Key Takeaways:
- Bitcoin Core is a client software developed by the Bitcoin team that allows users to download and interact with the Bitcoin blockchain directly
- Bitcoin Core provides users with more control over their funds, increased security, faster transaction processing times, and lower fees compared to regular wallets
- By running a full node with Bitcoin Core, users support the decentralization and security of the Bitcoin network
What is My Bitcoin Core Address?
To view your public wallet address, you need to open the client software and go to the ‘Receive’ section of it.
It works like in other known wallet softwares. Next, you click on ‘Receive’ and you get your list of all your wallet addresses.
You can then click on one address to get more details for it. As an alternative, you can go into the ‘Address Book’ section to access your addresses. You can use this address as your sending or receiving address for payments.
You can reuse your current ones or just generate a new address. This will create an alphanumeric string and use it as another public wallet address. Bitcoin Core is itself not a wallet, it provides this functionality just as one of its parts.
We can use this software for more than that, so it is beneficial to know what it is and what it can bring to your daily Bitcoin needs.
Is Bitcoin Core a Bitcoin Wallet?
Bitcoin Core is not a Bitcoin wallet, but it provides you with a wallet in its client software.
It runs on the blockchain network and functions as an interface to interact with the network. Bitcoin Core is a software provided by the developers of Bitcoin itself.
It is a popular and widely used Bitcoin wallet. It comprises two parts, the ‘full-node’ blockchain data and a bitcoin wallet. You can download the entire data of the currency you want. With this type of wallet, you are running a full node.
A node stores a full copy of the blockchain on your computer and verifies transactions in it. With this data, you have direct access to the blockchain and can create a wallet. You can use it if you want to send and receive bitcoin.
Bitcoin Core is an essential part of the Bitcoin infrastructure because it is the original way to provide users access to the blockchain directly, fast and securely.
What is a Bitcoin Core Wallet?
Bitcoin Core was the first Bitcoin wallet.
The advantage of using a Bitcoin Core wallet is that you have much more control over your funds than with a regular wallet.
You don’t have to rely on any third parties. This gets you an extra layer of security since all your data remains completely private. No one stores your data on a server and therefore can access it. We also know this concept as self-custody.
It means that you host your wallet and do everything related to it by yourself. You can store your private keys on the blockchain and don’t need to rely on a third party, which also brings in some kind of security risks.
A Bitcoin Core wallet is also more convenient than other types of wallets since they allow faster transaction processing times and lower fees. Third parties process your transaction, which costs time and money.
Storing your funds is safe because of strong security measures such as encryption and two-factor authentication. This client software even provides attractive features as an open source. This makes it completely transparent, ensuring trust for its users.
The disadvantage of this wallet type is that you have to do everything by yourself. This requires some expertise and you can’t rely on a service provider to help you if there are problems with your wallet.
Another disadvantage for some users could be that it is a software, not a hardware wallet. Hardware wallets are considered being more secure. They are recommended if you want to store significant amounts of Bitcoin for a long time.
But if you want to send Bitcoin in small amounts fast and convenient, a software wallet is a better alternative.
What is Bitcoin Core Used For?
You cannot only send Bitcoin to an address.
As stated above, this is just one part of it.
This open source software is mainly used to receive data from the blockchain as a full node. Another positive aspect is that it is getting more features. It allows users to take part in the network in a supporting role contributing to this concept.
If you use the software, you run a full node. This means that you create another copy of the ledger, which further decentralizes the blockchain.
Your node is used to verify transactions all over the world before the miners can add them to the blockchain. The more nodes the system has, the more secure it gets with your node as a part of this secure network.
The direct access to the blockchain provides a platform to create applications and services that use this network.
Participants like miners, traders, investors or other businesses can not only keep track of their transactions, but develop applications to create a new market with this technology.
Bitcoin Core even provides an API, so it is easy for developers to build services with direct access to the data of the blockchain. Anyone looking to use the data of the blockchain can use this tool as a source.
How to Find Your Bitcoin Core Wallet?
It stores its wallets in a file path depending on the operating system it runs on.
On the most common operating systems, you can easily find the wallet file location on the following paths:
Windows [WinKey+R]:
‘%APPDATA%\Bitcoin’
Mac:
‘~/Library/Application Support/Bitcoin’
Linux:
‘~/.bitcoin/’
Within these directories, the wallet saves its ‘wallet.dat’ file together with all the other files related to it, such as log files, address book data or transaction records. The wallet data is encrypted, so you need to have your user defined password to access it.
This prevents fraud in case of loss or theft and secures your funds you store in your wallet. But this leads to many people believing that once they find their ‘wallet.dat’ file, they automatically can access the funds.
They can only do this if it is unlocked with the password. Another important factor is that you should always have a backup of your wallet. It can happen that the computer gets broken or the hard drive crashes.
In such a case, is it always recommended having a securely stored backup available. This can save a lot of potential future headaches.
Benefits of Using a Wallet Address in Bitcoin Core
Bitcoin Core Validation
Bitcoin Core verifies each block in the blockchain to ensure valid bitcoin transactions.
It does this by running a full node which you provide by using this software.
The full node stores and verifies the data from the blockchain. This gives you some security features you don’t get with other wallet clients.
If your full node validates the data, you can trust it and don’t need to trust the miners. Miners can use their computational power to trick Bitcoin users.
This is very unlikely, but theoretically, a pool of miners could try such a malicious attack. Most wallets can verify transactions in the blockchain without downloading it and not needing a massive hard drive space.
This means they cannot verify if transactions are actually valid. Relying on third parties makes you and the network vulnerable to miners and banks. They can collaborate and gain more control over the Bitcoin network.
If they have significant numbers of users, they can decide the rules. The more people validate transactions, the more secure the network becomes. With running a node, you support the decentralization of the blockchain.
Bandwidth Support
The network needs to upload constantly data into the blockchain.
This needs a lot of bandwidth used by all the Bitcoin wallet addresses.
With your full node, you can decide to share your bandwidth to help upload the data into the blockchain and support the network.
Not only does the validation by your node further decentralize the network, but so does your bandwidth supports it, too.
Privacy
We know using Bitcoin as an anonymous way of sending money.
This is only the case if you decide to be private.
Many times, using Bitcoin is not private at all. Third-party services can increase or decrease your privacy.
If they mix your transactions with other users, your privacy gets increased. If they have data from you, like your provided documents for creating your account, they can easily connect this information to your transactions and wallet.
With Bitcoin core, you don’t provide any personal details and you further download all the transactions from the blockchain of more than 230 million. This dataset helps you to stay private.
If you process a transaction within your node, you can hide it between thousands of other transactions you process at the same time. This makes tracking your transaction and associating it with you even harder.
Typical wallets provide some common security measures, like using new wallet addresses for every transaction, but they don’t mix your transaction with this amount to anonymize it.
Bitcoin Wallet Address Types
The software allows you to use different types of addresses.
There are some unique addresses possible comprising a string of numbers and letters.
Legacy addresses [Pay to Public Key Hash] are the original wallet addresses used by Bitcoin. They are very common today but are more expensive than the newer types of address.
You can recognize them by their prefix number ‘1’. This is a newer type [Pay to Witness Public Key Hash] which is commonly used today by some of the most known wallets, like Trezor or Ledger.
These addresses can be used as a backup if the newest type, ‘Taproot’ is not compatible with all exchanges or wallet providers. Segwit and taproot are addresses that start with the prefix ‘bc1q’. Segwit addresses are not supported everywhere.
These hybrid types of addresses [Pay to Script Hash and Pay to Witness Public Key Hash] are more efficient and provide lower transaction fees than the general legacy ones.
These are addresses starting with the prefix number ‘3’. In 2021, this newest type [Pay to Taproot] was introduced to even further minimize fees. This is an upgraded version of the Segwit address type.
We know both as bech32 addresses because of their encryption used for increased privacy and efficiency. Taproot addresses begin with the prefix ‘bc1p’ Bitcoin core allows you to use these address types together with its other valuable features.
FAQ
Is Bitcoin Core the Same as Bitcoin?
Many people could confuse Bitcoin with Bitcoin Core, which in the first moment, sounds like it would be the core of Bitcoin and therefore the same.
Bitcoin Core is the client software developed by the team behind Bitcoin to allow people to download the blockchain data onto their computer.
This allows your computer to run a full node with a copy of the ledger. You now can verify and process Bitcoin with your own wallet.
How Do I Get My Bitcoin Core Wallet Private Key?
Getting your private key can be confusing if you’re new to this kind of software, but it is quite simple to get this information.
You can use the ‘debug window’ from the help menu in the software.
Within the console you can type in ‘dumpprivkey’ followed by the address you want to have the private key for.
This will return your private key. Note that you will have many addresses available because the software wallet uses the hierarchical deterministic concept [HD wallets].
This means it is used to generate many wallet addresses from one mnemonic passphrase, so you don’t reuse the same address. Besides a wallet backup, you should backup this key somewhere securely so only you have access to it, too.
What Database Does Bitcoin Core Use (Blockchain)?
The Bitcoin core client uses the LevelDB database from Google to store its blockchain data.
This database provides high-performance and fast storage for the massive amount of data needed.
The database stores all relevant information about Bitcoin transactions such as wallet balances, addresses or the transaction history.
In the past, Bitcoin Core used the Berkeley DB [BDB] as storage. They moved it because the LevelDB provided increased speed for the blockchain, which gets bigger in data. The database helps to provide its users a reliable bitcoin client.
Conclusion: What is My Bitcoin Core Address?
Bitcoin Core is not just a Bitcoin wallet, but a client software developed by the Bitcoin team to allow users to download and interact with the blockchain directly. It provides users with more control over their funds, increased security, faster transaction processing times, and lower fees.
By running a full node with Bitcoin Core, users support the decentralization and security of the network. The software also offers various types of addresses and valuable features like privacy and efficiency enhancements. Overall, Bitcoin Core is a powerful tool for those who want to fully engage with the Bitcoin network and take control of their transactions and funds.
