When i create a wallet at bitaddress.org i could see my balance at https://www.blockchain.com/explorer . If bitadress.org is a client sided page and shouldn't send any information to outside world and I haven’t shared the wallet address with anybody, how does the blockchain.com/explorer page know if an address is included in a wallet?
1 Answer
how does the blockchain.com/explorer page know if an address is included in a wallet?
Short answer: it doesn't.
Blockchain.com just looks to see if it has a record of a transaction involving the address you give it.
A transaction is something such as a bitcoin-exchange sending you Bitcoin (after you sent them dollars) or you sending Bitcoin to someone else (e.g. when buying something with Bitcoin)
Details of Bitcoin transactions are public information and are copied to every Bitcoin user (or are available to every Bitcoin user).
But you don't need to use bitaddress.org or any similar service and I wouldn't!
A little more detail.
The web-page at Bitaddress.org uses a pseudo-random number generator based on mouse movements and keyboard input to generate a random private-key.
From a private-key you can derive a public-key. The Bitcoin-address is a hash of the public-key.
The private-key enables you to spend Bitcoin and should never be shared with anyone else.
The public-key enables other people to send you Bitcoin, you give them the address derived from the public key.
There need be no link between bitaddress.org and any blockchain explorer. The latter just searches the blockchain for transactions involving the address you type in.
The blockchain is a ledger (or more accurately a journal) containing a record of all bitcoin transactions from the creation of Bitcoin 10 years ago. All "full-node" wallets have their own copy of the whole blockchain.
Don't trust websites
Despite the above, I would not use a public service like bitaddress.org to create my private-key. After all, we don't know if the owner of that website dishonestly keeps the private-keys (or has been hacked). Bitcoin was originally designed to be used without trusting third-party services like this. You can download a desktop-wallet and generate your private-key in the privacy of your own home on a computer that is disconnected from the Internet. That is the one of the safest ways to inexpensively create a Bitcoin wallet.
Never let anyone else generate, use, borrow or see your private-key
Never share the password to your wallet, even if you change it afterwards it is useless to do so because they can already have copied your private-key - which they can later use outside your wallet to spend any Bitcoin you later added to that wallet.
If you do not understand Bitcoin adequately you may lose all your money.
If you trust websites, you may lose all your money.
If you are not careful about these things you will lose all your money.
answered Nov 9, 2018 at 10:18
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Thanks but i still got question marks in my mind.How exactly blockchain.com reaches my public key?I only generate my private key i didn't share any public key to outside world.– WinsletCommented Nov 9, 2018 at 16:59
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1@Winslet - That probably should be a separate question, but briefly: blockchain.com doesn't reach your public key. When someone sends you bitcoin they broadcast the transaction details to Bitcoin nodes - your Bitcoin-address is included in those details. Bitcoin miners then include those transaction details into a mined block and broadcast that new block to the Bitcoin world, your wallet receives that new block and updates your wallet balance. See bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/148/13866 and arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/12/how-bitcoin-works Commented Nov 9, 2018 at 23:09
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right now i have nothing in my balance.I haven't send my public key to anywhere and when i search my wallet at explorer site can see it through . How explorer access to my public key ? Even if were created my wallet without this site eventually the explorer will reach again. I can't make it up together in my mind right now sorry for being slow learner but could you explain this please– WinsletCommented Nov 10, 2018 at 12:05
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I'm not sure why you think blockchain.info knows anything at all. You gave it your address, it looks for any transactions involving that address, and as there aren't any, it shows 0. To receive coins from someone, you give them your address and they create a transaction sending to it which is broadcast to the network. If you then again ask blockchain.info (or any explorer) for that address, it will know that transaction, and thus show you a non-zero balance. Commented Nov 10, 2018 at 16:35