How to set up the Bitcoin Core wallet Client for Beginners and send your first Transaction
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If you want to follow along with this bitcoin core tutorial you should download bitcoin core and let it synchronize first. Get started with Localbitcoins. The first thing you should do is Encrypt your wallet. Encrypting your wallet will password protect all of your bitcoin addresses.
If you do not encrypt your wallet, anyone with access to your computer can take your bitcoins. Your wallet file wallet. If you lose this data, you will lose the bitcoin in all of those bitcoin addresses. Anytime you create a new bitcoin address or send bitcoins to someone, Bitcoin Core will add that new information to your wallet. This contains a list of your public keys, they appear as a long string of characters.
Here is the Bitcoin Address public key that Bitcoin Core generated for me: At this point you are ready to accept bitcoin. You can share this address with anyone you want to receive money from. Depending on the sending wallet the transaction will appear instantly or it may take a few minutes. In this case it took about 15 seconds to show up, and a little notification popped up to let me know to check my Bitcoin Core wallet.
The transaction will appear as pending until Bitcoin Miners confirm the transaction. To confirm a transaction, miners have to find a new block which happens roughly every 10 minutes. Most wallets accept a transaction after block confirmations, so the funds are completely available after minutes.
Some wallets will let you spend the bitcoins after only 1 confirmation, but it is best practice to wait for at least 3 blocks. You can track the progress in from the transactions tab.
You do not need to leave Bitcoin Core open until the bitcoin is available, miners will confirm the transaction for you even if you close the program. If you use bitcoin regularly it can be difficult to keep track of your transaction history by seeing only public keys, so you may want to create a new bitcoin address for different purposes and label them.
Go back to your receiving addresses and create a new address with a label. You can create as many new addresses as you want. Some people choose to create a new address for every what is my bitcoin wallet address bitcoin core transaction. As you can see the transaction comes in labeled what is my bitcoin wallet address bitcoin core of the random generated string. This makes it very easy to accept bitcoin as payment, simply by generating a new labeled address anytime you want to accept bitcoin.
You can also see that the first bitcoin transaction has been confirmed and the 0. If you are a merchant or service provider that is accepting bitcoin, you can use what is my bitcoin wallet address bitcoin core Request tab to ask for a specific amount of bitcoin.
This will generate a QR code that people with a mobile phone wallet can scan to quickly send the desired bitcoin to your wallet. You should use specific information so that later you can look back and know where you got that bitcoin from.
Click request payment and the QR code will be generated. By default it will tell them to send 0. It will generate a QR code that scans directly to a public key. If you save or print out the QR code, you can shutdown your bitcoin core wallet and accept bitcoin anywhere in the world simply by showing people the QR code image.
You can check the balance of your bitcoin address from any computer without opening the bitcoin core wallet and verify any bitcoin transaction that you are expecting what is my bitcoin wallet address bitcoin core somebody simply by knowing the what is my bitcoin wallet address bitcoin core key. The simplest way is to go to blockchain. Here is a direct link to check my balance:. If you loaded up your wallet for this bitcoin core tutorial, take a moment to find something you want to buy with bitcoin.
When you checkout the receiving party will give you their bitcoin address and the total that you need to send. Go to the send tab in Bitcoin Core, and fill in the information. Label the transaction with what you purchased or who you sent the money to.
Once you click send you will be prompted for your password. This is where you enter the password that you encrypted your wallet with. Most wallets will ask you to confirm your transaction details once more before it sends. They will also notify you of applicable transaction fees and the total bitcoin that will be deducted from your wallet balance. The transaction fees go directly to the bitcoin miners who work hard to keep the bitcoin network strong. You can choose not to pay a fee, but if you do they may push your transaction aside and not process it.
For that small fee you can send any amount of bitcoin to any person in the world any time you want. Now that you have sent some bitcoin, lets check the transaction progress. Go to you transaction page right click on the payment that you just sent. Copy the Transaction ID, then go to blockchain. Here is a link to mine: Now you can see all the details of the transaction and confirm that is has been processed.
You can send this link as proof that you have paid someone what you owed. A change address is a newly generated bitcoin address that what is my bitcoin wallet address bitcoin core the remainder of your bitcoins after you process a transaction. This is why you have to backup your wallet again after you send bitcoins. That money could be lost forever — backup your wallets.
October 28, December 10, Bitcoin CEO bitcoin core tutorial what is my bitcoin wallet address bitcoin core, blockchainchange addresstransaction.
