Bitcoin is the most established digital currency available today. It provides a safe, anonymous way to send and receive a virtual currency everybody trusts. However, managing bitcoins is not quite as simple as managing a bank account. In this article I will explain how to manage your bitcoins using Electrum. Please note that in this article I will provide working knowledge of how to use Electrum, without entering the mysterious land of cryptography and technical details of Bitcoin.
First of all, I suggest you install the latest version of Electrum. Instructions will vary depending on your operating system. Once you have installed it, it will ask you what you want to do: For now, just chose to create a new wallet leaving the default options. Then, the second step comes along: Electrum will show you your "wallet generation seed", which is a list of 13 words you will absolutely need to save somewhere safe.
Once you're done, it will prompt you with a password request. You should treat it like you treat your Internet Banking password. Once you are done, you are finally good to go: Electrum electrum receive bitcoins show by default a list of transactions you made. As you can see, there is obviously nothing here.
When you want to receive bitcoins you will electrum receive bitcoins to provide your "bitcoin address": Each one of them is a valid bitcoin address you can use to receive bitcoins.
Pick the first one in the list: Exchanging Bitcoins into real money and vice versa is electrum receive bitcoins tricky business. So, these transactions are very prone to fraud and money laundering. I would not use any service that is not listed here. As an Australian travelling through Italy, for the purpose of writing this article, I picked exchange. However, at the moment they do not cater for US customers.
Changing real money into bitcoin can be a real pain! However, it's well worth the effort. Generally speaking, be prepared electrum receive bitcoins provide one form of official ID and an utility bill with your address.
Shortly after initiating your transactions, your bitclient will show a "pending" transaction; it will stay "pending" for a while: The details are a little technical; however, just remember that it will take around 10 minutes or so. Assume now that you want to send bitcoins out. Assume that you want to send half of the bitcoins you have on your wallet. First of all, you will need to know the bitcoin address where you are sending your bitcoins to.
Once you have it, go to the "Send" tab and enter the number of electrum receive bitcoins you want to send. Assume that you want to send a portion of the bitcoins you have. So, you have 4. Click on "Send", enter electrum receive bitcoins address where you want to send your bitcoin, pick "3" as in, 3 micro bitcoins and hit "send".
You will be warned of a fee that will be automatically charged. Once you've agreed on the electrum receive bitcoins I recommend you leave the defaultyou are done. This can be confusing at first, but it actually makes a lot of sense: However, in order to send those 3 micro bitcoins, you actually sent the whole 4. This will also preserve your privacy: Since that address now has a 0 balance remember, the "change" went into a "change" address!
This happens in Electrum once an address has been used at least once and it has a 0 balance bitcoins received is the same as bitcoins sent. The reason is simple: If you ever only use the same bitcoin address even to receive the "change" of your transactionsanybody able to associate that bitcoin address to you will have a very clear idea of your spending habits.
This is why you are encouraged to have, and use, several addresses when sending and receiving bitcoins. Since it's impossible to know who "owns" a specific wallet, you might in time receive large amounts of bitcoins, electrum receive bitcoins all to different addresses; only you and your bitcoin client will know that those addresses all belong to you.
Recovering your coins in case of disaster consists in recovering your bitcoin addresses. Each address is made up of its "public" component what you see when you run Electrum and a private component the super-secret private key associated to that address. Storing this information is tricky, because computers break, get stolen, and things can and do generally go wrong. While other programs will recommend to store your addresses "somewhere safe", Electrum has a much better approach: So, there is no need to backup your bitcoin data: The best spot for them is your own memory.
This article avoided any technical explanation about how Bitcoin works. If you are interested in a more technical view of it, I recommend How might we use blockchains outside electrum receive bitcoins Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire electrum receive bitcoins are permitted worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided this notice is preserved. The initial screen Then, the second step comes along: The list of 13 words.
If you are serious about bitcoins, you should memorise them Remember: Electrum started for the first time When you want to receive bitcoins you will need to provide your "bitcoin address": Getting real money in Exchanging Bitcoins into real money and vice versa is a tricky business.
Your default wallet, just created. Each line represent a working bitcoin address This is the reason why: The transaction is still pending The bitcoin address the electrum receive bitcoins was sent to is now showing the transaction Once the money electrum receive bitcoins "cleared", it will appear as available in Electrum.
Once the transaction it's done, it's shown as done See how the receiving address now has a balance Once you electrum receive bitcoins received the bitcoins, the receiving address will show electrum receive bitcoins balance. Sending bitcoins Assume now that you want to send bitcoins out. If you electrum receive bitcoins at your wallet after this operation, you will see that: The electrum receive bitcoins you used to receive the bitcoins is under the "used" list.
It's not recommended to use that address again. The equivalent of the "unspent" bitcoins is associated to a bitcoin address under "change" This can be confusing electrum receive bitcoins first, but it actually makes a lot of sense: Recovering your wallets Recovering your coins in case electrum receive bitcoins disaster consists in recovering your bitcoin addresses.
License Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are permitted worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.
We personally work with both of them and wouldnвt have it any other way. Accounts by Portuguese and British vessels were made accordingly. Levels 1 and 2 which are relatively common, with reasonable prices.