Bitcoin Client

[Dead23]

Hey guys,

I'm a newbie when it comes to Bitcoin... I've been doing lots of reading and have been trying to wrap my head around it all.. I usually end up with more questions than answers.

My question for you all is, what is a Bitcoin Client?? I've been reading an ebook about how to get started in bitcoin and it says the first step is to 'download bitcoin client'.. I've looked it up on google and it's confusing.. it talks about mining and other stuff. I don't want to mine. The book says nothing about mining. Can someone give me the rundown in layman terms.

Thanks in advance.

Jake

[Fremont]

Hey guys,

I'm a newbie when it comes to Bitcoin... I've been doing lots of reading and have been trying to wrap my head around it all.. I usually end up with more questions than answers.

My question for you all is, what is a Bitcoin Client?? I've been reading an ebook about how to get started in bitcoin and it says the first step is to 'download bitcoin client'.. I've looked it up on google and it's confusing.. it talks about mining and other stuff. I don't want to mine. The book says nothing about mining. Can someone give me the rundown in layman terms.

Thanks in advance.

Jake

Hi Jake,

The term 'Bitcoin client' refers to the software used to send and receive bitcoins. Usually this terminology is only used to refer to what are known as 'full wallets', wallet software which downloads and stores a copy of the entire Bitcoin blockchain. Downloading the whole blockchain will usually take anywhere from a few hours to a few days, will eat up over 110GB of space on your hard drive and will need to be synchronised every time you open it in order to send and receive funds.

The vast majority of people use what are known as 'lite clients' / 'lite wallets' - these are wallets do not require downloading the entire Bitcoin blockchain to send and receive bitcoins. If you'd like to use a wallet based on your computer I can recommend Electrum, on Android I can recommend Mycelium and on iOS I can recommend Breadwallet. There are of course a multitude of other wallets which you can use, but these are excellent starter wallets for those new to Bitcoin.

You can check out this thread by our moderator BitcoinXio to get you started.

Welcome to the future of money!

Fremont

[Dead23]

Thankyou so much for pointing me in the right direction! It's great to finally ask a direct question and get a direct answer... so many people have conflicting opinions on what they think are the best Wallets and Exchanges and just when I think one sounds good I start to read bad reviews.

So the electrum and mycelium are wallets for your phone or are you referring to an Samsung/apple computer? Can breadwallet go on any type of computer. I have windows.

[Fremont]

Thankyou so much for pointing me in the right direction! It's great to finally ask a direct question and get a direct answer... so many people have conflicting opinions on what they think are the best Wallets and Exchanges and just when I think one sounds good I start to read bad reviews.

So the electrum and mycelium are wallets for your phone or are you referring to an Samsung/apple computer? Can breadwallet go on any type of computer. I have windows.

Hi Jake,

You're very welcome! Apologies if I was unclear in my last response.

For any computer including your Windows computer I would recommend Electrum.
For your phone, if you have a Samsung or other Android phone I would recommend Mycelium (this wallet is not available for computers, only phones).
If you have an iPhone then Breadwallet is one of the best wallets for iPhones.

Fremont

[Dead23]

Just re-read it.. it's clear. Just finished a night shift, so half asleep ha.

Thanks again. Looks like a great community here. Glad I chose this forum.

Jake

[Dead23]

Actually one more question for ya.. do you prefer having your lite client on your phone or computer? Is there any distinct benefit of one over the other?

[Fremont]

Just re-read it.. it's clear. Just finished a night shift, so half asleep ha.

Thanks again. Looks like a great community here. Glad I chose this forum.

Jake

No worries at all, I'm often burning the midnight oil myself!! We're glad to have you here!

Actually one more question for ya.. do you prefer having your lite client on your phone or computer? Is there any distinct benefit of one over the other?

Personally I utilise a number of different wallets depending on the purpose I need it for. I use a wallet on my phone to carry about €50 worth of BTC for small purchases when I'm out - things like buying coffee, a couple of beers, tipping servers in cafes and restaurants, etc.

I use Electrum on my computer to receive larger payments, and I further secure this with my hardware wallet (something you can read more about in our FAQ and elsewhere on the forum).

I also run a full client in order to help secure the health of the Bitcoin network, but as a new user I'd recommend you use lite clients until you've learned a bit more about Bitcoin.

There are no distinct benefits per se of running a client on your phone over your computer - each really has its own pros and cons depending on what you're using the wallet for, but one thing to note is that if you lose your phone or your hard drive dies in your computer you will lose your bitcoins. However, all is not lost if you take the necessary steps when setting up your wallet! This is why it's incredibly important to take note of and secure your wallet seed (which you'll learn more about if you read the links in BitcoinXio's post) - if you ever lose your phone or your computer you can restore your wallet using your wallet seed and your bitcoins will be back in your possession.

[Rmcdermott927]

A client is essentially the software which communicates with the Bitcoin network that allows you to send and receive coins.


As others have suggested, for a newcomer, "thin" clients like electrum are best to start with.

[Dead23]

I've just gone to look at the area on the forum that shows the list of different exchanges. I clicked, 'See all exchanges' it doesn't load anything. I also just tried selecting my country (Australia) and it didn't load anything then either.. do I need to be on a pc to view this area (I'm using my phone atm) or is it a tech issue?

Is there one maybe you guys could recommend? I've heard Localbitcoins or Coinbase are good. I have read into so many different exchanges and there are pro's and cons to all of them. I just want one that's got a good reputation and is easy to use (and fees which aren't too high haha). After reading all the reviews about each exchange and the pro's and con's etc it just makes me so indecisive... I'm not usually this indecisive about anything. It's starting to hurt my brain haha.

[Dead23]

So I've downloaded breadwallet and noticed that it displays its conversions in bits rather than full BTC. Is it millibitcoin or microbitcoin that it's converting to.. is there a link to a reliable conversion calculator or is that impossible with the constant volatility of bitcoin (I've come across this one that allows you to manually put in the value https://youmeandbtc.com/bitcoin-convert ... oshis-usd/) there's no way I want to be caught out sending more bits than I need to... it's kind of annoying that it deals in bits. Way to confuse the newbies even more haha.

[Dead23]

After reading an entertaining debate between one of breadwallets devs and users of the app who weren't happy with the bit denomination, I've realised it's as simple as either dividing or multiplying by 1 million... initially I was against the idea, but when I thought about it, we won't be trading in full bitcoins all that often in the future once bitcoin substantially increases in value.. so I'm all for jumping on the bandwagon early.

[davidmccoy]

Most of the queries have been entertained. I would like to comment on the last statement about the units of bitcoin. Yes it does not matter how small the units of Bitcoins can go. The end result will remain same because of the cap limit and high demand of the cryptocurrency.