:<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
| Service || Payment Method || Notes<br />
|-<br />
| [https://www.alfacashier.com ALFAcashier] || BTC Bitcoin<br/>LTC Litecoin<br/>USD PerfectMoney<br/>USD LiqPay<br/>USD OKPay<br/>USD EgoPay<br/>USD BTC-E coupon/refill<br/>USD (International Bank Wire)<br/>EUR (International Bank Wire)<br/>RUB (Russian Bank Wire) || Instant exchanger. Language: English, German, Russian, Chinese<br/><ul><li>Cumulative discount system</li><li>Affiliate program</li><li>Fees only 1-3%</li></li><br />
|-<br />
| [https://www.bestexchangeonline.com Bestexchangeonline.com] || USD PerfectMoney<br/>EUR PerfectMoney<br/>Cashu<br/>Egopay<br/>Okpay<br/>Bitcoin<br/> Webmoney <br/> PayPal<br/>USD LiqPay<br/>RUB || Buy Sell Exchange Bitcoins with the best price. <br/><ul><li>Instant Exchange</li><li>24/7/365 support</li><br />
|-<br />
| [[File:BitSimpleIcon.png|30px|link=https://BitSimple.com]] [https://BitSimple.com BitSimple.] ([[BitSimple.|info]]) || USD (bank wire) || Don't get goxxed again! We never hold user's bitcoins. Purchased bitcoins will be directly transferred to your personal bitcoin wallet. Stop accepting long delays waiting for funding. We will lock in a rate once you confirm the wire has been sent, and will deliver your purchased coins the same day, usually within an hour.<br />
|-<br />
| [[File:BittyBot-head.png|20px|link=http://BittyBot.co.uk]] [http://BittyBot.co.uk BittyBot] ([[BittyBot|info]]) || GBP (varies person to person) || BittyBot monitors and compares the UK Bitcoin market to help you find the best prices and most reputable traders.<br />
|-<br />
| [https://quickbitcoin.co.uk Quickbitcoin.co.uk] ([[Quickbitcoin|info]]) || GBP (bank transfer) || Buy bitcoins in the UK in under 1 hour from trusted uk seller. Payments by UK bank transfer. No sign up required. [http://www.trustpilot.co.uk/review/quickbitcoin.co.uk See reviews here].<br />
|-<br />
| [https://24change.com 24Change.com] ([[24change.com|info]]) || <br />
* USD, UAH, RUB, Visa, MasterCard <br />
* C-Coin, eCoin, EgoPay, Payza, Payoneer, EPESE, MoneyGram, OKPAY, WireTransfer, QIWI, Yandex Money, BTC-E code, PayPal, PerfectMoney, Paymer, ePayments, LiqPay, Redpass, WESTERN UNION, C-Gold, Pecunix <br />
* International Banks, Sberbank, Alfa-Bank, Privat24, Svyaznoy Bank, VTB24<br />
|| <br />
* Automatic bitcoin and e-currencies buy/sell service <br />
* 24/7/365 fast and reliable e-currencies exchange <br />
* Unlimited reserves <br />
* 15% Affiliate program<br />
|-<br />
|[[File:favicon_b4c.jpg|20px|link=https://bit4coin.net]] [https://bit4coin.net bit4coin.net] ([[bit4coin|info]]) || [https://www.sofort.com SOFORT banking] <br> SEPA transfer (EUR) <br> International bank transfer || Buy bitcoin with gift vouchers: Order bit4coin gift vouchers online at [https://bit4coin.net bit4coin.net] and get them shipped to your door, ready to redeem into bitcoins. No registration required. Perfect for own use or as gift. <br />
|-<br />
| [[File:BitQuickco.png|20px|link=https://www.bitquick.co]] [https://www.bitquick.co BitQuick.co] ([https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BitQuick.co info)] || Cash Deposit or SEPA Transfer Only (International) || Connects buyers to sellers around the globe via bank cash deposit or SEPA transfer. No registration required. Instant deposit to any bitcoin address after cash deposit or SEPA transfer receipt received.<br />
|-<br />
| [https://www.cryptxchange.com Cryptxchange] || USD (Cash Deposit)<br />USD (Wire Transfer)<br />CAD (Cash Deposit)<br />CAD (Wire Transfer)<br />You may make cash deposits at any Chase Bank Internationally (ARS, GBP, EUR, AUD, BRL, CLP, COP, EGP, KYD, SAR, CNY, AED, JPY, INR || A multinational US based cryptographic currency exchange. No login or account creation required. No identity verification required. Exquisite customer service. Average transaction time under two hours depending on the time of the day. One of the most anonymous and reliable exchanges on the net. We use SSL & AES-256 military grade encryption for all communication<br />
|-<br />
| [https://www.getbitcoin.com.au Bitcoin (Australia)] || AUD (Bank Deposit) || Bitcoin (Australia) / [https://www.getbitcoin.com.au www.getbitcoin.com.au] offers rapid transfer at low rates.<br />
|-<br />
| [[File:BIPS.gif|20px|link=https://bips.me]] [https://bips.me BIPS] ([[BIPS|info]]) || CAD (Cash deposits in Canada<br />Any Currency (Wire Transfer - Any Country)<br />USD || <ul><li>DK-based</li><li>[https://github.com/BitcoinInternetPaymentSystem BIPS GitHub]</li><li>[https://bips.me/connect/BitcoinInternetPaymentSystemAPI.pdf REST API]</li></ul><br />
|-<br />
| [http://indo-bitcoin.com Indo-Bitcoin.com] || IDR Mandiri (Cash deposit and wire transfer)<br /> IDR BNI (Cash deposit and wire transfer)<br /> IDR BCA (Cash deposit and wire transfer)<br /> IDR BRI (Cash deposit and wire transfer)<br /> || Beli Bitcoin di Indonesia. Lowest fees, max. 30 minutes per transfer, 24 hours 7 days. No verification required.<br />
|-<br />
| [https://Bitcash.cz/market Bitcash.cz] ([[Bitcash.cz|info]]) || CZK domestic wire, EUR with SEPA || Live Auction Rates, person-to-person contract fulfillment<br />
|-<br />
| [https://www.bitbrothersllc.com BitBrothers LLC] || Bank Transfer/Cash/Moneygram || If you are looking for an extremelly simple and anonymous way to purchase bitcoins, this is the best place to do it. We are so sure you will be a repeat customer that we are willing to provide discounts for first time buyers. Best Customer service in the industry.<br />
|-<br />
| [https://truckcoin.com TRUCK COIN] || Bank Transfer/Paypal/Wester Union/Moneygram/Cash/any method with any currency || There is another anonymous way to purchase bitcoins, this is the best safety and anonymous way.<br />
|-<br />
| [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=237164.0 Bitcoin-Brokers <br />(USA)] || Cash deposit || At major banks like Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo, PNC, Citibank. No ID, No registration. Immediate fundings.<br />
|-<br />
| [https://bitcoini.com Bitcoini.com <br />(Bulgaria, Romania)] || BGN (Bank deposit, Cash, EasyPay, Post, Econt)<br />RON (Bank deposit)<br />USD (Western Union, MoneyGram) || Fast and secure way to buy/sell bitcoins. Live support<br />
|-<br />
| [http://www.bitcoinbymobile.com BitcoinByMobile.com] || Mobile Phone (Premium SMS)|| Buy bitcoins instantly using just your mobile phone. No registration or personal financial information needed. Available in: Austria, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and United Kingdom<br />
|-<br />
| [http://www.btc-dealer.com BTC-Dealer] || Credit Card through Liqpay || No signup required. Instant deposit to any bitcoin address<br />
|-<br />
| [https://moneypaktrader.com MoneypakTrader.com] ([[MoneypakTrader.com|info]]) || Moneypak (USD) <======> BTC <br /> BTC <======> Moneypak (USD) <br /> ReLoadit, etc. (USD) <====> BTC<br /> BTC <======> ReLoadit, etc. (USD) || Pays a bonus over market for your BTC <br /> Charges a fee over market for your Moneypak, etc. <br /> Only accepts codes from original purchaser <br /> Attempts to have regular customers processed within 24 hrs <br /> Available for discussion via TorChat<br />
|-<br />
| [https://bitbargain.co.uk BitBargain] ([[BitBargain|info]]) || GBP || Quick transactions via Bank Transfer (fast payments support only), Pingit and Ukash. Deals happen between buyer and seller.<br />
|-<br />
| [https://bittylicious.com Bittylicious] ([[Bittylicious|info]]) || GBP, EUR, ZAR || Near instant transactions via UK Bank Transfer (Faster Payments only). No sign up required but can buy more if registered.<br />
|-<br />
| [http://btc.pt BTC.pt] || EUR (Multibanco) || Anonymous transactions. Pay the amount on any Portuguese ATM(MB) or homebanking service, we'll deduce our fee and buy the coins for you at market rate and send them very fast to your wallet. Only available in Portugal.<br />
|-<br />
| [https://www.bitcointrader.com.au Bitcointrader] ([[Bitcointrader|info]]) || AUD (Cash deposit) || Lowest fee in Australia! Only 5%. Buy and sell bitcoins quickly and easily! Cash deposit at any Westpac Bank and National Australia Bank branch in Australia.<br />
|-<br />
| [https://blockchain.info/wallet/deposit-methods Blockchain] ([[BlockChain.info|info]]) || USD, GBP, EUR, BRL, AUD, CAD, JPY, EUR, CHF, PLN, CZK, RON, RUB, SEK, NOK, DKK || Purchased through [[BitInstant]] (U.S., Brazil, and Russia), Barclay's Pingit or Bank Transfer (GBP), Instant Bank Transfer (EUR) or SMS or premium phone call from a mobile. <br />
|-<br />
| [[BitInstant]] || USD (Cash deposit at banks, 7-11, Walmart, CVS, Moneygram locations)<br />USD (Dwolla)<br />BRL (Cash deposit at Banco Rendimento or through Boleto)<br />RUB (Cash deposit through Qiwi or Cyberplat) || Deposit cash at 700,000 locations around the world and have your Bitcoins within 30 minutes. Absolute fastest and easiest way to buy Bitcoins. <br />
|-<br />
| [[Coinapult]] || Use [[BitInstant]] to use cash to purchase bitcoins sent to e-mail or SMS. Choose "Bitcoin to e-mail" service and enter either e-mail or SMS. ||<br />
|-<br />
| [https://www.ripio.com/ Ripio] || Buy bitcoin in Argentina using cash payment networks like PagoFacil, RapiPago, etc. || A good option for bitcoin beginners transactions take usually less than 24 hours and places for doing the payments are all over.<br />
|-<br />
| [http://coinbase.com/ Coinbase] || Buy and sell bitcoin by connecting a U.S. based bank account. Users need the account and routing numbers that can be found on a check to get started. || Instant verification available for new accounts. Purchased bitcoin can be held in Coinbase's online wallet. Generally considered a good option for U.S. based bitcoin beginners.<br />
|-<br />
| [[Coin-Daddy]] || Buy bitcoins with PayPal and OKPAY || No verification needed. Customer just needs to pay with PayPal, leave the Wallet address and then he receives his coins, or pays via OKPAY. Available for purchase are: Bitcoins, Litecoins and PPCoins.<br />
|-<br />
| [http://BitcoinIsrael.co.il BitcoinIsrael.co.il] || ILS (NIS - New Israeli Shekel)<br />
* via bank transfer<br />
* via Bank HaDoar /Post Office Bank (instant transfer)<br />
* via In Person<br />
|| Buy and sell your Bitcoins within minutes in person. Get "same day" service using Bank HaDoar /Post Office Bank. Get "next day" service using Bank Transfer.<br />
|-<br />
| [[Bitcoin Nordic]] || <br />
*EUR/DKK (SEPA and wire transfer)<br />
*USD, EUR, GBP, DKK, SEK, NOK (Cash or check in the mail)<br />
*AED, DZD, EGP, IQD, ILS, JOD, KWD, LGP, LYD, MRO, MYR, NGN, OMR, PKR, QAR, SAR, TRL, TZS, TND, YER ([[CashU]] card)<br />
*MXN, EYU, BOB, BRL, COP, SYP, MAD, GHC, ZAR, CNY, CAD, and more ([[UKash]] voucher)<br />
|| For UKash, redeemed through CashU account.<br />
|-<br />
| [[Spend Bitcoins]] || AUD (Cash deposit) || AUD cash deposit at NAB, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ.<br />
|-<br />
| [https://bitcoinmylife.com/jml/buy-bitcoins BitcoinMyLife] <br /> ([[BitcoinMyLife|info]]) || EUR (SEPA bank transfer) || Simple and Safe.<br />Pay first transaction fee with Twitter or Facebook post.<br />
|-<br />
| [[bitcoin.de]] || EUR (bank wire)<br />EUR (SEPA bank transfer)<br />EUR ([[Skrill]]/Moneybookers) || Varies (person to person)<br />0.01 free Bitcoins for every new user<br />eWallet<br />Affiliate program<br />Language: German, Englisch<br/> News<br />
|-<br />
| [https://www.BitcoinZAP.com BitcoinZAP] || SEPA bank transfer - EUR <br> International bank transfer - EUR, USD <br> Western Union <br> MoneyGram <br> Cash (in the mail) - EUR, USD, CAD, GBP, HKD, JPY, PLN, AUD, CHF, CZK, DKK, HUF, MOP, SEK, NOK || Bitcoins usually delivered in less than 24 hours after payment is received<br />
|-<br />
| [[BTCX.se]] || SEK || Transfer to and banks in Sweden.<br />
|-<br />
| [[BTC China]] || || Converted to CNY for trading. <br />
|-<br />
| [[bitcoincambodia.com]] || USD (Cash, possible to pay everywhere in Cambodia) || You can buy Bitcoins for USD in Cambodia.<br />
|-<br />
| [[BitMarket.co]] || COP (Colombian Peso) || Varies (person to person)<br />
|- <br />
| [[bitcoin-otc|#bitcoin-otc]] || Person-to-person, various methods || IRC trading marketplace will usually have people willing to deal for small and larger amounts using various payment methods, including [[PayPal]], [[Dwolla]], [[Linden Dollars]], etc.<br />
|-<br />
| [[Canadian Bitcoins]] || CAD (Cash - XpressPost or Dropoff)<br />USD (Cash - Courier: UPS, FedEx, etc.) || For dropoff, office in Ottawa.<br />
|-<br />
| [http://coinrepublic.com/buy-sell-bitcoins-singapore/ Coin Republic] || SGD (Singapore Dollar)|| Payment via local bank transfer.<br />
|-<br />
| [https://dgtmkt.com Dgtmkt] ([[Dgtmkt|info]]) || Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)<br />Online bank transfers (Maybank2U, CIMB, MEPS, etc)<br />E-vouchers (Web Cash, Mobile Money) || Bitcoin merchant for Malaysians,. dealing in Malaysian Ringgit. Fully automated immediate transfers. https://dgtmkt.com<br />
|-<br />
| [https://www.dagensia.eu Dagensia] ([[Dagensia|info]]) || <br />
* SEPA Bank Transfer (EUR)<br />
* ATM card (EUR, USD)<br />
* Sofort Banking (EUR)<br />
* Direct Banking (EUR)<br />
* Payza (official Exchanger)<br />
* EgoPay, c-gold<br />
* BUY AND SELL BITCOINS<br />
|| Dagensia allows you to Buy and Sell Bitcoins and to store Bitcoins securely. You can get your first Bitcoin today, or you can start accepting Bitcoins directly into EUR or USD balance and ATM card. Sell and buy your Bitcoins through Wire, or SEPA EUR transfer, Direct Banking, ATM Cards. '''Fully licensed exchanger''', supervised by Czech National Bank<br />
|-<br />
| [[Lilion Transfer]] || Bank Transfer: USD, AUD, CAD, JPY, EUR, CHF, GBP, PLN, CZK, RON, BGN, HRK, RUB, SEK, NOK, DKK, LTL, LVL<br />Perfect Money<br />Monetto<br />OK Pay<br />Cosmic Pay<br />Pecunix<br />C-Gold<br />E-Pay Payments<br />PayPal|| 122 accounts worldwide.<br /> Support in 30 languages<br />
|-<br />
| [[Nanaimo Gold]] || Western Union money transfer<br />Moneygram money transfer<br />Cash in the mail || Digital Currency <--> Bitcoin exchange is automated<br />For cash in the mail send USD, EUR, CAD, or GBP. Canada mailing address.<br />
|-<br />
| [[Bitcoin Argentina]] || Cash: ARS, BRL, USD <br /> Bank transfer: ARS || No exchange fees!<br />
|-<br />
| [[Bitcoin.com.es]] || EUR (bank deposit) || Bank transfer or cash deposits at OpenBank in Spain.<br />
|-<br />
| [[Bahtcoin]] || Cash, Webmoney || Will cash out to Thai mobile and gaming prepaid cards as well.<br />
|-<br />
| [http://bitcoin.in.th Bitcoin Thailand] || THB: Cash/Bank Deposit || Same day service.<br />
|-<br />
| [[BitPiggy]] || AUD (Australian Dollar)|| Payment via bank transfer.<br />
|-<br />
| [[bitcoin.local]] || Person-to-person, various methods ||<br />
|-<br />
| [[bcchanger.com]] || Person-to-person via PayPal, [[Skrill]]/Moneybookers and other e-currency platforms ||<br />
|-<br />
| [[Bitcoil]] || ILS (bank transfer) ||<br />
|-<br />
| [[File:BXlogoSM.jpeg|link=http://bitXoin.com]] [http://bitXoin.com bitXoin] ([[bitXoin|info]]) || AUD (Cash deposits) || Fast transaction processing, market rates with low commissions and no fees. <br />
Contact BUYbulk@bitXoin.com for special rates on BUY BTC transactions over $10,000 and SELLbulk@bitXoin.com for SELL BTC transactions over BTC50 <br />
https://bitXoin.com/<br />
|- <br />
|[[btcnow]] || USD (OKPay, Dwolla) || bitcoins transferred instantly<br />
|-<br />
| [http://localbitcoins.com LocalBitcoins.com] || Varies (person to person)<br/>Physical cash locally<br/>[https://localbitcoins.com/buy-bitcoins-online/cash-deposit/ Cash deposit]<br>[https://localbitcoins.com/buy-bitcoins-online/okpay/ OKPay]<br/>[https://localbitcoins.com/buy-bitcoins-online/paypal/ PayPal]<br/>[https://localbitcoins.com/buy-bitcoins-online/dwolla/ Dwolla]<br/>[https://localbitcoins.com/buy-bitcoins-online/sepa-eu-bank-transfer/ SEPA Bank transfer] || Find your local bitcoin dealer, or purchase safely online using escrow! With dynamic pricing with equations.<br/>eWallet<br/><br />
[https://localbitcoins.com/affiliate/ Affiliate program]<br/><br />
[https://localbitcoins.com/api-docs/ API]<br />
|-<br />
| [https://www.bitbuy.nl BitBuy] || EUR (iDEAL) || Buy bitcoins instantly with iDEAL from the Netherlands. User will get price updates during the payment process.<br />
|-<br />
| [https://www.happycoins.com HappyCoins] || EUR (iDEAL and SEPA bank transfer) || Buy and sell Bitcoins. Use the Dutch iDEAL payment system to receive Bitcoins within minutes. Prices are based on near real-time exchange prices.<br />
|-<br />
| [[ECurrencyZone]] || BTC<br/>INR (Cash deposit of Indian rupee)<br />BDT (Cash deposit of Bangladeshi taka)<br />NPR (Cash deposit of Nepalese rupee)<br />MYR (Cash deposit of Malaysian ringitt)<br />SGD (Cash deposit of Singaporean dollar)<br />SGD (Net/Bank transfer)<br />USD (Western Union, Moneygram, Citibank global funds transfer, OKPay)<br />USD || Bank transfer considered at all locations with prior approval.<br />
|-<br />
| [[BitCoinVend]] || BTC<br/>USD (PayPal) || bitcoinvend@gmail.com, market variable with commission, quote based, verified paypal account with anti scammer verification<br />
|-<br />
| [[Bitcoins In Berlin]] || EUR (Cash in-the mail)<br />EUR (Cash in-person trade)<br />EUR (SEPA bank transfer)<br />EUR (Western Union) || Cash in-the-mail is to a Berlin P.O. box. In-person trade is in Berlin.<br />
|-<br />
| [https://www.lojabitcoin.pt Loja Bitcoin] || EUR (ATM/Multibanco) <br> EUR (bank transfer) <br> EUR (money order) <br> EUR (cash) || Several payment methods like the Portuguese "Multibanco" (ATM), "Vale postal CTT" (money order by mail), bank transfer and cash (in some locations) - Portugal only at the moment<br />
|-<br />
| [[Mang Sweeney]] || PHP (Cash)<br />PHP (Cash deposit at bank) || Languages: English, Pinoy.<br />PHP [https://localbitcoins.com/accounts/profile/mangsweeney cash trade method] in metro Manilla, Philappines.<br />
|-<br />
| [[mercaBit.eu]] || EUR (Ukash)<br/>EUR (Hal-Cash)<br/>EUR (Neteller)<br/>|| Buy bitcoins with ukash and more<br />
|-<br />
| [http://buyBTC.cz buyBTC.cz] ([[buyBTC.cz|info]]) || CZK (Domestic bank transfer)<br />EUR (Bank transfer) || Buy bitcoins from the Czech Republic.<br />
|-<br />
| [http://bitonic.nl Bitonic.nl] || EUR (iDeal) || Buy bitcoins instantly from the Netherlands.<br />
|-<br />
| [http://www.dragons.tl Dragon's Tale] ([[Dragon's Tale|info]]) || Credit card (except in the U.S.) || Purchase bitcoins through this MMO casino with credit card, withdraw bitcoins (though a fee applies if withdrawn and no casino play.)<br />
|-<br />
| [https://buybitcoinbycreditcard.com buybitcoinbycreditcard.com] || JPY (Credit Card) || Buy bitcoins instantly with your credit card. No registration required. This site accept from the world.<br />
|-<br />
| [[OKPAY]] || BTC<br/>USD, EUR, GBP, RUB, CHF etc (Bank Wire Transfer)<br/>EUR (SofortBanking)<br/>USD, EUR (Liqpay)<br/>USD (CashU)<br/>USD, EUR, GBP, RUB, CHF etc (UWCFS)<br/>USD, RUB, UAH (Wallet1)<br/>RUB (Yandex Money)<br/>RUB (EasyPay)<br/>USD, EUR (CONTACT)<br/>USD, EUR (Migom)<br/>USD, EUR, CZK (Money Polo)<br/>USD, EUR (Intel Express)<br/>USD, EUR (Western Union via Exchange Partners)<br/>USD, EUR (Moneygram via Exchange Partners)<br/>USD, EUR (via Exchange Partners) || Support of 19 world currencies, 15 languages.<br />
|-<br />
| [http://bitplaats.nl Bitplaats.nl] || EUR (iDEAL) || Buy bitcoins instantly, pay with iDEAL. Buy bitcoin from the Netherlands.<br />
|-<br />
| [http://artabit.com artaBit.com] ([[artaBit|info]]) || IDR || Buy bitcoins in Indonesia.<br />
|-<br />
| [https://www.bitsofgold.co.il BitsOfGold.co.il] ([[Bits_of_Gold|info]]) || ILS || Buy bitcoins from Israel.<br />
|-<br />
| [http://www.rugatu.com rugatu.com] || EUR || Buy bitcoins with Neteller.<br />
|-<br />
| [http://wmeng.exchanger.ru WMeng.Exchanger.ru] || Buy bitcoins with:<ul><li>USD</li></li>EUR</li></li>RUB</li></li>UAH</li></li>Belorussian Roubles</li></li>Vietnamese Dongs</li></ul><br />Sell bitcoins for:<ul><li>USD</li></li>EUR</li></li>RUB</li></li>UAH</li></li>Belorussian Roubles || The exchange service of WebMoney Transfer system. WMT has a special units named WMX to operate BTC, which can be exchanged and/or withdrawn<br />
|-<br />
| [[WM-Center]] || USD (Western Union, MoneyGram) <br/> EUR <br/> RUR <br/> THB <br/> UAH || 24/7/365 support <br/> English, Spanish, Russian versions <br/> Fast reliable service since 2005<br />
|-<br />
| [https://www.bitgo.co.il/ bitgo.co.il]|| ILS || Buy/Sell bitcoins in Israel.<br />
|-<br />
| [http://www.belgacoin.com Belgacoin]|| EUR, USD, BGN, CHF, CZK, DKK, EEK, GBP, GIP, HRK, HUF, ISK, LTL, LVL, NOK, PLN, RON, SEK || The easiest way to buy Bitcoins in Europe. It is fast, secure and cheap. No registration required!<br />
|-<br />
| [https://bittiraha.fi/content/bittip%C3%B6rssi-osta-ja-myy-bitcoineja Bittiraha.fi]|| EUR (SEPA transfer) || Reliable Finland based exchange operated since 2012.<br/> 1-2 day deposits and 1-3 day withdrawals. No registration required!<br />
|-<br />
<br />
| [https://bitalo.com Bitalo] ([[Bitalo|info]]) || Varies (person to person)<br/>[https://localbitcoins.com/buy-bitcoins-online/sepa-eu-bank-transfer/ SEPA Bank transfer] || Purchase Bitcoins directly from another person.<br/>eWallet<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Direct / Bulk Buying==<br />
<br />
Liquidity providers for transactions of size ($10,000 or larger).<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
| Service || Type || Payment Method || Notes<br />
|-<br />
| [https://www.bitbrothersllc.com BitBrothers LLC] || Direct purchases up to $10,000 || USD (Bank Deposit at a Chase bank OR cash orders including cashiers checks and money orders) || BTC || Best customer service in the industry and quickest transaction speeds.<br />
|-<br />
| [http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=87094.0 BitPay] ([[BitPay|info]]) || Direct purchases, $10,000 USD and higher || USD (Bank wire, domestic or international) || BTC || Contact for other payment methods. <br />
|-<br />
| [https://truckcoin.com TRUCK COIN] || Directly and Easily || USD, EUR, SGD, VND and more (Bank Wire, Western Union, Paypal, face-face) || BTC || Contact for other method directly with sellers or buyers.<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Other Financial Services==<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
| Service || Type || Payment || Settled || Notes<br />
|-<br />
| [https://giftcarddrainer.com GiftCardDrainer.com] || Transfer gift card balance to Bitcoin address or conventional account. || BTC, USD || || Customers can redeem their Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover gift card for Bitcoins or payment into their personal bank or PayPal account. 5.7% + $0.57 fee.<br />
|-<br />
| [http://www.indx.ru/?lang=en-US INDX] || Stock market, where BTC are also traded || - || - || Trader`s account can be withdrawn with BTC or with USD via WebMoney.<br />
|-<br />
| [[MPEx]] || Buy / Sell / Exercise CALLs / PUTs, American style.<br />52 strikes offered (by .5), current month + 2.<br /> No shorting available yet.|| BTC || BTC || Transactions encoded via amt.<br /> Must use non-rounding client<br />(0.3.24 or later)<br />
|-<br />
| [https://vircurex.com/ Vircurex] || Buy / Sell Options<br/>Loan / Borrow || BTC, NMC, LTC, DVC, GG, I0C, IXC, SC || BTC, NMC, LTC, DVC, GG, I0C, IXC, SC ||<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Physical Bitcoins==<br />
<br />
Physical Bitcoins are bearer tokens that have an embedded redeemable digital bitcoin value if torn open. While they are somewhat expensive if bought purely for the digital bitcoins, they are relatively easy to get, because they can be purchased with PayPal or credit card - payment methods typically not accepted for pure digital bitcoin purchases.<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
| Service || Type || Payment || Notes<br />
|-<br />
| [https://www.casascius.com Casascius.com] || Casascius Physical Bitcoins || BTC || <br />
|-<br />
| [https://btcstore.eu BTCstore.eu]|| BTC Store Paperwallets, Casascius and Recalescence Physical Bitcoins reseller || BTC, EUR (SEPA bank transfer), Finnish online banks || <br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Exchange Directories==<br />
* [http://bitcoinx.io/ BitcoinX.io] Peer-to-Peer Bitcoin Reviews<br />
* [http://howtobuybitcoins.info/ HowToBuyBitcoins.info]<br />
* [http://wheretobuycryptocoins.com WhereToBuyCryptocoins.com]. Shows exchanges, markets, faucets, sites to spend cryptocoins and more.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
* [[:Category:Digital_currencies|Digital Currencies]]<br />
* [[Selling bitcoins]]<br />
* [[Secure Trading]]<br />
* [[Bitcoin Ladder]]<br />
* [[:Category:Local|Local]] exchanges<br />
<br />
[[Category:Exchanges]]<br />
[[Category:Introduction]]<br />
[[zh-cn:购买bitcoins]]<br />
[[ru:Приобретение биткойнов]]</div>BashCohttps://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:FAQ&diff=48033Help:FAQ2014-06-09T10:19:56Z<p>BashCo: Removed two virwox referral links added by Maskedman in January. Entire virwox/Paypal paragraph could probably be removed.</p>
<hr />
<div>Here you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions.<br />
<br />
== General ==<br />
=== What is Bitcoin? ===<br />
Bitcoin is a distributed peer-to-peer digital currency that can be transferred instantly and securely between any two people in the world. It's like electronic cash that you can use to pay friends or merchants.<br />
<br />
=== What are bitcoins? ===<br />
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”).<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== How can I get bitcoins? ===<br />
<br />
There are a variety of ways to acquire bitcoins:<br />
* You can buy bitcoins from [http://coinbase.com/ Coinbase] or [[File:BIPS.gif|20px|link=https://bipsmarket.com]] [https://bipsmarket.com BIPS Market].<br />
* Accept bitcoins as payment for goods or services.<br />
* The most common way to buy bitcoins are the [[Buying bitcoins|Bitcoin Exchanges]]<br />
* There are several services where you can [[Buying_Bitcoins_(the_noob_version)|trade them]] for traditional currency.<br />
* Find someone to trade cash for bitcoins in-person through a [https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:Directories local directory].<br />
* Participate in a [[Pooled mining|mining pool]].<br />
* 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).<br />
* Visit sites that provide [[Trade#Free_Samples_and_Offers|free samples and offers]].<br />
* Visit [http://wheretobuycryptocoins.com WhereToBuyCryptoCoins.com] to get a guide how to start with bitcoins and cryptocurrency in general. Shows a list of markets, faucets, exchanges, miner's pools and more.<br />
<br />
===Does Bitcoin guarantee an influx of free money?===<br />
<br />
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:<br />
<ol style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;"><br />
<li>Some sort of online 'get-rich-quick' scam.</li><br />
<li>A loophole in the market economy, the installation of which guarantees a steady influx of cash.</li><br />
<li>A sure investment that will almost certainly yield a profit.</li><br />
</ol><br />
In fact, none of the above are true. Let's look at them independently.<br />
<br />
;Is Bitcoin a 'get-rich-quick' scheme?<br />
:If you've spent much time on the Internet, you've probably seen ads for many 'get-rich-quick' schemes. These ads usually promise huge profits for a small amounts of easy work. Such schemes are usually pyramid/matrix-style schemes that make money from their own employees and offer nothing of any real value. Most convince one to buy packages that will make them earn hundreds a day, which in fact have the buyer distribute more such ads, and make minute profits.<br />
<br />
:Bitcoin is in no way similar to these schemes. Bitcoin doesn't promise windfall profits. There is no way for the developers to make money from your involvement or to take money from you. That bitcoins are nearly impossible to acquire without the owner's consent represents one of its greatest strengths. Bitcoin is an experimental, virtual currency that may succeed or may fail. None of its developers expect to get rich off of it. <br />
<br />
:A more detailed answer to this question can be found [http://bitcointalk.org/?topic=7815.0 here].<br />
<br />
;Will I make money by installing the client?<br />
:Most people who use Bitcoin don't earn anything by doing so, and the default client has no built-in way to earn Bitcoins. A small minority of people with dedicated, high-performance hardware do earn some Bitcoins by "''mining''" (generating new bitcoins, see [[#What is mining?|What is mining?]]) with special software, but joining Bitcoin shouldn't be construed as being the road to riches. Most Bitcoin users get involved because they find the project conceptually interesting and don't earn anything by doing so. This is also why you won't find much speculation about the political or economic repercussions of Bitcoin anywhere on this site: Bitcoin developers owe their dedication to the project's intellectual yieldings more than to those of a monetary nature. Bitcoin is still taking its first baby steps; it may go on to do great things but right now it only has something to offer those chasing conceptually interesting projects or bleeding edge technology.<br />
<br />
;As an investment, is Bitcoin a sure thing?<br />
: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.<br />
<br />
=== Can I buy bitcoins with Paypal? ===<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
There is a [https://www.virwox.com workaround] that can be done in order to use Paypal to buy Bitcoins but it holds within it higher transaction fees. Using the [https://www.virwox.com Virtual World Exchange] you can buy Second Life Lindens (SLL) with Paypal and then convert your SLL to Bitcoins. This process will charge you transaction fees of around 6% but will let you purchase Bitcoins pretty quickly as opposed to a wire transfer. The reason this method works is because you do not buy Bitcoins with Paypal directly, you only buy SLL with Paypal (which is acceptable by Paypal's TOS) and then exchange your SLL to Bitcoin. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== Where can I find a forum to discuss Bitcoin? ===<br />
<br />
Please visit the [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums_on_various_platforms|Community Portal]] for links to Bitcoin-related forums.<br />
<br />
=== How are new bitcoins created? ===<br />
<br />
New bitcoins are generated by the network through the process of "[[#What is mining?|''mining'']]". In a process that is similar to a continuous raffle draw, mining nodes on the network are awarded bitcoins each time they find the solution to a certain mathematical problem (and thereby create a new [[block]]). Creating a block is a [[proof of work]] with a difficulty that varies with the overall strength of the network. The reward for solving a block is [[Controlled Currency Supply|automatically adjusted]] so that, ideally, every four years of operation of the Bitcoin network, half the amount of bitcoins created in the prior 4 years are created. A maximum of {{formatnum:10499889.80231183}} bitcoins were created in the first 4 (approx.) years from January 2009 to November 2012. Every four years thereafter this amount halves, so it should be {{formatnum:5250000}} over years 4-8, {{formatnum:2625000}} over years 8-12, and so on. Thus the total number of bitcoins in existence can never exceed {{formatnum:20999839.77085749}} and counting. See [[Controlled Currency Supply]].<br />
<br />
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]].<br />
<br />
=== What's the current total number of bitcoins in existence? ===<br />
<br />
[http://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc Current count]. Also see [https://blockchain.info/charts/total-bitcoins Total bitcoins in circulation chart]<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== How divisible are bitcoins? ===<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== What do I call the various denominations of bitcoin? ===<br />
<br />
There is a lot of discussion about the naming of these fractions of bitcoins. The leading candidates are:<br />
<br />
* 1 BTC = 1 bitcoin<br />
* 0.01 BTC = 1 cBTC = 1 centibitcoin (also referred to as bitcent)<br />
* 0.001 BTC = 1 mBTC = 1 millibitcoin (also referred to as mbit (pronounced em-bit) or millibit or even bitmill)<br />
* 0.000 001 BTC = 1 μBTC = 1 microbitcoin (also referred to as ubit (pronounced yu-bit) or microbit)<br />
<br />
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't be the equivalent of 0.01 USD, GBP or EUR). Equally, the inclusion of existing national currency denominations such as "cent", "nickel", "dime", "pence", "pound", "kopek" and so on are to be discouraged; this is a worldwide currency.<br />
<br />
One exception is the "satoshi" which is smallest denomination currently possible <br />
<br />
* 0.000 000 01 BTC = 1 satoshi (pronounced sa-toh-shee)<br />
which is so named in honour of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of the inventor of Bitcoin.<br />
<br />
For an overview of all defined units of Bitcoin (including less common and niche units), see [[Units]].<br />
<br />
Further discussion on this topic can be found on the forums here:<br />
<br />
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=14438.msg195287#msg195287 We need names]<br />
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=8282.0 What to call 0.001 BTC]<br />
<br />
=== How does the halving work when the number gets really small? ===<br />
<br />
Eventually the reward will go from 0.00000001 BTC to zero and no more bitcoins will be created. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
With an initial block reward of 50 BTC, it will take many 4-year periods for the block reward to reach zero.<br />
<br />
=== How long will it take to generate all the coins? ===<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== If no more coins are going to be generated, will more blocks be created? ===<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== But if no more coins are generated, what happens when Bitcoins are lost? Won't that be a problem? ===<br />
<br />
Because of the law of supply and demand, when fewer bitcoins are available the ones that are left will be in higher demand, and therefore will have a higher value. So, as Bitcoins are lost, the remaining bitcoins will eventually increase in value to compensate. As the value of a bitcoin increases, the number of bitcoins required to purchase an item '''de'''creases. This is a [[Deflationary spiral|deflationary economic model]]. As the average transaction size reduces, transactions will probably be denominated in sub-units of a bitcoin such as millibitcoins ("Millies") or microbitcoins ("Mikes").<br />
<br />
The Bitcoin protocol uses a base unit of one hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin ("a Satoshi"), but unused bits are available in the protocol fields that could be used to denote even smaller subdivisions.<br />
<br />
=== If every transaction is broadcast via the network, does Bitcoin scale? ===<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Learn more about [[Scalability]].<br />
<br />
==Economy==<br />
=== Where does the value of Bitcoin stem from? What backs up Bitcoin? ===<br />
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]].<br />
<br />
When we say that a currency is backed up by gold, we mean that there's a promise in place that you can exchange the currency for gold. Bitcoins, like dollars and euros, are not backed up by anything except the variety of merchants that accept them.<br />
<br />
It's a common misconception that Bitcoins gain their value from the cost of electricity required to generate them. Cost doesn't equal value – hiring 1,000 men to shovel a big hole in the ground may be costly, but not valuable. Also, even though scarcity is a critical requirement for a useful currency, it alone doesn't make anything valuable. For example, your fingerprints are scarce, but that doesn't mean they have any exchange value.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== Is Bitcoin a bubble? ===<br />
Yes, in the same way as the euro and dollar are. They only have value in exchange and have no inherent value. If everyone suddenly stopped accepting your dollars, euros or bitcoins, the "bubble" would burst and their value would drop to zero. But that is unlikely to happen: even in Somalia, where the government collapsed 20 years ago, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_shilling Somali shillings] are still accepted as payment.<br />
<br />
=== Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme? ===<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
The fact that early adopters benefit more doesn't alone make anything a Ponzi scheme. All good investments in successful companies have this quality.<br />
<br />
=== Doesn't Bitcoin unfairly benefit early adopters? ===<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
===Won't loss of wallets and the finite amount of Bitcoins create excessive deflation, destroying Bitcoin? ===<br />
Worries about Bitcoin being destroyed by deflation are not entirely unfounded. Unlike most currencies, which experience inflation as their founding institutions create more and more units, Bitcoin will likely experience gradual deflation with the passage of time. Bitcoin is unique in that only a small amount of units will ever be produced (twenty-one million to be exact), this number has been known since the project's inception, and the units are created at a predictable rate.<br />
<br />
Also, Bitcoin users are faced with a danger that doesn't threaten users of any other currency: if a Bitcoin user loses his wallet, his money is gone forever, unless he finds it again. And not just to him; it's gone completely out of circulation, rendered utterly inaccessible to anyone. As people will lose their wallets, the total number of Bitcoins will slowly decrease.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
For more information, see the [[Deflationary spiral]] page.<br />
<br />
=== What if someone bought up all the existing Bitcoins? ===<br />
Bitcoin markets are competitive -- meaning the price of a bitcoin will rise or fall depending on supply and demand at certain price levels. Only a fraction of bitcoins issued to date are found on the exchange markets for sale. So even though technically, a buyer with lots of money could buy all the bitcoins offered for sale, unless those holding the rest of the bitcoins offer them for sale as well, even the wealthiest, most determined buyer can't get at them.<br />
<br />
Additionally, new currency continues to be issued daily and will continue to do so for decades; though over time the rate at which they are issued declines to insignificant levels. Those who are mining aren't obligated to sell their bitcoins so not all bitcoins will make it to the markets even.<br />
<br />
This situation doesn't suggest, however, that the markets aren't vulnerable to price manipulation. It doesn't take significant amounts of money to move the market price up or down, and thus Bitcoin remains a volatile asset.<br />
<br />
===What if someone creates a new block chain, or a new digital currency that renders Bitcoin obsolete?===<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
This may sound rather foreboding, so bear in mind that the introduction of new and possibly better virtual currencies will not necessarily herald Bitcoin's demise. If Bitcoin establishes itself sufficiently firmly before the inception of the next generation of private, online currencies so as to gain widespread acceptance and general stability, future currencies may pose little threat even if they can claim superior design. This is known as the network effect.<br />
<br />
=== Is Bitcoin open to value manipulation? ===<br />
<br />
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?<br />
<br />
This is only a problem if you are investing in Bitcoin for short period of time. A manipulator can't change the fundamentals, and over a period of 5-10 years, the fundamentals will win over any short term manipulations.<br />
<br />
==Sending and Receiving Payments==<br />
<br />
=== Why do I have to wait 10 minutes before I can spend money I received? ===<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
[[Blocks]] (shown as "confirmations" in the GUI) are how the Bitcoin achieves consensus on who owns what. Once a block is found everyone agrees that you now own those coins, so you can spend them again. Until then it's possible that some network nodes believe otherwise, if somebody is attempting to defraud the system by reversing a transaction. The more confirmations a transaction has, the less risk there is of a reversal. Only 6 blocks or 1 hour is enough to make reversal computationally impractical. This is dramatically better than credit cards which can see chargebacks occur up to three months after the original transaction!<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
[[File:TransactionConfirmationTimesExample.PNG]]<br />
<br />
=== Do you have to wait until my transactions are confirmed in order to buy or sell things with Bitcoin? ===<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Double-spends might be a concern for something like a snack machine in a low-traffic area with no nearby security cameras. Such a machine shouldn't honor zero-confirmation payments, and should instead use some other mechanism of clearing Bitcoin or validating transactions against reversal, see the wiki article [[Myths#Point_of_sale_with_bitcoins_isn.27t_possible_because_of_the_10_minute_wait_for_confirmation|here]] for alternatives.<br />
<br />
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:<br />
<br />
A [[Double-spending#Finney_attack|Finney attack]] is where an attacker mines a block containing a movement of some coins back to themselves. Once they find a block solution, they quickly go to a merchant and make a purchase, then broadcast the block, thus taking back the coins. This attack is a risk primarily for goods that are dispatched immediately, like song downloads or currency trades. Because the attacker can't choose the time of the attack, it isn't a risk for merchants such as supermarkets where you can't choose exactly when to pay (due to queues, etc). The attack can fail if somebody else finds a block containing the purchasing transaction before you release your own block, therefore, merchants can reduce but not eliminate the risk by making purchasers wait some length of time that's less than a confirm.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== I was sent some bitcoins and they haven't arrived yet! Where are they? ===<br />
<br />
Don't panic! There are a number of reasons why your bitcoins might not show up yet, and a number of ways to diagnose them. <br />
<br />
The latest version of the Bitcoin-Qt client tells you how far it has yet to go in downloading the blockchain. Hover over the icon in the bottom right corner of the client to learn your client's status.<br />
<br />
If it has not caught up then it's possible that your transaction hasn't been included in a block yet. <br />
<br />
You can check pending transactions in the network by going [https://www.biteasy.com here] or [http://blockchain.info here] and then searching for your address. If the transaction is listed here then it's a matter of waiting until it gets included in a block before it will show in your client. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== Why does my Bitcoin address keep changing? ===<br />
<br />
Unlike postal or email addresses, Bitcoin addresses are single-use.<br />
This means that whenever you want to receive a payment, you need to generate a new address.<br />
<br />
While it is technically possible to receive coins multiple times with a single address, this compromises your wallet's security as well as the privacy of the entire Bitcoin network, and also makes it impossible to know for certain who sent the coins or why.<br />
<br />
===How much will the transaction fee be?===<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
A fee might be imposed because your transaction looks like a denial of service attack to the Bitcoin system. For example, it might be burdensome to transmit or it might recycle Bitcoins you recently received. The wallet software attempts to avoid generating burdensome transactions, but it isn't always able to do so: The funds in your wallet might be new or composed of many tiny payments. <br />
<br />
Because the fee is related to the amount of data that makes up the transaction and not to the amount of Bitcoins being sent, the fee may seem extremely low (0.0005 BTC for a 1,000 BTC transfer) or unfairly high (0.004 BTC for a 0.02 BTC payment, or about 20%). If you are receiving tiny amounts (''e.g.'' as small payments from a mining pool) then fees when sending will be higher than if your activity follows the pattern of conventional consumer or business transactions. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== What happens when someone sends me a bitcoin but my computer is powered off? ===<br />
<br />
Bitcoins are not actually "sent" to your wallet; the software only uses that term so that we can use the currency without having to learn new concepts. Your wallet is only needed when you wish to spend coins that you've received.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== How long does "synchronizing" take when the Bitcoin client is first installed? What's it doing? ===<br />
<br />
The popular Bitcoin client software from bitcoin.org implements a "full" Bitcoin node: It can carry out all the duties of the Bitcoin P2P system, it isn't simply a "client". One of the principles behind the operation of full Bitcoin nodes is that they don't assume that the other participants have followed the rules of the Bitcoin system. During synchronization, the software is processing historical Bitcoin transactions and making sure for itself that all of the rules of the system have been correctly followed.<br />
<br />
In normal operation, after synchronizing, the software should use a hardly noticeable amount of your computer's resources.<br />
<br />
When the wallet client program is first installed, its initial validation requires a lot of work from your computer's hard disk, so the amount of time to synchronize depends on your disk speed and, to a lesser extent, your CPU speed. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or so. On a slow computer it could take more than 40 hours of continuous synchronization, so check your computer's power-saving settings to ensure that it does not turn its hard disk off when unattended for a few hours. You can use the Bitcoin software during synchronization, but you may not see recent payments to you until the client program has caught up to the point where those transactions happened.<br />
<br />
If you feel that this process takes too long, you can download a pre-synchronized blockchain from [http://eu2.bitcoincharts.com/blockchain/ http://eu2.bitcoincharts.com/blockchain/]. Alternatively, you can try an alternative "lite" client such as Multibit or a super-light client like electrum, though these clients have somewhat weaker security, are less mature, and don't contribute to the health of the P2P network.<br />
<br />
==Networking==<br />
=== Do I need to configure my firewall to run Bitcoin? ===<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
If you want to restrict your firewall rules to a few IPs, you can find stable nodes in the [[Fallback Nodes|fallback nodes list]].<br />
<br />
=== How does the peer finding mechanism work? ===<br />
<br />
Bitcoin finds peers primarily by forwarding peer announcements within its own network and each node saves a database of peers that it's aware of, for future use. In order to bootstrap this process Bitcoin needs a list of initial peers, these can be provided manually but normally it obtains them by querying a set of DNS domain names which have automatically updated lists, if that doesn't work it falls back to a built-in list which is updated from time to time in new versions of the software. In the reference software initial peers can also be specified manually by adding an addr.txt to the data directory or via the addnode parameter.<br />
<br />
==Mining==<br />
===What is mining?===<br />
[[Mining]] is the process of spending computation power to secure Bitcoin transactions against reversal and introducing new Bitcoins to the system.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
===Is mining used for some useful computation?===<br />
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.<br />
<br />
===Is it not a waste of energy?===<br />
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.<br />
<br />
===Why don't we use calculations that are also useful for some other purpose?===<br />
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.<br />
<br />
===How can we stop miners from creating zero transaction blocks?===<br />
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.<br />
<br />
===How does the proof-of-work system help secure Bitcoin?===<br />
Bitcoin uses the [[Hashcash]] proof of work with a minor adaption. To give a general idea of the mining process, imagine this setup:<br />
<br />
payload = <some data related to things happening on the Bitcoin network><br />
nonce = 1<br />
hash = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( payload + nonce ) )<br />
<br />
The work performed by a miner consists of repeatedly increasing "nonce" until<br />
the hash function yields a value, that has the rare property of being below a certain<br />
target threshold. (In other words: The hash "starts with a certain number of zeroes",<br />
if you display it in the fixed-length representation, that is typically used.)<br />
<br />
As can be seen, the mining process doesn't compute anything special. It merely<br />
tries to find a number (also referred to as nonce) which - in combination with the payload -<br />
results in a hash with special properties.<br />
<br />
The advantage of using such a mechanism consists of the fact, that it is very easy to check a result: Given the payload and a specific nonce, only a single call of the hashing function is needed to verify that the hash has the required properties. Since there is no known way to find these hashes other than brute force, this can be used as a "proof of work" that someone invested a lot of computing power to find the correct nonce for this payload.<br />
<br />
This feature is then used in the Bitcoin network to secure various aspects. An attacker<br />
that wants to introduce malicious payload data into the network, will need to do the<br />
required proof of work before it will be accepted. And as long as honest miners have more<br />
computing power, they can always outpace an attacker.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
===Why was the "Generate coin" option of the client software removed?===<br />
<br />
The option wasn't removed, but it is now only accessible via the command-line or the configuration file. The reason for this is that many users were complaining after they turned on and expecting to receive coins. Without specialized mining hardware a user is exceptionally unlikely generate a block on their own at the network's current [[difficulty|security level]].<br />
<br />
==Security==<br />
<br />
===Could miners collude to give themselves money or to fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?===<br />
<br />
There are two questions in here. Let's look at them separately.<br />
<br />
;Could miners gang up and give themselves money?<br />
<br />
Mining itself is the process of creating new blocks in the block chain. Each block contains a list of all the transactions that have taken place across the entire Bitcoin network since the last block was created, as well as a hash of the previous block. New blocks are 'mined', or rather, generated, by Bitcoin clients correctly guessing sequences of characters in codes called 'hashes,' which are created using information from previous blocks. Bitcoin users may download specialized 'mining' software, which allows them to dedicate some amount of their processing power – however large or small – to guessing at strings within the hash of the previous block. Whoever makes the right guess first, thus creating a new block, receives a reward in Bitcoins.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Of course, the real question is:<br />
<br />
;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?<br />
<br />
Bitcoin isn't infallible. It can be cheated, but doing so is extremely difficult. Bitcoin was designed to evade some of the central problems with modern currencies – namely, that their trustworthiness hinges upon that of people who might not have users' best interests in mind. Every currency in the world (other than Bitcoin) is controlled by large institutions who keep track of what's done with it, and who can manipulate its value. And every other currency has value because people trust the institutions that control them.<br />
<br />
Bitcoin doesn't ask that its users trust any institution. Its security is based on the cryptography that is an integral part of its structure, and that is readily available for any and all to see. Instead of one entity keeping track of transactions, the entire network does, so Bitcoins are astoundingly difficult to steal, or double-spend. Bitcoins are created in a regular and predictable fashion, and by many different users, so no one can decide to make a whole lot more and lessen their value. In short, Bitcoin is designed to be inflation-proof, double-spend-proof and completely distributed.<br />
<br />
Nonetheless, there are a few ways that one can acquire Bitcoins dishonestly. Firstly, one can steal private keys. Key theft isn't something that Bitcoin security has been designed to prevent: it's up to users to keep their keys safe. But the cryptography is designed so that it is completely impossible to deduce someone's private key from their public one. As long as you keep your private key to yourself, you don't have much to worry about. Furthermore, one could theoretically create a new block chain, but due to the way in which the block chain is constructed, this would be extremely difficult and require massive amounts of processing power. A full explanation of the difficulties involved can be found in the [[block chain]] article.<br />
<br />
Bitcoin can be ripped off – but doing so would be extremely hard and require considerable expertise and a staggering amount of processing power. And it's only going to get harder with time. Bitcoin isn't impenetrable, but it's close enough to put any real worries in the peripherals.<br />
<br />
;Could miners fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?<br />
<br />
Once again, almost certainly not.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
And thus, it is more or less impossible for anyone to change the function of Bitcoin to their advantage. If users don't like the changes, they won't adopt them, whereas if users do like them, then these will help everyone equally. Of course, one can conceive of a situation where someone manages to get a change pushed through that provides them with an advantage that no one notices, but given that Bitcoin is structurally relatively simple, it is unlikely that any major changes will go through without someone noticing first.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
==Help==<br />
===I'd like to learn more. Where can I get help?===<br />
<br />
* Read the [[Introduction|introduction to bitcoin]] <br />
* See the videos, podcasts, and blog posts from the [[Press]]<br />
* Read and post on the [[:Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums|forums]]<br />
* Chat on one of the [[:Bitcoin:Community_portal#IRC_Chat|Bitcoin IRC]] channels<br />
* Listen to [http://omegataupodcast.net/2011/03/59-bitcoin-a-digital-decentralized-currency/ this podcast], which goes into the details of how bitcoin works<br />
* Ask questions on the [http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com Bitcoin Stack Exchange]<br />
* Use [http://wheretobuycryptocoins.com WhereToBuyCryptocoins]. It shows an cryptocurrency introduction, a getting started guide for beginners, also lists of markets, faucets, exchanges.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
* [[Man page]]<br />
* [[Introduction]]<br />
<br />
[[de:FAQ]]<br />
[[zh-cn:FAQ]]<br />
[[fr:FAQ]]<br />
[[ru:FAQ]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Technical]]<br />
[[Category:Vocabulary]]</div>BashCohttps://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:FAQ&diff=48016Help:FAQ2014-06-08T22:57:02Z<p>BashCo: </p>
<hr />
<div>Here you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions.<br />
<br />
== General ==<br />
=== What is Bitcoin? ===<br />
Bitcoin is a distributed peer-to-peer digital currency that can be transferred instantly and securely between any two people in the world. It's like electronic cash that you can use to pay friends or merchants.<br />
<br />
=== What are bitcoins? ===<br />
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”).<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== How can I get bitcoins? ===<br />
<br />
There are a variety of ways to acquire bitcoins:<br />
* You can buy bitcoins from [http://coinbase.com/?r=514b6eb6a18f2fdde50000db&utm_campaign=user-referral&src=referral-link Coinbase].<br />
* Accept bitcoins as payment for goods or services.<br />
* The most common way to buy bitcoins are the [[Buying bitcoins|Bitcoin Exchanges]].<br />
* There are several services where you can [[Buying_Bitcoins_(the_noob_version)|trade them]] for traditional currency.<br />
* Find someone to trade cash for bitcoins in-person through a [https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:Directories local directory].<br />
* Participate in a [[Pooled mining|mining pool]].<br />
* 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).<br />
* Visit sites that provide [[Trade#Free_Samples_and_Offers|free samples and offers]].<br />
* Visit [http://wheretobuycryptocoins.com WhereToBuyCryptoCoins.com] to get a guide how to start with bitcoins and cryptocurrency in general. Shows a list of markets, faucets, exchanges, miner's pools and more.<br />
<br />
===Does Bitcoin guarantee an influx of free money?===<br />
<br />
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:<br />
<ol style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;"><br />
<li>Some sort of online 'get-rich-quick' scam.</li><br />
<li>A loophole in the market economy, the installation of which guarantees a steady influx of cash.</li><br />
<li>A sure investment that will almost certainly yield a profit.</li><br />
</ol><br />
In fact, none of the above are true. Let's look at them independently.<br />
<br />
;Is Bitcoin a 'get-rich-quick' scheme?<br />
:If you've spent much time on the Internet, you've probably seen ads for many 'get-rich-quick' schemes. These ads usually promise huge profits for a small amounts of easy work. Such schemes are usually pyramid/matrix-style schemes that make money from their own employees and offer nothing of any real value. Most convince one to buy packages that will make them earn hundreds a day, which in fact have the buyer distribute more such ads, and make minute profits.<br />
<br />
:Bitcoin is in no way similar to these schemes. Bitcoin doesn't promise windfall profits. There is no way for the developers to make money from your involvement or to take money from you. That bitcoins are nearly impossible to acquire without the owner's consent represents one of its greatest strengths. Bitcoin is an experimental, virtual currency that may succeed or may fail. None of its developers expect to get rich off of it. <br />
<br />
:A more detailed answer to this question can be found [http://bitcointalk.org/?topic=7815.0 here].<br />
<br />
;Will I make money by installing the client?<br />
:Most people who use Bitcoin don't earn anything by doing so, and the default client has no built-in way to earn Bitcoins. A small minority of people with dedicated, high-performance hardware do earn some Bitcoins by "''mining''" (generating new bitcoins, see [[#What is mining?|What is mining?]]) with special software, but joining Bitcoin shouldn't be construed as being the road to riches. Most Bitcoin users get involved because they find the project conceptually interesting and don't earn anything by doing so. This is also why you won't find much speculation about the political or economic repercussions of Bitcoin anywhere on this site: Bitcoin developers owe their dedication to the project's intellectual yieldings more than to those of a monetary nature. Bitcoin is still taking its first baby steps; it may go on to do great things but right now it only has something to offer those chasing conceptually interesting projects or bleeding edge technology.<br />
<br />
;As an investment, is Bitcoin a sure thing?<br />
: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.<br />
<br />
=== Can I buy bitcoins with Paypal? ===<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
There is a [https://www.virwox.com?r=5495d workaround] that can be done in order to use Paypal to buy Bitcoins but it holds within it higher transaction fees. Using the [https://www.virwox.com?r=5495d Virtual World Exchange] you can buy Second Life Lindens (SLL) with Paypal and then convert your SLL to Bitcoins. This process will charge you transaction fees of around 6% but will let you purchase Bitcoins pretty quickly as opposed to a wire transfer. The reason this method works is because you do not buy Bitcoins with Paypal directly, you only buy SLL with Paypal (which is acceptable by Paypal's TOS) and then exchange your SLL to Bitcoin. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== Where can I find a forum to discuss Bitcoin? ===<br />
<br />
Please visit the [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums_on_various_platforms|Community Portal]] for links to Bitcoin-related forums.<br />
<br />
=== How are new bitcoins created? ===<br />
<br />
New bitcoins are generated by the network through the process of "[[#What is mining?|''mining'']]". In a process that is similar to a continuous raffle draw, mining nodes on the network are awarded bitcoins each time they find the solution to a certain mathematical problem (and thereby create a new [[block]]). Creating a block is a [[proof of work]] with a difficulty that varies with the overall strength of the network. The reward for solving a block is [[Controlled Currency Supply|automatically adjusted]] so that, ideally, every four years of operation of the Bitcoin network, half the amount of bitcoins created in the prior 4 years are created. A maximum of {{formatnum:10499889.80231183}} bitcoins were created in the first 4 (approx.) years from January 2009 to November 2012. Every four years thereafter this amount halves, so it should be {{formatnum:5250000}} over years 4-8, {{formatnum:2625000}} over years 8-12, and so on. Thus the total number of bitcoins in existence can never exceed {{formatnum:20999839.77085749}} and counting. See [[Controlled Currency Supply]].<br />
<br />
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]].<br />
<br />
=== What's the current total number of bitcoins in existence? ===<br />
<br />
[http://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc Current count]. Also see [https://blockchain.info/charts/total-bitcoins Total bitcoins in circulation chart]<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== How divisible are bitcoins? ===<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== What do I call the various denominations of bitcoin? ===<br />
<br />
There is a lot of discussion about the naming of these fractions of bitcoins. The leading candidates are:<br />
<br />
* 1 BTC = 1 bitcoin<br />
* 0.01 BTC = 1 cBTC = 1 centibitcoin (also referred to as bitcent)<br />
* 0.001 BTC = 1 mBTC = 1 millibitcoin (also referred to as mbit (pronounced em-bit) or millibit or even bitmill)<br />
* 0.000 001 BTC = 1 μBTC = 1 microbitcoin (also referred to as ubit (pronounced yu-bit) or microbit. Just plain 'bit' has also grown in popularity in some circles)<br />
<br />
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't be the equivalent of 0.01 USD, GBP or EUR). Equally, the inclusion of existing national currency denominations such as "cent", "nickel", "dime", "pence", "pound", "kopek" and so on are to be discouraged; this is a worldwide currency.<br />
<br />
One exception is the "satoshi" which is smallest denomination currently possible. <br />
<br />
* 0.000 000 01 BTC = 1 satoshi (pronounced sa-toh-shee)<br />
which is so named in honour of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of the inventor of Bitcoin.<br />
<br />
For an overview of all defined units of Bitcoin (including less common and niche units), see [[Units]].<br />
<br />
Further discussion on this topic can be found on the forums here:<br />
<br />
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=14438.msg195287#msg195287 We need names]<br />
* [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=8282.0 What to call 0.001 BTC]<br />
<br />
=== How does the halving work when the number gets really small? ===<br />
<br />
Eventually the reward will go from 0.00000001 BTC to zero and no more bitcoins will be created. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
With an initial block reward of 50 BTC, it will take many 4-year periods for the block reward to reach zero.<br />
<br />
=== How long will it take to generate all the coins? ===<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== If no more coins are going to be generated, will more blocks be created? ===<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== But if no more coins are generated, what happens when Bitcoins are lost? Won't that be a problem? ===<br />
<br />
Because of the law of supply and demand, when fewer bitcoins are available the ones that are left will be in higher demand, and therefore will have a higher value. So, as Bitcoins are lost, the remaining bitcoins will eventually increase in value to compensate. As the value of a bitcoin increases, the number of bitcoins required to purchase an item '''de'''creases. This is a [[Deflationary spiral|deflationary economic model]]. As the average transaction size reduces, transactions will probably be denominated in sub-units of a bitcoin such as millibitcoins ("Millies") or microbitcoins ("Mikes").<br />
<br />
The Bitcoin protocol uses a base unit of one hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin ("a Satoshi"), but unused bits are available in the protocol fields that could be used to denote even smaller subdivisions.<br />
<br />
=== If every transaction is broadcast via the network, does Bitcoin scale? ===<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Learn more about [[Scalability]].<br />
<br />
==Economy==<br />
=== Where does the value of Bitcoin stem from? What backs up Bitcoin? ===<br />
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]].<br />
<br />
When we say that a currency is backed up by gold, we mean that there's a promise in place that you can exchange the currency for gold. Bitcoins, like dollars and euros, are not backed up by anything except the variety of merchants that accept them.<br />
<br />
It's a common misconception that Bitcoins gain their value from the cost of electricity required to generate them. Cost doesn't equal value – hiring 1,000 men to shovel a big hole in the ground may be costly, but not valuable. Also, even though scarcity is a critical requirement for a useful currency, it alone doesn't make anything valuable. For example, your fingerprints are scarce, but that doesn't mean they have any exchange value.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== Is Bitcoin a bubble? ===<br />
Yes, in the same way as the euro and dollar are. They only have value in exchange and have no inherent value. If everyone suddenly stopped accepting your dollars, euros or bitcoins, the "bubble" would burst and their value would drop to zero. But that is unlikely to happen: even in Somalia, where the government collapsed 20 years ago, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_shilling Somali shillings] are still accepted as payment.<br />
<br />
=== Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme? ===<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
The fact that early adopters benefit more doesn't alone make anything a Ponzi scheme. All good investments in successful companies have this quality.<br />
<br />
=== Doesn't Bitcoin unfairly benefit early adopters? ===<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
===Won't loss of wallets and the finite amount of Bitcoins create excessive deflation, destroying Bitcoin? ===<br />
Worries about Bitcoin being destroyed by deflation are not entirely unfounded. Unlike most currencies, which experience inflation as their founding institutions create more and more units, Bitcoin will likely experience gradual deflation with the passage of time. Bitcoin is unique in that only a small amount of units will ever be produced (twenty-one million to be exact), this number has been known since the project's inception, and the units are created at a predictable rate.<br />
<br />
Also, Bitcoin users are faced with a danger that doesn't threaten users of any other currency: if a Bitcoin user loses his wallet, his money is gone forever, unless he finds it again. And not just to him; it's gone completely out of circulation, rendered utterly inaccessible to anyone. As people will lose their wallets, the total number of Bitcoins will slowly decrease.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
For more information, see the [[Deflationary spiral]] page.<br />
<br />
=== What if someone bought up all the existing Bitcoins? ===<br />
Bitcoin markets are competitive -- meaning the price of a bitcoin will rise or fall depending on supply and demand at certain price levels. Only a fraction of bitcoins issued to date are found on the exchange markets for sale. So even though technically, a buyer with lots of money could buy all the bitcoins offered for sale, unless those holding the rest of the bitcoins offer them for sale as well, even the wealthiest, most determined buyer can't get at them.<br />
<br />
Additionally, new currency continues to be issued daily and will continue to do so for decades; though over time the rate at which they are issued declines to insignificant levels. Those who are mining aren't obligated to sell their bitcoins so not all bitcoins will make it to the markets even.<br />
<br />
This situation doesn't suggest, however, that the markets aren't vulnerable to price manipulation. It doesn't take significant amounts of money to move the market price up or down, and thus Bitcoin remains a volatile asset.<br />
<br />
===What if someone creates a new block chain, or a new digital currency that renders Bitcoin obsolete?===<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
This may sound rather foreboding, so bear in mind that the introduction of new and possibly better virtual currencies will not necessarily herald Bitcoin's demise. If Bitcoin establishes itself sufficiently firmly before the inception of the next generation of private, online currencies so as to gain widespread acceptance and general stability, future currencies may pose little threat even if they can claim superior design. This is known as the network effect.<br />
<br />
=== Is Bitcoin open to value manipulation? ===<br />
<br />
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?<br />
<br />
This is only a problem if you are investing in Bitcoin for short period of time. A manipulator can't change the fundamentals, and over a period of 5-10 years, the fundamentals will win over any short term manipulations.<br />
<br />
==Sending and Receiving Payments==<br />
<br />
=== Why do I have to wait 10 minutes before I can spend money I received? ===<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
[[Blocks]] (shown as "confirmations" in the GUI) are how the Bitcoin achieves consensus on who owns what. Once a block is found everyone agrees that you now own those coins, so you can spend them again. Until then it's possible that some network nodes believe otherwise, if somebody is attempting to defraud the system by reversing a transaction. The more confirmations a transaction has, the less risk there is of a reversal. Only 6 blocks or 1 hour is enough to make reversal computationally impractical. This is dramatically better than credit cards which can see chargebacks occur up to three months after the original transaction!<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
[[File:TransactionConfirmationTimesExample.PNG]]<br />
<br />
=== Do you have to wait until my transactions are confirmed in order to buy or sell things with Bitcoin? ===<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Double-spends might be a concern for something like a snack machine in a low-traffic area with no nearby security cameras. Such a machine shouldn't honor zero-confirmation payments, and should instead use some other mechanism of clearing Bitcoin or validating transactions against reversal, see the wiki article [[Myths#Point_of_sale_with_bitcoins_isn.27t_possible_because_of_the_10_minute_wait_for_confirmation|here]] for alternatives.<br />
<br />
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:<br />
<br />
A [[Double-spending#Finney_attack|Finney attack]] is where an attacker mines a block containing a movement of some coins back to themselves. Once they find a block solution, they quickly go to a merchant and make a purchase, then broadcast the block, thus taking back the coins. This attack is a risk primarily for goods that are dispatched immediately, like song downloads or currency trades. Because the attacker can't choose the time of the attack, it isn't a risk for merchants such as supermarkets where you can't choose exactly when to pay (due to queues, etc). The attack can fail if somebody else finds a block containing the purchasing transaction before you release your own block, therefore, merchants can reduce but not eliminate the risk by making purchasers wait some length of time that's less than a confirm.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== I was sent some bitcoins and they haven't arrived yet! Where are they? ===<br />
<br />
Don't panic! There are a number of reasons why your bitcoins might not show up yet, and a number of ways to diagnose them. <br />
<br />
The latest version of the Bitcoin-Qt client tells you how far it has yet to go in downloading the blockchain. Hover over the icon in the bottom right corner of the client to learn your client's status.<br />
<br />
If it has not caught up then it's possible that your transaction hasn't been included in a block yet. <br />
<br />
You can check pending transactions in the network by going [https://www.biteasy.com here] or [http://blockchain.info here] and then searching for your address. If the transaction is listed here then it's a matter of waiting until it gets included in a block before it will show in your client. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== Why does my Bitcoin address keep changing? ===<br />
<br />
Unlike postal or email addresses, Bitcoin addresses are single-use.<br />
This means that whenever you want to receive a payment, you need to generate a new address.<br />
<br />
While it is technically possible to receive coins multiple times with a single address, this compromises your wallet's security as well as the privacy of the entire Bitcoin network, and also makes it impossible to know for certain who sent the coins or why.<br />
<br />
===How much will the transaction fee be?===<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
A fee might be imposed because your transaction looks like a denial of service attack to the Bitcoin system. For example, it might be burdensome to transmit or it might recycle Bitcoins you recently received. The wallet software attempts to avoid generating burdensome transactions, but it isn't always able to do so: The funds in your wallet might be new or composed of many tiny payments. <br />
<br />
Because the fee is related to the amount of data that makes up the transaction and not to the amount of Bitcoins being sent, the fee may seem extremely low (0.0005 BTC for a 1,000 BTC transfer) or unfairly high (0.004 BTC for a 0.02 BTC payment, or about 20%). If you are receiving tiny amounts (''e.g.'' as small payments from a mining pool) then fees when sending will be higher than if your activity follows the pattern of conventional consumer or business transactions. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== What happens when someone sends me a bitcoin but my computer is powered off? ===<br />
<br />
Bitcoins are not actually "sent" to your wallet; the software only uses that term so that we can use the currency without having to learn new concepts. Your wallet is only needed when you wish to spend coins that you've received.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
=== How long does "synchronizing" take when the Bitcoin client is first installed? What's it doing? ===<br />
<br />
The popular Bitcoin client software from bitcoin.org implements a "full" Bitcoin node: It can carry out all the duties of the Bitcoin P2P system, it isn't simply a "client". One of the principles behind the operation of full Bitcoin nodes is that they don't assume that the other participants have followed the rules of the Bitcoin system. During synchronization, the software is processing historical Bitcoin transactions and making sure for itself that all of the rules of the system have been correctly followed.<br />
<br />
In normal operation, after synchronizing, the software should use a hardly noticeable amount of your computer's resources.<br />
<br />
When the wallet client program is first installed, its initial validation requires a lot of work from your computer's hard disk, so the amount of time to synchronize depends on your disk speed and, to a lesser extent, your CPU speed. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or so. On a slow computer it could take more than 40 hours of continuous synchronization, so check your computer's power-saving settings to ensure that it does not turn its hard disk off when unattended for a few hours. You can use the Bitcoin software during synchronization, but you may not see recent payments to you until the client program has caught up to the point where those transactions happened.<br />
<br />
If you feel that this process takes too long, you can download a pre-synchronized blockchain from [http://eu2.bitcoincharts.com/blockchain/ http://eu2.bitcoincharts.com/blockchain/]. Alternatively, you can try an alternative "lite" client such as Multibit or a super-light client like electrum, though these clients have somewhat weaker security, are less mature, and don't contribute to the health of the P2P network.<br />
<br />
==Networking==<br />
=== Do I need to configure my firewall to run Bitcoin? ===<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
If you want to restrict your firewall rules to a few IPs, you can find stable nodes in the [[Fallback Nodes|fallback nodes list]].<br />
<br />
=== How does the peer finding mechanism work? ===<br />
<br />
Bitcoin finds peers primarily by forwarding peer announcements within its own network and each node saves a database of peers that it's aware of, for future use. In order to bootstrap this process Bitcoin needs a list of initial peers, these can be provided manually but normally it obtains them by querying a set of DNS domain names which have automatically updated lists, if that doesn't work it falls back to a built-in list which is updated from time to time in new versions of the software. In the reference software initial peers can also be specified manually by adding an addr.txt to the data directory or via the addnode parameter.<br />
<br />
==Mining==<br />
===What is mining?===<br />
[[Mining]] is the process of spending computation power to secure Bitcoin transactions against reversal and introducing new Bitcoins to the system.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
===Is mining used for some useful computation?===<br />
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.<br />
<br />
===Is it not a waste of energy?===<br />
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.<br />
<br />
===Why don't we use calculations that are also useful for some other purpose?===<br />
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.<br />
<br />
===How can we stop miners from creating zero transaction blocks?===<br />
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.<br />
<br />
===How does the proof-of-work system help secure Bitcoin?===<br />
Bitcoin uses the [[Hashcash]] proof of work with a minor adaption. To give a general idea of the mining process, imagine this setup:<br />
<br />
payload = <some data related to things happening on the Bitcoin network><br />
nonce = 1<br />
hash = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( payload + nonce ) )<br />
<br />
The work performed by a miner consists of repeatedly increasing "nonce" until<br />
the hash function yields a value, that has the rare property of being below a certain<br />
target threshold. (In other words: The hash "starts with a certain number of zeroes",<br />
if you display it in the fixed-length representation, that is typically used.)<br />
<br />
As can be seen, the mining process doesn't compute anything special. It merely<br />
tries to find a number (also referred to as nonce) which - in combination with the payload -<br />
results in a hash with special properties.<br />
<br />
The advantage of using such a mechanism consists of the fact, that it is very easy to check a result: Given the payload and a specific nonce, only a single call of the hashing function is needed to verify that the hash has the required properties. Since there is no known way to find these hashes other than brute force, this can be used as a "proof of work" that someone invested a lot of computing power to find the correct nonce for this payload.<br />
<br />
This feature is then used in the Bitcoin network to secure various aspects. An attacker<br />
that wants to introduce malicious payload data into the network, will need to do the<br />
required proof of work before it will be accepted. And as long as honest miners have more<br />
computing power, they can always outpace an attacker.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
===Why was the "Generate coin" option of the client software removed?===<br />
<br />
The option wasn't removed, but it is now only accessible via the command-line or the configuration file. The reason for this is that many users were complaining after they turned on and expecting to receive coins. Without specialized mining hardware a user is exceptionally unlikely generate a block on their own at the network's current [[difficulty|security level]].<br />
<br />
==Security==<br />
<br />
===Could miners collude to give themselves money or to fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?===<br />
<br />
There are two questions in here. Let's look at them separately.<br />
<br />
;Could miners gang up and give themselves money?<br />
<br />
Mining itself is the process of creating new blocks in the block chain. Each block contains a list of all the transactions that have taken place across the entire Bitcoin network since the last block was created, as well as a hash of the previous block. New blocks are 'mined', or rather, generated, by Bitcoin clients correctly guessing sequences of characters in codes called 'hashes,' which are created using information from previous blocks. Bitcoin users may download specialized 'mining' software, which allows them to dedicate some amount of their processing power – however large or small – to guessing at strings within the hash of the previous block. Whoever makes the right guess first, thus creating a new block, receives a reward in Bitcoins.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Of course, the real question is:<br />
<br />
;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?<br />
<br />
Bitcoin isn't infallible. It can be cheated, but doing so is extremely difficult. Bitcoin was designed to evade some of the central problems with modern currencies – namely, that their trustworthiness hinges upon that of people who might not have users' best interests in mind. Every currency in the world (other than Bitcoin) is controlled by large institutions who keep track of what's done with it, and who can manipulate its value. And every other currency has value because people trust the institutions that control them.<br />
<br />
Bitcoin doesn't ask that its users trust any institution. Its security is based on the cryptography that is an integral part of its structure, and that is readily available for any and all to see. Instead of one entity keeping track of transactions, the entire network does, so Bitcoins are astoundingly difficult to steal, or double-spend. Bitcoins are created in a regular and predictable fashion, and by many different users, so no one can decide to make a whole lot more and lessen their value. In short, Bitcoin is designed to be inflation-proof, double-spend-proof and completely distributed.<br />
<br />
Nonetheless, there are a few ways that one can acquire Bitcoins dishonestly. Firstly, one can steal private keys. Key theft isn't something that Bitcoin security has been designed to prevent: it's up to users to keep their keys safe. But the cryptography is designed so that it is completely impossible to deduce someone's private key from their public one. As long as you keep your private key to yourself, you don't have much to worry about. Furthermore, one could theoretically create a new block chain, but due to the way in which the block chain is constructed, this would be extremely difficult and require massive amounts of processing power. A full explanation of the difficulties involved can be found in the [[block chain]] article.<br />
<br />
Bitcoin can be ripped off – but doing so would be extremely hard and require considerable expertise and a staggering amount of processing power. And it's only going to get harder with time. Bitcoin isn't impenetrable, but it's close enough to put any real worries in the peripherals.<br />
<br />
;Could miners fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?<br />
<br />
Once again, almost certainly not.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
And thus, it is more or less impossible for anyone to change the function of Bitcoin to their advantage. If users don't like the changes, they won't adopt them, whereas if users do like them, then these will help everyone equally. Of course, one can conceive of a situation where someone manages to get a change pushed through that provides them with an advantage that no one notices, but given that Bitcoin is structurally relatively simple, it is unlikely that any major changes will go through without someone noticing first.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
==Help==<br />
===I'd like to learn more. Where can I get help?===<br />
<br />
* Read the [[Introduction|introduction to bitcoin]] <br />
* See the videos, podcasts, and blog posts from the [[Press]]<br />
* Read and post on the [[:Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums|forums]]<br />
* Chat on one of the [[:Bitcoin:Community_portal#IRC_Chat|Bitcoin IRC]] channels<br />
* Listen to [http://omegataupodcast.net/2011/03/59-bitcoin-a-digital-decentralized-currency/ this podcast], which goes into the details of how bitcoin works<br />
* Ask questions on the [http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com Bitcoin Stack Exchange]<br />
* Use [http://wheretobuycryptocoins.com WhereToBuyCryptocoins]. It shows an cryptocurrency introduction, a getting started guide for beginners, also lists of markets, faucets, exchanges.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
* [[Man page]]<br />
* [[Introduction]]<br />
<br />
[[de:FAQ]]<br />
[[zh-cn:FAQ]]<br />
[[fr:FAQ]]<br />
[[ru:FAQ]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Technical]]<br />
[[Category:Vocabulary]]</div>BashCohttps://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Safewallet.in&diff=48005Safewallet.in2014-06-08T11:53:07Z<p>BashCo: Undo revision 48004 by Robusta (talk)</p>
<hr />
<div>THERE ARE STRONG INDICATIONS THAT SAFEWALLET.IN IS A SCAM. THERE IS A HIGH PROBABILITY THAT YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE FUNDS SENT TO ADDRESSES SENT TO SAFEWALLET ADDRESSES. [http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/27kh86/help_a_nooby_safewalletin_issues_lost_bitcoins/ SEE HERE] FOR MORE DETAILS. THIS PAGE IS UP FOR DELETION.</div>BashCohttps://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Talk:Safewallet.in&diff=47938Talk:Safewallet.in2014-06-07T23:35:03Z<p>BashCo: Created page with "A user on reddit has indicated that his coins were stolen at safewallet. A reddit moderator conducted a test transaction and reproduced the exact behavior. This page should be..."</p>
<hr />
<div>A user on reddit has indicated that his coins were stolen at safewallet. A reddit moderator conducted a test transaction and reproduced the exact behavior. This page should be removed, along with all other references to safewallet.</div>BashCohttps://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Safewallet.in&diff=47937Safewallet.in2014-06-07T23:33:35Z<p>BashCo: </p>
<hr />
<div>THERE ARE STRONG INDICATIONS THAT SAFEWALLET.IN IS A SCAM. THERE IS A HIGH PROBABILITY THAT YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE FUNDS SENT TO ADDRESSES SENT TO SAFEWALLET ADDRESSES. [http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/27kh86/help_a_nooby_safewalletin_issues_lost_bitcoins/ SEE HERE] FOR MORE DETAILS. THIS PAGE IS UP FOR DELETION.</div>BashCo