IP transaction: Difference between revisions
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MagicalTux (talk | contribs) m moved IP address to IP Transactions: Makes more sense under that name |
m Remove fromold, since the old page was entirely my work. |
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Receiving transactions by IP address is disabled by default because hardly anyone uses it. You can enable it by running Bitcoin with the ''-allowreceivebyip'' switch. | Receiving transactions by IP address is disabled by default because hardly anyone uses it. You can enable it by running Bitcoin with the ''-allowreceivebyip'' switch. | ||
[[Category:Technical]] | [[Category:Technical]] | ||
Revision as of 01:21, 20 December 2010
Sending bitcoins to an IP address is just a convenient way of sending bitcoins to a Bitcoin address along with additional information.
- You contact the IP address to find out if they're actually running Bitcoin and accepting IP transactions. If not, no transaction occurs.
- Your additional information ("from", "message", etc.) is exchanged with the server.
- The server generates a brand new Bitcoin address and sends it to you.
- You send coins to this address in the normal way
Unfortunately, the current implementation provides no authentication, so any "man in the middle" can intercept your Bitcoins during the transaction. When they see that you're sending a Bitcoin payment by IP address, they pretend to be the actual destination and send back their Bitcoin address. You end up sending Bitcoins to the wrong person. It's therefore not a good idea to send Bitcoins in this way, especially if you're using a proxy.
Receiving transactions by IP address is disabled by default because hardly anyone uses it. You can enable it by running Bitcoin with the -allowreceivebyip switch.