What is a Bitcoin Address? An Explanation for Beginners

A Bitcoin address is a unique identifier that serves as a virtual location where the cryptocurrency can be sent. People can send the cryptocurrency to Bitcoin addresses similarly to the way fiat currencies can often be sent to email addresses.





What is a Bitcoin Address? An Explanation for Beginners

What Is a Bitcoin Address?

A Bitcoin address is a unique identifier that serves as a virtual location where the cryptocurrency can be sent. People can send the cryptocurrency to Bitcoin addresses similarly to the way fiat currencies can often be sent to email addresses.  Many people will often receive Bitcoin as payment and don’t realize how important the address is to the cryptocurrency as a whole. Bitcoins have become so valuable that it is very possible that if someone lost their wallet, they would need to sell the Bitcoins to pay the associated bank fees. Sending your Bitcoins without a Bitcoin address can make your bitcoins easily traceable and be a hassle for transferring to someone else.  A Bitcoin Address is the Address that Makes Your Money “Live.


What Is the Format of a Bitcoin Address?

The format of a Bitcoin address is where the cryptocurrency will be sent. Although addresses can be from 0 to 127, the format has a limit of 255 digits for length. When viewed in the browser, these addresses start with the letter “BC” for the 28-letter Latin alphabet (BCH, ETH, BTC) and then a number from 0 to 99. Then the other letters will appear in the order 0-9-A-F-G, where the digit A, G, or F is a check digit.  If an address contains zero or more zeros or ones, it is a standard transaction number. A second type of Bitcoin address has a number of zero (0) for the last digit and nine (9) for the first digit, although some people prefer this second address type. This format starts with 0 (0) and A-F-F-1.  Also, “0” should not be used as an ending digit, unless all other digits are zero.


How to Create a Bitcoin Address?

Let’s say that you want to make use of Bitcoin so you need to use the generate-address-of-the-day (GADT) to generate a new Bitcoin address.  Before you get started, you need to purchase a Bitcoin wallet first. Each wallet is associated with a unique address. Many wallet providers such as Blockchain.info have wallets which can be used to generate new addresses. The steps to generate a new Bitcoin address for your wallet are as follows:  1. First, visit a Bitcoin wallet site and register with your email.  2. Once you have registered and created an account, visit the your wallet’s main page to complete the following:  3. For users who do not want to generate addresses for their Bitcoin wallet, this step may be unnecessary.  4.


What Is the Security Behind Each Address? 

Using Bitcoin technology, each Bitcoin address is secured using a personal key. Each key is unique and associated with a block of Bitcoins that are owned by the owner. The key can only be used by the owner of that address, and it cannot be changed. The owner of the address cannot transfer the keys to other individuals or organizations, such as banks, without the consent of the owner of the private key.  In order to receive Bitcoins or transfer the private key to someone else, someone must send them to the owner of the address. In other words, if someone were to steal or hijack an owner’s private key and send it to another address, no transaction could be completed.


Why Are There Multiple Addresses Available for Each Wallet?

Bitcoin addresses can be generated using the Coinbase function in Bitcoin clients. Coinbase is a free service that allows people to create a Bitcoin address. Coinbase creates addresses based on the public key that has been stored in the wallet. The public key is what a person provides when they create a new wallet, and it’s what identifies the wallet. The public key is what is known as a “private key” that can be used to authenticate the wallet to be able to spend cryptocurrencies within it.  How Do I Pick a New Bitcoin Address?  Cryptocurrency wallets can either create a new address for you based on your current Bitcoin wallet or they can generate an address based on a public address that’s already been generated for you.


Conclusion

Security is a vital part of cryptocurrency and knowing how to secure your cryptocurrency is essential to ensure your transactions are safe and legal. Having a properly secured digital wallet to store your cryptocurrency is essential as it is the safest and most secure way to store your coins. In the future, it might be necessary to consider investing in hardware wallet and paper wallets as well to further secure your coins.  What do you think of the latest developments in Bitcoin? Let us know in the comments below.  Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Apixaban, Coin Dance, and Bitcoin.com.  Do you like to research and read about Bitcoin technology? Check out Diaconicon's Wiki page for an in-depth look at Bitcoin’s innovative technology and interesting history.

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