How to check the purity of Bitcoin before making a transaction

Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency.

Institutional and private investors invest in it, and miners work with BTC coins. Beginners who have only recently created wallets are faced with the problem of checking their balance. Have the coins been credited to the account? Our experts have prepared material with answers to these and many other popular questions. In previous blogs we have described in detail how to create a Bitcoin wallet. It will take less than 10 minutes to create such a bitcoin wallet.

Where can bitcoins be stored?

Bitcoins have no physical expression.

They cannot be folded into a regular wallet or hidden in a safe deposit box. Cryptocurrency is a digital asset presented in the format of entries in a registry. In some ways, BTC can be compared to modern stocks. Their storage is carried out on a decentralized basis. They are not on the same server. This approach minimizes the likelihood of hacking due to a hacker attack.

Crypto wallets store special keys. They are needed to access BTC addresses. This data is proof of ownership. Confidential information needs to be stored securely. Therefore, it is better to use cold wallets. They are able to provide the highest level of security. The main points that every user planning to work with bitcoins should remember:

• All cryptocurrency is stored in a digital format, so it has no physical expression.
• Each coin owner has his own crypto wallet.
• An address is a special key needed to manage the crypto.
• You cannot conduct transactions without knowing the wallet address.
• A crypto wallet number and a Bitcoin address are completely different data.

Remember:

Regardless of the chosen type of bitcoin storage, after creating a wallet, you need to make and save a backup copy of the address. You can make several copies at once. Every transaction is synced with an email address. The type of storage directly depends on the chosen wallet: exchanges, exchangers, online services, mobile applications, hardware devices, desktop software.

How to use AMLBot for verification

The service allows you to study the movements of cryptocurrencies: ETH, BTC, LTC, BCH, TetherOMNI and XPR, as well as 1500 ERC-20 tokens (including Tether, BNB, QC, NEXO, TUSD, and 60 DeFi tokens). On April 15, 2021, ETC & BSV were added to this list. To check assets, you need to select the required coins from the list and enter the address or hash that you want to check in a special field.

Checking the wallet showed a risk of 25.2%.

AMLBot finds connections between an address and various users on the blockchain, each of which has its own conditional risk. The overall risk score is the average of all components found. For example, if out of 2 BTC on the wallet being checked, 1 BTC came from mining (0% risk) and another 1 BTC from the Darknet (100% risk), then the risk assessment is 50%.

Clean wallets are those that gain no more than 25%; from 25 to 75% is the average risk level. If the risk assessment exceeds 75%, then it is not recommended to carry out any transactions - this wallet contains “dirty” assets.

You can conduct an investigation that will indicate to you the sources of origin of funds. This helps to better understand the nature of the risk. However, this function is not available in the trial version; to use it you need to pay for the tariff.

The investigation showed that part of the assets in the wallet under review were obtained from the dark market; they are marked as 100% risky.

The user is offered two free checks, the fee for the rest ranges from $0.3 to $2, depending on the amount deposited. The developers also provided the possibility of creating an individual tariff and using promotional codes.

How to Find Out If I Have Bitcoins: Step-by-Step Guide

Blockchain services were created specifically for such tasks. They allow you to check the wallet balance and determine whether Bitcoin has been credited. The most popular resource is Blockchain.com.

The service has Russian-language localization, which is extremely important for users from the Russian Federation and the CIS.
An intuitive and simple interface will guarantee quick adaptation for beginners. To verify information about the transfer of bitcoins, you need to follow the step-by-step instructions:

1. Launch a browser on your computer.
2. Enter the site name Blockchain.com in the address bar.
3. Open the main menu item “Data”.
4. From the drop-down context menu you must select “Explorer”.
5. Enter your crypto wallet address to receive detailed information.
6. Select the BTC coin, and then click on “Search”.

A review of the blockchain service will provide comprehensive information on the crypto wallet: current bitcoin balance, turnover, number of transfers made, Txid. You can also find out from which numbers digital coins were sent to your wallet. By far, Blockchain.com is the most reliable and efficient review service.

Where can I get a Bitcoin address?

An address is required to send and receive bitcoins. Without it, it is impossible to carry out a transaction.

The user receives all the necessary data at the stage of wallet registration. To generate an address you need to use a private key. Generation is carried out automatically. To start the procedure, you must select the appropriate function. After this, the system will do everything for you.

A private key is a combination of numbers and letters. In fact, this is a code that is analogous to a password.

To start using your wallet fully, you need to enter your private key.
After this, transactions can be carried out. The code gives the right to transfer coins. Therefore it is confidential. You cannot give your private key to anyone
. Once you have access to the address, it is impossible to find out the private key to the Bitcoin wallet. The closed code is confidential information, and the address is open.

How to find out the address of your Bitcoin wallet?

All information about addresses is stored in a Bitcoin wallet. Many beginners have problems finding this data. The algorithm largely depends on the service used. All wallets have a different interface, although the general principles are almost identical. Often, to find out your Bitcoin address, you need to follow these steps:

1. Open the “Settings” tab
   , and then go to the “Addresses” section. Many repositories automatically create public keys. The address is needed by the coin holder to receive cryptocurrency. On the “Address Management” tab, you can control the process of crediting bitcoins. Mostly this section is located on the right side of the main menu. There you can see the addresses generated by the wallet.
2. Switch to the “Wallet-Balance” tab.
   Then click on “Top up”. The inscription “Wallet address for replenishing the balance” will appear at the bottom. To copy information, click on the “Copy address” button. This is a very useful feature. Copying data to the clipboard eliminates the possibility of making mistakes when entering an address. The coins will definitely be sent to their intended destination.

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Want to know everything

Everyone has probably already noticed what an incredible noise there has been lately, both in the media and in the official media and almost from the mouths of the President and the Government. Fashionable, popular theme. The majority of people understand little about blockchain and follow all this simply as something unusual, well, maybe someone is a little jealous.

However, do you know that on such people, i.e. Those who know everything about cryptocurrencies can profit from you and me. No, they certainly won’t force us to invest somewhere or try to sell us something.

Recently, one of the oldest torrent trackers, The Pirate Bay, was caught exploiting the power of its users’ processors for mining (without their knowledge). The site administration used the CoinHive service, embedding simple Javascript code into the site. When a user visits a page with a script, part of their computer's processor power is used for mining. This approach was positioned as an alternative to displaying advertising.

Having visited the website professorweb.ru, he noticed that the computer was starting to freeze. After checking what was going on, he discovered a JS code in the site’s source code that allows the webmaster to mine cryptocurrency directly from the browser and without the user’s knowledge.

The user visits the site and the power of his processor begins to be partially used for mining. In this case (as in the story with The Pirate Bay), we were talking about a solution called CoinHive, which is openly promoted on the Internet under the slogan Monetize Your Business With Your Users' CPU Power. On the CoinHive website there are detailed instructions for webmasters on how to create a script and place it on their website. However, for example, this script cannot be detected using VirusTotal.

“The script was spotted not only on this site, but also on some online cinemas. So while you are watching a pirated film for free, don’t flatter yourself - someone will still make money from you,” writes Dmitry.

Dmitry formulated some simple tips on how to spot “stray” miner scripts on your computer and how to get rid of them:

— If you notice that the consumption of computer resources has increased sharply (the cooler made more noise, the laptop began to heat up, programs began to freeze), it would be useful to go to the task manager (in Windows it is called by Ctrl-Shift-Esc, in Chrome there is its own task manager) and see which program is responsible for this. There, in the “Processes” section, you can check the load on the CPU and RAM.

- If you are running some kind of “heavy” program (for example, you are editing HD video, you are running AutoCAD or MatLab) - this is normal. If all you have running is a browser with 5-7 tabs, you should check everything more carefully.

- If you see a similar process in the manager, you can try to stop it there and see what happens next - the consumption of computer resources should drop sharply.

— If the process recovers itself after some time, this is an alarming sign. You can try disconnecting your computer from the Internet and see if the load drops. If not, check your PC with a freshly updated antivirus. Such scripts can be launched not only from a browser, but also from a PC (for example, if the dropper script was previously launched on the computer and downloaded the main program).

- A more thorough check can be carried out. Check the source code of the page that loads the computer. Directly from the manager, you can open the location of the file, search for it by name on Google, check it in the VirusTotal database, and delete it if it seems suspicious.

— Extensions have appeared on the network that allow you to catch such miner programs. For example, Denis Shiryaev (previously worked on Dirty.ru) recommended an extension for Chrome called No Coin on Telegram. Before installing it, it’s better to check it too (it has a good rating, but there are few reviews yet).

“There are hundreds of miner loading schemes. Somehow it was even sewn into a toy, which was posted on a torrent two days before the release, and which players immediately rushed to download and install. All the usual rules for Internet security apply to users: the mandatory presence of an Intertet Security class antivirus, an understanding of social engineering (do not open suspicious links, links to something you did not expect to receive) and healthy paranoia,” says Dmitry.

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Are addresses and wallets not the same thing?

Address and wallet are completely different data. The address is the public key. You will need it to transfer and receive coins. Each Bitcoin wallet has a set of private keys. They are assigned to a specific address. The generated information is stored in the wallet. All transactions require an address.

A crypto wallet is primarily a regular text document on a PC’s hard drive.

However, there are different storage methods. Much depends on what service you use. Wallets differ not only in the type of storage, but also in functionality and interface. The most reliable storage systems offer additional methods of providing protection - encryption, marking, two-factor authentication during authorization. If you are considering Bitcoin as a long-term investment, these are the wallets you should choose.

What cryptocurrencies can be mined on disk?

Resource burst-coin.org.
There are only 3 cryptocurrencies that are mined on hard.

Based on the increase in mining difficulty, it is most profitable to mine Burst. Siacoin is also mined on a hard drive, but it’s difficult to call this business as profitable as Ripple mining.

What to do if you forgot your BTC wallet password?

Creating backups is additional insurance. If the owner of bitcoins forgets the password, he will not be able to enter the wallet. He will forever lose access to his cryptocurrency. This is a very common problem. Due to neglect of backup, many users lost their coins. User losses are estimated at millions of US dollars. Hot Bitcoin storage services support password recovery.

However, their problem is their relatively low level of security.

Perhaps the most famous case occurred with an American journalist. He purchased 7.5 bitcoins, spending only $3,000. He carried out the transaction at the dawn of the popularity of cryptocurrencies. However, I later forgot my password. Today he could sell these coins for $375,000. According to the authoritative New York Times, about 20% of bitcoins are irretrievably lost. Crypto is listed in wallets to which users have lost access.

A system administrator from Kursk found 190 bitcoins on an old computer!

I want to share my story. I haven’t written here often and the next post will probably not be soon. But I can’t help but share this story. Because the events that are happening now have dramatically changed my life. I hope for the better.

So, in order: on December 12, they brought me an old accounting computer with a request to delete everything there, saving only the 1C databases on a separate flash drive. Which is exactly what I did, but before formatting the disk, I decided to look at what else was on the computer:

My attention was drawn to a Bitcoin wallet that had been installed since 2011. And the system itself on the computer has not changed since 2010. I immediately tried to enter the program:

But as you can see, nothing worked; there were more than a hundred viruses on the computer.

Therefore, I made a system image in vhd. And reinstalled the system as requested by the client. Along the way, I asked about who serviced this system before and learned about some admin with a name of Hebrew origin, which no one remembers. Thank you, unknown, that back in 2011 you mined Bitcoin at your workplace for a couple of weeks. In general, I cleaned everything and returned his computer to the grateful client.

From the same 20 million rubles that I have already received, I want to specifically help some seriously ill children, but who can still be saved (I already know who and where). Build yourself a house, plant a neat garden and berries. Buy your office and continue living and working.

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What users say: reviews from real people

Anyone who invests in the Bitcoin cryptocurrency recommends using the Blockchain.com service. Using this resource, you can verify that coins are credited to your wallet balance. If you have any difficulties, you can contact support for help. Customer support managers are available 24/7. Experienced miners and investors strongly recommend backing up keys so as not to lose access to the storage.

Keep digging. Because you never know!

The most important thing is to never give up on this process. You never know. How much money is just sitting in your lost wallets. You could be a millionaire by tomorrow or... you could have the same amount of money as you did then. When did you first start looking? The point is that if you have time. Then why not? It's too hard to live with that fact. That you could have more money. But you are not ready to put in the work. To find them.

Have you snooped around your laptop enough?

Do you have lingering thoughts about any possible additional Bitcoins? Share your wallet stories with us in the comments section below!

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conclusions

1. A BTC address is a public piece of data. The ID is needed to conduct transactions.
2. When the storage has generated private keys, the owner of the wallet should make a backup copy so as not to lose access to the coins in the future.
3. Many cryptocurrency storage services do not support a password reset or recovery option. Therefore, creating backups is a very important process.

The text was prepared by: Dmitry Konovalov - author of the Cryptoteam blog. Experience in cryptocurrency trading for more than 5 years.

Pros and cons of hard drive mining

Mining on a hard drive has 7 main advantages:

1. There is no need to buy an expensive motherboard with multiple PCI-E slots.
2. No need for a top-end video card. Any one will do, even built-in ones.
3. There is no need to buy powerful power supplies. 10 hard drives at maximum load consume approximately 100 watts.
4. There is no need to build rigs, assemble and configure farms and store them in separate rooms. It is very easy to make a farm from an HDD, and you can store it in a regular case from the system unit.
5. The hard drive, even when operating at maximum speed, does not generate too much heat; on average, 10 HDDs heat up like one powerful video card. No need for expensive coolers, fans and other cooling systems.
6. There are no high energy costs.
7. No special knowledge is required; even a beginner can do it.

There are only a few disadvantages, but they are quite significant:

1. You still have to buy the disc itself. A fast HDD with a good amount of memory costs from 5,000 rubles, and a top-end HDD costs from 15,000 rubles.
2. Used drives at a discounted price are rarely available for sale, and even if you can find such an offer, the quality of the equipment will not be top-notch.
3. The hard drive lasts about 10,000 hours, after which it starts to work worse and worse.
4. The reward for PoC mining is much less than for PoW or PoS. This means that buying a disk will not pay off quickly.

Additionally, there are few cryptocurrencies that can be mined this way. And their course often leaves much to be desired.

Services for neutralization

You can use a manual method to combat this threat on your computer, but to simplify the process, you can pay attention to antiviruses. These are special programs developed by experts that allow you to find malicious software on hardware. In this case, you need to decide for yourself whether you are willing to pay for an antivirus or whether you want to expose your device to a threat again. For example, you can consider an option such as Avast. It is considered a good antivirus that is capable of performing basic protective functions.

It should be noted that antiviruses do not classify miners as virus programs. After all, in fact, they do not damage the computer system and rarely affect personal files. This is simply using the device's power. And any other program will do this. Accordingly, you have to configure the antivirus so that it actually works.

So, we have to launch the Avast program, go to settings, and then open “General”. There you will need to activate it by checking the box next to “Enable enhanced mode” and “Search for potentially unwanted programs (PUPs)”. This is the easiest way to find a Bitcoin miner. To improve the accuracy of the result, you can use Process Hacker.

After you have installed Process Hacker, click on CPU, thereby activating the processes that consume the processor. Most often, scammers are cunning and call the process itself some kind of system component. This allows you to hide from security software. Therefore, carefully study the actions taking place within the system. Then look at where the process is starting from, this will remove the system permanently. To reduce the load, freeze activities. Simply select the name you are interested in by right-clicking on the action, and then click on “Suspend”.

As a result of such simple actions, the miner will be saved and will no longer overload the processor. If you open Properties, there you can see information in general about the process where the miner is located. Next, you need to follow the path and erase the utility. In order not to always perform such actions, it is best to follow recommendations for increasing the level of computer security.