texts: What is the unit of time_lock_delta in LND?

texts:
LND has a configuration setting called time_lock_delta with the description "The required timelock delta for HTLCs forwarded over the channel.". I assume this to refer to some measure of time, but what is the unit of this value?

None of the four files in the LND repository that contain this string appear to mention the unit either.


texts:
I am trying to make bitcoin transaction graph, but I am not sure how to go about it. I have extracted the necessary data from blockchain like the sender, receiver, amount of bitcoins sent, transaction hash and the date and time when it first got included in the block. The format for which is shown below:-

TXID                                                                       Input Address                  Value               Output Address                    Time & Dates

363ec29e4fc43f97576423d0d522f5f0fc79c5c018c3a210c5644ab79a38041d                                        25.0301   [u'1CjPR7Z5ZSyWk6WtXvSFgkptmpoi4UM9BC']    2014-01-12 01:36:19

f264c5c36b624110201a27bd02883508d29dfe1f94975aa8cc652fb8bc1496a9 1AyHWFST4jhcdVs74Hd3pvCdafpktmiF8Y       299.0   [u'13vZBq8ayCzficfP3uwm52bctv5mSXKfM1']    2014-01-12 01:36:19
                                                             154yacyVMuVoahSd1dmsz6PDS8MZzX3FzB
                                                             1KzXSypcJUdStaHfLtucBiaqEWDZ5PhBix
                                                             14FJfPxbXpBrTPnPcCS1gwWpTz7XVmSJeQ
                                                             15CdDBvSfr5JsnbqoSgnEdSFvtKwf1GoNj

I am not sure what should be my first step towards constructing transaction graph. I am trying to use hadoopcryptoledger library available in Apache spark for doing so, but not sure how to use the result that I have extracted from blockchain for that. Do I first need to create a database to store my result?
The file that contains the above information is in .txt format. Any help would be appreciated.


texts: I am web developer, can i use my working pc to mine and work at same time?

texts: Guyz, i am a web developer, i have single pc but i am thinking to add a good GPU in it, my question is that if i add good GPU, will i be able to mine crypto currencies like BTC/ETH and work on my pc at same time? will it be OK ? Kindly share your opinions experts. Thank you


texts: Aborting/cancelling a transfer transaction

texts:
I'm running Bitcoin Core and I'm 7 days behind syncing currently.

Last night, I initiated a transfer of some bitcoins to another person (He bought it from me) However, 4 hours later, he closed his account, and hence, the money he paid me was returned to him automatically without my approval. Since that is the case, I needed to cancel/abort the transfer.

As the bitcoin network is very busy at this time (there were over 10000 unconfirmed transactions), I have no idea whether my transaction will eventually get confirmed or not.

I shutdown the Bitcoin Core app then deleted the mempool.dat file and restarted the Bitcoin Core app with the -zapwallettxes command so as to tell the Bitcoin Core app to delete the transaction. The app is currently rescanning.

Before the shutdown,  I can see that the transaction is still unconfirmed.

UPDATE: Bitcoin Core app has finished rescanning, and the unconfirmed transfer transaction has came back.

How can I abort this transaction?


texts:
I'm a kinda newbie here. But this is what I completely can not understand.

If every single miner have to 'arrange' transactions and then compute a SHA-256 function of a given memory chunk, and if computed SHA-256 must match a given criteria (so-called difficulty), why not to split such work, and force each miner node to 'compute' (or 'pick') his own range of nonces? I mean, okay, in good old days every miner was on his own, there was a real 'competition' or concurrent race between them, but now times have changed. Now miners gathers into 'pools'. Just look at the chart:

I mean, 28.2% of miners may help each other by tearing this work apart. Are there any less brute but more 'lock pick' ways? If such large segments of the network are now centralized, why not to look for map-reduce approach? Either I've missed some important details, or there is the way. Thanks a lot for the explainations.


texts: How does `createrawtransaction` and `fundrawtransaction` work with Elements?

texts:
I know how to create and fund bitcoin transactions using createrawtransaction and fundrawtransaction methods. I tried to use the same methods in Elements to create a transaction on regtest and I'm a bit confused now.
What I'm trying to do precisely is having a node who only have a watch-only wallet creates and funds transactions with the UTXOs it has on watch and sign later on another machine.
So I have this watch-only node, and it watches 2 outputs, one with L-BTC and the other with some asset, let's call it X.
I first create a transaction that have only one output of 0.5 asset X:
e2-cli createrawtransaction "[]" "[{\"$ADDR\":0.5}]" 0 false "{\"$ADDR\":\"$ASSETX\"}"
Now I decode the transaction and I see this:
{
  "txid": "4d941354157530580ac49d97fad4690a5aab5b1a3bca4a38d7b26969455edec8",
  "hash": "4d941354157530580ac49d97fad4690a5aab5b1a3bca4a38d7b26969455edec8",
  "wtxid": "4d941354157530580ac49d97fad4690a5aab5b1a3bca4a38d7b26969455edec8",
  "withash": "d0d3b17552f63780c06e5558483412d8384702cd777404f52a8a9680304fe582",
  "version": 2,
  "size": 110,
  "vsize": 110,
  "weight": 440,
  "locktime": 0,
  "vin": [
  ],
  "vout": [
    {
      "value": 0.50000000,
      "asset": "ceefd76de1b71c2bed3de04481826287a80babb6e1f6c9feca14e57597742d74",
      "commitmentnonce": "036c0c488e3bfb29090d0bda8be116088c61dcd3252a949f801972e8dc3f223c70",
      "commitmentnonce_fully_valid": true,
      "n": 0,
      "scriptPubKey": {
        "asm": "OP_HASH160 eee6174735a3d1bca9532e663ec266acd59a6a1c OP_EQUAL",
        "hex": "a914eee6174735a3d1bca9532e663ec266acd59a6a1c87",
        "reqSigs": 1,
        "type": "scripthash",
        "addresses": [
          "XZ8RJoGpd5GDRBGYuLrRq24bQBNtqCxgXG"
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Then I try to fund the transaction (I want to subtract fee from the change output for some reasons):
e2-cli fundrawtransaction $RTX "{\"changeAddress\":\"$CHANGE\",\"changePosition\":0,\"subtractFeeFromOutputs\":[0],\"includeWatching\":true}"
And I have this error:
Wallet does not support more than one type of fee at a time, therefore can not subtract fee from address amount, which is of a different asset id. fee asset: b2e15d0d7a0c94e4e2ce0fe6e8691b9e451377f6e46e8045a86f7c4b5d4f0f23 recipient asset: ceefd76de1b71c2bed3de04481826287a80babb6e1f6c9feca14e57597742d74

And indeed if I convert it to psbt I see this:
{
  "inputs": [
  ],
  "next": "extractor",
  "estimated_vsize": 78,
  "estimated_feerate": 0.00000000,
  "fee": {
    "bitcoin": 0.00000000,
    "ceefd76de1b71c2bed3de04481826287a80babb6e1f6c9feca14e57597742d74": -0.50000000
  }
}

What am I missing here? I didn't put the "fee" key when I did createrawtransaction, as far as I can tell, so why did my asset X output became a fee output?


texts: BlockChain scalability: How does BlockChain process multiple parallel transactions?

texts:
I just did some introductory research into blockchain technology and this is a breakdown of my understanding of how it works:

Scenario: Assume Trump wants to send Obama 5 bitcoins. As soon as this transaction is initiated:

miners in the peer to peer network will (individually?) start solving for the next valid hash in the block chain. ( does the peer network use the combined processing power to solve together, or do nodes solve individually independent of each other?)
Once the valid hash is discovered, the node that did the discovery will be rewarded with a set of bitcoins
The ledgers at each node will be updated with the Alice -> Bob transaction, while this newly discovered hash will be a representation of the same. This should approximately take  about 10 minutes?

Now there is a good chance my understanding is completely off, but my question is this:

Lets say 1000 transactions are initiated at the same time. Regardless of this, the peer network will be solving for the next hash in the blockchain which will verify 1 transaction. So the 1000 transactions will be verified sequentially as the miners proceed from one valid hash to the next.

If solving for one transaction takes approximately 10 minutes, this would mean to completely verify the 1000 transactions (initiated at the same time) it would take around 1000 x 10 minutes!

Clearly this problem is handled in someway in the real world as i'm pretty sure thousands of bitcoin transactions take place at any given time without a delay like this. Some clarification would be hugely appreciated. thanks!


texts: Currently there are 35 million unspent transaction outputs. Is there a site somewhere where I can query this data to see, for instance, how many UTXO's exist with a value less than 20,000 satoshis? Or the total unique scriptPubKey values found in a  UTXOs?


texts: Does it hurt the network to reuse addresses?

texts:
There is already a question that ask why you shouldn't reuse addresses, but it's about whether or not it's a bad idea for the person who would do the reusing. I understand there are several reasons you'd want to avoid reusing (e.g., fear that ECDSA isn't secure, privacy and anonymity concerns, difficulty of tracking senders, etc.); as far as I can tell, it's still sometimes worth it on an individual level to reuse an address.

However, the Bitcoin Wiki says in multiple places (here and here) that reusing an address degrades the security of the whole network; I also think I've seen this claim elsewhere but can't track down the source anymore. I don't understand how this could degrade the security of the network, and if it does, what's to prevent an attacker from repeatedly doing this before an attack if it would help?


texts: How can I accept bitcoins on my website?

texts: I have an online store and would like to begin accepting bitcoins.  How can I go about doing this?


texts:
I'm using Asus R9270X-DC2T-2GD5 for mining and the temps remain stable at 68C or below even with 99% GPU load for hours.

Stock cooling with my Cooler Master CM 690 II case with positive air flow. I can move the case to a more ventilated area or just take of the side panel for greater airflow.

What are the ideal config params for this specific card?
Do the temperature readings look Ok?
Do I need to do anything more in terms of cooling or tuning the card (its already factory overclocked)?
Is mining going to make the card fail early? If so, any idea how early? I'm OK if this cards lasts 2-3 years as opposed to 4-5 years.


texts: The setup steps for generating bitcoin addresses programmatically and checking for payments with walletnotify

texts:
I have read this question and done some investigation, and I want to make sure I have some of this right.

If I have a server somewhere where I can install bit coin (I'm thinking bitcoin-qt on Ubuntu) then I can run bitcoind on that computer.

I could setup a http server to accept requests for a new bitcoin address from bitcoind and return one to my other web app (hosted on Google App Engine).

Then as I understand it, if I setup walletnotify, it will automatically call my scripts to process payments that are received.

I'm thinking I might be able to get away with putting this in a friend's living room, though I'm not entirely sure I will have a static IP address, but maybe I can work that out.

I realize there are 3rd party solutions for this, and this is a broad question with many ins and outs, and I should be more knowledgeable of Bitcoin and hosting my own servers (as the PaaS solutions don't seem to let you run bitcoind), but do I have that mostly right or is there is something amiss with this endeavor.


texts:
There is some strange TX

9c7b0d0423af64e81c4b850bae781e41077586a9e3328f5048f8367c6e4a8212

that doubled in blockchain local database.

Blockchain.info information is truly interesting. Is it a scum or what is it?


texts:
I'm trying to install the current version of namecoin from github.

After much trouble and poking around, I found the official install instructions here:https://github.com/namecoin/wiki/wiki/Build-Namecoin-From-Source

Instructions are:

git clone https://github.com/namecoin/namecoin.git
cd namecoin/src
make -f makefile.unix namecoind

Only problem, there is no makefile.unix, only MakeFile and makefile.mingw

Anyone get through something like this?


texts:
I am looking at the specific block at height 680175.
When comparing the address which received the block reward
# bitcoin-cli validateaddress 1KFHE7w8BhaENAswwryaoccDb6qcT6DbYY
{
  "isvalid": true,
  "address": "1KFHE7w8BhaENAswwryaoccDb6qcT6DbYY",
  "scriptPubKey": "76a914c825a1ecf2a6830c4401620c3a16f1995057c2ab88ac",
  "isscript": false,
  "iswitness": false
}

to my newly generated address
# bitcoin-cli validateaddress bc1q403w7zrj74azzunk89srt2m3vuajatlmskcktm
{
  "isvalid": true,
  "address": "bc1q403w7zrj74azzunk89srt2m3vuajatlmskcktm",
  "scriptPubKey": "0014abe2ef0872f57a217276396035ab71673b2eaffb",
  "isscript": false,
  "iswitness": true,
  "witness_version": 0,
  "witness_program": "abe2ef0872f57a217276396035ab71673b2eaffb"
}

there are some differences in the scriptPubKey and the witness program. Are these differences relevant for mining?
The inferred PubKey hash of the miner address is c825a1ecf2a6830c4401620c3a16f1995057c2ab. Would my PubKey hash be abe2ef0872f57a217276396035ab71673b2eaffb?


texts: What's the minimum transaction with bitcoin?

texts: What's the minimum transaction with bitcoin - local wallet to local wallet. Can I send for example $20 in bitcoins to another person?


texts:
I am running a Bitcoin Cash node on my server, and starting it like this:

start bitcoind.exe --server=1 --rpcuser=user --rpcpassword=password --rest=1 --rpcport=8332 --datadir=F:\Bitcoin --bind=10.1.0.4 --testnet=1 --rpcallowip=0.0.0.0/0

The node runs, and I can connect to it locally.

However, I can't connect to it remotely, from my C# application, using the BitcoinLib library:

ICoinService coinService = new BitcoinService(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Bitcoin_DaemonUrl"], ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Bitcoin_RpcUsername"],
ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Bitcoin_RpcPassword"], ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["WalletPassword"]);

I am getting this error:

  BitcoinLib: There was a problem sending the request to the wallet.
  System: Unable to connect to the remote server.

I have created inbound/outbound rules in the server's firewall settings, allowing access to the 8332 port, and I think that --rpcallowip=0.0.0.0/0 should allow all IPs to connect to my node... So I really don't know what the problem is.

Edit: I can't access the node from https://bitnodes.earn.com/ either.

Update: the node has finished reindexing blocks, and I still can't connect to it remotely.


texts: Euros to Electrum Wallet with FIDO U2F security?

texts:
I do not find a method to buy bitcoins with my Credit/Debit cards and/or deposits in Bitfinex.
Maybe, other options exist.
It seems that it is not the right way, but instead I need to use some of these things here https://bitcoin.org/en/exchanges
Anycoindirect.eu accepts euros but does not provide Fido U2F security.
Bitcoin.de and bitpanda.com seem to be also small players.

Anycoindirect.eu - feature request email sent, but no promise about the schedule.
Bl3p.eu - No key support there, but they promised to consider it in my feature request email and will inform about the update soon.
paymium.com error Yubikey OTP is invalid in their system, mailed to dev.
https://therocktrading.com/en - feature request email sent and they confirm that they are working on it but no schedule.

Other thing about the identification about the user. Why they ask it? Etc  pictures about passport, residence, ...

Bitcoin market places tried: Bitfinex, Anycoindirect.eu, Bitcoin.de, Bl3p.eu
OS: Debian 9.1 Stretch
Bitcoin wallet: Electrum 2.7.9
Keys: Yubico 4 keys


texts: Did I lost my balance by using an old wallet.dat?

texts: I saved a copy of my wallet.dat as a backup, i used it to transfer 1 btc to another address, now it's got 1 btc less in the total. now I deleted the wallet.dat and open the wallet with the saved wallet.dat before the transaction, I can see a higher balance(it not showing 1 btc off). how could it be? do I lost my whole balance from not saving the newest wallet.dat?


texts: Scantxoutset: correct way to pass array in console/debug window?

texts:
Ok this is a bit embarrassing but what is the standard way to pass arrays through the bitcoin debug/console window? I've done it before and I thought it just had to do with placement of quotes, but I'm having trouble doing it with scantxoutset I've tried the following:
scantxoutset start '{"desc":"addr(1SomeAddress)"}'

>>>Expected type array, got object (code -3)

scantxoutset start '["desc":"addr(1SomeAddress)"]'

>>>Error: Error parsing JSON:["desc":"addr(1SomeAddress)"]
    ￼
scantxoutset start '[{"desc":"addr(1SomeAddress)}]'

>>>Error: Error parsing JSON:[{"desc":"addr(1SomeAddress)}]

scantxoutset start '["desc":"addr","1SomeAddress"]'

>>>Error: Error parsing JSON:["desc":"addr","1SomeAddress"]

scantxoutset start '["desc",{"addr","1SomeAddress"}]'

>>>Error: Error parsing JSON:["desc",{"addr","1SomeAddress"}]


texts: What is the average number of hashes it takes to mine bitcoins?

texts: I'm just curious about this. I'm not sure if the length of zeros in the hash result is directly proportional to the probability, or how to calculate this.


texts: How do we know that a user owns multiple private keys?

texts:
I am reading a data analysis paper on bitcoin, and there is a phrase I do not get:

  We use the Bitcoin transaction data set obtained from Stanford Network Analysis Project. All Bitcoin transactions are documented in a public ledger and are in the currency unit called the Bitcoin(BTC). The data set contains all Bitcoin transactions beginning from the network’s creation until April 7th, 2013. For each transaction, there can be multiple sender and receiver addresses. Furthermore, multiple addresses can belong to a single user.

I do not get this last sentence. Yes, surely a user can create multiple private keys. However, how do we know that a user created multiplie private keys if we are not that user?

The dataset given in this paper is very large (6,336,769 users), so they must apply some algorithm to group private keys belonging to each user. What it would be?


texts: Is there a list of coins that are bip-32 compatible?

texts:
BIP 32 allows me to derive keys based off a root key pair, and all these keys will be on the secp256k1 curve. That means I'll be able to use BIP 32 for other coins that are also based on your curve.

Is there a list of well know coins and the curve they are based on? My spot check shows that most seem to be, but I'm looking for a more comprehensive list


texts: If you confirm others' transactions, what do you do to earn 25 bitcoins per block?

texts:
I was a bit surprised to learn that you can earn 25 bitcoins, just by confirming a block worth of transactions. If I've done the math right, at $493 per bitcoin, that's $12,325.

Does one do a lot of work (beyond a few mouse clicks) to earn those 25 bitcoins? Does that constitute "rent" for the use of the resources of your computer (which probably cost a lot less than $12,325)?

Or is it just the case that 25 bitcoins are issued per block, and by confirming  a block of transactions, you get those those 25 bitcoins.


texts: how to create a transaction that can only run in bch-abc using javascript?

texts:
I use the "bitcoincashjs" or "bch-lib" and want to add a new opcode "OP_CHECKDATASIG" to output.How to do?

const utxo = {
    'txId' : 'b76e4563bfe2e9e40355e3791e060b774ceb9ba04bef70df151763f82acb69a0',
    'outputIndex' : 0,
    'address' : '1bbLNcTwoffAjuWTyBuu4vSwNUBNMgYgHL',
    'script' : '76a9147f27b2a0a88bc84d3db72f22ea82d52c99a6a0e088ac',
    'satoshis' : 2000
    };

    const transaction = new bch.Transaction()
    .from(utxo)
    .to('1bbLNcTwoffAjuWTyBuu4vSwNUBNMgYgHL', 1500)
    .sign(privateKey);


texts:
I just saw this bitcoin globe https://blockchain.info/nodes-globe?series=topBlockRelay
It has two modes,"Online Now" and "Miners". I wanted to ask if anyone knows what the bars and colors stand for and if there are any APIs which I can get those data.
Thanks


texts:
I recently sent a friend of mine around $950 in BTC from Coinbase to his BTC wallet on BlockChain.info.

The transaction is showing up as completed in my account, but he claims he has not received the money yet...

I'm not sure why this issue is occurring. Can someone please help? Obviously, with an amount like $950, I can't just lose that money...


texts: How does one node connect to other nodes

texts:
I am wondering how does one client connect to whole blockchain system if there is no centralized node which connecting other nodes together?

So for example if I want to create my own decentralized network how should my client now where to connect?


texts: Uptime and other service performance levels

texts:
Other payment networks have scheduled maintenance periods as well as unscheduled outages but Bitcoin's network, being decentralized, can have varying service levels depending on:

which versions of the software and which nodes are used
the nature of the transactions (e.g., microtransactions or those originating from an eWallet sans fee, etc.)
several other factors.

What are key performance measurements that can be made for the Bitcoin network, and how can they be measured? If measurements are being made already, where are they available?


texts: What is the most advanced technology for anonymous transactions?

texts:
What is the most advanced technology for anonymous transactions feature?

I’ve heard about zerocash and coinjoin but which one of them has a technological edge? Are any of these technologies really capable of providing the anonymous transactions feature as opposed to pseudo anonymity?


texts:
I believe that my account was hacked: a "send" transaction occurred on my account an hour ago and I lost $62 without my raising any transaction. The transaction is still unconfirmed, how do reverse it and get my money back ? Standing by.
Recipient address-https://blockchain.info/address/18VhGJQgvYVpGLfZPJ1wu85JDAJ8UU6A62
Transaction hash code - https://blockchain.info/tx/ae97308ffd3e460ec4d928d5309479351220b30811d7e02f2a571e23d38e48d2

Once more, I did not make this transaction,and $62 disappeared from my account. Please help.


texts:
I have tried to pay an invoice via BitPay, the transaction was stuck at 'seen by one peer' and the BitPay invoice expired.

After closing and reopening multibit a few times, I decided to reset blockchain info as suggested in the multibit faq.

Well, this is what happened:

The transaction to BitPay doesn't even show anymore, but my coins are gone, how do I get them back ?


texts: Lightning Network Unidirectional Transaction

texts: In Lightning Network is it possible to setup a channel to make payment in on direction only.  For example Bob is buying Donut from Alice every day.  So Bob put in 0.001 BTC into the channel and pay Alice 0.0001 every day for the next 6 days.  My Question is does Alice need to place 0.001 BTC into the channel?.  Thanks.


texts:
We wrote our transaction listener and we were implement the NodeBehavior class. But when I update version of NBitcoin v3.0.0.60 to v4.1.1.46 I can't use the NodeBehavior. Because Nbitcoin cannot support to Protocol.Behaviors. What can I do? Are there another auxiliary class? Or can you suggest me another way for listen to transactions ??

Thank you for now.


texts: Why is Bitcoin Core full node so slow to sync?


texts: What do I do with all my old block erupters?

texts:
I'm making like nothing off these guys and am looking to use them for something else.  I guess these ASICs are designed for SHA-256 hash function based cryptocurrencies.

Try to mine Terracoin?

cryptocurrency list:
http://dustcoin.com/


texts: Address reuse, cold storage and private keys

texts:
I was going through some old posts regarding address reuse and came across a few remarks I wasn't aware of, and want to make sure I understood correctly.
I knew address reuse wasn't the best for privacy reasons, but I learned today that apparently it's also not good for security IF you've spend your bitcoins.
Let's consider the following situation: I have a brand new hardware wallet, generated a new seed with it, alongside a new address. I send from an exchange 1 BTC to it, and I decide to use this address as cold storage, meaning I'll regularly send BTC from exchanges to it, this specific address.
First of all, is it considered as address reuse if the address is only for cold storage, there's no transaction out but only UTXO's?
Now, let's say after a year of doing so this address has 50 UTXO's. I know this might cause an issue if the mempool gets full and tx fees rise, so I decide during a calm period to do some UTXO management and I do a "send all" to a new address that I generated from the same seed (so same private key). I effectively have a brand new address with only one UTXO.
My question: since i've used the same private key to both send a transaction (a big one, 50 utxo's) and generate a new address to send that to, does that expose me to security risks? (referring to this). If yes, how bad is it really and does that mean that to achieve full security I would need to generate a brand new seed on my hardware wallet and send once again the full balance to a new address?


texts: Is it possible to get the network to accept a partially signed multisig transaction?

texts:
I tried to send a half signed multisig transaction to the testnet but it got rejected.

I think this is by design but has anyone some hard facts on this?

EDIT:
I think https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0010 was the case I was looking for.


texts: Can transaction validation really be free?

texts:
If you don't validate a transaction, then you are at risk for relying on it, propagating it, or including it in a block you're mining.  For this reason, the default behavior is to validate every transaction (I think!).  Otherwise there is some reliance on free transaction validation, which turns out not to be free because of the risks.  There is currently no simple way to pay for transaction validation in order to mitigate those risks.  I think there should be.

Some guys at Microsoft did some research into the idea of incentivizing transaction propagation (which would necessarily require validation for those getting paid).

I am wondering if it is worth it to develop an idea I had and present it to the bitcoin dev list.  It's called "bonded proof" and consists of a proof message which is a valid block (except that it's hash isn't low enough) and the TXOut that is the bond.  It isn't actual proof, but tentative proof that can be verified and, if found to be wrong, redeemed.  The bonded proof is signed by the bitcoin address that holds the bond. I imagine the TxOut would have to hold at least 100X a standard Tx Fee, but since it's not expected to ever be redeemed, it could hold far more just as a show of good faith.

If the proof is wrong, the maker of such a bonded proof can expect the bonded proof to be redeemed in a block.  The "transaction" that redeems such a failed bonded proof would need to include the entire proof message, plus an index into the block to identify the invalid transaction, plus a btc ("disproof") address to receive some part of the bond (say 50%).  Block validation would then have to verify that the identified transaction was actually invalid, and this would cause (say 50% of) the TxOut holding the bond to be transferred in the coinbase transaction, while the rest would go to the disproof address.

Miners would be free to ignore any such bonded proof, or to use them if and when they appear to be valuable, but I propose the following mechanism as a default:  The maker of a bonded proof ("weak") block would request a fee by making it the coinbase transaction in the weak block.  Miners would add a transaction sending that fee to the address in the weak coinbase transaction if they want to encourage the block assembler.  By default, any time a node has a brand new transaction to broadcast, it would make a weak block with the new transaction in it as long as the operator has specified a TxOut for the bond.

Selfish miners could turn this off if they wish to cheat those who assemble these blocks, just as they are already doing (probably because it's difficult not to) to those who propagate transactions.  I suspect behavior would be better than that.  Thousands of people have run full nodes without compensation, and this just makes it easier to reward them, and offload to them the time-consuming validation step, which they are doing anyway (by default).

Furthermore, non-mining nodes would have an incentive to validate these weak blocks in order to find an invalid transaction (root out cheaters who don't bother validating) and redeem the proof block.

The idea of bonded proof appeals to me not just in the case of weak block validation, but as a general mechanism.  It isn't called that with regards to the Lightning Network, but the idea is very similar: motivate helpful behavior while requiring that the helper stake some bitcoin on the claim that he is helping.


texts: Using the bitcoin wallet PKI for message encryption

texts:
Is it possible for a message sender to encrypt a message string with a receiver's public wallet address, email this ciphertext to the receiver and then have the receiver decrypt the message using their wallet (private key)?

I'm not talking about spamming the blockchain, the message could be sent using IM/Email once encrypted.

So it's sort of like using gpg but with the wallet public/private key.

Is this possible?


texts: Is there a way to know at any point in time T how many BTC exist that were bought at time t<T?

texts:
What I would like to find out is whether for a specific time in the past, we can know the number of BTC that exist today and were bought at this time. The discrete time can be the time of block generation, i.e. roughly every ten minutes, but also for instance daily time.

What I understand is that on the Blockchain, we do not really keep track of the amount of BTC held by a specific address / account, but rather of the full history of transactions of this account. The sum of the unspent inputs of a specific address, which are basically routed output payments of other addresses, is the number of BTC that this address "holds", or is able to spend.

NEW

This part wasnt displayed in the beginning, due to some formatting error.

Now comes the actual, more refined question.
In order to construct the number of BTC that were bought at t[smaller than]T, where T is now, is there a way other than looking at the complete history of transactions on the BTC blockchain, in order to find this number? Sort of a shortcut?

NEW END

Thanks, best, JC


texts: Creating a NXT/Ardor transaction using the NXT api via post

texts:
I read the following wiki on how to make a transaction:

http://wiki.nxtcrypto.org/wiki/The_Nxt_API#Create_Transaction_Request

But is there a sample code of how to make such a transaction using only html and javascript?


texts: API where i can get min and max price daily, going back months/years

texts:
I'm looking for an API service, where i can get historical data.
Something like: for each date:

max price & time of day
min price & time of day

Is there any service that provides this?


texts: Use UTXOs before transaction is signed/broadcasted

texts:
Suppose I have an address with a single UTXO. I want to create 100 transactions and sign/broadcast them all at once. Could I do the following:

Create a transaction by hand (where change funds are sent to the sender address)
Calculate the transaction ID
Use the transaction ID and change UTXO output index to create the second transaction
Go to step 2

Until I create 100 transactions? I suppose my question boils down to: Is it possible to calculate the TXID of a raw transaction before it is signed or broadcasted?

Thanks!


texts:
I am getting this error and looking for guidance.

Error : Most likely you have input the wrong URL, forgotten to add a port, or have not set up workers

config

 server=1
 rpcallowip=192.168.1.0/24
 rpcallowip=192.168.2.0/24
 rpcallowip=127.0.0.1
 rpcport=9050
 rpcuser=someuser
 rpcpassword=somepass

command

bfgminer.exe -o 192.168.2.242:9050 -u someuser -p somepass
bfgminer.exe -o 127.0.0.1:9050 -u someuser -p somepass


texts: What are the (non-escrow) methods people are using to minimise bitcoin transaction fraud?

texts:
Direct peer-to-peer bitcoin transactions are irreversible; and relying on a centralised escrow or reputation service for fraud protection is contrary to bitcoin's decentralised philosophy.

What other methods or techniques have people devised to reduce bitcoin fraud to a modest amount?

For example, two traders don't know each other* and want to exchange goods, services or currency directly.

* on bitcoin anyone can be a dog... or Walt White or Cthulhu.


texts: Is PoW and consensus unnecessary without double spending?

texts:
Satoshi's whitepaper claims that the reason there must be a consensus on all transactions is to solve the problem of double spend. I'm curious then, how would a non-consensus based system work if double spend were not a problem?
If a coin is still represented as a series of transactions, each of which is verifiable, and these are submitted as proof of ownership during transactions, then how can one prove that the entire coin is valid? While no one can fake a spend from an unwilling party, it seems you could fake the entire coin altogether.
The only solution I see to above is that each coin is initially issued and signed by a trusted party. Once these coins are in existence the trusted party is removed.


texts: terminology and conceptual question about progress of PoW

texts:
what is wrong about thinking

  prbobability of attacker increases with time t that goes into PoW since they have more time to secretly mine their alternate blockchain ?

This refer to double spending. Can one think in these terms or is progress of finding a solution to pow to related to it.

Please enlighten.


texts: How can I convert Bitcoins for withdrawal to PLN

texts:
For years we've been paying exorbitant fees just to transfer our own hard-earned money from one country to another.  I'm in Poland at the moment and find I need to transfer funds from my US checking account to a local one (mBank) regularly to pay family bills etc.

Citibank for instance quietly dings me over 2.5% lower exchange rate than the current central bank rates, and about an additional 3% for "foreign transfer fee" against my account.  No credit card--That's just using my ATM/debit card at a "local" Citibank S.A. teller.  I would prefer a bank-to-bank xfer (not an expensive wire xfer) rather than have to drive to the city anyway, only during that one ATM's operating hours etc.
  Paypal is not much better.

Can Bitcoin be used as an intermediary?

USD --> BTC --> PLN

I like the idea of going through two exchanges ACH'd to my bank accounts on each side, but do their transaction fees and currency conversion rates make it worth the while?

Also, apparently last year 2011 there was still one online service able transfer PLN to/from your Bitcoin address, now they are shut down.  Anyone know others methods to cash out of BTC in PL?


texts: Will bitcoin core have to re-sync the whole block chain if I replace my wallet?

texts: I have an old wallet from 2013. After backing up and replacing my current wallet with the new one, will it require the client to re-sync and re-download the whole blockchain? Last time it took about a week so I'd like to avoid it.


texts: How is the trading engine from Binance developed and designed?

texts:
As a early adopter of BNB and fan of Binance's recent world domination, one thing that always got me curious was about how Binance deals with these massive inflows of requests in theirs trading engine/website.

Is the system of trading and cryptocurrency wallets fully developed and designed in-house or they have the assistance of some third-party provider? If they have some third-party technology, do you know which one?

I ask this because of the recent surge of a lot of companies providing white label services for digital asset exchanges.

Thanks in advance!

Obs: Binance is just an example, other exchanges with high volume and multiple coins listed also responds the doubt!


texts: Please help me to understand lightning-cli getinfo more

texts:
I have now clightning running for a month. I watch very often lightning-cli getinfo

Here I found in the first three weeks:

"msatoshi_fees_collected": 0

A week ago it changed to

"msatoshi_fees_collected": 1445

and since today:

"msatoshi_fees_collected": 50483

Now my questions:

I believe it is my earnings resulting from using one of my 36 channels. Which one(s)?
I want to know my channel info including name, address of nodes and fundings on both ends.
Is there a skeleton for a python program available that could fetch info and put it into a table like an excel sheet?
I got this message:

  I created a channel with you. If any of your channels to
  TrueVision.club, LightningTo.Me, or blindedbythelight has all local
  balance and no remote balance, then I can help equalize those balances
  for you. Doing so would also mean my channel to you would have local
  and remote balances more equalized so there wouldn't be a need for you
  to create a channel back. It requires a bit of coordination so I
  understand if you'd rather not. Feel free to create a channel back if
  you want.

Frankly, I don't understand it. What should I do? How can I see what happen here? RENE, I need your help ;-)

bye

Ronald


texts: Are Hardware Wallets (i.e, Ledger Nano X) Safer than Software-Based Cold Storage Wallets?

texts:
I'm looking into purchasing Ledger Nano X as a cold storage hardware solution.
What benefits does Nano X (or other hardware wallets) provide over software based cold storage solutions? Why not install a wallet such as Electrum on a device that is not connected to the internet and use it as a cold storage?
I looked at reviews of the Nano X and see people mention that it's sleek, sturdy, has improved display, Bluetooth connectivity and a "killer feel in the hand". All of this is nice but a cheap laptop with software that supports cold storage will have most of these features, and many others that Nano X is missing.
What kind of benefits does Nano X offer when it comes to the most important functionality - securing + storing your Bitcoin in cold storage?
I did see this answer which points to the fact that with hardware wallets the private key is embedded in the device itself and is therefore less prone to malware attacks.

What this means is that if your computer is compromised with malware,
with a software wallet, that malware can steal your private keys. With
a hardware wallet, because the private keys cannot be retrieved from
the hardware wallet and because the keys are stored on the hardware
wallet, the malware cannot steal your private keys. In this way, your
funds will be safe.

However, doesn't this mean that:
1) If the hardware device is lost or stolen (don't forget it's "sleek and small") it would impossible to retrieve the wallet as the PK is only be stored on the device itself? (If it can be stored anywhere else you are no longer resistant to malware attacks)
2) Can't a malicious program siphon funds from the hardware wallet while the device is connected to a computer without ever stealing the PK? Similarly, since every hardware wallet runs some OS, why can't it be infected when it connects to a computer? Perhaps the PK can't be stolen but the funds can.
3) If a laptop is always in offline mode (not connected to the internet) won't this prevent it from being infected in the first place?
4) Also it seems that a device that is specifically designed to store cryptocurrency is the perfect candidate to be tampered with during manufacturing and/or delivery. After all, it's pretty clear what the device is going to be used for (unlike regular laptops which have other use cases)
Thanks


texts:
Do all transactions require a siganture to be broadcasted and signed or is it possible to have a unsigned transaction be mined?

Could you not just use op codes to allow a transaction to be validated without a signature?

Such as making the scriptsig OP_true?


texts: How can I programmatically check if a 12 word mnemonic is valid?

texts: I would like to use python to check if a 12 word mnemonic is valid.  How can this be done?


texts: Can one spend part of multisig address balance leaving the rest intact?

texts:
Is it possible to partially spend the balance of multisig address? Let me explain what I mean.
Let's say I have a 2-of-3 multisig address with no BTC in it. Then John sends 0.5 BTC to the address and Alice later sends another 0.8 BTC to the address. Is it possible to create a redeem script to spend 1 BTC from the address and later create another one to spend 0.3 BTC?


texts: How should I do if I want to run a full node in GUI?

texts:
I'd like to run a full node within bitcoin-qt.exe(It's GUI)

I would like to run it as full node like typing command : "bitcoind -daemon"

Is it enough to run by just execute a GUI wallet(bitcoin-qt.exe)?

Thank you.


texts: If Bitcoin is traceable, how bitcoin scams are exist?

texts: Let me write an example. A hustler give some people his bitcoin address and these people transfer some bitcoins to his wallet. According to the term, which says that bitcoin transaction is traceable so my question is that why the hustler uses this method? He knows that he can be tracked!


texts: How is the reward that you got after calculating the right hash added in the blockchain?

texts: I have a question. If for each transaction, the hash is calculated and so the pool who calculates it gets the bitcoins as reward, now getting reward means bitcoins gets added to your wallet, but this also becomes 1 transaction so doesn't it require that transaction to be included as well? And if yes, then doesn't the process become recursive?


texts: is there any API like blockchain.info and bitcore with tutorial?

texts: is there? I'm finding it hard for starters to look it up without tutorials via the net, blockchain.info tutorial(on youtube and a single one) seems to be good but getting API key on blockchain.info is pretty hard. meanwhile bitcore has nothing but a 48-hour reply community. is there an API with a tutorial while they have an active community? TIA


texts: Signature: encoding a message - transaction to a point of curve y^2=x^3+7 and Bitcoin Core

texts:
Where should I look at in Bitcoin Core source code to figure out how the signature process trasform a message in a curve point?

To sign a transaction (message) in Bitcoin system, you need to encode the message to a point of the curve y^2=x^3+7. I read this Koblitz's paper. There are three encoding schemes. I read this question too.

If I look at in Bitcoin Core source code I can't see any of these encoding schemes, it seems to me that message M is directly encoded in a point m=hash(M) without check; obviously that is not possible, there is roughly a 50% chance that a random 256 bit string don't correspond to a point of the curve. I can't find out how/if the ECDSA library checks if hash(M) is on the curve or not and especially what it does if the hash(M) is not on the curve.

What encoding scheme does Bitcoin-ECDSA implement and where is it in the source code?

Thanks and sorry for my English.

EDIT:

Bitcoin: Signature generation (ECDSA)

Given a message m to be signed and the private key d,

Choose a random integer k in [1,n-1].
Compute (x1,y1)=kP, convert x1 into integer and r = x1 mod n.(Return to step1 if r = 0)
Computes=(k^-1)*(SHA1(m)+ dr). (Return to step 1 if s= 0)
Signature is (r, s) pair.

Why SHA1(m) should be a curve point? There is only a 50% chance.


texts: How can I track bitcoin transaction(I am receiving) programatically?

texts: Building something where I will be getting bitcoins in my bitcoin address, so is there a way I can keep track and know who sent me bitcoin?


texts:
RFC4231 gives test cases for SHA256 with several different sets of gozintas and gozoutas. I'm looking for something similar for the SHA256 hash as implemented in the Bitcoin mining algorithm.

Based on the answers given, here is a very simple test in Python. Note that the generated digest must be reversed before the check, as the 256-bit digest is apparently returned with the least significant bits first.

#!/usr/bin/python
import hashlib
GENESIS_BLOCK = \
    '0100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000' + \
    '000000003BA3EDFD7A7B12B27AC72C3E67768F617FC81BC3888A51323A9FB8AA' + \
    '4B1E5E4A29AB5F49FFFF001D1DAC2B7C01010000000100000000000000000000' + \
    '00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000FFFFFFFF4D04FFFF001D' + \
    '0104455468652054696D65732030332F4A616E2F32303039204368616E63656C' + \
    '6C6F72206F6E206272696E6B206F66207365636F6E64206261696C6F75742066' + \
    '6F722062616E6B73FFFFFFFF0100F2052A01000000434104678AFDB0FE554827' + \
    '1967F1A67130B7105CD6A828E03909A67962E0EA1F61DEB649F6BC3F4CEF38C4' + \
    'F35504E51EC112DE5C384DF7BA0B8D578A4C702B6BF11D5FAC00000000'
GENESIS_HASH = \
    '000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f'
def check_hash(block = GENESIS_BLOCK, blockhash = GENESIS_HASH):
    '''
    check that the calculated hash matches what Bitcoin expects

    >>> check_hash()
    True
    '''
    blockheader = block.decode('hex')[:80]
    header_hash = hashlib.sha256(blockheader).digest()
    check_hash = hashlib.sha256(header_hash).digest()
    return check_hash[::-1].encode('hex') == blockhash

if __name__ == '__main__':
    print check_hash()


texts: BitcoinCore Ubuntu buiild error: ‘relative’ is not a member of ‘fs’

texts:
I'm trying to build Bitcoin core client on an LinuxMint. I'm having the following error(which have not encountered before, while making it on MSWindows or another Linux machine) in make process, right after

CXX      wallet/libbitcoin_wallet_a-walletutil.o

& I can't figure out why:

wallet/walletutil.cpp: In function ‘std::vector<boost::filesystem::path> ListWalletDir()’:
wallet/walletutil.cpp:60:32: error: ‘relative’ is not a member of ‘fs’
         paths.emplace_back(fs::relative(it->path(), wallet_dir));
                            ^
wallet/walletutil.cpp:71:36: error: ‘relative’ is not a member of ‘fs’
             paths.emplace_back(fs::relative(it->path(), wallet_dir));
Makefile:6894: recipe for target 'wallet/libbitcoin_wallet_a-walletutil.o' failed
make[2]: *** [wallet/libbitcoin_wallet_a-walletutil.o] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/behrad/cprj/bitcoin/src'
Makefile:10232: recipe for target 'all-recursive' failed
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/behrad/cprj/bitcoin/src'
Makefile:774: recipe for target 'all-recursive' failed
make: *** [all-recursive] Error 1

My machine version is uname -a output:

Linux anonymous 4.10.0-38-generic #42~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Tue Oct 10 16:32:20 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

One thing comes to my mind is the initial advice on build-unix.md doc, which was warning against relative paths:

Always use absolute paths to configure and compile Bitcoin Core and the dependencies, for example, when specifying the path of the dependency:

    ../dist/configure --enable-cxx --disable-shared --with-pic --prefix=$BDB_PREFIX

Here BDB_PREFIX must be an absolute path - it is defined using $(pwd) which ensures the usage of the absolute path.

But as I stated, I've passed configuration & this occurred while it was about finishing. I can installing w/o wallet, but I need it in this installation. Thank you for taking time reading so far, Any help appreciated in advance.


texts: How does blockchain.info detect double spends?

texts:
http://blockchain.info/tx-index/242749/36080ed09eeb0fd66ad5dc8a909a49e364f55ff860c12327c2ff9fbe4a9dde77

  Warning! this transaction is a double spend. You should be extremely
  careful when trusting any transactions to/from this sender.


texts: What is SPV mining, and how did it (inadvertently) cause the fork after BIP66 was activated?

texts: I'm curious to hear an in-depth explanation of the hard fork and how it was caused; I've heard/read a great deal but I'm lacking a cohesive explanation.


texts:
I assume that if I've Bitcoin installed locally and I either run the GUI or the Daemon... It's the same wallet, data?
To that end, if I want to use the RPC interface, can i just use the GUI while developing (I like that at alerts on any action) rather than the daemon?
TL:DR: is the RPC 8332 port active when using the GUI, Vs the Daemon?


texts: How do merkle trees ensure credibility to blockchain, when full node wrongly denies a presence of a txn in a block?

texts:
How can Merkle Trees ensure that a full node doesn't lie to a thin node that a txn t is not present in a block B if infact B contains t? How can a thin node tell if the full node is lying if the full node denies the presence of a txn t in a block B and doesn't send any hash values(for the thin node to verify) and instead claims it can't generate hashes that are not there.
PS: Don't mind the informal style of my questioning. I'm just trying to get an intuitive understanding of Merkle Trees at first.


texts: Were there any Bitcoin based prediction markets for the Brexit referendum?

texts:
Were the are Bitcoin based prediction markets for the Brexit referendum?

If yes, how did the prediction market fare compared to recent public polling data versus the actual referendum results?

Are there any studies comparing the accuracy of Bitcoin based prediction markets to other forecasting mechanisms?


texts: Finding wallet address on peer 2 peer network

texts:
does anyone here knows how to find the addresses from a tx object from the bitcoin protocol documentation on the peer to peer network??

in the document it says that tx message is only consist of version, flag, tx_incount, tx_in, tx_out count , tx_out, tx_witnesses, lock_time. so i am starting to doubt if there is a way to do it only through p2p network.

if so how do website such as blockchain.info knows the subject of a transaction?

thanks in advance


texts: How to get the number of Bitcoin transactions every 30mins using API in python?

texts:
I'd like to get number of Bitcoin transactions every 30 minutes using API in python.

Does someone know sample code how to mount in Github or any website?


texts: Stuck duplicate transaction in BitcoinQT

texts:
I received two payments with the following transaction:

https://blockchain.info/tx/12e487de6fd8d920446cd8663dc11977d185ceaa25b7c6f36921fb76e58875f0

On this transaction

1HT1vrdy2fegnVKaTE1rqsFzfPVDpiWYjf output receives 0.1341765 BTC and 19tj6SNnJqZqmDvMuhrjwPudX8qVcT392a output receives 0.27240743.

I have this transaction in my BitcoinQT client. It shows confirmed and everything is fine. The problem is that I have another transaction which has the same inputs and outputs with the above but a different TxID.

It has been stuck in my wallet unconfirmed for two weeks. BC.info does not show this transaction. Neither does any other online service. Below are the full details.

I have around 10 other transaction in my wallet like this. What is this?￼ Why is this happening?

gettransaction 98ea1e0d4169af104fe36535a4615ab82086750323ce4e539b7d9c82707955f6
{
"amount" : 0.40658393,
"confirmations" : 0,
"txid" : "98ea1e0d4169af104fe36535a4615ab82086750323ce4e539b7d9c82707955f6",
"time" : 1392119952,
"timereceived" : 1392119952,
"details" : [
{
"account" : "520c7bb149ede83218f46c96",
"address" : "1HT1vrdy2fegnVKaTE1rqsFzfPVDpiWYjf",
"category" : "receive",
"amount" : 0.13417650
},
{
"account" : "520c7bb149ede83218f46c96",
"address" : "19tj6SNnJqZqmDvMuhrjwPudX8qVcT392a",
"category" : "receive",
"amount" : 0.27240743
}
]
}

gettransaction 12e487de6fd8d920446cd8663dc11977d185ceaa25b7c6f36921fb76e58875f0
{
"amount" : 0.40658393,
"confirmations" : 2490,
"blockhash" : "00000000000000007465867d49096a642c424ae015691c0b0f6280c3bc6de401",
"blockindex" : 78,
"blocktime" : 1392120874,
"txid" : "12e487de6fd8d920446cd8663dc11977d185ceaa25b7c6f36921fb76e58875f0",
"time" : 1392120874,
"timereceived" : 1392120896,
"details" : [
{
"account" : "520c7bb149ede83218f46c96",
"address" : "1HT1vrdy2fegnVKaTE1rqsFzfPVDpiWYjf",
"category" : "receive",
"amount" : 0.13417650
},
{
"account" : "520c7bb149ede83218f46c96",
"address" : "19tj6SNnJqZqmDvMuhrjwPudX8qVcT392a",
"category" : "receive",
"amount" : 0.27240743
}
]
}


texts: A Blockchain that merges mining forks and could be more power-efficient?

texts:
I'm new to blockchain technology so I'm sorry if I'm using wrong terminology. This is not a Bitcoin question, but a general blockchain question.

Imagine a theoretical blockchain that uses gradual proof-of-work - instead of finding a single nonce that gives a hash smaller than the target, you have to find 10 nonces that give hashes that are smaller than target * 10.
(Edit: more complicated algorithm can be used, for example the first hash includes the block-header and the first nonce, the second hash includes the
block-header, the second nonce, and the previous hash, etc. - so calculating the hashes must cannot be done in parallel).

If you discovered 9/10 good nonces, you will try to find the last nonce even if some other miner has already published a complete block.
This kind of blockchain will encourage arbitrary mining forks - where two miners publish a mined block with the same previous-block-hash (i.e. the same index in the chain), which looks like:

B1  ←-  B2  ←-  B3  ←-  B4
                ↑
                +-----  B4'

The way current blockchains (that I know of) solve this problem is by letting the miners pick which of the forks to continue, and because only the longest blockchain is the "true blockchain", all the miners will eventually work on a single fork, and all the work that was done on the other forks will go in vain.

Now imagine that each block could have contain more than 1 previous-block-hash. For example, a new miner could try mining a block like:

B1  ←-  B2  ←-  B3  ←-  B4  ←-  B5
                ↑               |
                +-----  B4' ←---+

With one important condition: the transactions in B4 must not contradict the transactions in B4' (no double-spending, etc.). Assuming there are many unrelated transactions in the mempool, this will be a very common scenario.

Miners can even be incentivised to include more previous-block-hashes in the next block. For example, if the miner of B4' notices that B4 was already published, he can offer to pay some fee to the following miners (of B5) that include B4' too.

This algorithm will be much more power efficient (in the case of a gradual proof-of-work) because miners can keep mining the same block even if some other miner already found a good block. It can mine more transactions in parallel without increasing the block size. It is different than choosing an easier hash function (for the proof-of-work), because it has no effect on the blockchain's length or growing speed.

Do you know of any proof-of-work blockchain/cryptocurrency that does something similar, like a blockchain that can split and merge? I know that IOTA is not using blockchain at all, but I never delved into the details.

Thanks


texts: What did I do wrong that caused me to lose bitcoin?

texts:
I've been accumulating bitcoin into a paper wallet for a couple weeks. It's all been stolen. I'm trying to figure out what I did wrong:
https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/193jdrxMKoUjWLyKm2UCGNXLGGvK1x3FDV

I've been very careful with this wallet. I purchased bitcoin on Bisq. Over time I was sending them to a paper wallet that I generated on bitcoinpaperwallet .com. I printed this paper wallet on a piece of paper hidden inside my house. I never saved the private key anywhere on my computer.

As I transferred funds into the wallet, I would verify they arrived by checking blockchain .com. They always did.

A week ago I transferred a lot more bitcoin to this same paper wallet. Today I checked and the wallet was completely drained, hours after the last transfer and soon after I verified they arrived (using blockchain .com). The bitcoins seem to have been instantly transferred to a bunch of wallets downstream and scrambled.

I'm completely baffled as to what I've done wrong. I searched my computer to make sure I didn't accidentally save the private key somewhere, it's nowhere to be found. But I knew that I didn't do this. I was very careful when generating the paper wallet. The only place the private key is on this piece of paper.

No one in my house knows anything about bitcoin, and anyway, this paper has been kept concealed.

What did I do wrong? Any clues?

P.S. Since I know someone will ask, the reason I didn't use a hardware wallet is that I was going to save this paper wallet on multiple encrypted USB sticks. I don't trust the hardware wallets to be secure and recoverable ~10 years from now when those companies may be gone and their software may be outdated.


texts: Computta stealing bitcoin and behave like its nothing

texts:
Mining with https://computta.com/ I had balance of 0.54+ mBTC, every hour i checked and i have written them down in my book.

Suddenly since this week they made my computer balance 0.529 mBTC but on my web-site account my balance remaining  0.53 mBTC

I reported them and they pretending to be like its nothing no issue at all but i used 7 days 24/7 to make it and now on the fly they steal my bitcoin.

What to do in such case? stop using them? suppose i had large balance 1100 mBTC and they did the same i cant claim it back anymore it would be stolen.


texts: When, if ever, will "peak bitcoin" occur?

texts:
My (limited) understanding of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is that the costs of "mining" bitcoins was quite low in the early days, and the limiting factor in how fast they were mined was the small number of people who had the infrastructure to do so.  As time went on, however, the algorithms for mining bitcoins made it harder and and harder to get a new bitcoin in this way, and it is now rather difficult for anyone but the most serious miners to successfully mine a new coin.
This description of bitcoin's history makes it sound like an awful like a normal commodity such as crude oil:  it's easy to get the first barrels out of the ground, when there's not much capacity to do so;  but it gets harder as time goes on.  The net result (according to Hubbert, at least) is that there is a peak in the extraction rate of the commodity.  This is often referred to as "peak oil" in the case of crude oil.
Has anyone done a similar analysis to find out when "peak Bitcoin" or "peak Etherium" or what-have-you will occur?  In other words, in what year will the rate at which new bitcoins are being mined reach its peak?  Has this happened already?  Or is there something about cryptocurrencies that make them immune to these sorts of effects?


texts: wallet software that doesn't require downloading the entire blockchain

texts:
I find 99.999% of the blockchain irrelevant and a wasteful use of storage space in my personal computers. I just need it to sync my wallets.

on OSX what are bitcoin softwares that do not require downloading the entire blockchain? How can I find the wallet of my currently installed software (Bitcoin-Qt) and move it


texts: How can bitinfocharts.com know the changes in BTC deposited to Binance?

texts:
I find this page here, which tells me how much BTC is deposited to Binance. How does this (or a similar) page work?

When I deposit BTC to Binance, I am given an address, which I am fairly sure it's unique (since it doesn't ask other information to be supplied, so if it is not unique, I wouldn't be able to be identified).

How can I check that bitinfocharts is right? I know that on blockchain.com I can check the balance of an address, but what balance should I use if I am interested in Binance's balance?

Update

A function which takes a given block, and computes the net flow of BTC to each address:

import requests

def netbtcflow(blocknum):

    r = requests.get('https://blockchain.info/block-height/'+str(blocknum)+'?format=json')
    data = r.json()

    transactions = [{} for x in range(len(data['blocks'][0]['tx']))]
    for transactionindex, eachtransaction in enumerate(data['blocks'][0]['tx']):
            address=[]
            amount=[]
            for eachrecipient in eachtransaction['out']:
                try:
                    address.append(eachrecipient['addr'])
                except KeyError:
                    address.append('KEYERROR')
                amount.append(eachrecipient['value']/100000000)

            try:
                transactions[transactionindex]['from']=eachtransaction['inputs'][0]['prev_out']['addr']
            except KeyError:
                transactions[transactionindex]['from']='KEYERROR'
            transactions[transactionindex]['to']=[address, amount]

    netflowdict=[{} for x in range(len(transactions))]
    for txindex, eachtx in enumerate(transactions):
        #if eachtx['from']!='KEYERROR':
        if True:
            for recipaddress, recipamount in zip(*eachtx['to']):
                if eachtx['from']!=recipaddress:
                    netflowdict[txindex]=[recipaddress, recipamount]

    netflowdict=[each for each in netflowdict if bool(each)]

    netflowdictunique=dict((each[0],0) for each in netflowdict)
    for each in netflowdict:
        netflowdictunique[each[0]]+=each[1]

    netflowdict=netflowdictunique

    return transactions, netflowdict

There are problems with this, for example this one. Would be interested in how to do the method outlined in this answer exactly (ie I would need the Ptyhon script). The above code might be helpful, will update the post if I get it to work.


texts: Should Electrum users give out their master public key?

texts:
I have seen a recent service advertising that users can turn their Electrum Wallets in to a "Cold Wallet" by providing the 3rd party service the Master Public Key from the Electrum wallet.

Ignoring the "Cold Wallet" aspect, and besides turning over complete wallet privacy to a third party what other reasons should users be encouraged to do this or not do this?


texts: Is there a future plan to make the fees lower ? Will BTC block size increase after the 5G being rolled out in the world ? We could really use a Little bigger block while also developing lighting network . Please don't close this and let's have a conversation.


texts: is target a 256 bit field or a 32 bit field

texts:
first, do we talk about fields or values. is it correct to say that it is a 32 or 256 bit value ? or should we call it a 32 or 256 bit field ?

Why do some authors like say that the size is 32 bit .
The bitcoin wiki states that it is 256 bit. See https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Difficulty  it says  (target is a 256 bit number)
.

who is correct and where in the core can i take a look at it ?


texts:
bitcoin is experiencing mass gross. Even some local businesses around me are starting to accept bitcoin payments. Of coarse, with new growth availability problems arise; and one is the slow and high transaction fees.

It seems the reason to this is because there is only one block every 10 minutes, and each have a 2mb size limit. Why is this? Why don't we remove the size limit? It sounds like a simple problem that has a easy solution. Wouldent miners make more coins from the extra fees from the extra transactions in each block? What our are other solutions?


texts: Why isn't importing wallet.dat as straightforward as it seems it should be?

texts:
In most of computerdom, an app's File dropdown menu has an Import item that permits selection of a file to import into the application.  This would seem to be an obvious feature to include in a Bitcoin GUI, yet when searching for how one imports the wallet.dat file, no such straightforward import option appears.

What is the technical reason for this?


texts:
I get the value of money in Satoshi and I would like to have it in BTC. I develop the app in Java/Maven/JSP and use BitcoinJ for the framework. I use the code,

    public Coin getBalance() {

        int fac = (int) Math.pow(10, 8);
        return balance.div(fac);
    }

In the JSP, I use,

<%
    DecimalFormat decimalFormat = new DecimalFormat("#0.00");
%>
<div class="fild_value">
                    <%= decimalFormat.format(model.getBalance().getValue()) %>&nbsp; BTC
</div>

In this way, I miss the value after the decimal. For example, I get 1.00 BTC when I suppose to get 1.68 BTC. How to convert Satoshi to BTC in Java properly?


texts: Lightning: why do we need decrementing timelocks in multi-hop payments?

texts:
The video (at 28:25) from the official Lightning website describes a multi-hop payment. I understand what a hash-locked contract is, but I still don't understand why we need a timelock aspect here. As you see on the slide, in a multi-hop payment A -> B -> C -> D, (A -> B) has a 3-day nLockTime, (B -> C) has a 2-day nLockTime, and (C -> D) has a 1-day nLockTime. nLockTime of time t means that the transaction can not be included in a block earlier than t. So as time passes, first the (C -> D) becomes valid, then (B -> C) becomes valid, then (A -> B) becomes valid.

Joseph Poon says at 28:35 (emphasis mine):

  "Dave's and Carol's channel [...] closes first. And Carol is happy
  with this setup, because she knows that her payment closes out [...]
  before her money gets pulled."

Isnt's it the other way around: Dave pulls money from Carol first (between day 1 and day 2), and then Carol pulls money from Bob?

Anyway, what would go wrong if we got rid of timelocks altogether? Say, Dave generates a random R, sends H(R) to Alice, Alice creates a hash-locked transaction and broadcasts it to Dave via Bob and Carol. If Dave discoses R, everyone can withdraw their funds, if he doesn't, no one can. Why do we need timelocks on top of that?


texts: i need all block headers hash (about 500k records), i tried to get from electrum wallet files, but when i convert the file to Ascii, it doesn't have full list. please help.


texts:
Can you actually generate "test" coins using bitcoind and testnet?

I mean, in a standalone test environment, can the generation of "simulated" BTC be done and with very short test blockchain be done in a very short time?


texts: Safety differences between full wallet encryption and only encrypting the private keys?

texts:
I'm a newcomer in the Bitcoin world and I wanted to ask the following questions regarding wallet security: What are the safety differences between fully encrypting the wallet.dat file and only encrypting the wallet's private keys, like the Electrum wallet does? Does the latter option imply any additional security concerns compared to full encryption? In what cases should someone choose either option?

Thank you very much.


texts: Does bitcoin 0.16.1 work with Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Windows 10?

texts: Does the bitcoin core for ubuntu work with windows 10 WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) command line? What issues are there if any since its install the ubuntu version under windows 10.


texts: Block size depending on transaction count

texts:
It's widely known that Bitcoin has a limit of 1 MB per block.

However, the average block size is currently about 0.6 MB:

(original data)

According to this thread, Bitcoin transactions has an average size of 512 B. For the sake of simplicity, I'm not considering the 80 B of block header.

Given that, it's possible to fit about 1200 transactions in a block today. Considering that a new block will be mined every 10 minutes, the current capacity of the network is 2 tps:

1200 transactions/block / 10 min/block / 60 sec/min = 2 transactions/s

This seems like a very low throughput, specially when compared to Paypal's average rate of ~115tps and Visa's average rate of ~2000 tps.

Now imagine that I want to build a side chain that can handle as much traffic as Visa network. I want to mantain most of the parameters of the Bitcoin's blockchain (10 min/block, ~512 B/transaction), but being able to process 2000 tps.

In this case, my block size would be the following:

2000 transaction/s * 512 B/transaction * 60 s/min * 10 min/block = 586 MB/block

Is the estimate above correct, or am I missing something?

If it's correct, what are the impacts of switching from a 1 MB block size to 586 MB?


texts: Why is Bitcoin's unconfirmed transaction count rising and what effect does it have on the network?

texts:
I see that blockchain.info is reporting a large and steadily growing number of unconfirmed transactions.

I assume that these are all transactions broadcasted to the network but never confirmed as a result of low fees.

What does this mean long-term? Given my understanding of the blockchain, only transactions on the blockchain are considered confirmed and don't exist on the blockchain if they are not confirmed - and instead, exist only in the mempool.

According to blockchain.info's mempool size chart, the mempool size has increased considerably since genesis, and some initial research shows that the size does grow with abnormal network conditions (high volume spikes, etc).

At the time of writing, the number of transactions is 285,565, totaling about 228.71450055 BTC that are tied up in fees.

That means about 0.0008009192322 BTC per transaction on average. However, following the rule of 20 satoshis per byte, on average, each transaction would need only 0.00002 BTC in fees - about 40 times less than what is currently tied up in BTC fees.

What's going on here? Will the number of unconfirmed transactions die down over time? Will it increase uncontrollably? Will this ever out-scale the number of miners on the network?

Or am I completely missing something here?


texts: similar seed words minor sequence difference

texts: I created a wallet weeks back and seemingly restored the seed onto my other 2 devices. Recently I got to notice that I had mistakenly logged into another wallet with identical seed words but I different word sequence. Unfortunately when I noticed the discrepancy I wasn't able to tell which seed I generated and which I stumbled upon. From a security stand point should I abandon both wallets? or is there a way to secure both. Note I have funded one the other is empty.


texts: Does ASICBOOST only work on Bitmain miners and how does one enable it on these systems?

texts: From what I read ASICBOOST gives you a 30% better hash rate, does this only work on all or certain Bitmain asic miners? And how does one enable this hidden feature in these miners?


texts: Is it possible for the transaction to be on hold forever?

texts:
I'm playing around with myst wallet on a private network, and noticed this option while sending funds between wallets:

This is ETH, but I'm also interested how other networks handle this issue.

So I started to wonder - is it possible that in abundance of high fee transactions to add (mine), my transaction would never be applied to a block? In a similar fashion like low priority processes can get starved?

Or maybe there is some mechanisms that will ensure that my transaction gets through?

I can imagine such mechanism like this: each miner has to pick at most 90% transaction with high fee, and 10% transactions with low fee. This way - low fee queue can get clogged, but if it's a FIFO queue - those would be processed eventually.
As opposed to the approach where take X transactions ordered by fee desc would allow to high fee transactions to flow in virtually starving everything else.


texts:
if a block takes 10 minutes to be mined

does it need 21 minutes to be reorged?

if the reorg started immediately after the block was mined

because 100% was mining and 51.5% will reorg

how long does it take to reorg 5000 block ? 70 days?

is 70 days of reorging a huge thing that would make the people stop believing in BTC ?

all of my questions and availability here is because i am selling my business for 5300 BTC and i dont need to be F&&&ed with reorging later if i will not use them

this was also my point in the last questions for creating custom wallet offline


texts: How do the USB ASIC miners work?  Do you just plug them into a power source and they start mining?  Do you have to set them up for a first time?  Do you need to use a mining program still?


texts: How to import blockchain.info wallet file?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  How to restore locally a MyWallet backup?

I have blockchain.info backups, but I never test them.

How do I make sure they work?
What client should I load them into, and how?

I just want to load the wallet and do a test transfer, so the wallet doesn't have to be very fully featured etc... does Electrum support this kind of import? (I want to save on blockchain download)


texts: Importing a backed-up encrypted wallet.dat

texts:
I have bitcoin-qt-0.8.1-beta installed on a computer. I also have another computer in which I'd like to share the same wallet.

First, for backup purposes, I have exported the wallet into a backup file and saved it on cloud (the wallet is encrypted!!!). Now I can retrieve this new wallet wherever I want. Given that the new workstation is secure enough to handle Bitcoins, I'd like to import the existing wallet file into the second computer.

I see options for exporting the wallet in bitcoin-qt, not vice versa.

I understand this question is very similar to How to import my wallet? but in my case I'm going to show my try-and-fail.

Copying wallet.dat wasn't successful onto a computer running bitcoin-qt-0.8.1 for Linux (notice that it's not the beta)

bitcoin-qt -debug

************************
EXCEPTION: St13runtime_error
CDB() : can't open database file wallet.dat, error 22
bitcoin in Runaway exception

The error is always the same. Even salvaging the wallet doesn't help, because my old addresses don't appear. I repeat, I transferred wallet.dat across different versions of bitcoin-qt.

I could think about dumping the private keys in the old client (which is still available and running, but not at my hand's reach), but I want to ask if there is a smart way to transfer an entire encrypted wallet from a computer to another.

In fact, the backup wallet option should be there for a reason, shouldn't it????


texts: Having issues broadcasting BitcoinJS transaction.

texts:
I'm trying to send testnet with bitcoinjs, but when I go to broadcast the hex, it gives me an error code that says "fee is too high: 12372928". Now, from my understanding, the fee is the input - output. However, even if I increase the output to match the wallet's balance, I get the same exact error message. Here's my code:

        this.setState({
            address: 'mphWVWbPgGKuaMpSpGNA3Ffrpva5cRChqP',
            privateKey: 'cW6dLEqkk2HAbQTSJaHnn4w3kd2iJfhBREccEE3vzrq8kcVE5TqS',
        });
}

createTransaction = (e) => {
    e.preventDefault()
    const {address, privateKey} = this.state;
    var hashURL = `https://api.blockcypher.com/v1/btc/test3/addrs/${address}`

        axios.get(hashURL).then((response) => {
            this.setState({
                hash: response.data.txrefs[0].tx_hash
            })
        }).then((result) => {

        var tx = new bitcoin.TransactionBuilder(testnet);

        var txId = this.state.hash;

        console.log(txId);

        tx.addInput(txId, 0)

        tx.addOutput(this.state.add, 1000000)

        var keyPair2 = bitcoin.ECPair.fromWIF(privateKey, testnet);

        tx.sign(0, keyPair2);
        console.log(tx.build().toHex());
        }
    )

}

Would there be a way to manually set the fee to always be something like .0001?


texts: Does ethereum run on the bitcoin blockchain?

texts: If not, what is the relationship, if any, between Ethereum and Bitcoin and/or the Bitcoin blockchain?


texts:
i had an old ripple account that has stayed untouched for a long time,  ripple advise that you need to migrate it to gatehub, this process does not work, i have tried to transfer it another wallet and it advised my pass phrase is incorrect, it can be only one of two passwords that i used for all online stuff at the time.

Is there away to re set the pass phrase i still have the walets secert key, i see some old links from 2013 -2015 on just setting up  new account with the secert key, but none of the new walets offer the option to add tge key on registration.

Cany anyone help?


texts: How can I manually add a receiving address in MultiBit Classic Wallet - disconnected during confirmation

texts:
Open to any suggestions... (Original Question is below and am trying advice from the first answer)

I am in the process of looking at all the deleted files on the USB disk where MultiBit resides using recovery software. Trying to determine where and if there was ever any private key to recover it.

There appears that the private key was not deleted as there is none for that time period so it was not received before the disruption. I recall it only started the confirmation process. I used the wallet infrequently. Previous time being last year (2014). Since there was no private key, could I not reestablish the wallet as it was at the about or prior to the point in time of the disruption and have it complete or run the blockchain to get the private key? There are numerous wallet files which I can see all with time dates which were deleted that are recoverable. I assume that it the rolling backup wallet files perhaps? I can even read the contents of the text ones and am seeing the actual receiving address (that I wanted to manually put into my wallets list) it is in a wallet file that is still deleted and recoverable probably. Ive not done anything as Im trying to figure out what procedure to do in what order as far as un-deleting files. I dont want to make a bigger mess either.

In addition I have a second copy of the same wallet on another USB drive which had the key from last use prior to generating the new receiving address which was disrupted when conformation was just starting. That second USB drive I did run the blockchain on and it did not have that receiving address...only synchronized and brought the chain up to date.

I would like to attempt to recover but am still trying to think through what would be most likely to work to or highest probability of success. I was thinking to how can I reestablish the wallet at or prior to time of disruption (with that receiving address) and then see if it will show the coins confirmation then save so there is a private key. Does this make any sense? OR is there a better more likely to get success approach? Any suggestions appreciated. thanks

-----------The Original Question below--------

How can I manually add a receiving address to my multibit classic wallet? Corruption of info file destroyed that address. After restoration back to last good copy, the receiving address (which I sent to the exchange) is no longer listed in my wallet in the list of receiving address in my multibit wallet. Due to an interruption in transfer during confirmation or power outage or usb disconnect (take your pick) that address disappeared.

The info file for that one time is totally corrupted from the power interruption. That probably explains the loss of the receiving address. My question and I should probably have been clearer about asking is "how can I manually add a receiving address to my multibit wallet receiving address list??" I know the receiving address and the precise amount as I sent it to the exchange and I can see it on the blockchain as one transaction...Just am missing the receiving address in my wallet and as I was watching it be confirmed when the sudden interruption happened before the key export or clean exit could happen. So I now have the address missing from the wallet list. The info file for that was totally unreadable and corrupted. I restored from the prior one. That was ok and ran the blockchain again. However that put me back in time before the new address was generated. The address was not there of course because of the info file corruption which has the address list and payment.

My question is how to manually to enter a receiving address into multibit wallet receiving address list? Can I put it into the info file? Tried it and didnt work... so please help.

How can I restore a specific missing address back into my wallet?? As I believe it would then reappear and complete the transaction if it was back on my address list. Thank you


texts: Bitcoin Core QT Fatal Error after moving block folder, can't retrieve Private Key

texts:
I have tried installing Bitcoin Core on my PC and without thinking, I went on and bought some coins (I was trying to be organized, so by the time the sync was done I would already have the coin).

90% into sync my HDD got full so I decided to go through this forum and see how to move the BLOCKS Folder to my D:\ Drive. After doing it the FATAL Error came and I am now unable to re-install the program EVEN After moving the BLOCK Folder back to the original folder.

Now I can't access my private key because I can't launch the program BUT I still have access to my wallet.dat (88KB).
I have search the forum for answers but can't find mine in particular.

Please help me retrieve my key!!


texts: Is the bits field a unique representation of the target?

texts:
The bits field is the compact representation of the target.

Example:

bits: 1d00ffff
target: 00ffff0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

bits: 1cfff00
target: ffff0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

But these two actually represent the same number.

int(target) ->  26959535291011309493156476344723991336010898738574164086137773096960
 for both of the above targets.

What (if anything) makes bits a unique representation of the target?

Clarification:

In regular interactions with numbers, this kind of thing doesn't really matter, as a few leading zeros don't affect how we interpret the number. However, in Bitcoin, the bits field is used as part of the hash of the block. Therefore, a different bits representation would produce a different hash of the block.


texts: LCC Electrum Wallet Set Up With Ledger Nano S Cannot Find Private Keys, Sweep or Generate Seed

texts:
I have a problem with Electrum LCC Wallet. I set up the wallet using Ledger NANO S and seems it somehow attached itself to the LTC wallet in Ledger. I get this message every time I want to send LCC from the Electrum wallet.

error: {'message': 'the transaction was rejected by network rules.\n\n16: mandatory-script-verify-flag-failed (Signature must use SIGHASH_FORKID)\n[ ... really long body of hashed content ... ]', 'code': -1}

Since it was initiated with Ledger NANO S I have no way to see private Keys, Sweep or Generate a Seed. Im stuck with a handful of LCC which I want to move. I tried restoring the wallet with no luck as the info I need is encrypted in Ledger. How can I find private key or seed to restore, thank you.


texts: Do I wait or do I have to do something about it?

texts:
Nooby question here, I payed/sent an amount and it failed somehow, so I tried again and again.
I checked their website and it´s all "failed" or incomplete. But is has a checkmark(sent) on Electrum. This was saturday, today is monday.

Now my question is, do I just wait and the BTC will comeback, or should I do something so it isn´t floating around?

Thanks in advance,
Alain

PS: Print so you have more details.
https://gyazo.com/41e1f54c1bb11d1739e6a8da3664911b


texts:
In the next months I’m going to travel abroad with my Ledger Nano S. I’ll visit most of the EU countries, Russia, China, Brazil, U.S. and Canada. I’m an EU citizen.

I would like to know which is my right to refuse to unlock my Ledger whether I’m intimated to do so by a custom officer.

As far as I know as an EU citizen in the EU I can refuse to unlock my devices without violating any law.


texts: Bitcoin Core Desktop Wallet retaining my coins due to Gap Limit being exceeded

texts: trying to send coins am unable to enter address. have to load from clipboard, cannot copy and paste, address bar goes red, disables send functions. i explore reasons, seems 20 unused address gap limit is probably the reason. researched solutions. only feasible solution seems is sending funds to unused addresses, did so with 11 addresses to no effect -  i am still almost 80 over. looks like i exceeded 20 over a year ago. money sat in desktop wallet unusable for a week now. Block chain is up to date. cannot see any solutions here or anywhere else. 1. can anyone offer a solution? i am on Ubuntu  - maybe there is a terminal gap limit extension solution i am unaware of? 2. how is this possible that an automated system can withhold my own money from me over a technicality which isn't ever flagged to users? is this even legal? will it ever release my funds if i can't sort this problem out and do i have redress if not? seems a ludicrous situation and design flaw. any suggestions or help would be appreciated, thanks.


texts: I am looking for a reliable and low cost way to make loan repayments from Asia to the US. Are there any banks in the US that will acept Bitcoins?

texts:
I'm looking for a reliable, low cost, transparent and efficient way to make monthly loan repayments from Asia to the US each month. Are there any banks in the US that will accept bitcoins?

So, I'm wondering: A) whether it is possible to translate Bitcoin to US dollars and B) whether any of the banks in the US accept and use them (yet)?

Are there any other apparent options to solve my problem?


texts: Can lightning transaction participants link the transaction to on-chain funding transaction UTXOs?

texts:
I'm curious about whether participants in a lightning transaction gain information about the funding UTXOs of other participants.
Let's say Alice pays Bob using Lightning, and Alice's payment is routed through a single intermediary channel, Isidore:
Alice → Isidore → Bob

There are two channels here, Alice's channel with Isidore, and Isidore's channel with Bob. These two channels have corresponding funding UTXOs, which I'll call Uai and Uib.
Due to making this transaction:
1a. Does Alice learn that Bob's channel is Uib?
1b. Does Bob learn that Alice's channel is Uai?
1c. Does Isidore learn that owner of channel Uai is paying the owner of channel Uib?
Also, in the case of a direct payment:
Alice → Bob

With one channel, Uab:
2a. Does Bob learn that the sender of the payment is the counter-party of their channel Uab?
2b. Does Alice learn that the recipient of the payment is the counter-party of their channel Uab?


texts:
Best regards.
What's going on internally when I get this warning.

Warning: Unknown block versions are being mined! Unknown rules may be active

Bitcoin Core version v0.17.1 (64-bit)

Thank you


texts: Can Block-version signalling still be implemented and how to do that with the current code base?

texts:
There is a generation of softforks used the block header's nVersion field for signalling (up to the year 2015). Each of those used a subsequent version numbers (BIP34 used version 2; BIP66 used version 3; BIP65 used version 4).
Whenever 750 out blocks number N-1000..N-1 (so 75%) had the proposal's version number of higher, block N would be subject to the proposal's rules. Whenever 950 out of blocks number N-1000..N-1 (so 95%) did, the next block would be required to also signal for it - resulting in a final lock-in.
I want to build a simple bitcoin version for myself and want to sign another version for the block that I mine. In the past what the developer had to do was changing the CURRENT_VERSION of block into a new number (like BIP34: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/1526).
But the code base has changed now so I'm not sure what I need to do if I want the same thing, can anybody tell me what to do? I think I need to change VERSIONBITS_TOP_BITS into a new number but I believe that may be not the correct way.


texts: Service that displays how many inputs/outputs there are in the blockchain?

texts:
Ideally, I am looking for a service like http://statoshi.info/, but one that displays the real-time number of inputs and outputs in the blockchain.

Note that I am not looking for information on the UTXO set, but the set of all inputs and outputs that are in the main bitcoin blockchain.

This is a useful statistic for developers because it has implications for the data storage requirements of parsing the blockchain and storing data per input/output.


texts: Mining with getblocktemplate for specific number of transactions

texts:
Can you control the number of transactions in a getblocktemplate curl/get request ?
Given that you can exhaust 4 billion nonces .
I'm wondering how you vary the number of transactions without varying epoch time.


texts: Does my wallet.dat file contain all wallets?

texts: I have backed up my wallet.dat file, but now I find myself wondering if bitcoin core stores all newly generated wallets in the same wallet.dat file. Of course this is after having accidentally deleted some files I shouldn’t have. Can I safely restart my computer and download bitcoin core again, and load the old wallet.dat file or should I have seperate wallet.dat files for every newly generated wallet?


texts: separating proof of work from mining possible?

texts:
I (think to) understand that proof-of-work is the process through which transactions are verified and the health of the network is being ensured.

I also (think to) understand miners get bitcoins for successfully verifying transactions as a reward.

But can the actual mining of coins (in a fork) be separated of proof-of-work in the context of transaction verification?

Like for example a hardware device generating coins with a different ruleset (e.g. let's say for simplicity: a car drives 100miles --> generates one coin). If that would be possible, would transaction verification still be possible or is it intrinsically linked and in itself one process?

Hope I am making myself understood.
Never mind if the question is making a fool of me.


texts:
I'm looking for sources of crypto currency data, preferably historical, which I can use to back-test my bots and/or analyze the market.

Is there a reliable source for this online ? Do exchanges offer historical data by any chance?

If not, how do I go about acquiring this data?


texts: How is a block header hash compared to the target (bits)?

texts:
I'm trying to wrap my head around the mining process by doing a small example of block hashing.

According to the Wiki entry about difficulty, the target for a block hash can be read from the "bits" part of the header as follows:
In this example, the bits part is 535f0119.

535f0119 * 2**(8*(0x1b - 3))

My resulting target would be:

535f0119000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

The target in decimal would be:

8780002705592212783085671453687210878315895819816253650256038723584

Let's say the hash I got with my current nonce is

4d47599dd86834282a8ae6f20ba454704ddbe6eb23aa31b9fdec97fc7679b559

How can I now compare if the hash is smaller than the target? What do I have to do with the hash to be able to say "hash < target"?


texts: using coinbase with uc_bitcoin drupal module

texts:
I need a simple hack to change the Drupal uc_bitcoin modules code so it gets the exchange rate from Coinbase, it is designed to use MtGox. I want to avoid using the entire coinbase API because I just want the exchange rate, not the kitchen sink. There is a lot of documentation there.

I have found the code in the uc_bitcoin drupal module which gets the information from MtGox. It needs some simple changes so it gets this data from Coinbase. Since both are so different, and I'm not fluent with PHP I thought someone might be able to help me with this.

Here is the code which gets the exchange rate from MtGox:

function uc_bitcoin_exchange_rate($order) {

  static $rate;

  if(isset($rate)) {
    return $rate;
  }

  if ($order->currency == 'BTC') {
    // BTC 1:1
    return 1;
  }

  // Supported MtGox currencies, Dec 15 2012
  $mtGox_currencies = array(
    'USD',
    'EUR',
    'JPY',
    'CAD',
    'GBP',
    'CHF',
    'RUB',
    'AUD',
    'SEK',
    'DKK',
    'HKD',
    'PLN',
    'CNY',
    'SGD',
    'THB',
    'NZD',
    'NOK'
  );

  // @todo add cache
  if (in_array($order->currency, $mtGox_currencies)) {
    if ($response = drupal_http_request('https://data.mtgox.com/api/1/BTC' . $order->currency . '/ticker')) {
      if ($response->code == 200) {
        $data = json_decode($response->data);
        if(!empty($data->return->avg->value)) {
          $rate = $data->return->avg->value;
        }
      }
    }
  }

// @todo add cache
  if (in_array($order->currency, $mtGox_currencies)) {
    if ($response = drupal_http_request('https://data.mtgox.com/api/1/BTC' . $order->currency . '/ticker')) {
      if ($response->code == 200) {
        $data = json_decode($response->data);
        if(!empty($data->return->avg->value)) {
          $rate = $data->return->avg->value;
        }
      }
    }
  }

  if (!$rate || !is_numeric($rate)) {
    watchdog('uc_bitcoin', 'MtGox lookup - Unable to get current exchange rate', WATCHDOG_ERROR);
    $rate = FALSE; // just to be super sure.
  }

  return $rate;
}


texts: I used to mine Bitcoin back in 2015/2016 but can't find my wallet now

texts:
It was on an old laptop that I got fixed. The laptop works but I don't remember my the app names of the wallet I used or the mining software. I tried searching for 'wallet.dat' and it didn't find anything.
I searched my email for key words like 'wallet' and 'bitcoin' and the only thing I could find is an old link that doesn't work anymore but re-directs me to Slush Pool. I tried to reset my password but it keeps telling me that my password is incorrect even though it successfully lets me change my password (and is able to send me a password recovery email). I don't remember my phrase, but I can go through all my phone pictures from 2015/2016 to see if maybe I screenshoted it. This is kind of my last resort as I checked and I have 4,000-5,000 pictures on my phone from those years.
Am I out of luck?


texts: collecting block reward and transaction fees

texts:
i was reading document about transaction data and there seems to be two contradicting paragraphs:

Every block must include one or more transactions. The first one of these transactions must be a coinbase transaction, also called a generation transaction, which should collect and spend the block reward (comprised of a block subsidy and any transaction fees paid by transactions included in this block).
Blocks are not required to include any non-coinbase transactions, but miners almost always do include additional transactions in order to collect their transaction fees.

my questions are about coinbase transactions and transaction fees:

is a coinbase transaction automatically added (ie: assumed by consensus) for each block, or do miners have to add it explicitly as the first transaction in each block? if so, how do they mark it as a coinbase transaction? is it enough to set no inputs and list it as the first one?

how do miners collect transaction fees? do they have to explicitly add non-coinbase transactions with their own address as output? if so, do fee-collecting transactions have the same type as other transactions, or are they special in some way?

the first paragraph of cited text seems to imply transaction fees in a block can be collected through the coinbase transaction, but the second paragraph seems to imply miners need to explicitly add non-coinbase transactions to collect transaction fees; if miner M wants to collect fees from a transaction A->B, must M also include an additional transaction A->M besides A->B? if not, how do others know where the fees are collected, that is to say, the address of M?


texts:
How does circular rebalance on LN work? (note: circular rebalance is term used in RTL, I use lnd). Let me describe the situation that happened to me:
I have two channels, one with Alice, one with Bob.
The situation before circular rebalance from my point of view:
Me    (200) sats outbound -----[400]----- (200) sats inbound         Alice
Me    (200) sats outbound -----[200]----- (0)   sats inbound         Bob

Then I initiated a circular rebalance of 100 sats on the the second channel with Bob and I was asked to choose "receive from peer" where I chose Alice
The situation after the circular rebalance from my point of view (supposing no routing fees):
Me    (300) sats outbound -----[400]----- (100) sats inbound         Alice
Me    (200) sats outbound -----[300]----- (100) sats inbound         Bob

My overall outbound capacity increased by 100 sats while overall inbound capacity stayed at 200 sats. Did I just make 100 sats? Did I cheat Alice?
Solution (It was my misunderstanding, I'm answering here because Rene's answer is really good and I want to keep it):
Basically, my outbound capacity decreased on the channel with Bob by the expected amount but the commit_fee on that channel rose by 100 and since I thought that my outbound capacity + commit fee are my disposable funds I thought of them as a overall outbound capacity which is not obviously the case.
What actually happened:
The situation before circular rebalance from my point of view:
Me    (200) sats outbound {100} commit fee -----[500]----- (200) sats inbound         Alice
Me    (400) sats outbound {100} commit fee -----[500]----- (0)   sats inbound         Bob

The situation after the circular rebalance from my point of view (supposing no routing fees):
Me    (300) sats outbound {100} commit fee-----[500]----- (100) sats inbound         Alice
Me    (300) sats outbound {200} commit fee-----[500]----- (100) sats inbound         Bob


texts: How are the assets locked and unlocked trustlessly using sidechains?

texts:
I am reading sidechains white paper and in section 3.2 Symmetric two-way peg they mention that:

"The parent chain coins are sent to a special output on the parent chain that can only be unlocked by an SPV proof of possession on the sidechain. I dont get how the coins can be locked on a blockchain.

Are they referring to locking it in a multisig address or something?
Who has the private key of that locked address?