How To Get A Bitcoin Address & Why It Is Important
(Note: This article is for Bitcoin beginners.)
We all know how Bitcoin is taking over the world. But the funny part is people still fail to understand what it is and why it has become such a revolution.
Here are some of the facts we lined up – 9 Interesting Bitcoin Facts Every Bitcoin Owner Should Know – but there are more.
Bitcoin is a fully functional digital currency through which any amount of value can be transferred anytime anywhere in the world and there is nothing one can do to stop it.
Also, it a finite commodity to hold and as rare as explained by this tweet:
If you get 0.1 BTC no more than 2% of the world’s population can own more BTC than you. Once this dawns on enough people there will be a stampede to try to get even 0.1.
Despite this, many remain clueless about this revolutionary internet money and the first thing they ask is How do I get Bitcoin? Or How do I get a Bitcoin address?
Well, that’s what I am here to tell you and also to share some points so that you don’t get scammed.
How To Get A Bitcoin Address
A valid Bitcoin address is like a bank account number using which you store your bitcoins and check your balances.
For those who are seeing their Bitcoin addresses for the first time, I would say that it won’t look like traditional bank account number but instead, it looks like a long alphanumeric string starting usually with ‘1’ or ‘3”.
And for those who haven’t seen a Bitcoin address and think of it as an email address, you’re wrong!
Different Bitcoin addresses:
There are currently three address formats in use:
- P2PKH which begins with the number 1, for e.g.: 1BvBMSEYstWetqTFn5Au4m4GFg7xJaNVN2.
- P2SH type starting with the number 3, for e.g.: 3J98t1WpEZ73CNmQviecrnyiWrnqRhWNLy.
- Bech32 type starting with bc1, for e.g.: bc1qar0srrr7xfkvy5l643lydnw9re59gtzzwf5mdq.
Now, that you have understood the types, format and what a BTC address looks like, it makes sense in talking about some of the reliable sources from where you can get your Bitcoin address if you haven’t already.
These sources are categorized based on device type & usage:
Mobile Bitcoin Wallets
Hardware devices that act like Bitcoin wallets also generate valid Bitcoin addresses. This is a physical device like a small USB and something you should use if you planning to hold Bitcoins for a longer period. This is also useful for those who wish to have a permanent Bitcoin wallet address.
Here are two most popular Bitcoin hardware wallets:
Watch this video tutorial to understand more about how to set-up your hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S to get your Bitcoin address.
For desktop lovers, there are desktop wallets that generate valid Bitcoin addresses. Some of these desktop wallets are:
Why Is Bitcoin Address Important?
A valid Bitcoin address is necessary because if you get this wrong, your bitcoins will be lost.
If you send bitcoins to an invalid address, the bitcoins will be lost in cyberspace or will remain with the sender.
Another way in which you can get scammed is when you are using a paper wallet-based Bitcoin address that you have received from someone. In this case, let’s assume the person who has given you this Bitcoin address is an attacker and he has already kept a copy of the private keys associated with that address.
And now you haven’t done a sweep of your paper wallet and are using the same address to receive your bitcoins. In this case, the attacker can take away all your coins once you have received coins on the address because he has a copy of the paper wallet private keys which are still valid because you haven’t swept.
Plus, if you are into the online business, it is good to be in tandem with the modern changing society which is internet driven and have the BTC addresses to receive payments.
Lastly, through a BTC address, you can actually make millions and billions of dollars with you across borders, something which was not possible before the invention of Bitcoin. You can sum up all your worth in bitcoins and get settled in another country altogether with the help of a Bitcoin address.
I’m sure you now know how you can get a Bitcoin address and why it is important to have one for yourself.
Now you tell us: Are you into Bitcoins yet, or are you still thinking? Do you have a Bitcoin address? Do share with us in the comment section below.
If you find this post useful, do share it with your friends on Facebook & Twitter!
Harsh Agrawal is the Crypto exchange and bots expert for CoinSutra. He founded CoinSutra in 2016, and one of the industry’s most regarded professional blogger in the fin-tech space.
An award-winning blogger with a track record of 10+ years. He has a background in both finance and technology and holds professional qualifications in Information technology.
An international speaker and author who loves blockchain and crypto world.
After discovering about decentralized finance and with his background of Information technology, he made his mission to help others learn and get started with it via CoinSutra.
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Original Bitcoin client/API calls list
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Bitcoin API call list (as of version 0.8.0)
Note: up-to-date API reference can be found here.
Contents
Common operations [ edit ]
Listing my bitcoin addresses [ edit ]
Listing the bitcoin addresses in your wallet is easily done via listreceivedbyaddress. It normally lists only addresses which already have received transactions, however you can list all the addresses by setting the first argument to 0, and the second one to true.
Accounts are used to organize addresses.
Full list [ edit ]
Required arguments are denoted inside Optional arguments are inside [ and ].
| Command | Parameters | Description | Requires unlocked wallet? (v0.4.0+) |
|---|---|---|---|
| addmultisigaddress | [account] | Add a nrequired-to-sign multisignature address to the wallet. Each key is a bitcoin address or hex-encoded public key. If [account] is specified, assign address to [account]. Returns a string containing the address. | N |
| addnode | version 0.8 Attempts add or remove from the addnode list or try a connection to once. | N | |
| backupwallet | Safely copies wallet.dat to destination, which can be a directory or a path with filename. | N | |
| createmultisig | Creates a multi-signature address and returns a json object | ||
| createrawtransaction | [<"txid":txid,"vout":n>. ] | version 0.7 Creates a raw transaction spending given inputs. | N |
| decoderawtransaction | version 0.7 Produces a human-readable JSON object for a raw transaction. | N | |
| dumpprivkey | Reveals the private key corresponding to | Y | |
| dumpwallet | version 0.13.0 Exports all wallet private keys to file | Y | |
| encryptwallet | Encrypts the wallet with . | N | |
| getaccount | Returns the account associated with the given address. | N | |
| getaccountaddress | Returns the current bitcoin address for receiving payments to this account. If does not exist, it will be created along with an associated new address that will be returned. | N | |
| getaddednodeinfo | [node] | version 0.8 Returns information about the given added node, or all added nodes (note that onetry addnodes are not listed here) If dns is false, only a list of added nodes will be provided, otherwise connected information will also be available. | |
| getaddressesbyaccount | Returns the list of addresses for the given account. | N | |
| getbalance | [account] [minconf=1] | If [account] is not specified, returns the server’s total available balance. If [account] is specified, returns the balance in the account. | N |
| getbestblockhash | version 0.9 Returns the hash of the best (tip) block in the longest block chain. | N | |
| getblock | Returns information about the block with the given hash. | N | |
| getblockcount | Returns the number of blocks in the longest block chain. | N | |
| getblockhash | Returns hash of block in best-block-chain at ; index 0 is the genesis block | N | |
| getblocknumber | Deprecated. Removed in version 0.7. Use getblockcount. | N | |
| getblocktemplate | [params] | Returns data needed to construct a block to work on. See BIP_0022 for more info on params. | N |
| getconnectioncount | Returns the number of connections to other nodes. | N | |
| getdifficulty | Returns the proof-of-workdifficulty as a multiple of the minimum difficulty. | N | |
| getgenerate | Returns true or false whether bitcoind is currently generating hashes | N | |
| gethashespersec | Returns a recent hashes per second performance measurement while generating. | N | |
| getinfo | Returns an object containing various state info. | N | |
| getmemorypool | [data] | Replaced in v0.7.0 with getblocktemplate, submitblock, getrawmempool | N |
| getmininginfo | Returns an object containing mining-related information:
| N | |
| getnewaddress | [account] | Returns a new bitcoin address for receiving payments. If [account] is specified payments received with the address will be credited to [account]. | N |
| getpeerinfo | version 0.7 Returns data about each connected node. | N | |
| getrawchangeaddress | [account] | version 0.9 Returns a new Bitcoin address, for receiving change. This is for use with raw transactions, NOT normal use. | N |
| getrawmempool | version 0.7 Returns all transaction ids in memory pool | N | |
| getrawtransaction | [verbose=0] | version 0.7 Returns raw transaction representation for given transaction id. | N |
| getreceivedbyaccount | [account] [minconf=1] | Returns the total amount received by addresses with [account] in transactions with at least [minconf] confirmations. If [account] not provided return will include all transactions to all accounts. (version 0.3.24) | N |
| getreceivedbyaddress | [minconf=1] | Returns the amount received by in transactions with at least [minconf] confirmations. It correctly handles the case where someone has sent to the address in multiple transactions. Keep in mind that addresses are only ever used for receiving transactions. Works only for addresses in the local wallet, external addresses will always show 0. | N |
| gettransaction | Returns an object about the given transaction containing:
| N | |
| gettxout | [includemempool=true] | Returns details about an unspent transaction output (UTXO) | N |
| gettxoutsetinfo | Returns statistics about the unspent transaction output (UTXO) set | N | |
| getwork | [data] | If [data] is not specified, returns formatted hash data to work on:
If [data] is specified, tries to solve the block and returns true if it was successful. | N |
| help | [command] | List commands, or get help for a command. | N |
| importprivkey | [label] [rescan=true] | Adds a private key (as returned by dumpprivkey) to your wallet. This may take a while, as a rescan is done, looking for existing transactions. Optional [rescan] parameter added in 0.8.0. Note: There’s no need to import public key, as in ECDSA (unlike RSA) this can be computed from private key. | Y |
| invalidateblock | Permanently marks a block as invalid, as if it violated a consensus rule. | N | |
| keypoolrefill | Fills the keypool, requires wallet passphrase to be set. | Y | |
| listaccounts | [minconf=1] | Returns Object that has account names as keys, account balances as values. | N |
| listaddressgroupings | version 0.7 Returns all addresses in the wallet and info used for coincontrol. | N | |
| listreceivedbyaccount | [minconf=1] [includeempty=false] | Returns an array of objects containing:
| N |
| listreceivedbyaddress | [minconf=1] [includeempty=false] | Returns an array of objects containing:
To get a list of accounts on the system, execute bitcoind listreceivedbyaddress 0 true | N |
| listsinceblock | [blockhash] [target-confirmations] | Get all transactions in blocks since block [blockhash], or all transactions if omitted. [target-confirmations] intentionally does not affect the list of returned transactions, but only affects the returned «lastblock» value.[1] | N |
| listtransactions | [account] [count=10] [from=0] | Returns up to [count] most recent transactions skipping the first [from] transactions for account [account]. If [account] not provided it’ll return recent transactions from all accounts. | N |
| listunspent | [minconf=1] [maxconf=999999] | version 0.7 Returns array of unspent transaction inputs in the wallet. | N |
| listlockunspent | version 0.8 Returns list of temporarily unspendable outputs | ||
| lockunspent | [array-of-objects] | version 0.8 Updates list of temporarily unspendable outputs | |
| move | [minconf=1] [comment] | Move from one account in your wallet to another | N |
| sendfrom | [minconf=1] [comment] [comment-to] | is a real and is rounded to 8 decimal places. Will send the given amount to the given address, ensuring the account has a valid balance using [minconf] confirmations. Returns the transaction ID if successful (not in JSON object). | Y |
| sendmany | | amounts are double-precision floating point numbers | Y |
| sendrawtransaction | version 0.7 Submits raw transaction (serialized, hex-encoded) to local node and network. | N | |
| sendtoaddress | [comment] [comment-to] | is a real and is rounded to 8 decimal places. Returns the transaction ID if successful. | Y |
| setaccount | Sets the account associated with the given address. Assigning address that is already assigned to the same account will create a new address associated with that account. | N | |
| setgenerate | [genproclimit] | is true or false to turn generation on or off. Generation is limited to [genproclimit] processors, -1 is unlimited. | N |
| settxfee | is a real and is rounded to the nearest 0.00000001 | N | |
| signmessage | Sign a message with the private key of an address. | Y | |
| signrawtransaction | [<"txid":txid,"vout":n,"scriptPubKey":hex>. ] [ . ] | version 0.7 Adds signatures to a raw transaction and returns the resulting raw transaction. | Y/N |
| stop | Stop bitcoin server. | N | |
| submitblock | [optional-params-obj] | Attempts to submit new block to network. | N |
| validateaddress | Return information about . | N | |
| verifymessage | Verify a signed message. | N | |
| walletlock | Removes the wallet encryption key from memory, locking the wallet. After calling this method, you will need to call walletpassphrase again before being able to call any methods which require the wallet to be unlocked. | N | |
| walletpassphrase | Stores the wallet decryption key in memory for seconds. | N | |
| walletpassphrasechange | Changes the wallet passphrase from
| N |
Error Codes [ edit ]
See rpcprotocol.h for the list of error codes and their meanings.
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