The blockchain is a list of all transactions that have occurred using the bitcoin currency.
4
votes
2answers
28 views
Is there a way to find the coinbase for a given block using only bitcoind commands?
ASICMiner includes hex(Mined By ASICMiner) in the coinbase.
I'd like to generate weekly statistics that include ASICMiner' solo-mining efforts, but I don't want to have to rely on blockchain.info or ...
2
votes
3answers
111 views
If the blockchain records all transactions, how does losing your wallet imply that you lose your Bitcoin?
My understanding is that the blockchain records every transaction that has ever occurred, and that, when we say there are x amount of coins at address y, what we really mean is that the blockchain ...
2
votes
2answers
37 views
How does ASICMINER use the blockchain to record share ownership?
My understanding is that ownership of ASICMINER shares (direct ownership, that is; not passthroughs) is recorded somehow in the blockchain, itself.
How does that work, exactly? How can I confirm ...
1
vote
1answer
28 views
The change to the size of blockchain data files
The blkXXXXX.dat files in the new Bitcoin-Qt client (v0.8.1) are about 130MB each in size, which the old ones are about 1.9GB in size. Does anyone know the motivation behind this change?
1
vote
1answer
26 views
When a difficulty change reaches the upper or lower bound (4x current), what is the implied impact on time per block?
Can someone work out the math that occurs with Bitcoin and Litecoin when the target changes to the hard coded minimum and maximum value, with respect to time?
In other words, if a lot of hashpower is ...
4
votes
1answer
61 views
What is the database for?
I see the block chain is stored according to the block chain format specification. But I also see there is a database, which is currently a leveldb database. Why is the block chain stored in two ...
1
vote
1answer
41 views
How does a client get the merkle branch of a transaction?
When the Bitcoin client receives a transaction, it checks if the transaction is confirmed. This is done by verifying that the transaction hashes correctly, in the merkle tree, to the merkle root in a ...
1
vote
1answer
30 views
Stuck on blockchain 8791 - Synchronizing [duplicate]
I don't know what's wrong with it, but I would really appreciate it if someone can help me. I've already been receiving money from this address so I really don't want to delete it. I have 3 BTC coming ...
1
vote
1answer
50 views
Can I use the official wallet to recover bitcoins sent to an alternative wallet?
I like alternative wallets like Armory and Electrum because they offer more features, some of which are fundamental for security and convenience. But I'm a bit worried about them not being ...
2
votes
2answers
74 views
Calculating address balance
Is there some method how you can calculate the balance of an address without resorting to web-based API's? When I import a private key the rescanning of bitcoind takes hours. I know to get a balance ...
0
votes
0answers
27 views
How to get current BTC rate for BRL(real) using php cURL or javascript
Is there anyway to get current rate of BRL = BTC.
I saw the blockchiain ticker. But the value for BRL currency is not updated
As listed here in preev.
I want to get the
current 1BTC= how much BRL
...
2
votes
2answers
75 views
How to check Bitcoind block chain download progress level
i have installed bitcoind on ubuntu server, and when i run screen -x for btc it says error -10 blockchain is downloading, How do i know the progress level, currently 125600 blocks are downloaded, how ...
1
vote
2answers
135 views
How many Bitcoin addresses are there?
I was wondering where I could see how many unique addresses currently exist in the blockchain, and especially how many of those have a positive balance. Is that data available somewhere?
1
vote
0answers
40 views
Bitcointools for v0.8+?
I was looking to poke around about with some of the functions of https://github.com/gavinandresen/bitcointools but it claims to only work for earlier versions of bitcoin. Am i just out of luck? or is ...
1
vote
1answer
128 views
bitcoin from ebay
I bought a bitcoin on eBay, but my bitcoin wallet is taking FOREVER to sync. How can I see if I own a bitcoin? Do I have to wait probably weeks for the wallet to sync?
0
votes
1answer
25 views
list of blocks as text file [duplicate]
Is there a reliable source where I can download the blockchain as a text file? Or perhaps is it included in my bitcoin-qt folder after it synchronizes with the network?
3
votes
1answer
70 views
What makes the initial download of the blockchain so slow?
If you download a bootstrap copy of the blockchain through torrents, it will be faster than getting that same data through the Bitcoin network.
Ofcourse the BitTorrent protocol is more optimized for ...
1
vote
1answer
65 views
When was the first non-coinbase transaction?
What's the block number? Also if it was a test transaction, then what was the first event of real commerce if know?
3
votes
0answers
42 views
Bitcoin-Qt [0.8+] can read the blockchain. How can I? (and make it human readable) [duplicate]
Most questions answer this about the old 0.7 version of keeping the blockchain. 0.8 changed to leveldb instead of berkeleydb from what I've read, and obviously Bitcoin-Qt is able to read it. For a ...
3
votes
1answer
73 views
How to transfer only the blockchain to a friend's computer?
After installing the bitcoin client (Qt) a friend got interested as well. He doesn't have as fast an internet connection, though, so I thought of burning some DVDs with the blockchains for him to ...
0
votes
1answer
22 views
Is it normal for ABE to get “out of sync” whilst re-creating it's blockchain?
I am concerned that the number on the left does not match the number on the right. I have no idea what those two numbers are, I just know that the examples show them both being the same thing, and ...
0
votes
0answers
17 views
statistics on actual “replacement” of blocks
I'm not sure if I'm using the right terminology but I know that theoretically it's possible for a block to be part of the longest (i.e. "main") blockchain but then be "replaced" by an alternative ...
1
vote
1answer
101 views
Alt currencys blockchain viewer
I know we have blockchain.info for bitcoin
I am trying to track a missing FTC transaction going to btc-e (seems a very common thing money going missing with these jokers)
Are there any similar ...
1
vote
1answer
147 views
Can I change the bitcoin block-data directory from /home/user/.bitcoin/blocks to something else? [duplicate]
I have two users on my linux system.
daemonuser, which runs bitcoind
and
abeuser, which runs Abe
Whenever I start Abe, I am told:
Skipping datadir /home/daemonuser/.bitcoin/blocks: [Errno 13]
...
0
votes
0answers
42 views
Are we anonymous against governments? [duplicate]
If all transactions are public knowledge and coins are identifiable and thus traceable. With the power of subpoena can't a government uncover who bought the coin(s) from an exchange. It might be ...
0
votes
1answer
58 views
Blockchain receive payments API Network propagation
I'm using the Blockchain API to generate an address to receive payments. I received a payment to a generated address, then Blockchain sends the received amount to the address I defined but that ...
3
votes
1answer
159 views
bitcoins can use different algorithm, how and implications
I read that if sha-256 was compromised at some point in the future, or for any other reason, bitcoin could switch to a different algorithm
can someone detail how exactly that would work, and what the ...
2
votes
3answers
152 views
What is the Merkle root?
The Bitcoin wiki Vocabulary article explains why the Merkle root exists:
Every transaction has a hash associated with it. In a block, all of
the transaction hashes in the block are themselves ...
1
vote
2answers
156 views
Could ASICs be used to mine a “BitcoinX4” blockchain?
Bitcoin, on average, has a block every 10 minute. There are advantages (pdf) to having a higher "clock rate", e.g. Litecoin's block every 2.5 minutes. I call "BitcoinX4" the theoretical blockchain ...
3
votes
1answer
103 views
Creating my own bootstrap.dat?
Since I have been tearing down and setting up bitcoin clients a lot for some experiments lately, I was wondering whether there is a simple way to speed up the synchronization with the network. One ...
3
votes
1answer
73 views
Transfer blockchain from PC to Mac
I have a bitcoin wallet on my PC but I just recently downloaded the MAC version of it. I would like to initialize it with the blockchain from my PC so that I don't have to download it all over ...
0
votes
1answer
109 views
Bitcoin Wallet is downloaded I think. What next?
Please excuse me if I use the wrong vocab - as I am unfamiliar with this and so will probably explain myself like a foot.
Here goes. I am on a Mac and I think I have downloaded the block chain and I ...
3
votes
1answer
93 views
Blockchain long run issue
the last days I have thinking about the bitcoins and the technical issues that can have this currency, I am a computer science guy, with many interest in the global economy.
The first question that I ...
0
votes
1answer
120 views
Bitcoin-qt read block error
I am using linux mint 14 and was in the process of loading block files. I had a power failure and now it tells me failed to read Block. I would delete the blockchain and start over but IDK where to ...
3
votes
1answer
142 views
Explainations about chaining of transactions
I'm reading through Satoshi's paper, and in Section 2. Transactions, he starts by saying:
We define an electronic coin as a chain of digital signatures. Each owner transfers the coin to the next by ...
3
votes
0answers
19 views
Could the target become unreachable? [duplicate]
As far as I understand it, the target T is a floating point number that is adjusted based on the moving average of the difficulty of some previous transactions. Mining a block happens when somebody is ...
0
votes
1answer
79 views
How To Get a New Bitcoin Payment Address
I have one bitcoin ewallet and this has one bitcoin payment address. I have read we should change our bitcoin payment address frequently for security reasons. How do we do that?
3
votes
1answer
67 views
How balances are calculated?
Is it the case that the blockchain has information on the balance associated with each public key-address, such that the client on my PC, say, will look at every public/private keys pair in ...
0
votes
2answers
182 views
Bitcoin-qt Not Syncing with errors
My bitcoin-qt (on ubuntu installed via the PPA) just plain won't sync. It's been running for days and no/little progress past ~82256 blocks remaining...
I've also got an error displaying "Warning: ...
1
vote
2answers
151 views
Why is syncing the last 5000 blocks so much more CPU-intensive?
I deleted my block chain and I'm currently syncing again. Just as I did last time, I noticed that from a certain point, my CPU usage raises to almost 100% and stays so for much longer than the usual ...
2
votes
1answer
133 views
Analysis on the Block Chain for Dead Bitcoins
My understanding is that the blockchain is currently 6.5 GB in size and will continue growing at a fairly hefty rate. Has anyone attempted to analyze the blockchain to attempt to determine dead ...
1
vote
1answer
44 views
Block data error, reindexing blocks
Bitcoin QT finished syncing this weekend after d/l for Windows 7 on Thursday.
Today, probably 2nd or 3rd time running it, an error came up right away that index could not be found.
What would cause ...
2
votes
3answers
396 views
How long does it take to download the blockchain? It's been over a day and still going
I'm a newbie to bitcoins, and need some help!
I downloaded the Bitcoin client and installed it on my laptop.
It is 'Synchronizing with the network' and has been doing this for over a day. Is this ...
4
votes
1answer
206 views
Will the proof-of-work system end when all bitcoins have been mined? [duplicate]
This article from ArsTechnica is claiming that BitCoin is not such an environmental disaster, and one of the reasons they mention is that mining will come to an end.
Ok, fair enough, there is an end ...
9
votes
2answers
406 views
How do you make a Genesis block?
What is involved in creating a genesis block? What makes it different from the other blocks in the chain.
1
vote
2answers
41 views
Repeated error synchronizing Bitcoin client
I've tried unsuccessfully 2 times to download the application from this site https://www.weusecoins.com/en/getting-started. Last failure stopped at around 16,000 blocks. I am trying to get setup with ...
1
vote
1answer
44 views
given a json of a block, how do I calculate its hash?
Here is the genesis block with its hash. How the hash was calculated?
{
"hash":"000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f",
"ver":1,
...
1
vote
1answer
94 views
Where does bitcoin-qt try to connect to when running for the first time? [duplicate]
My question is, where does bitcoin-qt try to connect to when running for the first time? How does it know where to connect?
Is blockchain.info some domain that has discovery services? If yes, then ...
1
vote
1answer
43 views
following coins between blockchains
Question: is it possible to further obfuscate ownership/origin of bitcoins by trading it for another cryptocurrency at an exchange? (as it is easier to do this for large amounts than it is with cash)
...
4
votes
1answer
84 views
Wouldn't compromised crypto require entire block chain to be recomputed?
If one of the cryptographic building blocks of Bitcoin were to be broken, couldn't that result in the entire block chain needing to be recomputed? And how would that work, given the computational ...
