Sending and receiving Bitcoins is as simple as just sending or receiving an email. Previously in part one, I discussed on how to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. The first step in the process is to open a Bitcoin wallet and accessing the one of the many Bitcoin exchanges for buying the Bitcoins and then transferring them to a Bitcoin Wallet. However, it is important to know that different Bitcoin wallets have differe nt steps of sending Bitcoins. As I noted earlier, there are different forms of wallets which are classified as hardware based wallets, online wallets and paper wallets. Sending Once you have some coins stored in your digital wallet, which can be an app stored in your phone, online or desktop, you can now be in a position to send Bitcoin. As i mentioned in my previous article, through some research you can choose one of the many online wallets services available on the internet such as Coinbase and Mycelium. It is important to note that your recipient must be having a Bitcoin wallet for him/her to receive Bitcoins from you. Your recipient must have a Bitcoin public address to where you will send Bitcoin address is similar to something like this; 1JEuV9CiJmhfYhE7HzeSdmH82xRYrbYrtb. In addition, it can be represented in the form of a QR code. To get started, login your respective Bitcoin wallet and click menu. The look will depend on the wallet service you are using. Select the send option and you will be asked to enter the Bitcoin address of the recipient in the to send field. There are four ways to do this:
- Selecting an address from your address book.
- Copying and pasting an address from another location
- Typing the Bitcoin address manually, which is not recommended, given its length
- Scanning the QR representation using your device, camera
Once the address is successfully entered, it is crucial to double check it to make sure that it matches the address of your recipient. After hitting send, your recipient will receive a payment notification in minutes. After some minutes your transaction will be confirmed several times on the Bitcoin network and hence successful. Receiving Receiving Bitcoins is similarly a very straightforward process. As mention above, it is a must for you to have a Bitcoin wallet. In it, you can have Bitcoin public addresses with which you can share to those you intend to send you money. It is highly recommended that you use different Bitcoin addresses for different transactions. There is no need to worry because all the Bitcoin addresses are associated with your respective Bitcoin wallet, thus you do not need to worry about keeping track of them. For you to receive Bitcoins, you will need to share your public address with the sender. Below are the two ways in which you can do this:
- Copy your Bitcoin address and send to the person sending you the Bitcoins.
- Or you can convert your Bitcoin address into a QR code that can be easily scanned by the sender.
Even though the Blockchain technology may sound complex and intimidating, sending and receiving money around the world has become much easier and less.
