I want some bitcoin!
Sorry for no update for a while. The past week was both wonderful and terrible. I spent four days in New York but my midterms were scheduled on the day before and after the trip.
Anyway, let’s talk about bitcoin. The past week was exciting because bitcoin crossed the $5000 mark for the first time. Many people want to get into the market and earn some quick money. Although I can’t tell you the price for tomorrow, I can tell you the way to own bitcoin.
When you say you have $100, it can mean you hold a $100 banknote or there is $100 in your bank account. What are you holding if you have 1 bitcoin? There is no bitcoin banknote nor bitcoin bank. All you have are two series of alphanumeric characters which are called bitcoin address and private key. 1C1XkvRm19gQA3T42eGFY9XzVMFDDsD8sG and L5NqedNWzgZ1tj2ktbYVxAgxfF17J499eF6K8ZDEmQMmnRt1WwMk are the classical examples of bitcoin address and private key respectively. You need the bitcoin address to receive payment which can be treated as a bank account number. Private key, on the other hand, is like a bank account password allowing you to spend your bitcoin. The device storing your bitcoin address and private key is called wallet. It can be as simple as a piece of paper printed with your bitcoin address and private key. https://www.bitaddress.org/ is a good place to generate your first paper wallet. To further increase the security, paper wallet should be generated and printed out under offline environment. (Click here to know more.) The major benefit of using it is the immunity to the cyber-attack which is a pretty good option for storing large amount of bitcoin. Just ensure you have enough paper copies as backups because all your bitcoin is gone if you lose the paper. Another drawback is that you can only receive rather than spend the bitcoin. No worry! Mobile wallet allows you to do both. It is a normal mobile app that can be downloaded from the App store. The major shortcoming, however, is the vulnerability to malware or virus. https://bitcoin.org/en/wallets/mobile/android/ lists out the pros and cons of using different mobile wallets.
After setting up the wallet, you can get bitcoin from online exchange or bitcoin ATM. https://coinatmradar.com/ and https://bitcoin.org/en/exchanges introduce the nearby ATM and online exchanges accepting different fiat currencies respectively. Simply present the bitcoin address to the online exchange or bitcoin ATM to receive the bitcoin. When the transaction is confirmed, you can check your bitcoin balance via https://blockchain.info/address/1GwV7fPX97hmavc6iNrUZUogmjpLPrPFoE where the alphanumeric character behind “/address/” can be replaced by your address.
If you encounter any problem in setting up the wallet, please leave me a message!
