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1500 questions
218
votes
21 answers
What is a good way to concisely explain Bitcoin?
Often I'm asked to explain Bitcoin to someone and occasionally I come up with something stellar that really nails it, but most times it's a rambling incoherent mess.
What I would like to see is a short and simple explanation of what Bitcoin is that…
Gary
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206
votes
10 answers
What exactly is Mining?
I have heard that mining is for people with ready hardware and blah blah blah... But what exactly is it? Does it operate like real mining? I mean, people talk about it like you are physically mining.
Phonics The Hedgehog
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194
votes
2 answers
How do Bitcoin clients find each other?
What protocols or algorithms are Bitcoin clients using in order to find their peers? I learnt that BitTorrent clients may rely on central computers called trackers. Do Bitcoin clients need any kind of central servers or nodes in order to operate?
Ning
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182
votes
6 answers
What are "bitcoin days destroyed"?
The concept of bitcoin days destroyed has been proposed as a measure of bitcoin volume. However, I don't think the bitcoin wiki really explains the idea very well.
What is the purpose or advantage of knowing this statistical value?
z7sg Ѫ
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165
votes
11 answers
Why is my transaction not getting confirmed and what can I do about it?
I sent a transaction
without (or with an exceptionally small) transaction fee
using extremely small or unconfirmed inputs
while the stars were not standing right.
For whatever reason, I have been waiting forever for my transaction to confirm.
Why…
Avram
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163
votes
6 answers
What are bitcoin miners really solving?
As with mining, what are the bitcoin miners really solving? I read they are solving hashes, but what does that really mean. Can we see what they are solving? Can someone give an example of what a bitcoin mining machine sees to solve?
Patoshi パトシ
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158
votes
6 answers
What is a 'Satoshi'?
I am aware that Satoshi Nakamoto is the author of the paper that originated Bitcoin and the creator of the original bitcoin client. However, I often hear the term Satoshi as if it was a monetary unit.
What is a Satoshi?
nmat
- 11,509
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- 78
150
votes
8 answers
What can an attacker with 51% of hash power do?
Suppose organization X has 51% of the hash power for a period of 1 week. In this week, what exactly can and can't X do?
ripper234
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140
votes
11 answers
Is it possible to brute force bitcoin address creation in order to steal money?
Bitcoin users frequently generate new addresses for each transaction they make, which greatly increases the number of bitcoin addresses being used to receive money.
Would it be possible (and profitable) for someone to find collisions in the bitcoin…
nmat
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132
votes
10 answers
How much will transaction fees eventually be?
Some people keep evangelizing that Bitcoin transaction fees are much lower than in PayPal or with credit cards.
However, once nearly all 21 million bitcoins have been mined, the network will still have to be secured.
But "miners" can then no longer…
herzmeister
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131
votes
7 answers
How do you obtain bitcoins?
This is a question many people ask when they're introduced to Bitcoin.
Bitcoin sounds interesting, but if I want to use this system I will need to get some coins, otherwise, there's no way I can spend them! How can I start?
David Ammouial
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122
votes
5 answers
Why is 6 the number of confirms that is considered secure?
Why is 6 is the number of confirmations that is considered secure? I haven't found any mathematical explanation or otherwise that explains why it is 6 and not 5 or 7. Is there a historical reason for 6? Is there a specific way to calculate it so 6…
osmosis
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116
votes
9 answers
How much Bitcoin will I mine right now with hardware X?
Say I have a given piece of hardware (CPU/GPU). Where can I find out how much Bitcoin will I mine per day?
ripper234
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113
votes
13 answers
Is there a way to set up proof-of-work systems so they would be even more useful?
One of the arguments made against Bitcoin's design choices is that it wastes resources authenticating transactions. In particular, finding small hashes is completely useless for the world.
Are there approaches (or other crypto-currencies) that use…
Artem Kaznatcheev
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110
votes
4 answers
How does merged mining work?
How does the implementation of merged mining affect the global hash rate of alt chains?
Does one solution fit all? Does one solution fit some? Does the rate of "solutions that will fit" decrease the more forks that it is tested against?
An…
MaxSan
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