Welcome to our course on using [Bitcoin]!
In this course you will learn how to use Bitcointo buy and sell goods and services, send and receive payments and secure your funds.
We'll go over the steps to creating a Bitcoin wallet and tell you how to make Bitcoin transactions securely.
Bitcoins are not stored in a single physical location. They are actually represented by transactions recorded on a blockchain, which is a decentralized and distributed public ledger. There blockchainis accessible from anywhere and maintained by a network of computers, called nodes, which verify and record transactions.
What is actually stored in a wallet Bitcoin, it is the private key that gives you access to your bitcoins. The private key is a secret string of characters that allows you to sign and authorize transactions in bitcoin. Wallets Bitcoin(online, software, hardware or paper) store and protect these private keys.
To access your bitcoins, you also use a public key, which is derived from your private key. The public key serves as the address to which other people can send bitcoins. When you perform a transaction, funds are moved between public addresses on the blockchain, and ownership of the bitcoins is transferred using the signature generated by your private key.
In short, bitcoins are stored as data on the blockchain, while the private keys allowing access to them are kept in the different types of wallets Bitcoin.
Unlike a traditional wallet, a wallet (or wallet) of bitcoins or any other cryptocurrency does not allow bitcoins to be stored inside it. The wallet stores the keys that allow you to spend bitcoins.
We can therefore consider a Bitcoin wallet as a key ring. In this key ring, there are the keys that give access to your money in your safes.
A wallet therefore allows you to interact with the network Bitcoin. You have to see Bitcoin as a big bank with lots of vaults inside. Anyone can have access to this great bank, to open your vault and have access to your bitcoins to account for them or spend them, you will need a private key.
Every time a new user installs a wallet Bitcoinand generates a private key and public key pair. This new user generates a private key, this private key allows access to their new safe, so you must not lose the key or share it!
The user will also generate a receiving address (Bitcoin address) for other people to send money to this new vault, much like an IBAN, a unique email address or phone number for receiving payments with a traditional bank.
Important details: generating a new account (a new safe) costs nothing, you can generate as many pairs of private keys and public keys as you want, you are the bank!
Cryptocurrency wallets, also called "wallets," are essential tools for storing, sending and receiving cryptocurrencies. A wallet Bitcoinis used to store the private keys that allow you to access and spend your bitcoins.
There are several types of wallets, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Here is a quick overview of the different types of cryptocurrency wallets and their main functions:
- Online Wallets (Hot Wallets): These are wallets accessible via a web browser or a mobile application. They are convenient and easy to use, but can be vulnerable to hacker attacks. They are ideal for storing small amounts of cryptocurrencies and making frequent transactions.
- Software Wallets: These are programs that can be downloaded to your computer or smartphone. They offer better control and security than online wallets, but can be exposed to malware and viruses. They are suitable for intermediate users who want to store moderate amounts of cryptocurrency.
- Hardware Wallets: These are physical devices that store the private keys of your cryptocurrencies offline, protecting them from online attacks. They are considered the safest, but can be expensive. They are recommended for storing large amounts of cryptocurrency and for long-term investors.
- Paper Wallets: These are printed documents containing the public and private keys of your cryptocurrencies. They are stored offline and are invulnerable to online attacks. However, they can be damaged or lost easily and are not practical for frequent transactions. They are suitable for long-term investors who want to keep their cryptocurrencies safe.
Choosing the type of cryptocurrency wallet depends on your needs and preferences for security, ease of use and cost. It is important to consider these factors to ensure the security of your assetsdigital and facilitate their management.
Some wallets are designed to only store bitcoins (BTC) while others can be used to store tokens on Ethereum(ERC-20) or other cryptocurrencies. Further down in this article we will present 2 wallets to you: a wallet dedicated to Bitcoin called Blockstream Green and another wallet compatible with many cryptocurrencies for those of you who want a more versatile wallet.
The different types of wallets –[Source appinventiv.com](https://appinventiv.com/blog/blockchain-wallets-complete-guide/)
The private key Bitcoinis a passphrase used to sign transactions and verify that each transaction is authentic. We talk about a passphrase and not a password because it is a series of words. The private key should never be shared with other people. This key is confidential and is the only way to access your wallet and funds.
An address Bitcoinserves as an address to receive bitcoins. It's a bit like a physical address where you receive letters or an email address. Each account Bitcoinwill have its own public address and it will be used to receive payments.
If you share your private key, beneficiaries will be able to access your funds without your consent and transact on your account as they wish. This could result in significant losses and mean the complete loss of your funds. Therefore, it is extremely important to keep your private key away from prying eyes.
One of the main advances in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin is that each user and each transaction is protected by a pair of unique public and private keys. Public keys are used to identify accounts during transactions and private keys are used to authenticate and sign transactions. By virtue of their cryptographycomplex, these keys are particularly difficult to hack and hijack.
A Bitcoin wallet allows you to generate an infinite number of addresses to receive payments. It is advisable to generate a new public address every time you want to receive a new payment to maintain your privacy.
Yes if you are using a hacked computer, server or phone after installing malware on your machine.
A well-prepared hacker can retrieve your private key and send it remotely from your internet-connected machine to their server in order to regain access to your money, so we advise you to avoid using a computer with pirated software like gamesv video, photo or video editing software.
It's a classic, you don't want to pay a few dozen euros for your software so you're going to pirate it. Hackers know this and are happy to integrate computer viruses into pirated software that you find in the description of tutorials on YouTube or on websites that share software "cracks" or "precracked" software.
So make sure you use clean equipment. If you are in doubt about your machine, completely reset it or use a new machine. You cannot completely trust your antivirus because your antivirus does not always detect tailor-made viruses.
How an anti-virus works:
An antivirus knows how to detect "classic" viruses, even if their signature is not stored in their database. It can also detect a virus that it has already seen BUT it has difficulty detecting a custom virus because it has not yet learned to detect them. Hackers create new viruses every day that can bypass anti-virus detections, so it is naive to believe that a simple anti-virus on your machine will protect you from any type of attack.
Hackers are not magicians:
For a hacker to recover your private key, they need to access your computer remotely via the internet. If you use a computer or phone that never connects to the internet, the hacker will not be able to access your machine remotely.
So you will have understood, we do not pirate Bitcoin, however, we can hack a user who poorly secures their cryptocurrency wallets. It is therefore important to have good computer hygiene.
A wallet Open Sourceis important for several reasons:
Transparency and security: Open source means that the source code is available for anyone to review. This means that you, or someone you trust, can verify that the software does what it claims to do, without hidden or malicious behavior.
The open source community is known for its careful review of software. The more eyes look at the code, the more likely it is that bugs or security vulnerabilities will be discovered and fixed quickly.
Trust: a Bitcoin wallet manages valuable assets, your bitcoins. Using an open source wallet means you shouldn't just trust a company or individual who claims their software is safe. You can check for yourself or rely on community review.
The more features a software has, the greater the risk of security breaches and therefore hacking because adding features to software increases the complexity of the latter, which can increase the risk of security breaches for several reasons:
Programming errors and increased attack surface: the more complex the software, the more likely it is that errors will slip into the code. Some of these errors can create security vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit.
Each new feature added to software increases its "attack surface", that is to say the number of points through which an attacker can try to exploit a security vulnerability. The more features, the more potential entry points for attackers.
Additionally, new features may require the addition of new dependencies or libraries, which may themselves contain vulnerabilities.
For these reasons, it is advisable to use simple and effective software to interact with Bitcoin, hence the choice ofBlockstream Greenfor this training.
If you want a wallet that is very secure against online hackers, we naturally invite you to buy a hardware wallet Ledger Nano Sat 79€, we made atutorial on YouTubeto learn how to use it.
As seen above, there are many wallets allowing you to interact with Bitcoin. In this tutorial we will use the Bitcoin wallet Blockstream Greenavailable onPC,Mac,Linux,iOS smartphones/Android.
This wallet only works for the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, it isOpen sourceso everyone can read and modify their computer code.
For this tutorial, we will use the Windows version of BlockstreamGreen. To get started, go to the official Blockstream website then selectBlockstream Greenin the "Products" tab.
Then click "Download Now" button to start downloading, you can also download the software directly fromGithub.
Install the BlockstreamGreen software and run it. Once the software is open, click on "Create wallet"
Select "Bitcoin Wallet" then "Singlesig", accept the wallet conditions and continue.
The software will ask you to note your recovery phrase(Seed phrase), it is a sequence of 12 words that you must write down in a safe place. This sequence of words will allow you to regain access to your wallet and therefore to your bitcoins if you change computers or phones.
It is imperative that you NEVER lose your passphrase or you will lose your money. You can write down these 12 words on a piece of paper or, if you are afraid of losing this piece of paper, we strongly advise you to write down your seed phrase in a secure online password manager likeBitwarden.
In addition to its online availability from a PC,Bitwardenhas a mobile application for Android and iOS. It is perfectly possible to add a 2-step connection (2FA) with Google Authenticator or Authy in order to be able to strengthen the security of your Bitwarden account in the event of your password being hacked, this is an ideal and free solution to secure your passwords and seed phrases.
Your Blockstream Green wallet is now ready to receive and send bitcoins, we will learn together how to obtain bitcoins and store them on this wallet in the next article.
Do you want a more versatile wallet than Blockstream Green? The walletExodushas the particularity of working with multiple blockchains, it is a proven wallet, compatible with more than 260 different cryptocurrencies, not just Bitcoin.
Exodus is not an Open Source project and it contains many features, so it is convenient for testing different cryptocurrencies but we do not advise you to use Exodus to use and/or protect a large amount of money.
Exodus exists for PC, Mac, Linux, iOS / Android smartphones and even as an extension for Google Chrome browser.
In our example we will use the walletExodusto install on a computer because it is quite simple to use and you will be able to use it directly within a few minutes.
Visit the official website ofExodusthen click on Download Exodus and choose on which operating system (Windows, Mac…) you want to download it and install it.
Once downloaded and installed, you can launch it by double-clicking the Exodus application on your computer desktop.
We will firstly to securethis wallet with a password. Your password prevents anyone with access to your computer from opening your Exodus wallet without your consent.
To do this, click on the small gear (settings) at the top right then in the "Backup" tab in the Exodus software then define your password.
After having defined your password, the application will ask you to write down yourpassphrase(Seed phrase), it is a sequence of 12 words that you must write down in a safe place. This sequence of words will allow you to regain access to your wallet and therefore to your bitcoins if you change computers or phones.
It is imperative that you NEVER lose your passphrase or you will lose your money. You can write down these 12 words on a piece of paper or, if you are afraid of losing this piece of paper, we strongly advise you to write down your seed phrase in a secure online password manager likeBitwarden.
In addition to its online availability from a PC,Bitwardenhas a mobile application for Android and iOS. It is perfectly possible to add a 2-step connection (2FA) with Google Authenticator or Authy in order to be able to strengthen the security of your Bitwarden account in the event of your password being hacked, this is an ideal and free solution to secure your passwords and seed phrases.
If in the future you wish to recover access to your Exodus wallet from another computer, simply click on Restore from Backup from the Exodus home page.
Your Exodus wallet is now ready to receive and send bitcoins, we will learn together how to obtain bitcoins and store them on this wallet.
IN PROGRESS
- Bitcoins are not stored on physical media. They are represented by transactions recorded on theblockchain
- The private key provides access to bitcoins and allows transactions to be signed to spend them
- A wallet is an application that allows you to store, send and receive cryptocurrencies
- There are several types of wallets, each with their own advantages and disadvantages
- A Bitcoin wallet allows you to generate an infinite number of addresses to receive payments, for free
- A simple, open source wallet with few features limits the risk of security breaches because it is subject to fewer attack vectors
- The most suitable solutions for securing your cryptocurrencies remain cold wallets, we recommend wallets in hardware format or in paper format if you are sure to NEVER lose your paper with your recovery phrase