View source for Bitcoin

[[File:Bitcoin-logo-1000px.png|thumb|The Bitcoin logo.]]'''Bitcoin''', also known as '''BTC''', is a digital currency released in 2009 by a group of men known as Satoshi Nakamato.

Bitcoins can be traded instantly* by anyone to anyone. The only requirement for using bitcoins is having an address to a wallet. You can acquire such an address through the softare provided by the bitcoin maintainer, other third party wallet software, or multiple online wallet services.

Bitcoins can be acquired through mining with your CPU or GPU (video card), or purchased from dealers and bitcoin exchanges.

You can [[donate]] to this address if this page was helpful to you: '''19zUiUZmtg5K4MBPKDRAtsJbUdVop9D9Pm'''

== Getting started ==
The first thing you will have to do in order to enter into the bitcoin world is to get a [http://fuxx.us/bitcoin-download wallet and bitcoin address]. This can be done using an [[#Online wallets|online wallet service]] or by downloading the official client from the link below.

As of 2013-04-01, the official client requires 7.95GB of hard disk space to start with, and that will grow with time. The reason for this is that the block chain which holds all of the transactions is downloaded and stored locally. The block chain holds the required information for all transactions made on the network. You can use the block chain to verify that transactions are real, and to verify if payments have been sent or received.

Using an online wallet can help avoid storing 8GB+ of data on your local disk drive, but you are also entrusting all of your bitcoins with the online wallet service. For some people, the benefits, such as access to the wallet from anywhere you can get online, might outweight the risks of having to trust the provider and their security.

The following links are the beginners essentials. You can download the official client from the site linked below:
* [http://fuxx.us/bitcoin-download Download the official Bitcoin wallet, Bitcoin-Qt]
* [http://fuxx.us/bitcoin-official-site The official Bitcoin website]
* [http://fuxx.us/weusecoins We Use Coins - learn about bitcoins; basic information]
* [http://fuxx.us/bitcoin-wiki The Bitcoin Wiki - a lot of information]
* [http://fuxx.us/bitcoin-charts Bitcoin Charts - realtime quotes from the major sites]
* [http://fuxx.us/bitcoin-block-explorer Bitcoin Block Explorer - stats from the bitcoin network]

== Online wallets ==
Bellow is a selection of online wallets. In some cases, such as with Coinbase, the account also has other services, such as buying coins for a fee.
* [http://fuxx.us/coinbase Coinbase Bitcoin Wallet]
* [http://fuxx.us/instawallet Instawallet - instant wallets provided on the fly by unique URL] - Instawallet has been "hacked" and the service is offline.
* [http://fuxx.us/blockchain-wallet BlockChain Bitcoin Wallet]

== Bitcoin advertising services ==
These are services that you can use to advertise on other sites or publish ads on your own site for a payout.
* [http://www.fuxx.us/coinurl CoinURL]

== Free Bitcoins / Bitcoin Faucets ==
The following websites either distribute free coins or offer coins as payment for various services such as viewing websites or completing "offers".
{| class="wikitable" style="width:550px;"
! style="width:200px;" | Site
! style="min-width:350px;" | Description
|-
| [http://fuxx.us/bitcrate BitCrate] || Pretty good payout when it actually has coins; follow its twitter.
|-
| [http://fuxx.us/coinad CoinAd] || Hourly requests if you register, otherwise only once per day. It has a chat page where you can potentially earn 0.01 mBTC with every message - again, only if you register.
|-
| [http://fuxx.us/coin-reaper Coin Reaper] || 0.02 mBTC available daily, plus it can provide you a simple way to keep track of other faucets.
|}

=== Paid to view ===
These sites pay you to view a page. The length of time to leave the page open can range from 10 seconds to 5 minutes. You don't need to be present for the timer to ffinish for most of them.
{| class="wikitable" style="width:550px;"
! style="width:200px;" | Site
! style="min-width:350px;" | Description
|-
| [http://fuxx.us/bitcoinget BitcoinGet] || Another site to view videos for BTC. It might be a scam in that it rarely or never says that you viewed the video.
|-
| [http://fuxx.us/bitcoinreward BitcoinReward] || Another site to view videos for BTC. Tested and pays out every day.
|}

== Related articles ==
* [[Litecoin]]
* [[Mining hardware comparison]]

== Bitcoin image gallery ==
<gallery>
File:Bitcoin-gold-coin.png|A gold Bitcoin logo using the BTC symbol.
File:Bitcoin-Accepted-Here-sign.png|Bitcoin Accepted Here sign for businesses.
</gallery>

[[Category:Cryptocurrency]][[Category:Software]][[Category:Technology]]