I’ve been reading and researching bitcoin recently because I’m interested in the idea and would like to participate. My question is, since each bitcoin user is anonymous, if I bought something from someone else, how will they know where to send it? Also, if I’m transferring money to and from another person, how do I know it it going to the right person?
1 Answer
Bitcoin is not anonymous, it is pseudonymous.
When you send bitcoin to someone, they will tell you what their bitcoin public address is, and then you will send bitcoins to this public address. A public address is a random-looking string of numbers and letters, here is an example I just pulled randomly off a block explorer website:
15x6Ggmjwu6h5nDkidnkqpAms2L6JeuENJ
Privacy is maintained by not using an address more than once. If you have multiple people pay you at the same address, then those people will be able to know the other transactions you were involved in with that address.
Each address has a corresponding 'private key', and you need to know what the private key is in order to spend the funds. So you can tell people your public address(es) so that they can send money to you, and then you keep your private keys safe so you can later spend those coins! (wallet software automatically keeps track of private keys for you)
