Most Popular
1500 questions
100
votes
11 answers
Why was 21 million picked as the number of bitcoins to be created?
Why did Satoshi pick 21 million as the number of bitcoins to be created? What is the significance of that number?
osmosis
- 5,529
- 6
- 23
- 29
99
votes
17 answers
How can I buy Bitcoin via a Credit Card or Paypal?
I want to buy some bitcoins. Ideally, I would like to buy them on the MtGox exchange (because the consensus seems to be that this is the most reputable exchange), however I have found the system for transferring USD to MtGox to be very…
WirthLuce
- 1,629
- 1
- 12
- 10
94
votes
15 answers
Does hoarding really hurt Bitcoin?
Some people believe that hoarding hurts the Bitcoin economy.
But are they really right?
As long as corresponding goods vendors and services will be here to stay and reinforce people's faith in Bitcoin, hoarded bitcoins simply do not take part in…
herzmeister
- 3,507
- 3
- 23
- 22
93
votes
9 answers
Why don't people buy at one exchange and sell at another?
Bitcoinity.org shows that for the past 30 days, bitstamp's price is high at 101.00, low at 77.00, and current price is 98.04. On contrast, mtgox's price for the past 30 days is high at 115.00, low at 86.20, and current price is 110.50.
In other…
Pacerier
- 2,105
- 2
- 21
- 33
86
votes
3 answers
82
votes
3 answers
What does the curve used in Bitcoin, secp256k1, look like?
I'm reading up on ECC curves and on many of them I see an illustration that looks like this
What does the comparable curve in Bitcoin look like, or are all curves generally the same?
makerofthings7
- 12,726
- 11
- 62
- 130
81
votes
1 answer
If someone wanted to pretend to be Satoshi by posting a fake signature to defraud people how could they?
If a random fraudster wanted to post a bunch of mysterious ECDSA signatures that the public would believe came from Bitcoin's creator, in order to disrupt the Bitcoin market, extract money from people, or otherwise convince people to listen to them.…
G. Maxwell
- 7,727
- 2
- 20
- 47
80
votes
7 answers
Can I download the whole block chain from somewhere?
Every time I turn on the Bitcoin client it takes days to catch up with the block chain.
Are there alternatives to getting it trickling through the peer-to-peer network? Can I just download it somewhere? Wouldn't this be ideal for distribution via…
Thilo
- 4,759
- 5
- 26
- 37
79
votes
6 answers
How can I accept bitcoins on my website?
I have an online store and would like to begin accepting bitcoins. How can I go about doing this?
eMansipater
- 14,456
- 10
- 50
- 79
78
votes
3 answers
How is difficulty calculated?
Can anyone explain me in the plain English how difficulty is calculated. I have a very approximate understanding that it is calculated based on the amount of hash power in all the bitcoin community over a specific period of time. But this is very…
Salvador Dali
- 3,360
- 7
- 31
- 50
74
votes
2 answers
What is an SPV client?
I've seen SPV client mentioned in several places.
What exactly is a SPV client? How is it different from a standard client?
kirian
- 3,289
- 1
- 24
- 36
73
votes
4 answers
What is a compressed Bitcoin key?
The standard Bitcoin client in version 0.6 apparently introduces compressed keys.
What are they? Are there any drawbacks to using them? Any incompatibilities with older software? Reductions in cryptographic strength?
Thilo
- 4,759
- 5
- 26
- 37
71
votes
2 answers
Can someone explain how the Bitcoin Blockchain works?
I'm trying to figure out how the blockchain works and how to read it via blockchain.info website. Is there a laymen way of explaining how the block chain works and how to read the blockchain to trace transactions?
What I know so far is:
the…
Patoshi パトシ
- 11,056
- 18
- 84
- 158
70
votes
11 answers
Will Bitcoin suffer from a mining Tragedy of the Commons when mining fees drop to zero?
One issue that I haven't seen clearly addressed is the possible Tragedy of the Commons in Bitcoin's future (see this answer). 40 years into the future, the only significant direct benefit for honest miners is transaction fees, as the block reward is…
ripper234
- 26,550
- 30
- 111
- 246
69
votes
5 answers
What happens if your bitcoin client generates an address identical to another person's?
Here's a what-if scenario:
Person A has a Bitcoin address with 25BTC.
Person B opens up their Bitcoin client:
which may or may not have the complete blockchain (the latter would
mean no copies of Person A's transactions)
Person B presses "New…
Austin Burk
- 1,109
- 2
- 9
- 15