Bitcoin resources

What is Bitcoin

When we talk about the first ever electronic cash, Bitcoin is the cryptocurrency that made it possible. One should note that no bank, no intermediaries, no government or financial institution control Bitcoin. The transactions which are done on the Bitcoin network are verified by an array of nodes through the process of cryptography. Further, the same transactions are listed in a public distributed ledger which is known as the blockchain.

Announcements about Bitcoin (BitcoinTalk.org)

If you’re looking forward to largest and one of the most dedicated message board which is associated with almost every discussion related to cryptos and blockchain, BitcoinTalk is your pick. Originally founded by Satoshi Nakamoto himself in the fiscal year of 2009, the platform is used by over 450,000 people today to stay up to date with latest crypto news and trends. BitcoinTalk was used for knowing the technical details associated with the Bitcoin network during the initial days, but as the world became comfortable with Bitcoin and blockchain, BitcoinTalk emerged as a reliable platform to connect with Bitcoin community around the world. Also, BitcoinTalk has become a vital part of every Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in the crypt market. If an ICO is about to be made public, it’s almost certain that there will be an announcement made on the BitcoinTalk. In a nutshell, BitcoinTalk is an excellent platform which can be leveraged further to know about the latest developments concerning the crypto world. Also, one might find legitimate as well as excellent opportunities on the forum anytime.

Blockchain.info

What comes as an important fact is that Blockchain.info is available at your disposal if you’re looking forward to having a Bitcoin explorer service. Blockchain.info can also be used as a cryptocurrency wallet which supports major cryptos like Bitcoin Cash (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) & more. Blockchain.info is also accountable for providing charts, stats as well as market information related to the Bitcoin world. In the fiscal year 2013, Blockchain.info became the world’s most visited web page when it comes to information about Bitcoin. The platform received an overwhelming 118 million page views. In the consequent year, Blockchain.info declared that they have reached a one million user wallet mark. Blockchain.info has been co-founded by Nicolas Cary and Peter Smith.

Blockcypher

When it comes to Block cypher, the portal is responsible for providing application programming interfaces for an array of blockchain networks. The APIs and products provided by Block cypher can cater the demand for an interface layer for programmers who’re working on applications ranging on the blockchain. If you’re a developer and are looking forward to a dedicated and programmatic path to access functions of the blockchain, Block cypher can be a great resource for you. One can even abstract and simplify aspects such as address generation, manual transaction creation and much more. One can run their applications on the multiple data centres which further reduces the latency and keeps a reality check on the redundancy of data. The APIs provided by Block cypher is based on REST, thus the portal is enabling developers to build applications based on blockchain from scratch with confidence. One can even obtain a great deal of cloud facility at Block cypher. Thus, in short, for businesses as well as individual developers, Block cypher can be a great source of vital development information and tools. Also, Block cypher can be used by the sender or receiver for the purpose of monitoring a specific transaction. You just require the sender’s public address as well as the ID of a particular transaction.

Blockchair

Blockchair is one of its kind a leading blockchain search engine. Blockchain also serves as an analytics engine for Bitcoin, Ethereum as well as Bitcoin Cash. With the help of Blockchain, one can easily filter out and sort blocks. Further, different criteria can be set to sort out specific transactions. What comes as an important fact is that a user can always perform a full-text search of the entire blockchain network with the help of Blockchain. The platform claims to be the Google of blockchains. You can also get access to information about the decentralized projects which are currently in work like SWARM & IPFS. Blockchain has been headed by its CEO Nikita Zhavoronkov who’s an AML/CFT blockchain specialist.

Bitcoin Armory

Founded in the fiscal year 2011, Bitcoin Armory is a purely Python-based project which is open-sourced in nature. Armory is one of the leading and most trusted wallet-management app for the entire Bitcoin network. The same is also regarded as one of the best wallets for Bitcoin. For users and institutions around the world, Armory can be your out of the box pick if you want to generate and store Bitcoin private keys. Glacier protocol can be used and the Armory team would never play a role in any of the processes. Further, a user at Bitcoin Armory is provided with a one-time paper backup as well as an array of several encrypted Bitcoin wallets. It was Armory who pioneered the concept of cold storage as well as the distributed multi-signature for Bitcoin network. All the secret keys are stored on the offline computer which is never required to be connected to the internet. Bitcoin Armory can help a user to actually create a transaction and then sign the same with the offline computer. Further, the transaction is broadcasted on the Bitcoin network so that the miners at work can put the same in the Bitcoin block. What comes as an important fact is that wallet encryption done by Bitcoin Armory is dedicated and advanced. Plus, multi-signature addresses are also available at your disposal which makes use of lockboxes in an entirely distributed way. Bitcoin Armory has emerged as one of the most secure and trusted ways to manage large amounts of Bitcoins.

Bitcoin Knots

When it comes to a desktop-based crypto wallet, Bitcoin Knots is the one setting benchmarks here. Offering around the clock support for Windows, Linux and OSX, Bitcoin Knots providers a greater control when it comes to handling the cryptocurrency. One can even get access to secure transactions, plus Bitcoin Knots is community driven. What makes Bitcoin Knots unique is the RPC rescan command, network watch tool, multi-wallet GUI support and much more. Bitcoin Knots is maintained by Luke Dashjr, the software cum crypto wallet is being used as a reliable desktop client for the purpose of regular payments. One can even deploy the Bitcoin Knots as a server utility for merchants. The initial block sync of Bitcoin Knots is typically faster, one can even get access to the statistics graph.

Bitcoin Core

When we talk about Bitcoin Core, it’s more like a reference client of the Bitcoin crypto. Bitcoin Core is also regarded as a digital successor of the Bitcoin. The succession has been represented through the evolution of Bitcoin to Bitcoin-QT and then to Bitcoin Core. However, Bitcoin Core was an entirely different project based on soft and hard forks. In other words, Bitcoin Core is an advanced implementation of Bitcoin. Bitcoin Core is also known as the Satoshi Client. Today, as we speak, the repositories of Bitcoin Core are being maintained by the dedicated team. What makes Bitcoin Core advanced is the fact that there is a dedicated verification engine for every transaction. Further, the engine can be connected to the Bitcoin network as the full node. Bitcoin Core also acts as a cryptocurrency wallet which offers more flexibility and security. In a nutshell, Bitcoin Core has been programmed in such as way so that it can decide which blockchain encompass a valid transaction. Thus, people who’re using Bitcoin Core are equipped to accept only those transactions that are really legit.

Bither

One of the most popular open-source crypto wallet projects, Bither can be used on desktop, laptops and even on smartphones. The simplicity and dedicated security offered by Bither makes it a potential pick as a crypto wallet. The wallet has been specifically designed to cater to both, hot and cold storage modes. Talking about the benefits of Bither, one can get access to private keys which are further protected by a digital password. Bither also helps in real-time monitoring of network statuses. Backup and recovery processes are done automatically by Bither. You can even enable security checks for private keys. You can run cold mode on a backup device or smartphone while you can run the hot mode on your regularly used smartphone. One can monitor their Bitcoin savings around the clock with the help of Bither. If you’re looking forward to an all-in-one crypto wallet and also push notifications for real-time prices of an array of Bitcoin exchanges, Bither is your pick.

Electrum

From beginners in the world of crypto to expert traders, Electrum is one of the most diverse Bitcoin wallets which maintains a fine feature balance for all kinds of people. What makes Electrum different from other wallets are its security features. Private keys are thoroughly encrypted. They are further stored on the local computer and never leaves the computer. One can even recover their funds from a secret phrase. Electrum stays up to date because the client is not required to download the entire blockchain. Electrum requests the desired information from a server and hence, there is next to no delay in the processes. One can even recover the lost wallet file through its seed. Thus, we can say that the key generation in Electrum wallet is deterministic. Private keys are not shared with the server in any manner, the transactions are signed locally, entirely. There is no redundancy as well because as a user, you’re not tied up to a certain server. Electrum wallet is firewall friendly in nature and is entirely written in Python.

Bitcoin GreenAddress

Bitcoin GreenAddress is more like an advanced crypto wallet that has been specifically built for more sophisticated users. GreenAddress supports BTC only and offers a desktop as well as mobile support to users. Also, Bitcoin GreenAddress is open-source in nature and it enables crypto enthusiasts to store, send and receive Bitcoin to anyone in the world. The user interface is intuitive and friendly as well. Bitcoin GreenAddress is one of the leading Hierarchical Deterministic crypto wallets in the market. What comes as an important fact is that Bitcoin GreenAddress is free for use and it carries next to no service fee attached to it. Also, one should note that GreenAddress supports leading crypto exchanges like BitStamp, Kraken and more. One can get Bitcoin GreenAddress through chrome web store, Google Play, App store as well as the F-Droid.

ArcBit

Being one of the first crypto wallets to support Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman Merkle (ECDHM) addresses, ArcBit has emerged as a more competitive crypto wallet in recent times. The privacy perspective of ArcBit is flourishing and the wallet holds the fifth highest points on the Bitcoin privacy open-source project. One can easily download ArcBit on Apple App Store as well as Google Play Store. You’re not required to do any type of registration to start using this crypto wallet. Some of the outs of the box features that come handy with ArcBit are stealth addresses, great UI, easy organization of address book and outside bitcoin import.

mSIGNA

mSIGNA is a crypto wallet for Bitcoin that offers decentralized offline key generation. One can even get access to services such as offline signing, rapid multi-device sync, BIP32 compliance and more. One can run mSIGNA wallet on Mac, Linux machines as well as Windows operating system. In a nutshell, mSIGNA is based on the pillars such as Keychains, Accounts and Vaults. A user can get access to direct broadcasts to the network. You can even request and incrementally add signatures. It would be wise to mention that mSIGNA is the next generation crypto wallet for Bitcoin. Being incredibly fast and secure, mSIGNA is free for use and is open-source as well.

Coin Payments

Being a Canadian merchant payment solution, Coin payments offers around the clock support for selling, buying and exchanging the cryptocurrencies. Coin payments charge a transaction fee of 0.5% on every trade and allow potential investors to trade. There are reportedly over 130 different types of crypto coins available at Coin payments. Today, the merchant is functional in over 182 countries. The smartphone supported Coin payments offers around the clock support for both, iOS and Android users. The user interface is great and one can even get access to a considerable level of anonymity. The withdrawal fee at Coin payments varies for different coins. When it comes to security, Coin payments offers two-factor authentication & multi-signature support. Coin payments is not open source and doesn’t support Hierarchical Deterministic.

BTC.com

BTC.com has been created by Blocktrail and is a leading web-based wallet for storing Bitcoins. You can even get your hands on a dedicated Android wallet, an iOS wallet, a Bitcoin API as well as a mining pool at BTC.com. What makes BTC.com different from the other third-party wallets is its ability to never access a user’s private key. Thus, one can gain an absolute control over their funds. One can even send the bitcoin to desired contacts. Apart from Bitcoin, around the clock support for Bitcoin Cash has also been provided by the merchant website. Also, using and downloading BTC.com wallet is absolutely free. However, whenever you make any transaction, you’ll be required to shell out some fees to the Bitcoin network. A user can also customize and set the fee according to them for the purpose of managing the transaction speeds.

MoonBit

MoonBit is a Bitcoin faucet which is entirely free for use. Coming on the Bitcoin faucets, these are more like a reward system which enables the user to be rewarded when they accomplish some task or captcha as described by the website. Rewards can be dispersed and further claimed at predetermined intervals. Almost a majority of bitcoin faucets allow the user to claim and withdraw their rewards once in a specific time frame, MoonBit is an exception to this. What comes as an amazing fact is that MoonBit bitcoin faucet enables users to withdraw the rewards around the clock whenever they like. From claiming the amount to every five minutes to claiming the amount as soon as it’s credited, MoonBit is a great resource for those who’re doing desired tasks for websites. Also, stressing upon the Alexa global rank of MoonBit, the figure rests at 3,945 and thus, MoonBit is the top-most visited site for Bitcoin faucets.

Bitcoin Aliens

Bitcoin Aliens is another website that falls under the category of Bitcoin faucets. The site involves a user to spend his/her time in exchange for rewards. These rewards are a fraction of Bitcoins that are awarded to users after they complete a specific task. These tasks can be anything from sharing the content to bringing more users to the website. When it comes to setting-up the Bitcoin Aliens account, a user is required to give their public wallet address and e-mail address. One can claim their rewards every 5 minutes, the unit of reward at Bitcoin Aliens is called Satoshi. The minimum amount eligible for a withdrawal is 20,000 Satoshi. Talking more about the rewards, the minimum reward for a task rests at 135 Satoshi and the highest reward can go as high as 9000 Satoshi. One should take note that 20,000 Satoshi is roughly equal to 0.0002 BTC. You’re even entitled to 25% referral commission when you bring a new customer to Bitcoin Aliens.

Bitcoin Wisdom

Bitcoin Wisdom is a trading website which provides 24×7 charted view of Bitcoin trends. You can study and understand the trends in the graphs and can certainly unlock buying and selling opportunities for you.

How to buy Bitcoin

As a matter of fact, if you’re interested in buying Bitcoins you can directly purchase them from other individuals already holding the same by making use of online marketplaces. One can also consider making use of dedicated crypto exchanges like Coinbase, Kraken, Bitstamp and more to purchase Bitcoins. The first step is to get yourself registered on the crypto exchange you want. It’s always advised to go through the review of crypto exchange you’re considering as there are some rules and regulations that must be catered from user’s end. Almost every exchange requires a user to identify his/her identity in steps, during and after the creation of the account. So, you must possess valid identification proof if you’re looking forward to trading in any manner.

Once you have your account running and verified, you can make easy trades by funding your account. Here, fiat currencies can be used to fund your crypto exchange account. You will also need a crypto wallet to store your purchased Bitcoin. It’s highly advised to store the Bitcoin in a cold storage or offline wallet. Your crypto wallet will be storing the private key which is more like secret number containing a 256-bit string. Freedom to move across the marketplaces is what is provided by Bitcoin wallets. Some of the dedicated crypto wallets have been mentioned in the resource already, other popular wallets are Electrum, Mycelium and more. Hardware wallets are the most secure just because they can be disconnected from the internet.

How to sell Bitcoin

There comes a time when you wish to sell your Bitcoins, well the process is fairly easy. There are many methods for doing the same. The most popular one is through the exchange marketplace which involves a user to sign-up for a particular crypto exchange like Bitstamp, Kraken, Bittrex and more & strolling over to the sell section. Once your profile is running and verified, you can list your order in the sell order book of respective exchanges. People who’re looking forward to buying Bitcoins can match your offer and thus, the transaction can be processed. In this whole process, the exchange acts as an intermediary and earns a certain percentage of commission from both, the buyer and the seller. Further, the funds can be withdrawn to bank accounts.

Mining Bitcoin

In a nutshell, when we talk about Bitcoin Mining, it is a peer-to-peer process. Bitcoin Mining is meant for the purpose of securing and verifying transactions that are being done on the Bitcoin network. Also, this process involves the addition of transaction data to that of Bitcoin’s global public ledger.

Now, in simpler terms, this process starts with a compilation of recent transactions into blocks and further solving an algorithmic puzzle. If you, as a participant solves the puzzle, you can place the block next in the blockchain and thus claim the reward. This model works on a first come first served basis, that is faster you solve the puzzle, access will be given to you. One should understand that the block rewards that are provided for mining are halved every 210,000 blocks. You might be wondering how hard a puzzle might be in mining? Well, that solely depends on the fact that how much effort is being inputted amidst the entire network. The difficulty levels of the problems are adjusted by dedicated protocols after every 2016 blocks. You can observe that after every 2 weeks, the level would be upgraded.

Apart from generating Bitcoin, Bitcoin Mining process is a dedicated verifier of bitcoin transactions. Thus, we can say that this functionality holds a great importance as it enables the crypto to be safe and predictable. In earlier days, you would be fascinated to know that Bitcoin Mining was done with the help of ordinary CPUs, GPUs and high-power CPUs. As the network expanded, the need for computation power boosted too, ASIC came into play. Application-Specific Integrated Circuit was specifically mean for Bitcoin Mining. Since its inception in 2013, people are making use of ASIC for the purpose of around the clock bitcoin mining and generating more revenue.

Bitcoin Wallets

As a matter of fact, Bitcoin is a digital currency. When it comes to storing the same, the approach is a bit different. The acquiring and storing of a currency which is not available in any physical form requires a dedicated technical wallet. Bitcoin wallets operate by making use of private keys, public addresses, recipient public key, your private key etc.

There are certain types of Bitcoin wallets available in the digital market across the world. One of the most popular and widely used is hardware wallets. A dedicated hardware wallet for bitcoin will store an individual’s private key offline. As a matter of face, since hardware wallets can be disconnected from the internet, thus there are no cases of thefts from the same. Unlike other forms of wallets such as paper, desktop etc. your Bitcoins are never 100% secured.

What comes as the most important fact is that hardware wallets are not prone to computer viruses, some of the wallets even have a dedicated display. You can easily confirm the address and amount which you’re sending to somebody. Moving ahead to another category of wallets, desktop wallets are available for the job. These are downloaded and installed directly on the local computer. The wallet functions by storing the private keys on the hard drive. In terms of security, desktop wallets are more secure than online or mobile wallets. Why? Well, desktop wallets don’t depend upon any third party apps for their data and thus, it’s harder to steal. If you’re not trading with a bigger portion of bitcoin, desktop wallets are advised.

Strolling over to web wallets, these can be your pick when it comes to accessing funds from an array of devices connected to the internet. The server, in this case, is online 24*7. One can even get access to extensions made for smartphones. Web wallets are not that secured as organizations that are running your web wallets can gain access to all the private keys. At last, there are mobile wallets which are best suited for those individuals who operate through Bitcoin on regular basis in small proportions. People in countries such as the Netherlands make use of mobile bitcoin wallets for shopping and buying groceries.

Is Bitcoin Legal?

It’s obvious to have questions about the legality of the Bitcoin. In lieu of the fact that Bitcoin literally swept the market with a new set of rules, traditional regulators and regulations are not governing a bit of it. When we talk about regulations, Bitcoin holds its place in a grey area. There is a lot of confusion, non-availability of concrete rules in many countries around the world. However, an array of countries have embraced Bitcoin.

Where in the United States, making use of Bitcoin to purchase goods and services is legal, in Bolivia, the government banned using any physical or digital currency except the issued by the government. The legality solely depends upon where you reside and how the government perceives the Bitcoin. Governing bodies, laws across the borders are constantly changing and the concept of bitcoin and cryptocurrency is gaining momentum.

Bitcoin Blockchain

Often regarded as an ingenious invention, blockchain is often called as the brainchild of Satoshi Nakamoto. The blockchain is continuously preventing the copy & allowing the distribution of digital information, respectively. Blockchain simply allows people to write an array of entries containing records of information to itself. Further, a community of users can hold exclusive rights for amendment of blockchain rules. But, in short, no one controls a single bit of information that is being shared on the blockchain. Blockchain doesn’t have any single point of failure. Since 2008, blockchain continues to be incorruptible as well as transparent.

The Blockchain network continuously revolves in a state of consensus. It automatically scrutinizes itself after every 10 minutes. It’s more like a self-auditing system. Blockchain comprises a dedicated network of nodes. One should understand that each and every node in a blockchain network is itself an administrator and can further join the network voluntarily. Nodes are meant to mine bitcoin, each node is competing with the other for the purpose of solving computational puzzles. As we know that blockchain is a peer-to-peer network and stores data on every node, thus, blockchain literally eliminates the possibility of hacks or data loss. The decentralized nature of blockchain prevents blockchain from any exploitation.

Satoshi Nakamoto

The name- Satoshi Nakamoto has been associated with the world of cryptocurrency till its roots. Till date, it’s unclear that Satoshi Nakamoto is an individual, a group or a community of developers. However, it is well known that a paper was published in the fiscal year of 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto which depicted the development of cryptocurrency. The paper was named as “Bitcoin: A P2P Electronic Cash System”. It was observed that Satoshi was highly active in the early days of Bitcoin network trade, the first version of the software was released in 2009. Today, it has been projected that the actual value of Bitcoins that are still owned by Satoshi can easily be around $5 billion USD.