Buy Bitcoin BTC Safely

Step 1: Go to Paxful.com

Paxful is a platform where you can buy, sell and trade Bitcoin and over 300 other cryptocurrencies using your credit card, bank account or other options. Just access their official website and click on “Sign Up”.

Step 2: Provide Information About Yourself

Now input some information about yourself on their sign up page such as name, email address and the password that you are going to use for the account. After entering all of these details, you can proceed to the next step. You also need to agree with their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy before moving forward.

Step 3: Confirm Your Phone Number

You now need to confirm your phone number so they know it’s all real with the account you are creating on Paxful. Enter in your number followed by selecting your country code beside it in order to proceed further ahead. Once that is done, a verification link will be sent over to the given number in order for them to confirm your identity before activating your Paxful account.

Step 4: Complete Registration

Now everything that you have entered needs confirming by clicking on the ‘Activate Account’ button located at the bottom of the screen concluding with step one medication process completion form. If everything went as planned, you now have successfully created a Paxful account! Now you can securely store, buy or sell Bitcoins on their platform!

There is a mystery surrounding the founder and creator of Bitcoin. No one really knows their true identity. What we do know is that they worked on the Bitcoin project under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Some even speculate that Satoshi Nakamoto might not be one person but a group of people who worked on the project together.

SATOSHI NAKAMOTO ESSENTIALS

• The pseudonym used by the creator of Bitcoin.
• The founder and creator of Bitcoin platform and cryptocurrency.
• Mined the first Bitcoin block in 2009.
• Their identity remains hidden.

What did Satoshi Nakamoto do?

Satoshi Nakamoto designed and created the Bitcoin cryptocurrency and blockchain platform. They claimed to have worked on the Bitcoin project since 2007.

Satoshi published the famous Bitcoin whitepaper on October 31, 2008. The first people who they informed of the publication was an exclusive group of individuals with firm beliefs in decentralization and cryptography. The whitepaper on the Bitcoin project subsequently got a lot of attention in the cryptography community.

Satoshi then worked together with a select group and a close-knit community of cryptographic experts to complete the project. All of the correspondence was held on online forums and via email and not a single person who worked with Satoshi ever met them in person. Furthermore, Satoshi never revealed any personal information, making it extremely difficult to pin down their identity.

He released the Bitcoin platform to the public on January 3, 2009. When they released the software to the public, Satoshi also mined the first ever Bitcoin block. This block, also called the genesis block, marked the creation of the bitcoin cryptocurrency. Interestingly enough, Satoshi Nakamoto left a message on the genesis block to mark its inception. That message read: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”

This message is the title of an article published in the British newspaper, The Times, and constitutes proof that the first block was mined no sooner than on 3 January 2009. Conveniently, the article covers a bailout of banks, demonstrating the failures of the traditional financial system and the need for an alternative.

He continued to work on the project with several talented people for two more years, improving and updating the project. Then they suddenly stopped all communication and disappeared in April 2011. No one knows why they decided to distance themselves from the project. Before leaving, one of the last emails they sent read: “I’ve moved on to other things…” They have not been heard from since.

What is the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto?

The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto is a true modern-day mystery that many are determined to solve. There were many candidates for Satoshi Nakamoto – Nick Szabo, a decentralized currency enthusiast, Dorian Prentice, a computer engineer specializing in defense projects and financial services, and Hal Finney, a pre-bitcoin cryptographic pioneer and the first person other than Nakamoto to use the Bitcoin platform, among them. However, none of them have been proved to be the mysterious Satoshi.

A popular candidate is also Adam Back, a British cryptographer and CEO of Blockstream, and, after Finney, the second person ever to have “corresponded” with Nakamoto. But unlike some who have claimed to be Satoshi, but have later been proven to have been trying to deceive the public, Adam vehemently denies that he has anything to do with the founder of Bitcoin.

While we do not know who the creator of Bitcoin is, there are a few things that we can safely speculate about Satoshi Nakamoto. Despite their name sounding like it could be Japanese, they are unlikely to be Japanese or to have been stationed in Japan. In fact, there is evidence that points to them being British.

After analysing the Bitcoin whitepaper, it was determined that Satoshi’s use of English is on a native level. They also used many common British phrases like “bloody hard” in the correspondence with their team. The text they included in the genesis block also originates from a British newspaper.

Though there are many theories, and several individuals who have proclaimed themselves to be the mysterious Satoshi, none have yet been proven. Some even believe Satoshi Nakamoto has passed away, leaving behind a massive wealth in bitcoins that are located at addresses connected to them.

Regardless of who they are, or if they are still alive, they’ve left a major impact on the world of cryptography, digital currencies and decentralization, in the form of the first blockchain and cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.

*Source https://www.bitstamp.net/learn/people-profiles/satoshi-nakamoto/

To transfer cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, a fundamentally different infrastructure is needed from traditional payment systems. The Bitcoin network is the first infrastructure to enable peer-to-peer transfers of digital money, putting the advantages of blockchain technology and public-key cryptography into practice.

Simply put, a cryptocurrency transaction is a transfer of information made between blockchain addresses. These transfers have to be signed with a private key that corresponds to its address. Signed transactions are broadcast to the network of nodes, active computers that follow a specific set of rules to validate transactions and blocks. Valid transactions need to be confirmed by being included in blocks through the process of mining.

This infrastructure ensures that transactions are pseudonymous, yet transparent, and that they cannot be changed or deleted from the records once they are embedded deeply enough in the blockchain.

CRYPTOCURRENCY TRANSACTION ESSENTIALS

• A transfer made between blockchain addresses.
• A combination of a private and public key is used to sign and authorize a transaction.
• Miners include transactions in data blocks by solving proof of work puzzles.
• Nodes validate transactions and blocks and keep a record of the entire blockchain.

Signing and validating transactions

From the point of view of a user, performing a cryptocurrency transaction is not so different from making an online bank transfer. You access your cryptocurrency wallet, fill out a form with the destination address and the amount you wish to send, and sign the transaction with your private key. But instead of waiting for a number of banks to process your transaction, which can take several days with international wire transfers, a cryptocurrency transaction is processed by a single, unified network of computers in a matter of seconds or minutes.

Once you confirm the inputs, your intention to perform a crypto transaction is broadcast to the network of nodes. Nodes store unconfirmed transactions in their memory pool and check whether these are valid, according to blockchain consensus rules.

Putting transactions into blocks

In a blockchain, data is stored in blocks which are strung, one after another, on a continuously growing chain. Miners take transactions from mempools (the waiting area for new transactions) to include them in a block. They earn the right to create a new block by solving a complex mathematical problem prescribed by the proof of work (PoW) algorithm, which gives each block its unique hash value.

Hashing (calculating the hash) protects the records from being altered. If the slightest change is made to a transaction record, the block’s hash changes significantly. Every hash is based on the hash of the previous block, which means that changing data in any block would require changing all the blocks that came after it, as well.

Block confirmation

Once a block with transaction records is mined and propagated across the network, full nodes validate it, in accordance with the consensus rules.

Miners compete in cracking the proof-of-work puzzle, and it can happen that two blocks are mined at approximately the same time. In such a case, nodes need to determine the right version of the blockchain. To find it, they look for the chain with the most proof of work (backed by the biggest hash rate), which is to say the chain that has the strongest support from the miners.

Transaction fees

Aside from block rewards, miners are rewarded for their work with transaction fees. Blockchain users include a small amount of cryptocurrency with each transaction for the miner to collect. Everyone can set the size of the fee themselves, but it’s important to keep in mind that the larger the fee, the sooner a miner will collect it. Information on what the appropriate fee is given the network traffic is easily available and usually automatically adjusted in most wallets, so you can avoid excessive fees.

Cryptocurrency exchanges, like Bitstamp, sort out the transactions for you, so you can concentrate on the important things, and leave the details to the exchange. Register at Bitstamp today.

*Source https://www.bitstamp.net/learn/crypto-101/how-do-cryptocurrency-transactions-work/

Bitcoin is the world’s first successful attempt at a decentralized currency. Unlike traditional currencies, Bitcoin is completely digital and has no physical form. But this is not what makes it a revolutionary technology. Here we present Bitcoin, its features, and why it has taken the world by storm!

What sets Bitcoin apart from traditional currencies is that it is not issued by a central authority (like a bank or government). There is no single entity controlling the bitcoin supply and validating transactions. The currency is run by a huge network of nodes, and payments are conducted on a peer-to-peer basis. Coins are sent from one address to another without the need for a middleman. The technology enabling this is called blockchain.

Envisioned as peer-to-peer electronic cash, Bitcoin has evolved into a global phenomenon. It has spawned a whole new industry. Bitcoin is already accepted as a form of payment in many online and offline stores. Enabling the creation of decentralized systems, blockchain technology might be Bitcoin’s biggest gift, as it has extensive other applications beyond cryptocurrency alone.

BITCOIN ESSENTIALS

• Bitcoin is the first ever decentralized currency.
• It is powered by a peer-to-peer global payment network.
• Payments are irreversible.
• It has a limited supply.
• Price is determined based by supply and demand.
• Powered by blockchain technology.

Bitcoin vs fiat currencies

The most obvious difference between Bitcoin and traditional (or fiat) currencies is that the former is completely digital, while the latter are not. But this is just scraping the surface of what Bitcoin really is. The distinctions become clear when examining what a transaction in fiat might look like as compared to one involving Bitcoin.

When you make a credit card payment, the card issuer is the one with complete power over the transaction. The credit card company either confirms that you have enough credit available and sends funds to the other person, or it cancels the transaction. Next, the credit card company serves as a validating authority. This means they have to confirm that the transaction has taken place. Otherwise, the person you are paying may claim that you didn’t pay the agreed price or that the transaction never happened. All traditional currency transactions rely on such an authority, but Bitcoin does not. Instead, it uses a decentralized system.

With Bitcoin, the credit card company’s role is distributed to a network of thousands of nodes. The nodes are constantly verifying both the transactions in the network and one another. If a node broadcasts invalid transactions, other nodes soon realise something is wrong and do not propagate the false information. If the node continues broadcasting invalid transactions, it will eventually be ignored by the network entirely.

Bitcoin transactions are irreversible

Unlike credit card transactions, bitcoin transfers are irreversible. Once you send bitcoin to a certain address and the transaction is added to the blockchain, you cannot change your mind any more. For this reason, users must be careful when sending bitcoin.

Is Bitcoin bound by geography or borders?

The Bitcoin network is global. There is no central framework that would bind it to a geographic location. This means that bitcoins can be sent anywhere in the world. The country in which the sender and receiver are located is completely irrelevant. With traditional currencies, geography does play a role. Euro-based SEPA transfers, for example, are only supported in European countries. If you want to send money from the EU to a non-SEPA country, the transfer takes longer and incurs larger fees.

How many total BTC can there be?

The final major difference between Bitcoin and traditional currencies is Bitcoin’s limited supply. Though bitcoins are still created through mining, their total possible supply is limited. There will only ever be 21 million bitcoins. This protects Bitcoin against inflation. At the same time, it ensures that there are plenty of units of currency for people to use. Each bitcoin can be divided into 100,000,000 tradable units called satoshis. This means that although there will only ever be 21 million bitcoins, we will be able to use 2.1 quadrillion of these satoshi units.

How to buy BTC

You can buy the Bitcoin coin on Bitstamp. Sign up for a Bitstamp account and start trading BTC today!

• Buy Bitcoin (BTC) with Euro EUR
• Buy Bitcoin (BTC) with USD Dollar
• Buy Bitcoin (BTC) with British Pound GBP
• Buy Bitcoin (BTC) with Paxos PAX
• Buy Bitcoin (BTC) with USDC
• Buy Bitcoin (BTC) with Ripple XRP (not available in the US)
• Buy Bitcoin (BTC) with USDT Tether
• Buy Bitcoin (BTC) with Wrapped Bitcoin WBTC

*Source https://www.bitstamp.net/learn/cryptocurrency-guide/what-is-bitcoin-btc/