texts: Do hardware wallets store the wallet.dat redundantly inside? If not, are there such hardware wallets?

texts:
I'm baffled by how "cheap" the existing hardware wallets look and seem. They seem to have been made "at a budget", with no real high-end version available.
If I owned something like 1,000 BTC, or even 100 BTC, I would want a damn mini fortress of a metal cube full of security measures and like 100 different memories, all individually holding the wallet.dat (encrypted), physically separated from each other and with a hardware switch needed to be flicked on for them to even have any contact with the "main logic", and the entire cube to be fully fireproof and waterproof down to a 10,000 meters and able to withstand thousands of blows from a sledgehammer.
From what I can tell, these hardware wallets are just a single flash memory holding all my coins on it. They even tell you to back it up immediately... which seems to defeat the purpose of having a hardware wallet, if you have to store the wallet.dat redundantly anyway... in practice meaning it goes with all my other files which come into contact with my potentially compromised PC regularly.
I've really tried to research these hardware wallets, but all of them seem like a bad joke to me. I've only grown more and more skeptical to getting one, because my current (bad) system of storing my cold storage wallet.dat on multiple encrypted disks which DO regularly come into contact with my PC seems "just as good", if not better...
I hope I'm missing something, and that somebody can enlighten me.
Basically, how do rich Bitcoiners store their coins? Seriously? How? How do they sleep at night?


texts:
I am planning to get into BTC as I have some PC with xfire (7970's) laying around here and I am currently trying to learn more about it; what I would like to first understand is BTC pricing to make sure the energy I will spend with this PC can be paid off with it.

At https://mtgox.com/ the last price is at USD$249.99900: is that the current value of 1 BTC? If not, how is that calculated in order to know how 1 BTC is worth?


texts: I want to create a P2TR (pay-to-taproot) address but I just need a key path spend, not a script path spend. How do I create the P2TR address?

texts: I want to create a P2TR (pay-to-taproot) address but I just want access to the key path spend, I have no use for the script path spend in this specific example. Do I hash an arbitrary string to use as the Merkle root for the script path spend?


texts: Why does Electrum include seemingly unnecessary inputs in a transaction?

texts:
I want to make a payment of x BTC.
My Electrum wallet shows two "output points" in the Coins tab (with the same address). Both of these show an amount much larger than x BTC.
If go to the Send tab and start to make a payment to an address, then click "Pay..." and then "Advanced", I can see two inputs, which seem to correspond to the two "output points" in the Coins tab and show the same amounts. The transaction size is 447 bytes. I abandon this transaction.
If I go to the Coins tab, right click on one of the two "output points" and choose "Spend", Electrum shows a green banner saying "Coin control active". If I start to make the same payment, the "Advanced" dialog now only shows one input and the transaction size is 226 bytes.
This looks to me as though I can make the same transaction and incur a smaller fee by using "coin control". Am I missing something? Is there a disadvantage or risk to doing this? I'm thinking there must be, otherwise Electrum would just do it automatically.
I could understand needing two inputs to the transaction if x was more than the amount associated with each one of my two "output points", but it isn't.
Thanks!


texts:
I need to use multisig wallet on my online service. The most suitable service for me is Bitgo, but it is very expensive. Commission 0.25% on the withdrawal.
Can I use the Copay wallet for such tasks? I would not want to run my own Bitcore server. I can not figure out how to send API requests to the Bitcore server from Bitpay.


texts: Does checking for balance on any cryptocurrency address is same as checking if address is correct?

texts:
Let assume that I do not want to check literally if specific cryptocurrency address is correct (I mean I have to deal with many cryptocurry addresses that I know of which cryptcurrency).

Does checking on balance with public APIs for that specific address (BTC, Litecoin, Doge and so on...) would give me error message for invalid addresses?

I just want to make my life easier and skip writing function to check for correctness on each cryptocurrency seperately.


texts: Combine multiple Bitcoin balances into a new wallet?

texts: I need $1000 worth of Bitcoin, but I'm going to use an ATM, and without I.D., there is a limit of $250 per transaction. Could I conduct 4 separate transactions back-to-back, tell the ATM to create a different wallet each time, and then later move those 4 balances into one wallet?


texts: What is the difference between a wallet and paired keys?

texts:
So I've read that a wallet is basically a public address key paired with a private key.

But is it more than that?   Does the physical wallet file contain transaction and balance information as well or does that get pulled from the cloud?

For example, let's assume I have just the public and private keys written down on a piece of paper...

If I import those keys into a wallet client, will the wallet client download my balance and transaction history associated with my address from the cloud?


texts: Can any one suggest me what is the valid process for Issuing Token in ICO

texts: Can anyone suggest me what is the valid process for Issuing Token in ICO? Actually, I have seen some ICO that send Tokens after some delay (some time 48 hrs). I just want to know that what is the valid process for issuing Tokens. I mean whether I will do this manually after checking my Wallet or Write a Smart contract in such a way that transfer Token as soon as transection completed by end user.


texts: Must a Block contain a coinbase transaction?

texts: Must a block contain a coinbase transaction? If so, how is this enforced?


texts: Difference in balance in my wallet and in btc explorer

texts:
I am coding a website to get BTC balance from explorer using the following url:

https://blockexplorer.com/api/addr/3CyZgGhkhE3z2WY8E5ztPMRYCDdg1hdD7g/balance

The problem is that the balance appeared using this url (explorer) is totally different from what in my wallet (nicehash).

Explorer balance for this address: 0.00946525 BTC

Wallet balance for this address: 0.01642334 BTC

What is the cause of this? and how to show the real balance in explorer exactly as in wallet?


texts: How much do you gain from minting a proof-of-stake coin on multiple wallets?

texts: Is there a theoretical gain from mining the same wallet/coins for pos on multiple computers, and if so, how much is it?


texts: Are there performance implications using the "timestamp" property of ImportMulti in the following way?

texts:
Based on the Developer Reference for importmulti, it seems the the timestamp property is purely used to determine how far back to rescan. If I have, say, 100 addresses and I simply set all of their timestamps to the same value (the earliest known timestamp), does this have any performance impact compared to setting each address' timestamp uniquely?

If the answer is no, then I'm wondering why this property was implemented as opposed to having a 3rd parameter holding a single "timestamp" for the entire list of addresses.


texts: What is min time to get first confirmation for transaction?

texts:
How much time does it take to get first confirmation for transaction? I don't need the exact number of minutes, just some useful approximation.

I found this chart of average confirmation times, but I'm not sure that it's the time just for first confirmation.
When a transaction isn't confirmed, lets say n hours, will it be in the getrawmempool list all that time?


texts:
I was using a Bitcoin wallet called "Bread" then transfer to another wallet called "Bitcoin".  The Bitcoin app was deleted from my IPhone 7.  The password word phase I wrote down was the same as the "Bread" app.  It that possible? Or did I write down my old password thinking I was in my new "Bitcoin" app.  I have tried download the Bitcoin app again but unable to restore the account.
Thank you, John


texts: Projects built on the Tendermint platform?

texts: The Tendermint project sounds like a very promising  proof-of-stake implementation.  What public projects are being built on this platform?


texts: How can I verify my merkle root function is correct?

texts:
I've started playing with Bitcoin on a more technical level recently (I'm an experienced software developer but just a user of Bitcoin up until now). I'm trying to implement a function to calculate a merkle root, as described by the protocol documentation here. I think I have implemented a function as described, but I'm not too sure how to go about verifying what I've done. Ideally I'd like to write some unit tests, but I need some input values and an expect output.

Does anyone know where I might find a set of transaction hashes, along with the correct merkle root which should be produced from there? I'm really looking for example inputs & output which I can use to verify the correctness of my function.

I've tried copying & pasting the transaction hashes from Bitcoin block 96001, but the merkle root I'm calculating does not match what is displayed on blockchain.info. The strange thing is, when I feed the same transaction hashes into the merkle root function in BitcoinJS-lib, it produces the same merkle root as my function. Are my function and BitcoinJS-lib both wrong? Is blockchain.info wrong? Or is there something else going on here?

var sha256 = (buffer) => {
  return crypto.createHash('sha256')
    .update(buffer)
    .digest()
}

var doubleSha256 = (buffer) => sha256(sha256(buffer))

var merkleRoot = (hashes) => {
  if (hashes.length == 1)
    return hashes[0]

  return merkleRoot(
    _.chain(hashes)
      .chunk(2)
      .each(tuple => tuple[1] = tuple[1] || tuple[0])
      .map(tuple => Buffer.concat(tuple))
      .map(doubleSha256)
      .value()
  )
}

// Transaction hashes from block 96001:
var tx1 = Buffer.from('dcc95c8740525e27d87333558e5d0a288d0eac9062598c86c77e75dcde7178d2', 'hex')
var tx2 = Buffer.from('043cd1d9166cf16a4cc02d4385667657056cbe23f7058877c7fde09ef7de904a', 'hex')
var tx3 = Buffer.from('88b058d7e3e7b6d174d0f5a76a209a3107de65c01b010cda72ee64b22c980998', 'hex')

console.log(merkleRoot([tx1, tx2, tx3].sort()).toString('hex'));

// expected 'e7ae478c684e965d730e72b9cac644fd1ebeb1517fe69cc458d9d4070b9de8d8'
// output   'b2f52e4efbbab7653489b83d5ad331f1ada1b7e5959ac63b8aa45a786ae90279'


texts:
I am currently using bfgminer 3.99.0 installed on a raspberry pi on top of raspbian.  I have 7 ant miner u2 miners plugged in split over 2 usb hubs.

Looking at the stats produced from bfgminer the shares seem to vary massively although they were all started at the same time.

I have also used mine peon and experience the same issue.  When I log into my pool the hash rate differs massively from the output of the miners.

As a test I loaded asteroid on my iMac and connected the miners, I don't know how to see the share rate on that but my hash rate from asteroid and the hash rate on the pool matched (very close).

So my question is why does the accepted rate differ between miners so much and also why does this cause a difference in hash rates and is there anything I can do about it.


texts: Issuing bitcoin-cli commands via terminal

texts:
I am having issues utilizing bitcoin-cli via terminal. For example:

DIRECT-8A-HP-OfficeJet-4650:~ peter$ bitcoin-cli deriveaddresses "wpkh(xpub6Dy2ikUu5mXbDdhw2vAP1C4eiQM8rTz1NiWQt2BzGi83iHC2gEgTSD54JveyuHF9VLAqNkCGnee1jdBL7nA3JNorbqjSSS8DEV6Hn3PuNBt/*)#mn5jvyc3" 99
error code: -8
error message:
Range must be specified as end or as [begin,end]
DIRECT-8A-HP-OfficeJet-4650:~ peter$

However the exact same text in the Bitcoin Core console works without issue.

What am I doing wrong?


texts:
I'm trying to figure out how the transaction fees are distributed to the miners.
We pay an incredibly high amount of money to send bitcoins, but where does all the money go? Are they shared out equally among all the miners? My first thought was that the node that confirm the transactions is going to get the fees, but it's all a blur.
Thanks a lot!


texts: BITCOINJ: how to make my wallet aware again about change of my transaction status after my server restart?

texts:
Using bitcoinj, my server created a transaction and it was broadcasted on the blockchain. I can get its history using: walletAppKit.wallet().getTransaction(txHash)

It is in Pending state.

Then I stopped my server before the transaction get confirmed.

Then I started the server again, and I was still getting Pending status when calling walletAppKit.wallet().getTransaction(txHash), although the status is well confirmed on explorer like https://live.blockcypher.com/

I understand that when server was down, there was no more listener for change events on that wallet/transaction. But the question is how make my wallet aware again about the new change of my transaction status after my server restart?

(I am on TestNet by the way)


texts: Online Mining Calculators using prebuilt machines data

texts:
I've read many comments that mining is not profitable, or barely.

Using the machines' data at Hardware Comparison in online mining calculators do show some with good profits. Am I missing something or misunderstanding the data? I only used the Mhash/s, watts, and price.


texts: What are the minimum sizes for transactions and blocks in Bitcoin?

texts:
I have gone through many research articles but couldn't find out what the minimum sizes of a transaction and a block are.
Is there any reference where I can find an answer to my question?


texts: Where can I download Amd catalyst center version 16.9 or 16.11?

texts:
This one
https://forum.ethereum.org/discussion/11159/rx-480-sapphire-nitro-oc-4gb-modded-to-8gb-31-mh-1225-2200-mhz

says that I should download

  Amd catalyst center version 16.9 or 16.11 other versions need to be
  patched to work with modded bioses as they check for the bios
  signature and will deactivate the card

The problem is, other versions of what?

What is catalyst center? Is it a driver for AMD radeon or what?

I thought the drivers name is called crimson

Where can I download it because I do not see catalyst center 16.11 anywhere on page mentioned.


texts: An orphan does not have parents. On the other hand an orphaned block has a parent but no children. So shouldn't it be called barren rather than orphan?


texts: Transfer bitcoin from gdax to my nano s and now it’s pending

texts:
I transferred 1.05 bitcoin using gdax to my nano s
and now it is pending in my Coinbase account without
any miners fee or transaction ID. I was never given a
chance to review the transaction! The receiving
address is correct. What do I do?


texts: How to tell if my node is online (conflicting information)

texts:
I am really confused. I am attempting to set up a listening node. When I look at bitnodes.earn.com it shows my node as offline when searching by IP, but when I run getconnectioncount it returns a positive number and getnetworkinfo returns

{
  "version": 190001,
  "subversion": "/Satoshi:0.19.0.1/",
  "protocolversion": 70015,
  "localservices": "0000000000000409",
  "localservicesnames": [
  "NETWORK",
    "WITNESS",
    "NETWORK_LIMITED"
  ],
  "localrelay": true,
  "timeoffset": -13,
  "networkactive": true,
  "connections": 20,
  "networks": [
    {
      "name": "ipv4",
      "limited": false,
      "reachable": true,
      "proxy": "",
      "proxy_randomize_credentials": false
    },
    {
      "name": "ipv6",
      "limited": false,
      "reachable": true,
      "proxy": "",
      "proxy_randomize_credentials": false
    },
    {
      "name": "onion",
      "limited": true,
      "reachable": false,
      "proxy": "",
      "proxy_randomize_credentials": false
    }
  ],
  "relayfee": 0.00001000,
  "incrementalfee": 0.00001000,
  "localaddresses": [
  ],
  "warnings": ""
}

What is going on? How can I tell if my node is actually accepting connections? Is this because I am still downloading the chain? All I am looking for it to rebroadcast/relay my transactions.


texts: What was the first transaction which resulted in the very first bitcoin being mined

texts:
OK, so I understand that bitcoin in introduced into the system when mining is performed. And mining is a process of adding transactions records to the bitcoin chain of blocks. And transaction (mentioned above) is nothing but bitcoin transactions taking place, which needs to be securely computed and added to the chain of blocks.

Now, my question is when the first bitcoin was rewarded to the first miner (may be the second one, after Satoshi added the main block), what transactions were taking place which needed to be computed and added. Theoretically, there was a point when there were no bitcoins in the network, then how did it start.


texts: Correct way to use joinpsbt for manual coinjoin?

texts:
I am developing a feature in my app for "manual coinjoins" which follows this as inspiration: https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0174.mediawiki#Manual_CoinJoin_Workflow

I am not an experienced coinjoin user and just want to make sure I am not missing something here.

The flow I am using is:

User A creates a PSBT with one utxo input of 0.1 btc and one output of 0.0995 btc sending the output to a new address of theirs.
User A processes the PSBT to sign for the input.

User A passes the PSBT on to user B who creates another PSBT with identical input amount and identical output amount and processes the PSBT to sign the input.

User B can pass it on to others who repeat the process or finalize and broadcast.

Is this the proper way to do it? Does the order in which the users process the PSBT with their wallet matter?


texts: what is meant by DEFAULT_ANCESTOR_LIMIT in child pay for parent?

texts:
Why is 25 the max parents a child can rescue in a child pay for parent?

I don't think I understand what DEFAULT_ANCESTOR_LIMIT = 25 means.

Does that also mean that the child transaction has 25 input utxos from those parents?


texts: Child Pays for Parent transactions get stuck on testnet

texts:
I'm building a service prototype by reusing Electrum code and generated 4 consequent transactions which are CPFP type on the testnet. They are staying unconfirmed for several hours but test transaction with 10 sat/vbyte got confirmed in the nex block.

What could be a possible reason for that? Could it be testnet-specific so I should not expect the same behavior on mainnet?


texts:
According to http://btc.blockr.io/ :

Height  Block created   Transactions    Block fee   Size (kb)   Days destroyed
318525  2 minutes ago   28              0.00370000  8.36 kB     2.00
318524  3 minutes ago   64              0.00746243  25.76 kB    527.97
318523  4 minutes ago   140             0.02336649  67.67 kB    1,666.43
318522  2 minutes ago   16              0.00130000  4.64 kB     10.19
318521  8 minutes ago   359             0.05072184  205.02 kB   4,148.84
318520  16 minutes ago  92              0.01266343  49.22 kB    112.75
318519  7 minutes ago   128             0.01682150  54.51 kB    2,146.34
318518  20 minutes ago  137             0.02128600  86.23 kB    1,213.50
318517  24 minutes ago  657             0.10664839  353.93 kB   6,502.12

So during the past 24 minutes, 9 blocks have been found. One would expect this time to be approximately an hour and a half (90 minutes).

How is this explained? Why is the block generation process currently running so fast?
Is it safe to assume that the 6 confirmations, which took less that 10 minutes, implies an irreversible transaction?


texts: How can I import a private key into the Bitcoin client?

texts: I have a private key and I want to add it to the keys in the Bitcoin client.  Is there an easy way to do this?


texts: How to obtain Block number of transaction?

texts: Is there any function in bitcoind which when given the transaction(CTransaction& tx)/ transaction hash, returns its block number ?


texts: How does "importaddress" command in bitcoin-cli work?

texts: I am trying to use "importaddress" in regtest mode. I have two bitcoin-core nodes running.  I generated address on one node, imported it on another node and then sent some coins to this address. If I run "listreceivedbyaddress 0 true" on the first node, I see right amount of coins on this adddress and right txid. If I run "listreceivedbyaddress 0 true" on the second node, I see zero amount of coins on this adddress and no txid.


texts: Lightning, multiple channels to the same node

texts:
With LND, you can open multiple channels to the same node. Is there any advantages to having multiple channels (to the same node) versus having one channel?

Eg. one channel with a capacity of 1 000 000 sats or two channels with 500 000 sats each?


texts: How do you setup a bundler for mining / forging child chain coins on the Ardor platform?

texts: Is there a step by step guide on how to start your own bundler to mine / forge child chain coins on Ardor? Do you need to run your own server to do this or can you just login to a public node?


texts: How to send a payment through a route saved in a json?

texts:
From lncli network=testnet sendtoroute -h:

NAME:
lncli sendtoroute - send a payment over a predefined route
USAGE:
lncli sendtoroute [command options] [arguments...]
DESCRIPTION:
Send a payment over Lightning using a specific route. One must specify
a list of routes to attempt and the payment hash. This command can even
be chained with the response to queryroutes. This command can be used
to implement channel rebalancing by crafting a self-route, or even
atomic swaps using a self-route that crosses multiple chains.
There are three ways to specify routes:
 * using the --routes parameter to manually specify a JSON encoded
   set of routes in the format of the return value of queryroutes:
       (lncli sendtoroute --payment_hash=<pay_hash> --routes=<route>)

 * passing the routes as a positional argument:
       (lncli sendtoroute --payment_hash=pay_hash <route>)

 * or reading in the routes from stdin, which can allow chaining the
   response from queryroutes, or even read in a file with a set of
   pre-computed routes:
       (lncli queryroutes --args.. | lncli sendtoroute --payment_hash= -

   notice the '-' at the end, which signals that lncli should read
   the route in from stdin
OPTIONS:
--payment_hash value, --pay_hash value  the hash to use within the payment's HTLC
--routes value, -r value                a json array string in the format of the response of queryroutes that denotes which routes to use

I use this command to save the routes in a json file:

lncli -network=testnet queryroutes 02e34c1b4c5f8e7419cf4d10e3bc9651d46dc1af68df6a7b81a24951a9192aa9c4 --final_cltv_delta=144 25000->routes.json

Then from the spec, performing:

lncli --network=testnet sendtoroute --payment_hash=03bd33db2dfdebff50ca8a7ae3bade681bbf7f25246248c9416b4441b1dbf4c2 --routes=routes.json

I always get back this error:

[lncli] unable to unmarshal json string from incoming array of routes: invalid character 'r' looking for beginning of value

Am I doing something wrong?  What should I set as --routes parameter?


texts:
I recently placed an order with Kraken (or tried to anyway, the site was giving me lots of errors and timeouts) Seemingly a trade went through after several attempts.

However, my account balance now has an asterisk in it, for example

Lumen (XLM) *2,038.04006    $0.2002

And the ledger looks like this

12-14-17 22:59:26 -0500 Trade   Lumen (XLM) *1,040.76635    *2.72629    *2,038.04006

What does the asterisk indicate?

Update - I now check the order history, and Kraken claims the order is cancelled - however, the XLM coin are available for Transfer, and the Bitcoins I used to make the purchase are no longer available.  I think Kraken either has something very strange in their user interface or the money was lost somehow?


texts: Is it possible to create a disposable address identical to mine?

texts:
So today I lost money on a transaction. This guy I was dealing with asked for my bitcoin address. I of course copy and pasted my bitcoin address and sent it to him. He sent me a screenshot of me preparing to send me my funds, i confirmed the amount but wasn't able to confirm the address because I expected him to copy and paste what I copy and pasted. I wondered why the funds didnt arrive yet, I double checked the address only to see that the address he sent the btc to was identical to mine, except for 1 letter (instead of a p there was a q)

Now my question, is it possible to create an address similar to mine, but change 1 letter/number?


texts: Unable to connect to litecoin-qt server from more than 3-4 machines

texts:
I've created a litecoin-qt server with the following configuration:

{
"pools" : [
        {
                "url" : "http://192.168.10.5:9332",
                "user" : "something",
                "pass" : "somethingelse"
        }
]
,
"auto-fan" : true,
"temp-cutoff" : "95",
"temp-overheat" : "85",
"scrypt" : true
}

I'm able to connect to it from at least 3 different machines on the network, plus one connection from itself (I'm having cgminer run on the server).

However, I'm unable to connect from any other machines - it flashes the following:

[2014-02-04 21:47:03] Pool: 0  URL: http://192.168.10.5:9332  User: something Password: somethingelse
 [2014-02-04 21:47:03] Press any key to exit, or cgminer will try again in 15s.
 [2014-02-04 21:48:03] HTTP request failed: Operation timed out after 60000 milliseconds with 0 out of -1 bytes received
 [2014-02-04 21:48:03] Failed to connect in json_rpc_call
 [2014-02-04 21:48:03] Succeeded delayed connect
 [2014-02-04 21:49:03] Timed out waiting for response in initiate_stratum
 [2014-02-04 21:49:03] Initiate stratum failed
 [2014-02-04 21:49:03] Closing socket for stratum pool 0
 [2014-02-04 21:49:03] FAILED to retrieve work from pool 0 http://192.168.10.5:9332
 [2014-02-04 21:49:03] Pool 0 slow/down or URL or credentials invalid

And ends with:

 [2014-02-04 21:40:48] Timed out waiting for data on socket_full
 [2014-02-04 21:40:48] Initiate stratum failed
 [2014-02-04 21:40:48] Closing socket for stratum pool 0
 [2014-02-04 21:40:48] FAILED to retrieve work from pool 0 http://192.168.10.5:9332
 [2014-02-04 21:40:48] Pool 0 slow/down or URL or credentials invalid

The datetimes are slightly off since I fetched these logs in different run instances.


texts: Salvaged possible wallet from corrupt HDD ... now what?

texts:
In short,

I bought a few BTC years ago when they were very cheap.
I reformatted my HDD and reinstalled the OS.
I have used PhotoRec and
http://www.cyplo.net/2012/04/01/bitcoin-wallet-recovery-photorec/ to
recover 3 .dat files. Searching only for the ''detection signature''
of a Bitcoin wallet.dat

And the confusing part (if reformatting a hard drive containing bitcoins was not confusing enough!) is that the recovered .dat files are 7GB , 13GB and 8 kb.

Obviously, trying to use the recovered wallet.dat with Bitcoin-qt failed.

Chances are that these .dat are not wallets but I though this would be worth a shot considering how massively more valuable BTC are compared to 3 years ago.

Anything I can do with these recovered files?

Thank you!


texts: What will happen if a block is lost on a peer?

texts: In the Bitcoin network, each peer maintains a full copy of the ledger (blockchain). What will happen if a peer losts one of its blocks in the blockchain (e.g. another process on the peer accidentally wiped out the disk area that stores the block)? Will this peer be able to detect that this block is missing? If yes, how will the peer detect it and how is it going to repair?


texts: MtGox bancruptcy: Filing proof of claims

texts: I owned bitcoins at mtgox during bankruptcy, am I a creditor and thus have to file a proof of claim?


texts: where can I get the NEW Hardware? to make profit

texts:
Currently 2015 mid-October, how can I get the NEW hardware to actually make profit, after paying the electricity bill, ventilation, the cooling and all the extra cost?
I'm not aiming for $100 per day, but just anything above 3 Dollars per day will be fine. I've use the calculator websites to check the available chips in the market and after I input the hash rate and the Watt and the electricity cost, (which I happen to have for only 10 cents not 15), I still can't make profit.
am I doing something wrong or it's really getting impossible to make money out of mining now. thanks for any help..


texts: Difference between blockchain.info and cold storage

texts:
I have a wallet on Blockchain.info, but I don't really understand how it works.

They say that they don't store my password nor have access to my funds. Does it mean that it's somehow a cold storage? I have had my coins for quite a while, so I was wondering if I could get Bitcoin Cash. However, I see that I should export my private key, but this is only possible from imported addresses.

So what is the difference between having my coins at Blockchain.info compared to having the stored on my own computer? Will it be possible to export a private key from Blockchain.info if I simply have a normal wallet at their website?


texts: The purpose of USDT (and other stable coins)?

texts:
Any institution that trades cryptocurrencies is not classified as a financial institution by definition. Therefore, any exchange involved with cryptocurrencies only is not subject to financial regulation and control (much like computer games with in-game currency and economy aren't). However, I suspect if an exchange lists BTCUSD or BTCEUR then they are dealing with a currency issued and regulated by a central bank and therefore become subject to financial regulation.

Am I correct in concluding that the purpose of coins mirroring real world currency such as USD is to allow an exchange to deal purely with cryptocurrencies and avoid falling into the scope of financial regulation yet have a cryptocurrency (in this case USDT) which is tightly linked to a real world economy (US and world economy)?


texts: Is the UTXO set size important for non-mining full nodes?

texts:
Recently, I have seen a lot of development effort going into techniques for different ways of storing, pruning UTXO/TXOs. The main motivation cited is reducing block orphaning, which is mining-fullnode-only problem. My personal fullnode does not care about if the UTXO is fetched from disk and takes time to verify. (as long it's well under 10 mins)

Miners (referring to pool owners who actually run the full node) today are rich people with huge amount of investment costs. Buying extra RAM should be relatively small investment compared to other things.

I understand that bitcoin is a open source project and anyone can work on whatever they like, but I fail to understand the real motivation/need for UTXO set pruning.

1) Is there some other reason for research behind UTXO set size other than preventing block-orphaning (large UTXO set so that it does not fit in RAM ==> longer time to validate blocks for miners ==> More orphans)?

2) Directly related to the first question, is making sure that UTXO set fits in RAM really that important for non-mining full nodes?


texts: Where is the code of chain reorganization in Bitcoin Core

texts:
I'm trying to understand how Bitcoin Core works in-depth. Can someone tell me where is the code executed during a blockchain reorganization in Bitcoin Core?

Any explanation would also be greatly appreciated.


texts: How peer discovery works after connecting to hardcoded nodes?

texts:
I am tinkering with the bitcoin source code and trying to understand the exact working of peer discovery mechanism in the testnet mode for which I have made the following changes:

Disabled the DNS seed discovery in order to force bitcoind to fallback to connect to hardcoded nodes.
Changed the default hardcoded nodes to my known 4 addresses, lets say A,B,C and D, which I ensure are always online.

Now, when I run the bitcoind client (call it E), it connects to one of A,B,C or D, running the same modified version of bitcoind. It gets the peer addresses from  the hardcoded node that it first connects to by exchanging getaddr and addr messages but I am not sure how it proceeds after that. I have following queries:

a. If a node falls back to connect to hardcoded nodes, is it supposed to connect to only one of the hardcoded nodes like it happends in my case or can it connect to multiple hardcoded nodes ?

b. After getting peer address via the addr message, when will the node E start connecting to those peers ?

Please point me to the relevant code files/sections if possible. Thanks


texts:
I have created a transaction several days ago, with a very low fee. The transaction was meant to remove dust from my wallet, so increasing the fee won't help as the transaction is very big (1.6KB), and I can't afford to spend more than a few (28 right now) satoshis per byte. Now as expected, this transaction is stuck forever.
I now want to send some of the dust somewhere else. If I understand correctly, I could just create a new transaction that uses the same (not transferred yet) bitcoins, which would then automatically invalidate the waiting transaction. How can I do this with Electrum? If I just create another transaction, it will wait for the parent to confirm.


texts: How to re-connect to `bitcoind -printtoconsole` after socket timeout?

texts:
I started bitcoind with the option -printtoconsole to check for errors and my terminal ssh connection was timed out during the night - probably because my computer was in hibernation.

I see that the process is still running under top.

Is there an option to reconnect so that it will print the output to a new ssh connected shell?


texts: bitcoind -- how can i get the number of peers to exceed eight?

texts: Presently I am running bitcoin-qt 0.5.1 on ubuntu 11.04, and am running with seventeen peers. But if I run bitcoind (still 0.5.1 on ubuntu 11.04) I can't get more than eight, no matter how long I leave it on. Why is that, and should I do anything about it?


texts: Is it safe to email an encrypted wallet to myself?

texts:
I'd like to setup an automated process to email my encrypted wallet to myself, so that if, for instance, my house burns down, I've got easy access to a recent copy of my wallet stored off-site.

I've seen this mentioned in a couple places as a method for backing up a wallet, but none of the more thorough security guides I've read mention this as either a good or bad thing to do.

So, is this a stupidly insecure thing to do, or a reasonable means of keeping a regular automated off-site backup of a wallet?


texts: Is there an easy way to give people a Bitcoin address?

texts: I see that Bitcoin addresses have built in checksums that helps prevent typos (ie. it is highly unlikely that you can mistype a Bitcoin address and have it still be valid). However, I still think the addresses are too long to easily give to someone, publish on a business card, etc. Is there any way to shorten addresses or get specific addresses?


texts:
I have two addresses in my regtest.

A address is the P2SH-P2PKH. (sender)

B address is the P2SH-P2PKH, but with OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY block height 201. (receiver)

My regtest doesen't have any block before it, Then I create some blocks (101) for A and transfer some bitcoins to B. A Wants that the UTXO is available after block with height 201 for that reason B creates this kind of script

$ bitcoin-cli decodescript 04C9000000B17576a914697c78eb51aadd3d977c1407e99baf9fe772240588AC
{
  "asm": "201 OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY OP_DROP OP_DUP OP_HASH160 697c78eb51aadd3d977c1407e99baf9fe7722405 OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG",
  "type": "nonstandard",
  "p2sh": "2N9X4FL8mg9Tc88FuHgPzBqFXa6U1etuUck",
  "segwit": {
    "asm": "0 30ff9dbf6bab02945016f39e95aa5d67e0f2e6adc7392d1066a1e171513bcb33",
    "hex": "002030ff9dbf6bab02945016f39e95aa5d67e0f2e6adc7392d1066a1e171513bcb33",
    "reqSigs": 1,
    "type": "witness_v0_scripthash",
    "addresses": [
      "bcrt1qxrlem0mt4vpfg5qk7w0ft2javls09e4dcuuj6yrx58shz5fmeves2tkaxf"
    ],
    "p2sh-segwit": "2MtXn1EgzySHEw8BQXLG8n58dxss6NGRsGU"
  }
}

B wants spend his bitcoins, it's the UTXO

[
  {
    "txid": "8cfc83e28fa520fed13a4199b72f588bf95fa84679d44b94efdff5d1f9f7812f",
    "vout": 0,
    "address": "2N9X4FL8mg9Tc88FuHgPzBqFXa6U1etuUck",
    "label": "",
    "scriptPubKey": "a914b2808972cf93673354475ece46820a2b3060978487",
    "amount": 49.99100000,
    "confirmations": 600,
    "spendable": false,
    "solvable": false,
    "safe": true
  }
]

And the current tip

$ bitcoin-cli getchaintips
[
  {
    "height": 701,
    "hash": "1967a98ea0cca367a3699d09a30d046d31ed711989bc6f1a2ae61d7ade910866",
    "branchlen": 0,
    "status": "active"
  }
]

Then B creates the transaction like this

02000000012f81f7f9d1f5dfef944bd47946a85ff98b582fb799413ad1fe20a58fe283fc8c000000008B47304402204cdc56d5be942d05edc218e40de872c9f50e78e018bbbbc9c11a05590aa54e8d02204163ce5796789fe4a7c9d1b1f0b3145ccca1eabb9489b92a4c6bc05508d5cbe6012102839f6ea8422639336f208a2cd2c199872f3e628bff39545eda72d8f71d4b45e42004C9000000B17576a914697c78eb51aadd3d977c1407e99baf9fe772240588ACfeffffff01c07aea290100000017a914d872ea0250c832eca1d7a75434db807397670ccd87C9000000

and uses C9000000 in Locktime field

{
  "txid": "d45d54d3cdae6c22f44cacfd705b2c1234658759f390d387186794240a77b16c",
  "hash": "d45d54d3cdae6c22f44cacfd705b2c1234658759f390d387186794240a77b16c",
  "version": 2,
  "size": 222,
  "vsize": 222,
  "weight": 888,
  "locktime": 201,
  "vin": [
    {
      "txid": "8cfc83e28fa520fed13a4199b72f588bf95fa84679d44b94efdff5d1f9f7812f",
      "vout": 0,
      "scriptSig": {
        "asm": "304402204cdc56d5be942d05edc218e40de872c9f50e78e018bbbbc9c11a05590aa54e8d02204163ce5796789fe4a7c9d1b1f0b3145ccca1eabb9489b92a4c6bc05508d5cbe6[ALL] 02839f6ea8422639336f208a2cd2c199872f3e628bff39545eda72d8f71d4b45e4 04c9000000b17576a914697c78eb51aadd3d977c1407e99baf9fe772240588ac",
        "hex": "47304402204cdc56d5be942d05edc218e40de872c9f50e78e018bbbbc9c11a05590aa54e8d02204163ce5796789fe4a7c9d1b1f0b3145ccca1eabb9489b92a4c6bc05508d5cbe6012102839f6ea8422639336f208a2cd2c199872f3e628bff39545eda72d8f71d4b45e42004c9000000b17576a914697c78eb51aadd3d977c1407e99baf9fe772240588ac"
      },
      "sequence": 4294967294
    }
  ],
  "vout": [
    {
      "value": 49.982,
      "n": 0,
      "scriptPubKey": {
        "asm": "OP_HASH160 d872ea0250c832eca1d7a75434db807397670ccd OP_EQUAL",
        "hex": "a914d872ea0250c832eca1d7a75434db807397670ccd87",
        "reqSigs": 1,
        "type": "scripthash",
        "addresses": [
          "2NCyhc6DkujYJE6ui1sVFCJAiSa79BDWqKv"
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

But When I try to send Transaction I get that error:

non-mandatory-script-verify-flag (unknown error) (code 64)

With help of btcdeb I can see that error "error: exception thrown: non-minimally encoded script.
number". The same logic BUT with date works.

One more question: Is it correct flow? B(receiver) creates P2SH with 201 OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY OP_DROP in order to satisfy A (sender) requirements?


texts: Various caches are defined in the Bitcoin source code. What do these caches refer to?

texts:
The source code is as follows：
//! -dbcache default (MiB)

static const int64_t nDefaultDbCache = 450;

//! -dbbatchsize default (bytes)

static const int64_t nDefaultDbBatchSize = 16 << 20;

//! max. -dbcache (MiB)

static const int64_t nMaxDbCache = sizeof(void*) > 4 ? 16384 : 1024;

//! min. -dbcache (MiB)

static const int64_t nMinDbCache = 4;

//! Max memory allocated to block tree DB specific cache, if no -txindex (MiB)

static const int64_t nMaxBlockDBCache = 2;

//! Max memory allocated to block tree DB specific cache, if -txindex (MiB)
// Unlike for the UTXO database, for the txindex scenario the leveldb cache make
// a meaningful difference: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/8273#issuecomment-229601991

static const int64_t nMaxTxIndexCache = 1024;

//! Max memory allocated to all block filter index caches combined in MiB.

static const int64_t max_filter_index_cache = 1024;

//! Max memory allocated to coin DB specific cache (MiB)

static const int64_t nMaxCoinsDBCache = 8;

I have 5 questions.

What do these caches represent?
What is the relationship between UTXO cache and these caches?
What is the relationship between levelDB's own cache and UTXO cache?
What is the current UTXO cache size?
What does the memtable in levelDB correspond to in the Bitcoin system?


texts: I just started using the neon wallet and everything was going fine. But after I closed it and tried to open it and login again with my key and passphrase it will go on to decrypt my key forever. What should I do?


texts: Is mining hardware particular to specific mining algorithm(s)?

texts:
In particular, I was pool-mining with scrypt algorithm, using my GPU (was not bitcoin, but another coin named gamecredits, at gmc.acidpool.com).

I would like to purchase cheap mining hawdware (which would be useless with bitcoin but perhaps good with relatively "new" coins). Should I care whether a hardware supports "scrypt" in this case? Or does hardware care about a more "primitive" level without caring about the algorithm?


texts: bitcoind getmininginfo says hashespersec is 0

texts:
I started mining yesterday on a low-end system, trying to figure out how it works.
I used the bincoind build from Debian. When I try
bitcoind getmininginfo today, I get the following output.

{
    "blocks" : 208085,
    "currentblocksize" : 0,
    "currentblocktx" : 0,
    "difficulty" : 3368767.14053294,
    "errors" : "",
    "generate" : true,
    "genproclimit" : -1,
    "hashespersec" : 0,
    "pooledtx" : 69,
    "testnet" : false
}

It looks like hashes per sec is 0. Shouldn't that be some positive number?
Am I doing something wrong?


texts:
I was thinking of hosting my own node. I have a fast Amazon AWS server, however not enough storage to host a full node. What I was thinking, is to host a full node on the AWS client, but get it to store and write to a blockchain on a different database server, where storage is cheaper.

Is this possible? Or is this not classified as a full node?


texts: How confirm my own doublespend transaction got confirmed

texts:
Transactions in the testnet are right now almost always double spent with a new txid (possible due to tx malleability). This is actually quite nice for testing purposes.

So I'm wondering - when I did a payment and have txId 'XXX' this payment sometimes gets confirmed with a new txId 'YYY' that I don't know of. How can I (using bitcoind json-rpc) find out that my payment with txId 'XXX' got confirmed?


texts: bitcoin chainstate database parsing in python giving wrong value

texts:
I am trying to decode chainstate db for a specific out index for a transaction in python just for learning.
Transaction ID: 4d4a4c6ca4f3c91e69563199943336d3279fad71c9e8d9c1708ef9dc6ac16000
out index = 1822

chainstate_db = plyvel.DB(os.path.join(os.getenv('HOME'),".bitcoin/chainstate"), compression=None)
def getObfuscationKey():
    value = chainstate_db.get(b'\x0e\x00' + b'obfuscate_key')
    print('obfuscation key = %s' % value)
    obfuscation_key = value[1:]
    return obfuscation_key

def applyObfuscationKey(data: bytes):
    obfuscation_key = getObfuscationKey()
    new_val = bytes(data[index] ^ obfuscation_key[index % len(obfuscation_key)] for index in range(len(data)))
    return new_val

def b128_varint_decode(value: bytes, pos = 0):
    n = 0
    while True:
        data = value[pos]
        pos += 1
        n = (n << 7) | (data & 0x7f) # 1111111
        if data & 0x80 == 0:
            return (n, pos)
        n += 1

def txout_decompress(x):
    # x = 0  OR  x = 1+10*(9*n + d - 1) + e  OR  x = 1+10*(n - 1) + 9
    if x == 0:
        return 0
    x -=1
    # x = 10*(9*n + d - 1) + e
    e = x % 10
    x /= 10
    n = 0
    if e < 9:
        # x = 9*n + d - 1
        d = (x % 9) + 1
        x /= 9
        # x = n
        n = x*10 + d
    else:
        n = x+1
    while e:
        n *= 10
        e -= 1
    return n
...
def getChainstateData(txn_hash_big_endian: bytes, out_index: int):
    key = b'C' + txn_hash_big_endian + b128_varint_encode(out_index)
    value = chainstate_db.get(key)
    value = applyObfuscationKey(value)
    code, pos = b128_varint_decode(value)
    height = code >> 1
    coinbase = code & 0x01
    print('height = %d, coinbase = %r' % (height, coinbase))
    decoded_varint_amount, pos = b128_varint_decode(value, pos)
    amount = txout_decompress(decoded_varint_amount)
    print('amount = %d' % amount)
if __name__ == '__main__':
    getChainstateData(binascii.unhexlify('0060c16adcf98e70c1d9e8c971ad9f27d3363394993156691ec9f3a46c4c4a4d'), 1822)

I get below result:
    height = 355833, coinbase = 0
    amount = 12353

When I do getrawtransaction in bitcoin core daemon I get amount as 12200.

./bitcoin-cli getrawtransaction 4d4a4c6ca4f3c91e69563199943336d3279fad71c9e8d9c1708ef9dc6ac16000 true

For out index 1822 I get:

{
      "value": 0.00012200,
      "n": 1822,
      "scriptPubKey": {
        "asm": "OP_DUP OP_HASH160 c40c4870c3874cafb3385dca3731d637ac51110d OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG",
        "hex": "76a914c40c4870c3874cafb3385dca3731d637ac51110d88ac",
        "reqSigs": 1,
        "type": "pubkeyhash",
        "addresses": [
          "1JscA3193KByPvFv4X6nNEV2SGjdXVcVq6"
        ]
      }
    },

So there must be problem with code which I am not able to figure out. I think problem is in

  txout_decompress(x)

method. But this is strange because I have directly used method in bitcoin core

  uint64_t DecompressAmount(uint64_t x)

in

  src/compressor.cpp

after converting this to python.
Please help me solve this issue.


texts: Is Ethereum essentially Bitcoin with Turing-complete Script?

texts:
Is Ethereum essentially Bitcoin with a Turing-complete scripting language and, if I understand correctly, where the script to be executed (not its hash) is placed in the Ethereum blockchain?

If so, why doesn't Ethereum just put hashes of its scripts in the Bitcoin blockchain, send the scripts to be executed through another secure means such as via a P2P network (which would greatly reduce blockchain bloat), and avoid being an altcoin altogether?
If not, is the gas limit the real distinguishing feature of Ethereum compared to Bitcoin? Or is gas really Ethereum's equivalent of Bitcoin's transaction fees? Also, would Ethereum's adoption of proof-of-stake further differentiate Ethereum from Bitcon?

cf. Ethereum's white paper
(cf. the related BitcoinTalk.org thread)


texts: How do I fetch the price data from CoinGecko?

texts:
I don't understand their API: https://www.coingecko.com/en/api

It says:

  /simple/price    Get the current price of any cryptocurrencies in any
  other supported currencies that you need.

But then you click it and it doesn't spit out any JSON at all. Instead, it shows a number of id fields and other things. I can't make it open the actual URL for displaying the Bitcoin price.


texts: How two transactions with the same hash can cause double-spending

texts:
Let's consider following situation:

Vendor owns address X.
Adversary sends transaction T1 to X with hash Y and receives product from vendor.
Adversary sends transaction T2 to address which he owns with the same hash Y to other nodes.
Vendor receives transaction T2 with same hash as T1, so from his point of view this is the same transaction. He ignores it.
Other nodes receives transaction T1 after T2 so they ignores T1.
Transaction T2 was sent to majority, so probability that T2 will be included in next block is higher than probability of inlcuding T1.
According to probabilty, the transaction T2 was included in next block.

Is this scenario of double-spend correct?


texts: What is the most suitable time interval to analyze data

texts:
I'm statistically analyzing the bitcoin prices. We have the ability to analyze them based on hourly, daily, monthly etc. So based on the requirement it is possible to select the period. Consider if we are looking at all hourly prices or longer intervals (i.e. daily or weekly prices) What is the most suitable time interval to select ? (hourly or longer).

Also, please let me know whether the analysis should be done on the prices or on the relative returns or the log-returns? Please explain


texts: How nodes solve cryptographic hash by random guesses in bitcoin network

texts:
I searched for a lot. Previous answers on the bitcoin stack exchange did not answer my question.
Well, According to my research, Any node can collect a set up unconfirmed transactions into a block and broadcast to the rest of the network as a suggestion for what the next block in the chain should be, by solving the cryptographic hash by random guesses. Moreover, the hash function creates something like a 32byte number might be using SHA256. So, I want to know who creates random numbers? and how nodes do guessing?
Please let me know if my concept is wrong. I will appreciate your guidance. Thanks


texts: Bitcoin compilation error: conflicting declaration

texts:
I'm trying to compile the Bitcoin source (1) on Ubuntu and I get:

In file included from bench/data.cpp:10:0:
./bench/data/block413567.raw.h:1:40: error: conflicting declaration ‘const unsigned char benchmark::data::block413567 []’
 static unsigned const char block413567[] = {
                                        ^
In file included from bench/data.cpp:5:0:
./bench/data.h:14:35: note: previous declaration as ‘const std::vector<unsigned char> benchmark::data::block413567’
 extern const std::vector<uint8_t> block413567;
                                   ^~~~~~~~~~~
...
/usr/include/c++/7/bits/stl_vector.h:270:7: note:   candidate expects 1 argument, 2 provided
/usr/include/c++/7/bits/stl_vector.h:259:7: note: candidate: std::vector<_Tp, _Alloc>::vector() [with _Tp = unsigned char; _Alloc = std::allocator<unsigned char>]
       vector()
       ^~~~~~
/usr/include/c++/7/bits/stl_vector.h:259:7: note:   candidate expects 0 arguments, 2 provided
Makefile:10306: recipe for target 'bench/bench_bench_bitcoin-data.o' failed
make[2]: *** [bench/bench_bench_bitcoin-data.o] Error 1

Internet searches aren't giving me very actionable clues.

master latest 3489b715120b1bf7559fbddf03cd87b889fdca47


texts: Does Mimble Wimble automatically perform transaction cut-through, or is one able to retain a record of every single transaction (the entire blockchain) if they choose to?


texts: How to access Electrum remotely via the rest api?

texts:
I am able to execute calls on the server from the server. When I say calls, I mean like this. I.e. I can get the latest addresses doing something like this:

$ch = curl_init();

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "http://127.0.0.1:7777");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "{\"id\":\"curltext\",\"method\":\"listaddresses\"}");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);

$headers = array();
$headers[] = "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);

$result = curl_exec($ch);
if (curl_errno($ch)) {
    echo 'Error:' . curl_error($ch);
}
curl_close ($ch);
print '<pre>';
print_r($result);

The problem is, I don't want to have to execute this on the server. I was hoping there would be a secure way to execute this remotely.

Can someone please tell me if this is possible? I tried opening port 7777, but still can't access it. Is it perhaps on purpose? As I can imagine this being a security problem.

Thanks!


texts: is it possible to decode block height from a blockhash?

texts: I'm creating a bitcoin network client and I'm wondering if it's possible to decode the block height from a blockhash whenever I receive a new block inventory vector.


texts: Can somebody explain this privacy concern with Bitcoin once and for all?

texts:
I have a wallet.dat in Bitcoin Core. I generate a new receive address. I give it to some random person who knows my identity. They send me 1 satoshi to that address. How exactly can they then "know my Bitcoin balance and exactly who I do business with"?

I have a wallet.dat in Bitcoin Core. Somebody gives me a Bitcoin receive address which I know nothing about. It could be fresh or reused. I send 1 satoshi to that address. How exactly can they then "know my Bitcoin balance and exactly who I do business with"?

In both cases, I'm not interested in what I can do to their privacy, but only what they can do to me.
I just don't get how either of those scenarios would make them know anything about me or learn my Bitcoin balance.
I've tried to ask this question regularly (in numerous variations) for a decade now. Not once have I got a satisfying or conclusive answer.
The reason I again ask is that I just watched a video where, once again, a Bitcoin expert said that this is how it works. Yet it doesn't add up to me, which probably means that I still don't understand Bitcoin.
I would highly appreciate a clear and unambiguous answer! Always in the past, I come away from this kind of discussion with more questions than before...


texts: Why do some transactions take minutes and others take hours?

texts:
I sent some bitcoins to an address and then looked on blockexplorer and it was there in about 10 minutes, which is what one should expect.

I did another send to a previously unused address and it took hours for the network to acknowledge it.

I contacted the help desk at Mt Gox and they said this happens fairly often.  My question:  Is this a known phenomena and if so what causes it?


texts: Cgminer not working with AMD APP SDK 2.8

texts:
Before I install AMD APP SDK 2.8, I get this error from cgminer 3.7.2:

  [2014-01-06 22:44:56] Error -1001: clGetPlatformsIDs failed (no OpenCL SDK installed?)
  [2014-01-06 22:44:56] clDevicesNum returned error, no GPUs usable
  [2014-01-06 22:44:58] No devices detected!

After I install APP SDK 2.8, I get this window:

  cgminer.exe has stopped working

My graphics card is ATI Radeon HD 545v. I have tried both Catalyst 13.4 and 12.10. The software versions are all 64 bit (except miners).

After installing SDK 2.8, guiminer exits when I run it. Before installation it shows a window:

  No OpenCL devices were found.
  If you only want to mine using CPU or CUDA, you can ignore this message.
  If you want to mine on ATI graphics cards, you may need to install the ATI Stream SDK, or your GPU may not support OpenCL.

Question: How do I get to mining?


texts:
I was making a multisig account with 3 of my Bitcoin addresses. The multisig account needs 2 of 3 private key to spend the Bitcoins in there. Then, I came up with an idea that nobody on the internet (at least, nobody on the first page on google) had tried or thought about.

Can I use BIP38 encryption on the private keys (in multisig)?


texts: Is there any way to tell if an address has been created on an exchange? (e.g., Coinbase)

texts:
I am wondering if there is any way to check that a bitcoin address was created on an exchange.

For example, if I want to only interact with (send BTC to) people that have verified their identity (like on Coinbase), is there any way to check that their address is connected to a Coinbase account?

Thanks.


texts: Viability of Bitcoin due to transaction fee?

texts:
I've been thinking about this for quite some time, and spent some time searching for information online, but haven't really found good answers.

The transaction fees of crypto currencies are relatively low for large transfers, but high for small transfers. As the price of bitcoin rises, the transaction cost also rises. Won't this cause issues in the long run for normal day-to-day use of Bitcoin, resulting in it only being used for (fairly) large transfers or money?

According to https://bitcoinfees.21.co/:

  The fastest and cheapest transaction fee is currently 360 satoshis/byte, shown in green at the top.
  For the median transaction size of 226 bytes, this results in a fee of 81,360 satoshis.

Currently, that price translates to EUR 2.07001 or USD 2.31862, according to https://www.xe.com. If you're sending e.g. 1000 EUR, then that amount is fine, but if you're sending 10 EUR (I'm imagining a Bitcoin ATM), the transaction fees will be way to high.

To me it seems these fees will be a huge impediment on the acceptance of the currency by "civilians"?


texts: More Input-Values than necessary. How and why is this possible? No it is not the fees!

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The TXID I am talking about: 21179a8560a0a0906f0c3396af338f74528130d46b65b7f0c79c378d343b3177

blockchain.com link: https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/21179a8560a0a0906f0c3396af338f74528130d46b65b7f0c79c378d343b3177

3JZq4atUahhuA9rLhXLMhhTo133J9rF97j is a known Exchange-Address.

Within above listed transaction there are multiple output-transactions which this address has received referenced as input-transaction to pay 1Kr6QSydW9bFQG1mXiPNNu6WpJGmUa9i1g.

In the above transaction, the source address 3JZq4a.. issues 7 previously received transactions to pay the target address 1Kr6QSy... with 2000 BTC, the rest goes back to its Change address.

My question now is why 7 transactions are "consumed" for this, when it would have worked with a fraction of the transactions.
For example the 7793.90573 BTC transaction.

My first assumption was that this is somehow chronologically handled by the wallet, but even if that were the case, according to the listing in the blockchain explorer after the first 4 referenced transactions used as input, the sum would be sufficient.

131,37735 BTC

1687,1255 BTC

157,79525 BTC

395,876 BTC

Are the first Transactions consumed and the result already exceeds 2k BTC.

I am thankful for any help and ideas!


texts: How do I explain Schnorr signatures and signature aggregation to 7 year old cousin?

texts:
How do I explain Schnorr signatures and signature aggregation to my 7 year old cousin?

Nathan Aw


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I am trying to understand all security regarding blockchain and bitcoins.

Let's say you have a bitcoin wallet which is secured, only you know the private key. This bitcoin address was created on one of the bitcoins wallet provided by bitcoin.org
What if a person has your private key? I know it's difficult but let's say he knows the 54 letters private key from hacking a database. How can that person interact with your wallet?
Does he have to know which wallet you use as well or can he use just the private key to 'log in'?


texts: Question about identical txids/merkle tree in Developer guide

texts:
I am new to the technical details about Bitcoin and has been reading Developer guide on bitcoin.org.  I have a question about below contents mentioning merkle tree, identical txids.

I googled and searched here but seemed to be no answer.

  Note: If identical txids are found within the same block, there is a possibility that the merkle tree may collide with a block with some or all duplicates removed due to how unbalanced merkle trees are implemented (duplicating the lone hash). Since it is impractical to have separate transactions with identical txids, this does not impose a burden on honest software, but must be checked if the invalid status of a block is to be cached; otherwise, a valid block with the duplicates eliminated could have the same merkle root and block hash, but be rejected by the cached invalid outcome, resulting in security bugs such as CVE-2012-2459.

I don't quite understand above contents. How would a merkle tree collide with a block? What do "collide" and “eliminate duplicates" mean ?   identical txids either mean same transactions or duplicate txid in order to generate a merkle root. What does "cache the invalid status of a block" stand for ?  How would this be rejected by the cached invalid outcome?

I would appreciate it if you could help me understand. Thanks!


texts: How to parse transaction script to address the correct way?

texts:
i am currently parsing blockchain transaction data from the raw hex blk00000.dat files downloaded by Bitcoin core. In order to validate, i compare my results with blockchain.info from time to time.

While the major part of my parsing is already correct, i came accross a problem with the conversion of the output script to the corresponding address.

Many of the addresses are already correctly parsed, as well, however there are some exceptions where the results are not the same as listed on blockchain.info. In my mind, it seems to be a problem with the transaction type. Apparently, for a transaction different from P2PKH, the output script will look differently, such that i cannot run the script through the same function that converts to the address all the time.

I think to have figured out that the public keys in P2PKH-transactions scripts begin with 76 all the time, is that enough to determine the type as P2PKH?

Furthermore, i came across some few transactions that begin with 4104 and end with ac. For those ones, I have to use a different function to convert to the address, then it works.

Lastly, i wanted to ask, what other transaction types i could come across? I need to parse every transaction script to an address 100% correctly, thus i need to cover all possible cases.

When searching on the web for pre-written code, i found many partly useful, but also false or maybe old snippets.
What i am searching for is a general function that i can parse the output script (or the complete raw transaction string) to and that delivers the output addresses and values of BTC / Satoshi sent to these.

Of course, if you can recommend an overall python parser for the rawtx hex strings from the .dat-files, i would be also glad :)
The main info i need for each transaction:
- the hash of the corresponding block
- transaction time (block time)
- number of inputs and outputs
- inputs [(block index (vout), txid), (...)]
- outputs [(value, address), (...)]
- the overall transaction hash

Thank you.


texts: Are there Bitcoin addresses with an odd number of transactions?

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When I explore the blockchain on blockchain.info, all Bitcoin addresses seem to have an even number of transactions, e.g. 16Zugc8aq9sPkxBYXyYGqJHTizRzT5wTQg has 16 transactions.
I have looked at a lot of other addresses, too, but couldn't find any with an odd number of transactions.

Can anyone show me a Bitcoin address with an odd number of transactions?


texts: Sent money from Bitcoin Core to mobile Electrum and for 3 days can`t recieve it

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3 days ago I made transaction from my Bitcoin Core to my mobile Electrum but I didn't receive any money yet. I can't see this transaction in Electrum and on Blockain,Tradeblock either, however, Bitcoin Core shows that the money are sent. Usually I can see my transactions in Blockchain and Electrum but that doesn`t work with that transaction at all. There is definitely a problem with the app Bitcoin Core.
Who knows how I can receive money?


texts: gettransaction cannot get address where it send from

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Hi i have test few time with gettransaction method, it seem only show full detail about transaction when send inside node.

But if i send from another address outside my node, gettransaction only show transaction detail of receive address.

How i can get full detail for both ways even that address not come from my node


texts: Where are my coins after restart of blockchain and transactions (Multibit)

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One of my transactions didn't get confirmed. So I followed this: http://multibit.org/help_resetBlockchain.html

But now my coins are gone :-S where can I find them?


texts: Why are there regulations when buying/selling with USD

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I'm looking to learn about bitcoin regulations by studying the history of bitcoin. Bitcoin went from being an unknown thing to buy and sell to being heavily regulated. If I back track and look at it historically I think I'll better understand. So I have two simple questions up for open ended answer;

A. Who places and enforces the regulations between BTC and USD?

B. Compared to the gold market is bitcoin less or more regulated and why?


texts: Will buy and sell offers from one trader be matched with each other?

texts: If one user made a buy and a sell order at the same time, would they be matched with each other or remain pending?


texts: Procedure for Deriving Payment Addresses

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I'm trying to understand the HD wallet payment derivation procedure, so assume:

Ownership of a Bitcoin HD Wallet on an external smart device
Exported account level extended public key (xpub....) from the first account.
Derivation Path "m/44'/0'/0'/0/0"

What is the step-by-step procedure that one would use to derive a valid bitcoin payment address that can be confirmed with the external wallet?

The process, according to BIP32 - Child key derivation (CKD) functions, seems simple and straight-forward enough that it should be able to be written as a single function in any programming language with two processes: Base58 and HMAC-SHA512, which are such standard functions that I don't believe that it's necessary to install a platform tool and a bloated spaghetti code library to perform the derivation.

UPDATE 20190718:

Here's what I've been able to cobble together from various sources. PHP code and reference source for the derivation process:

<?php

  // https://iancoleman.io/bip39/ - Downloaded and used offline.
  // Bip39 Test Mnemonic: abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon about

 $Pub = "xpub6BosfCnifzxcFwrSzQiqu2DBVTshkCXacvNsWGYJVVhhawA7d4R5WSWGFNbi8Aw6ZRc1brxMyWMzG3DSSSSoekkudhUd9yLb6qx39T9nMdj";

 $Index = "00000000";

 $ExtPubKey = bin2hex(base58_decode($Pub));

 $Type = substr($ExtPubKey,0,8);

 $Depth = substr($ExtPubKey,8,2);

 $Fingerprint = substr($ExtPubKey,10,8);

 $Account = substr($ExtPubKey,18,8);

 $ParentChainCode = substr($ExtPubKey,26,64);

 $ParentPublicKey = substr($ExtPubKey,90,66);

 $PubChecksum = substr($ExtPubKey,-8);

 $PublicKey = hash_hmac('sha512',$ParentChainCode,$ParentPublicKey.$Index);

 $PublicKey = "04".$PublicKey;

 $PublicKeyHash = hash('ripemd160',hash('sha256',$PublicKey,False));

 $BaseAddress = "00".$PublicKeyHash;

 $PreChecksum = hash('sha256',hash('sha256',$BaseAddress));

 $Checksum = substr($PreChecksum,0,8);

 $Address = $BaseAddress.$Checksum;

 $PaymentAddress = base58_encode(hex2bin($Address));

 echo "Payment Address: $PaymentAddress\n";

?>

I'm using xpub to prove that the procedure works. Ultimately would like to be able to derive for ypub and zpub.

It seems like I'm just missing something important, like maybe variable typing, maybe binary something...I'm at a loss.

I've been told by Andreas that there's something about adding two numbers together, but I'm not finding the reference to it.

One source referenced something about elliptic curve and a mystical variable "G" but with no explanation.

According to BIP32, this process is supposed to be really easy.

Any assistance would be appreciated. TIA.


texts: What forums or websites have an active bitcoin section?

texts: Which websites have active bitcoin communities with discussion that is going on?


texts: How can I watch all addresses under HD wallet?

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Is there any way to watch all addresses under HD wallet?

I'd like to notify users when any of addresses in a HD wallet receive BTC.

It looks like bitcoind (walletnotify) doesn't support HD wallet. You have to add many addresses into a wallet to watch them.
blockchain.info xpub API? (I'm not sure how the API can handle it.)

It seems there is no web service for watch-only HD wallet. Is there any web-service to watch(only) HD Wallet BIP32? : Bitcoin


texts: What happens when the same wallet (private key) is used on several machines?

texts:
Let's say I copy my wallet to another computer and start using it there. What happens? Can both computers send and receive payments to the same address(es) in the wallet?

A different scenario with the same results: someone steals my computer and starts using my wallet. I have a backup and start using that. Can we do it?


texts: How to accept USDT payments the right way?

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We are developing an e-commerce solution and consider USDT to accept payments.

At the moment as I understand we can generate many addresses (1 per transaction) with BIP32 spec approach. Based on Omni spec seems we will have to send money from each address to some another address (say master wallet) in order to be able to withdraw or act with the received amount in full.

While Bitcoin blockchain allows generating transaction with multiple inputs (so we can send 1 tx from many inputs) to one or more outputs this is not supported in Omni.

So the question is how to do it the right way? Sending from one address to another address will take fee in BTC producing additional costs (like 1M transactions mean 1M address X fee).


texts: how can I recover my private key from my passphrase and password

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I decided recently to get some BTC and bitcoin core was the storage solution I decided on.

I downloaded the software, and all seemed good. No messages about storage or such.

Around a month later I purchased BTC from an atm and sent it to the Core address.

Upon returning home, I found it was "out of sync". I literally wiped everything off my 250gb Mac in order to accommodate it. Still nothing.

I attempted to reduce the cache size, however Core told me I should reset, and so I did. However, this too didn't help.

I am trying to find how I can recover my private key from my passphrase and password.


texts: What is the maximum size for SegWit transactions?

texts:
Before SegWit was activated, transactions were limited to 100,000 bytes or 100 kB. Bigger transactions were non-standard.

What is the limit for transaction size after the activation of SegWit?

Is the virtual size limited to 100,000 vbytes?
Is the raw size limited to 100,000 bytes?
Is there a new limit altogether?


texts: What are the pros and cons of Ripple's consensus as compared with Bitcoin's proof-of-work?

texts:
One of the major differences between Bitcoin and Ripple is how they process transactions. I can think of three ways in which Ripple's "consensus" scheme is superior to Bitcoin's proof-of-work:

Less energy-intensive
No 51% attack
Faster transactions

What are the other pros and cons of Ripple's consensus as compared with Bitcoin's proof-of-work?


texts: How is 10% transaction fee possible for a bitcoin transfer from coinbase to another exchange?

texts:
I moved 0.01BTC from coinbase to another exchange and i got charged 0.001BTC for it. This is 10%!!. I understand concept of dynamic pricing depending on network crowding etc. However, how is 10% fee possible when many websites show that median transaction fee is still around 0.2-0.4%. Is it due a small size that i used (0.01BTC) in transfer. Is there anything i can do to avoid such high and conform with median?

Also, is there a way to avoid such high transfer fee on coinbase?


texts: Get non-wallet transactions using bitcoin rpc (gettransaction)

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I am playing around with Bitcoin-qt. I want to iterate all blocks and all their transactions.

So far I've been able to get a list of all tx's in the blocks I want to. Now I want to get information about the transaction: Amount, confirmations and so forth.

However, when I use the gettransaction method of the Bitcoin-qt API, it seems I can only get transactions from my own wallet.

For instance, I cannot say, because I get the error "Invalid or non-wallet transaction id (code -5) ":

gettransaction 0e3e2357e806b6cdb1f70b54c3a3a17b6714ee1f0e68bebb44a74b1efd512098

However, when I have a TX of one of my own transactions, I get a correct response.

My code

public void AddBtcTransaction(string hash)
        {
            List<string> parameters = new List<string>();
            parameters.Add(hash);

            var data = RequestServer("gettransaction", parameters);
            int i = 0;
        }

        public string RequestServer(string methodName, List<string> parameters)
        {
            string respVal = string.Empty;

            var rawRequest = GetRawRequest();
            JObject joe = new JObject();
            joe.Add(new JProperty("jsonrpc", "1.0"));
            joe.Add(new JProperty("id", "1"));
            joe.Add(new JProperty("method", methodName));

            JArray props = new JArray();
            foreach (var parameter in parameters)
            {
                props.Add(parameter);
            }

            joe.Add(new JProperty("params", props));

            // serialize json for the request
            string s = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(joe);
            byte[] byteArray = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(s);
            rawRequest.ContentLength = byteArray.Length;
            Stream dataStream = rawRequest.GetRequestStream();
            dataStream.Write(byteArray, 0, byteArray.Length);
            dataStream.Close();

            StreamReader streamReader = null;
            try
            {
                WebResponse webResponse = rawRequest.GetResponse();

                streamReader = new StreamReader(webResponse.GetResponseStream(), true);

                respVal = streamReader.ReadToEnd();
                var data = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(respVal).ToString();
                return data;
            }
            catch (Exception exp)
            {

            }
            finally
            {
                if (streamReader != null)
                {
                    streamReader.Close();
                }

            }
            return string.Empty;
        }

        private HttpWebRequest GetRawRequest()
        {

            HttpWebRequest webRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(ServerIp);
            webRequest.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(UserName, Password);
            /// important, otherwise the service can't desirialse your request properly
            webRequest.ContentType = "application/json-rpc";
            webRequest.Method = "POST";

            return webRequest;
        }

Any idea about how I would get information about transactions outside my wallet?


texts: Is there a comparison between different blockchain.info's wallets?

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Blockchain.info has different ways to access their wallet, and I'd like to read a comparison of these different apps, especially concerning their security.

I am mostly interested in a comparison between the Chrome app and the OSX app. There also are an Android app, an iOS app a Firefox app, not sure if there is something else too (likely something for Windows exists). There is of course the possibility to directly use the website too, but I assume this is almost always less secure than the rest, so there's not much point considering it (unless I'm mistaken).


texts:
I'm writing a Stellar application. I'm looking to use the API provided by stellard without running a copy of it myself.

Is there a public API server for Stellar?


texts: Can someone explain what is a mining RPC?

texts:
I just read about this update.

What does a mining RPC mean and stand for?


texts:
"Mastering Bitcoin" by Antonopoulos in its P2SH section describes how the unlocking and locking scripts are executed and evaluated by nodes. The author gives this as example of an unlocking script:

<Sig1> <Sig2> <redeem-script>

and the locking script:

HASH160 <20-byte hash of redeem script> EQUAL

Then there's this:

  The two scripts are combined in two stages. First, the redeem script is checked against the locking script to make sure the hash matches: [...]

Questions

Does that mean that not all validations follow just plain "concatenate unlocking and locking script and execute' method of validation? As a beginner I'd expect that for uniformity and security all transactions should follow this same uniform rule.  Based on the quote, it looks like the P2SH (or possibly other types) scripts are evaluated in a different manner?
If the answer is yes, how does the Bitcoin node know which type of unlocking/locking script type should be applied for each particular transaction?
Also, if the answer is yes, are there other deviations from the plain "concatenate and execute" rule?
Say there's a very old legacy node that's not P2SH enabled. The transaction above would still evaluate to true (if the provided redeem script is right) as the stack would have   a TRUE on top at the end of execution?


texts: How do the JavaScript SecureRandom() vulnerabilities affect me?

texts:
A recent post on the Bitcoin-dev mailing list talks about multiple vulnerabilities in JavaScript SecureRandom() class. Apparently this class has been used in multiple cryptocurrency wallets that use JavaScript to generate private keys.

What products are affected by these vulnerabilities? As a user of these products, what should I do to make myself no longer vulnerable?


texts: Sync bitcoin transaction status to local database

texts:
I am sending bitcoin transaction in node js via bitcore-lib and bitcore-explorers.

I realized that when i call the function .broadcast to send the transaction to network and returns value, it means that the transaction is broadcasted but not completed.

What I want to ensure that when the transaction is in bitcoin network , I will need to write the status into local database (pending, success or fail).

I am thinking of looping and keep calling the transaction detail by txid until it is completed only it write to database. But thinking that bitcoin network transaction will take up to 30 minutes it might not be a good approach because the node server might take up a lot of resources in keep querying the transaction detail.

Any idea on what's the best practice to ensure that local database transaction detail and status in sync with the bitcoin network?

And what function should i use to get transaction detail? I seems to not able to find query of transaction detail in bitcore library.


texts: When commit_fee (fee_per_kw) renegotiation?

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Looking at my channels on lnd node, fee_per_kw values are different for some channels (13332 or 6422).

How is the fee_per_kw calculated when opening the channel? Does it take current bitcoin fees estimation at some threshold?
When should it recalculate (is it automatic?)
Is there a manual way of setting the custom fee_per_kw parameter?
Is there a manual way of triggering recalculation?

(I'd love some read materials on this topic as well if available).


texts:
i have cloned litecoin wallet and edit it connect to the network we have created. I disabled checkoints, changed params and the block syncs for 32 blocks. Then i get the following error

05-26 13:07:41.876  7339  7381 W Peercom.google.bitcoin.core.VerificationException: Could not verify block a2ba184558d58648ecedCaused by: com.google.bitcoin.core.VerificationException: Unexpected change in difficulty at height 31: 1e0fd5e6 vs 1e10024c

Any ideas? The interval is indeed 16 blocks. Thanks!


texts: Why do we need SegWit (technical explanation)

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After reading a lot of articles, whitepapers and videos I am still confused why do we need SegWit an Lightning instead of just bigger blocks. I don‘t want to debate Bitcoin vs Bitcoin Cash but what are the technical arguments? For a non-involved Bitcoin developer the debate is just crazy and both sides have their pros and cons but there must be technical arguments or not..?

DISCLAIMER: I do not have Bitcoin Cash but Bitcoin


texts: Is there any evidence that the Litecoin network is significantly affected by botnet mining?

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Litecoin uses a hashing algorithm that, so far, is best run on CPUs rather than GPUs.

Because most computers are not purchased for gaming and don't have powerful GPUs (which would have been useful for Bitcoin mining, at least until ASICs arrived on the scene), it would probably be far more profitable for a botnet to mine litecoins than bitcoins.

At the current Litecoin/Bitcoin exchange rate, the total litecoin network generates 216BTC worth of litecoins per day in block rewards (the Bitcoin network provides 3600BTC/day), which provides a substantial profit incentive to someone running a botnet.

Is there any evidence that botnets are responsible for a substantial amount of litecoin mining? Could this be detected?

Is there any known malware that mines Litecoin?


texts: Used salvagewalllet, now it shows zero balance

texts: I used the salvage wallet command in bitcoin. Now the new and old wallet files both say zero balance. Can anybody help me understand what`s going on?


texts: Regtest createmultisig Error: Invalid public Key?

texts:
As shown below, I generated 3 new addresses (Legacy I believe) in RegTest. I then try to create a multsig address from exactly these 3 addresses. What am I doing wrong, or is this unavailable in Regtest?

'''$ bitcoin-cli getnewaddress
2NFjbToRhpR2Lrx3VyP8rZ86XhZhofqWHBk

$ bitcoin-cli getnewaddress
2NAqXJMEFzEbhNyy9xRiHHcwWNCyFddFfXH

$ bitcoin-cli getnewaddress
2NEyDQfb85jRExQUnj4wC7fkFh5T1rt5zFk

$ bitcoin-cli createmultisig 2 "[\"2NFjbToRhpR2Lrx3VyP8rZ86XhZhofqWHBk\", \"2NAqXJMEFzEbhNyy9xRiHHcwWNCyFddFfXH\",\"2NEyDQfb85jRExQUnj4wC7fkFh5T1rt5zFk\"]"

error code: -5

error message:
Invalid public key: 2NFjbToRhpR2Lrx3VyP8rZ86XhZhofqWHBk
.'''


texts:
I spent last weekend learning all about Bitcoin and am excited to use them to purchase some web-based services. But alas I'm stumbling on the most fundamental part: how do I buy them?

I paid cash for a pre-paid VISA this morning, bound that card to a PayPal account, and was psych'd to start buying coins, but was bummed to discover that:

(1) PayPal wants to charge me a $14 fee to transfer $500 to a seller (rip off!)

(2) No seller wants to use PayPal because the buyer has the ability to nix the payment retroactively using a "charge back" (strange that they'd allow people to do this, but ok)

(3) This forum indicates that #1 and #2 are moot anyway because PayPal's terms of service don't allow for BTC purchases.

Yeah, I blew it. But what are my alternatives? I could use a bank account via an online exchange but that requires a lot of legal documentation and philosophically flies in the face of the whole "anonymity" feature of Bitcoin.

A lot of people are doing face to face transactions via a localized transaction match-making service. Is this really the way to go? Seems like that would make sense if you were transacting $50-$100 but what if you wanted to do $5k-$10k? I'm not Walter White. I don't have fat stacks of cash laying around. :)

What other alternatives do I have to purchase bitcoins?


texts: What is the recommended OS for compiling a Windows binary for Litecoin?

texts:
I'd like to compile Litecoin for Windows, but have difficulties doing so. To be specific: I want to create the Windows executable (.exe) GUI (qt) Litecoin client (to be more specific I want to compile the executable for an alt-coin based on litecoin, but the code base is the same as litecoin).

Many tutorials are either focused on compiling for Linux, or they focus on Bitcoin compiling, which is a bit different nowadays than Litecoin. Rather than explaining my specific problems, which are likely unique to my situation, I was wondering what a recommended Operating System (and version) is to compile Litecoin? Who has specific (preferably smooth) experience building the GUI litecoin client for Windows?

A useful relevant topic is this one:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=149479.0

But this is based on bitcoin, not litecoin. This referenced tutorial has a bit on Windows, but it's not too optimistic:

  Windows -Qt

  This is the trickiest one to crack of the GUI wallets. I am going to
  detail how I got this to work and offer you an easy way to get the
  dependencies in an attempt to make this work for you too. That said,
  it may not–and I’ve already said I won’t do tech support. So here’s
  the deal. I got this to work and then duplicated it on a second
  machine to ensure it wasn’t a fluke! Most of the information needed to
  compile the basic coind.exe or GUI wallet is in this thread:
  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=149479.0 Unfortunately nothing
  is as easy as it seems, and although the MinGW and QT installs went
  fine, I couldn’t compile it without a few tweaks to the .pro file.

In this tutorial, Windows is used to create the executable, but I understand one can also use Linux to create Windows executables, right? There are few experiences documenting successful or smooth compiling of Litecoin (forks) for Windows, so I was wondering if people do have good experiences doing so and what kind of OS or approach they used.


texts:
I imported the private keys into my wallet and they appear to be added:
This is the result when i run getImportedKeys():

[ECKey{pub HEX=022249de1a0fb3c72fe9284ca449477ef1b0e43dc4245d3137d7d7a57f697f8d1d, isEncrypted=false, isPubKeyOnly=false}, ECKey{pub HEX=039ad0a1c1f63b3d5db4eab32401396f0dae98935825e99381cd3a630092ef1e0f, isEncrypted=false, isPubKeyOnly=false}, ... etc

I resynced  the wallet, but the transactions associated with this keys are not showing up.

From my understanding it can deduce the public keys from the private keys, and look up the transactions associated with those keys. Im using WalletAppKit to create the wallet, everything works okey, the wallet is functional. This is how i initialize the wallet:

    MainContext = context;
    coinreceived = MediaPlayer.create(MainContext, R.raw.received);
    coinsent=MediaPlayer.create(MainContext, R.raw.sent);
    kit = new WalletAppKit(netParams, new File(String.valueOf(context.getFilesDir()+ File.separator + walletFolder))  , "walletappkit-example");

    kit.setDownloadListener(listener);
    kit.setBlockingStartup(false);
    kit.startAsync();

    saveWalletAddress();

Any ideas on how can i solve this? Thanks in advance.


texts: Is bitcoin a better option than banks for transferring money from India to Hong Kong

texts: I live in HK and I need to transfer some amount from my Indian bank account to my wife's Hong Kong bank account. I tried bank wire transfer and I lost almost 11-12% of total amount. My friend also needs to send me some money from India because I'm helping him in his business. Assuming that my friend buys bitcoin from India and makes a transfer to my bitcoin wallet, and I convert that much bitcoins to HK dollar when there is not much rate fluctuation, is it a viable option to conduct money transfer internationally? Also, approximately how much percentage is lost in the transfer. I don't have a bitcoin wallet yet, but I and my friend are planning to start it because we may need to do more money transfer in future. Are there any legal complications in conducting money transfer like this? Please explain it to me like you would to a 12-year-old. Thank you very much.


texts: Runaway exception on 0.9.3 Bitcoin client startup 64 bit Windows 7

texts:
After I install my Bitcoin client (0.9.3 64 bit on Win7) I can run it one time without problems. It won’t start up a second time, though, and terminate with the following error:

EXCEPTION: N5boost12interprocess22interprocess_exceptionE
Access denied
E:\Program Files\Bitcoin\bitcoin-qt.exe in Runaway exception

I don't store my blockchain data in the standard AppData folder. I have, however, specified the correct -datadir in the bitcoin-qt shortcut. So this should not be the problem.

I dicovered that all my Bitcoin folders are partially read-only. When I uncheck the box, the read-only will automatically be restored, I just don't know why and by which routine. Might this be the problem?

So in order to be able to run the client I have to reinstall it every time I want to use it at the moment and then it will work once. Any ideas?


texts:
I am not able to connect to my wallet using Multibit ("Connecting..." on the bottom left corner). Im using the TAILS OS (Multibit and my wallet are located in the "Persistent" folder). After reading the log, the problem probably has to do with the port 8333 (Peer dies), which I forwarded via my router settings though. I also checked netstat to see if the port is listening and its not. I googled and found a few threads with people having similar problems, some recommended forwarding the port (which I did), some recommended configuring a proxy in the Tor settings (SOCKS5, 127.0.0.1:9063), but nothing seems to solve the problem. I'm wondering if it's a common one and I seem to be pretty incompetent when it comes to trying to solve it, so  please, help me. ;)

Edit: Quick update. I now tried switching to Electrum, which doesn't connect either. Then I tried out Bitcoin-Qt, which synchronizes forever until my laptop crashes (3 attempts so far)..Is this so hard ?? ..


texts: Validation Error: Error #-26: 258: txn-mempool-conflict. Action required?

texts: I am getting this error message when trying to send from my blockchain.info wallet.  "Validation Error: Error #-26: 258: txn-mempool-conflict"  Will this eventually be resolved automatically or is action required on my part to be able to send again from my wallet?


texts: mining pcie 16x and 1x together caused rejects

texts:
I have 5 msi radeon R9 290 cards and this board https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z87PLUS/specifications/ . With 3 pcie 16x everything runs smooth but, as soon as I add the first 1x into the equation, I start getting tons of rejects.
How do you run the two technologies concurrently.
I am running Win8.


texts: Is the difficulty in mining a function of how much total mining power there are in the ecosystem?

texts:
I'm trying to understand how difficulty works in bitcoin mining. I understand that as there are less and less bitcoins left to be mined, the amount you get for each new block is lowered.

The bit I don't get is how a block is mined every 10 minutes. The miners aren't connected to a single network and talking about how much mining power they have so how would the system itself be able to regulate itself to only spit out a new block every 10 minutes?

Also, does this mean that difficulty is really not only a function of how many bitcoins are left, but also how many miners are there in total? So say, if 90% of the miners decided to not mine bitcoins anymore, then would bitcoins be 90% easier to mine for the 10% of miners left? Likewise if bitcoin miners doubled, it would be 100% more difficult to mine? Simply due to the fact they would need to sustain the quota of a block per 10 minutes?


texts: HD Wallets - Why Extend a Private Key with addition? (Non Hardened)

texts:
As I currently understand, there exist two methods for extending keys in a hierarchical deterministic wallet: regular derivation, and hardened derivation. Hardened derivation essentially “breaks the chain,” adding security because through normal derivation, a leaked child private key, along with the chain code, could be used to derive any parent private keys through subtraction.

Normal child private key derivation would happen like this: Take the HMAC-SHA512 hash of the parent public key, parent chain code, and index number. The first 256 bits are added to the parent private key to derive the child private key, and the other 256 bits are the child chain code. Using this, an adversary who possesses a child private key and the chain code could use subtraction to find the parent private key.
And hardened derivation is similar, but the parent private key is used as input to the hashing function so it can’t be reversed, even if the chain code is known. The disadvantage is that a parent private key is required to generate child public keys, eliminating the possibility of a “receive only” machine having access to public keys only.

My question is, why is reversible arithmetic (addition of the parent private key and output from the hashing function) used instead of a “one way” function such as elliptic curve addition or others?


texts:
First of all .. yes im stupid.
Now .. I had some BTC a few years ago. Thought I had kept it safe, now I seem to have reinstalled the OS on that PC and wiped profile folder. I looked around for a wallet.dat file and found one, but it could also be a file of another crypto currency .. not sure, it's so long ago I'm not sure what I did anymore but the date on the file seems on the old side (december 2013).
I installed Bitcoin Core (I used what existed before CORE came out .. just bitcoin afaik ?), I let it sync for a day and am now caught up.
I replaced the wallet.dat file and started the client again. First it took a few minutes rescanning, then crashed at 100% (???). I restarted client again, now it said it had to update the blockchain a bit more, it was at 99.9% and quickly finished.
Now it shows my wallet is empty, but it also tells me it is encrypted and locked. I tried unlocking from the debug console, but it tells me the pw is incorrect. This is weird because the only thing I'm sure of is that this is the correct password.
Is it possible the encryption type has changed through the years and I need to somehow upgrade my wallet.dat or something ?
Even without unlocking should I be able to see the balance at least ?
I know its also possible to have the private key saved somewhere (thats what I should have done, but what I have saved looks short to me, I assume its the password.)
Looking at the balance of 0 BTC i have a feeling this jsut means I'm screwed. I only have myself to blame. I'm still going to attempt to find another backup file, or attempt to restore deleted files from that disk, maybe there's still something there.


texts: Countrywide Internet isolation, inevitable fork

texts:
Many countries around the world have provisions for shutting off the Internet as well as isolating itself from the Internet (where networking within borders still flourishes), any transaction processing (mining) going on within that country will only find nodes within that country and start following its own chain.

Is this a correct assumption?

Secondly, if this is a correct assumption, how will the network deal with this once it comes back online?

I foresee alt-chains emerging due to this, and persisting with their own exchange rates, very similar to the different fiat currencies today.

So:

Are my assumptions correct?
What, if any, provisions does the bitcoin protocol have for forks of this size (which wouldn't necessarily be that large, but still have real consequences for people forced to use them)?


texts:
I'm trying to make sense of the information shown here and how the extended public keys work.
The web wallet I'm using only supports this derivation path m/44'/242'/0'/i', so if I understood correctly:
(1) It doesn't matter what the index for the coin is, the extended private and public keys should be the same for all coins, that's why the same seed words can be used for all coins in the HD wallet.
(2) Since the derivation path used on the web wallet has hardened derivation in some indices, the extended public key won't be able to generate the same addresses available on the web wallet.
Imagine I want to share a key with someone that would allow them to generate the same addresses available for my seed words on the web wallet, but without allowing them to send any transactions. Is that posible? Which derivation path and extended public key should I use? Say for instance for this random 24-word nemonic phrase:
guitar letter tuna oppose
mushroom affair sock adjust
couch plunge angry ladder
evolve dial only maximum
stereo drama final public
become manual pelican glue


texts: Does Bisq somehow use the Bitcoin blockchain for recording trades?

texts:
I just noticed that, after accepting a trade to buy BTC for fiat, Bisq says:

Deposit transaction has been published.
You need to wait for at least one blockchain confirmation before starting the payment.

I don't understand what any of that means. Before starting the trade, I pre-topped up my Bisq wallet with BTC for the security deposit, and it has (and had) six confirmations before I clicked "accept". So this text can't very well have anything to do with that.
I want to make clear that I have no practical problem using Bisq, and have used it many times in the past. I'm just wondering what they mean by that text, and whether Bisq actually uses the Bitcoin blockchain somehow. Maybe it's using automated "smart contracts"?


texts: are we on testnet4 already, or is testnet simply down?

texts:
on popular sites such as blockr and blockexplorer, I see standard testnet addresses show up as "false" and the last transactions/blocks seem to be sending coins to a black hole(unspent, but not linked to any actual address). I transmitted a few transactions that too seem to have gone into limbo(not spendable anymore but not in the recipient wallet either: transaction seems cryptic compared to normal ones. I tried claiming coin from faucets such as thePiachu's testnet faucet, and those seem to be malfunctioning too :(
Is this just an availability blip I ran into or is testnet3 now gone due to segwit testing etc. ?


texts: Block with a smaller height mined after blocks with higher height?

texts:
According to the Timestamp: 2020-11-05 16:03 of the block 655534, this block was mined before after the subsequent block: 655535 Timestamp: 2020-11-05 15:31.
How can this be?


texts: Where to get the data for Transactions, Graphs as a Bitcoin Exchange

texts:
Our team is planning to start our own Bitcoin Exchange where an end-user could Register, make transactions(Sell/Purchase bitcoin), keep their wallet and could see live Graph of all the listed crypto-currencies. And yes we do know what are all the legal, financial and technical requirements/challenges for this.

We researched about it a lot and found everytime that there are certain websites/Exchanges like blockchain.info that provide their own API for all such tasks.

However, if we want to create our own Exchange, we can't rely fully on any third party website. So, what my main question is that where do all these websites get their data from, whenever any transaction is made on their website, do they keep this record only to their selves(in their own DB) or is their any central entity of this whole blockchain web where this transaction needs to be registered also?

And where do these websites get data for their live graphs showing the current market value of all the currencies?

Any clarification of my query would be deeply appreciated.


texts: What is 42Coin? Why it is highly priced?

texts: In cryptsy, I see that one 42coin is trading at >900 BTC. Just wondering what is 42coin and why it is highly priced?


texts: Can anyone explain when does a script executed exactly? There are several information about "how scripts are executed" but no information about "when".


texts: How do I transfer btc from Core that never finishes syncho to another wallet?

texts:
My Core finished sychro after 4 months, the transaction was visible finally (then I moved all data from one file in the computer to another) and Core started synchro again with 3 yrs remaining. It shows no transactions now.

How do I get the funds from there to another wallet, I have the receiveing address from BTC.
?