The Bitcoin cryptocurrency has opened up new prospects for users - the possibility of making profitable investments, the convenience of conducting transactions, the chance of earning money through mining and making hidden transfers without commissions. But to carry out transactions, it is worth having a Bitcoin address. What is it? How is the Bitcoin address formed, and what does it depend on? Lets figure it out in more detail.

What is the essence?

Bitcoin address is a classic identifier containing 34 characters (numbers and letters). In the latest versions, the Bitcoin address begins with one of the numbers - one or three. A person who receives a Bitcoin address can use it to solve a number of tasks - mining, making transactions, making money on faucets, paying for services or goods. Obtaining a code from numbers and letters is available to the wallet owner and is available free of charge.

Many are wondering how to find out their Bitcoin address. Everything is simple here. It is enough to install the software on your computer or go to the wallet and find the button for obtaining the Bitcoin address. After that, a group of numbers and letters is displayed, which is an individual identifier for a specific user.

What is a Bitcoin address and what does it look like? As already mentioned, this is a group of letters and numbers, the number of which is about 34. Alternatively - 1BQ8qza7fj9snSCyJQC7ZcN46biBtkt4ee.

Knowing the recipients Bitcoin address, you can send the required amount of coins and not worry about the security of the transaction. This procedure can be compared to simply sending a letter to another persons email account. As with e-mail, the number of Bitcoin addresses can be unlimited. Moreover, it is encouraged and considered one of the ways to improve the security of transactions on the network.

To maintain confidentiality of translations, it is recommended to use a unique address each time Thanks to the capabilities of modern systems and software, a new code is generated every time a new translation is made. If you wish, you can also get a Bitcoin address upon manual request.

Situations are possible when a user of a cryptocurrency keeps funds on special online services. In such cases, sites can generate Bitcoin addresses themselves for transfers. Those addresses that were formed earlier are not canceled and may well be used in the future to conduct transactions.

 

Application features

In the question of how to find out your Bitcoin address, and what its features are, we figured it out. How to use it? When making any transaction, special attention should be paid to entering the alphanumeric code. If possible, then it is worth copying the code using the PC buffer, and then transferring it to the desired line. There is a risk of error and incorrect transaction when copying manually. As a result, the funds are transferred to an outside recipient or the transaction is rejected altogether.

If you decide to get a Bitcoin address, "surprises" are inevitable. Often the code has fewer characters - not 33, but, for example, 32. This state of affairs is normal. This means that the customers account number starts from zero. As a result, the address itself is shortened.

The technical side of the issue

What is a Bitcoin address from a technical point of view? Above, we figured out that the alphanumeric code is the account of the user of the crypto network. Technically, this is the hash from the ECDSA public key. The bitness of such a hash is 160. Applying a number of mathematical techniques, it is possible to "sign" information using a personal (secret) key. In this case, anyone who has such a key can verify the authenticity of the signature. More information about the Bitcoin address and what it is can be found on Wikipedia. For an ordinary user, these features are enough.

For each pair of keys that is generated in the process of using a cryptocurrency, there is a corresponding address used to receive coins. All public and private keys are contained in one user file - wallet.dat. To protect yourself from trouble, it is recommended not only to securely store the file on your PC, but also to make backups.

The process of transaction Bitcoins to another address is successful if the receiving party has a suitable secret key in the wallet. And here it is important to clearly understand what a Bitcoin address is, and what are the risks for the user. An example can be given. If the user created a new address, and a certain amount of cryptocurrency came to him, and then restored the wallet file from the previous "save" (before generating a new address), then the funds listed will disappear. A similar situation awaits if the wallet is completely lost.

The advantage of the cryptocurrency network is that there are no restrictions on the creation of Bitcoin wallets. You can generate as many of them as needed. There is no such thing as a "main address". Above, it was discussed how to find out your Bitcoin address - for this, just go to a special section. But this will not be the main one, but only one of the existing keys.

For the convenience of the user, the application independently changes the keys in the wallet. This is done in order to increase the privacy of transactions in the system and complicate their calculation. Its easy to find out all the numbers - they are in a special section (in the official versions of wallets, this category is called your receiving addresses). There are no problems with storing tens or even hundreds of addresses, because the size of one key is 0.5 kilobytes. It is enough to allocate some space on your hard drive, and the storage issue is resolved.

 

The nuances of the structure of a bitcoin address

In the structure of each address there is a verification code that does not allow making a transaction to an incorrectly entered address. For example, if the user made a mistake while entering the code and did not enter several digits (letters) of the recipients address, the transfer will not occur. On the other hand, if the code is entered correctly, but no one really owns such an address, then the transaction will be completed. It will be impossible to return funds in such a situation.

The public key structure can contain all numbers and letters. But there are exceptions. Among them are small L (l), large i (I), as well as O and 0. As already mentioned, almost all modern addresses start from one, but in the future this may change. For example, testnet codes start with the letters n and m. As for the number of characters, the acceptable range here is quite wide - from 25 to 34 letters and numbers. In the test version, the length is almost identical - from 26 to 34 characters.

Many do not know, but Bitcoins are really sent not to a wallet, but to an IP address. In addition, two different people could theoretically have an identical Bitcoin address. Such situations are called collisions. Here, both have the right to spend the funds available on the wallet. At the same time, neither the first nor the second user can squander all the money. It is almost impossible to select identical addresses on purpose; it would take a lot of time - more than forming a block.

Knowing about the Bitcoin address, what it is, and how to use it, you can simplify the work in the crypto network and eliminate problems with transactions.