Why Bitcoin will rise in price - just about halving and not only for a beginner

As you already know, a wallet (English: Bitcoin wallet - also known as a network client, wallet) is software for working with Bitcoin. It is in the wallet that all operations are carried out. You can store coins, send and receive them, sign and verify messages. There are other useful features that are of interest to advanced users.

We hope that this review will be of interest not only to beginners, but will also help experienced users learn about the new features that have been added in the latest version of the Bitcoin Core v 0.10.0 wallet. Having a more in-depth knowledge of Bitcoin allows for customization and additional capabilities when creating transactions and monitoring.

Bitcoin wallets come in several types - thick and thin, mobile and online. The first and main one is a full or, as they sometimes say, “heavy”, “thick” wallet, which is called Bitcoin Core. This article is exactly about him.

Bitcoin Core is the so-called “official” client of the network, which is developed and promoted by the Bitcoin Foundation, a non-profit organization that unites core developers and is responsible for community contacts with corporations and governments. Bitcoin Foundation branches are open in several dozen countries around the world.

Initially, Satoshi Nakamoto delegated the decision-making power to change the code of the official version of the wallet to Gavin Andresen, who, in turn, transferred it in 2014 to Vladimir Van der Laan.

The implementation of any changes to the next release of the program, other than the main developer, is coordinated with the other kernel developers: Jeff Garzik, Gregory Maxwell and Peter Wull.

Description

WBTC (Wrapped Bitcoin) is an ERC20 token that is an analogue of Bitcoin.
One WBTC is equal to one BTC. BTC can be converted to WBTC and vice versa. Briefly:

• WBTC is an Ethereum token designed to improve liquidity for DeFi applications.
• BTC holders can invest their Bitcoins in the form of WBTC and earn interest on it.
• WBTC is operated by a group of organizations operating under the DeFi banner to help provide more sophisticated financial services.

Bitcoin is the world's first, largest and most recognized crypto asset. Since the creation of Bitcoin more than 10 years ago, the revolutionary technology behind the peer-to-peer system has largely remained the same.

However, innovation has continued to occur in other parts of the blockchain ecosystem, with the rapidly growing world of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) being a prime example.

WBTC attempts to combine the best of both worlds by bringing value and liquidity (money) to Bitcoin and making it usable in the DeFi world.

Basic commands for interacting with the Bitcoin Core RPC console

In this article we will look at using a fully synchronized Bitcoin Core node to run commands in the bitcoin-qt console.
If you don't already have Bitcoin Core installed on your computer, you can download it here. Please be aware that Bitcoin Core has higher minimum space requirements (currently ~250GB), bandwidth requirements and will require resyncing if offline for any period of time.

Bitcoin Core has built-in commands for retrieving data, generating addresses, sending transactions, and much more. The RPC console is a great way to get started if you are interested in developing Bitcoin applications or just learning more about how Bitcoin nodes work. We will be learning some basic commands to gain information about the network, blockchain, and transactions.

Once you have installed the Bitcoin client and are waiting for your node to sync with the network, open the console. It can be found in the drop-down window when running bitcoin-qt (the GUI for Bitcoin Core).

The Bitcoin-RPC console accepts various commands, usually from 0 or 1 arguments. There are also methods that require more than 1 arguments, such as sending or validating a transaction. A complete list of RPC commands can be found here. In this tutorial we will use the following basic commands to familiarize ourselves with the console:

Block information

getblockcount getbestblockhash getblock hash

getblockhash index

Transaction Information

getrawmempool getrawtransaction txid

decoderawtransaction rawtx

General information on commands

These commands will return an object with various information. For example,

>getblockchaininfo

returns:

{ "chain": "main", "blocks": 582101, "headers": 582101, "bestblockhash": "000000000000000000165bf4a8eaa460df4752002840009c29ec0adfd9376406", "difficulty": 7409399249 090.253, "mediantime": 1561321207, "verificationprogress": 0.9999922936147396, "initialblockdownload" : false, "chainwork": "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000006d23718c9e22adc4275b706", "size_on_disk": 257091100656, "pruned": false, "softforks": [ { "id": "bip34" ", "version": 2, "reject": { "status ": true } },

{

"id": "bip66", "version": 3, "reject": { "status": true } },

{

"id": "bip65", "version": 4, "reject": { "status": true } }

],

"bip9_softforks": { "csv": { "status": "active", "startTime": 1462060800, "timeout": 1493596800, "since": 419328 }, "segwit": { "status": "active", "startTime": 1479168000, "timeout": 1510704000, "since": 481824 }

},

"warnings":" " }

There is a lot of information in this command. This gives us all the details we need to determine the best block and where to find it. We can also see the size of the implemented blockchain and the various soft forks.

Second general information command,

>getmininginfo

returns the following object:

{ "blocks": 582102, "difficulty": 7409399249090.253, "networkhashps": 6.626238141514776e+019, "pooledtx": 3527, "chain": "main", "warnings": " " }

Blocks and difficulty values ​​are also found in the getblockchaininfo command, but here we can find:

• network hashes per second
• number of transactions in the transfer pool

The third general information command is to find out information about the Peers with whom your node is sharing blockchain data. This command:

>getpeerinfo

returns an array of objects. Each object has information about the peer node to which your Bitcoin Core instance is currently connected. Typically this number is 10–50 if port 8333 is open on the router. Information returned includes:

• IP Address Information
• Time since last sent/received
• Node connection time (working time)
• Version
• Additional information about the network

The total number of Peers in this array indicates the number of connections, however you can also use the getconnectioncount command to return a numeric value of connected nodes.

Block commands

To get block data, we first need the block index or hash to identify that block. We can get both values ​​about the current best block in the chain using the commands:

>getblockcount

to return the current best block index:

582102

or

>getbestblockhash

to return the current best hash of the block:

000000000000000000227508581434096917b80e3a4c981116cc8ff532aa48ef

Each block in the Bitcoin chain has an index and a hash that we can use to find details about it. Blocks can be searched directly using the block hash or indirectly using the block index. For example, let's say we know we want to find a block with level (index) 530120. First, enter the command:

> getblockhash 530120

which returns the hash:

00000000000000000025c3a8404acf1cabc9fe0a2901f59828128c3bb16f7616

Then use the getblock command to get the block data:

> getblock 00000000000000000025c3a8404acf1cabc9fe0a2901f59828128c3bb16f7616

The command getblock called with a specific hash will return:

• number of confirmed blocks from this block
• block size
• block weight
• merkle root
• array of all TX IDs in the block
• time the block was found
• nonce block
• current difficulty
• number of transactions (nTx)
• next/previous block of hashes

Transaction Commands

Bitcoin does not index transactions by default. To search for transactions other than those associated with your wallet, you must first enable indexing in the configuration file. Go to Settings > Options >> Open Configuration File to open the Bitcoin configuration file (bitcoin.conf).

Add the line:

txindex=1

After adding this command, save the file and restart Bitcoin Core. This process can take several hours, so it's useful to set it up overnight or while you're away. Once Bitcoin Core has an indexed blockchain, any transaction can be reviewed individually using the getrawtransaction and decoderawtransaction commands.

This may seem like a tedious extra step, but keep in mind that this setting is also a requirement for lightnening node to work.

Now that we have an indexed Bitcoin node running, let's find some transactions to decode. We can see the IDs of all transactions in mempool using the command >getrawmempool

this command will return an array of (usually) thousands of pending transactions currently in the mempool.

We can look at a specific transaction by selecting one of these transaction IDs.

> getrawtransaction 68ecbf8b6d78db0aa4969feb65c6d600bde02f33dbc84151139964fcf448af55

this will return the unprocessed transaction:

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

This hexadecimal string, let's call it hex, is a transaction encoded and can be decoded using:

> decoderawtransaction hex

This command returns an object with detailed information about this transaction

{ "txid": "68ecbf8b6d78db0aa4969feb65c6d600bde02f33dbc84151139964fcf448af55", "hash": "68ecbf8b6d78db0aa4969feb65c6d600bde02f33dbc841511399 64fcf448af55", "version": 1, "size": 284, "vsize": 284, "weight": 1136, "locktime": 0, "vin" : [ { "txid": "ea25433a0594c8e7d682854810dbfc3cc676cedde4f094b27a29aef8af7352", "vout": 0, "scriptSig": { "asm": "3045022100bc7852636a24fd1da1e14d04abc2 c8a467b45f5f7922be47ed8cbd5f571904af0220239cb094a40a4b5d812096b82354bc4470823aeaf8658dd9c71a43327f4a29cd[ALL] 02a1703f0092c3de5106379b ce7f8689263e31ea8ed41723c8533c28de62cf16", "hex": "483045022100bc7852636a24fd1da1e14d04abc2c8a467b45f5f7922be47ed8cbd5f571904af0220239cb09 4a40a4b5d812096b82354bc4470823aeaf8658dd9c71a43327f4a29cd012102a1703f0092c3de5106379bce7f8689263e31ea8ed41723c8533c28de62cf16" }, "sequence ": 4294967295 }

],

"vout": [ { "value": 0.00556057, "n": 0, "scriptPubKey": { "asm": "OP_DUP OP_HASH160 bf1cccd8e4256b5258ce66849e05f4a59f1edb8d OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG", "hex": "76a914 bf1cccd8e4256b5258ce66849e05f4a59f1edb8d88ac", "reqSigs": 1, " type": "pubkeyhash", "addresses": [ "1JRWZiGXAm9n3b5FXopkW1wPifAtXwfjWC" ] } },

{

"value": 0.00000000, "n": 1, "scriptPubKey": { "asm": "OP_RETURN 0003ad250002c5239e661ae029df7a66f02955e7a322413e8eb6448072b87b7a7c1304ac111052848276 bb2bbbf5ad6612436a5d0fe8370702bd541feb2ffa416fa6194a21eb30a2be3060387bf871", "hex": "6a4c500003ad250002c5239e661ae029df7a66f02955e7a322413e8 eb6448072b87b7a7c1304ac111052848276bb2bbbf5ad6612436a5d0fe8370702bd541feb2ffa416fa6194a21eb30a2be3060387bf871", "type": "NULLdata" } } ]

}

Here we have

• transaction size
• transaction weight
• input details
• output data and value/s

There is a lot of information here, but note that the above transaction does not have any values ​​associated with its entry. The block in which the transaction was confirmed is also not available in the transaction.

These details are missing to prevent the blockchain from repeating unnecessary data. However, we have enough information to search for the amounts received for each Bitcoin transaction and the ability to view the results of previous transactions.

Using these commands, it is enough to build a basic block explorer.

Conclusion

The Bitcoin Core RPC console is at the center of using a Bitcoin node to simplify transactions and build applications. Each Bitcoin instance has access to a nearly immutable shared database of previous transaction history, as well as network and mining information.

Understanding some of these basic commands is an important step in developing Bitcoin applications and working with nodes in general.

These commands can be made available to many different programming languages ​​to create APIs and applications that use and implement transaction logic.

You can run your business from your own node and programmatically track every transaction through an application with a customizable user interface.

Source: https://coincase.ru/blog/47479/

What is WBTC (Wrapped Bitcoin)?

WBTC (Wrapped Bitcoin) is a simple ERC20 token that is an analogue of Bitcoin in the Ethereum blockchain. One WBTC is equal to one BTC.

BTC can be converted to WBTC and vice versa. Being an ERC20 token, transactions with WBTC are faster than BTC transactions, but the main advantage of WBTC is its integration into the world of Ethereum, dapps and smart contracts.

How are WBTC tokens created?

The governing members of the WBTC DAO decide on major updates and changes to the protocol, as well as who can take on the role of merchants and holders who will govern the system.

Users who have BTC and want to convert it to WBTC must interact with merchants. Merchants initiate the process of creating or recording WBTC tokens by performing verification procedures to confirm the user's identity.

When WBTC is burned, the BTC is returned to the user from the holder. When a new WBTC is created, the BTC is taken from the user and stored by the holder.

How to quickly take a screenshot

Letters on Thursdays

How not to spam and meet KPIs. Which marketing tools are better and which are worse. How to send beautiful and clear letters.

A screenshot is a screenshot. It can be useful to show or explain something to other people, as well as to prepare illustrations for an article.

There are many ways to take a screenshot quickly:

• press hot keys in the operating system;
• use the built-in program in the system;
• install the extension in the browser;
• download the program to your computer or laptop.

Let's look at each method in more detail. Especially for those who stopped by for a minute, I’ll tell you right away which tool is best to use in which cases.

On macOS

To take a screenshot:

• entire screen, press Shift+Command+3;
• selected area - Shift+Command+4;
• browser window - Shift+Command+4, then press spacebar and click on the window.

Mac saves all pictures on the desktop in PNG format.

On Windows

To take a screenshot:

• entire screen, press PrtSc;
• active window - Alt + PrtSc.

The screenshot is saved to the clipboard. This is convenient when you need to insert an image directly into a document (for example, Google Docs) or into an editor (Paint, Photoshop). To insert a screenshot, press Ctr+v or select the desired item in the context menu (right mouse button).

If you want to immediately save the photo as a file, press Win/Fn + PrtSc. Look for the file on your system drive in the Images/Screenshots folder.

Where to find.

Via search, or press Shift+Command+5.

What he can do.

Takes a screenshot of the entire screen, a selected area, a browser window, or a screen menu. By default, it saves pictures to the desktop.

There is a timer that delays the shot for 5 or 10 seconds. This feature is useful when you need to remove drop-down menus and system messages.

The utility allows you to edit the image: flip it, add captions and highlight the main thing.

Where to find.

Through search or in the “Start” menu - “Windows Accessories”.

What he can do.

Takes a screenshot of the screen, active window, or selected area. Among the features - it allows you to select both a rectangular area and an area of ​​arbitrary shape.

Heart shaped highlight. A screenshot of the program window was taken using the Alt+PrSc keys

The Snipping Tool has a timer to delay the shot for up to 5 seconds.

The resulting image opens in the editor, where there is a pen and a marker for selections. Changes cannot be undone, which is inconvenient. Therefore, if you need to edit a screen, it is better to open it in Paint (this is done directly from the “Scissors” menu).

The finished image is saved as JPG or PNG.

The Windows 10 team is threatening to replace the Scissors tool with the Sketch on Screen Fragment utility in one of the next updates. To access it, press Win+Shift+S. There is no timer or ability to remove the active window, but there is a cancellation in the editor.

Screen Sketch tool menu

I will move from the simplest to the most functional.

Language.

English.

What he can do.

Takes a screenshot of the entire page in one click. To do this, click on the extension icon or Alt+Shift+P. Takes a high-quality and quick screenshot of the entire page.

To save the finished screen as a file, drag it to your desktop.

Format.

PNG or PDF.

What is the price.

For free.

Install

See how the service eats up the page with gusto. It will cope perfectly with any landing page or longread

Language.

Russian.

What he can do.

Takes a photo of the selected area in two clicks, allows you to share a link or save the file to disk. The link is immediately copied to the clipboard.

I didn’t like that when you select a tool, the visible area of ​​the screen decreases, as if the resolution is changing (I’m working on a laptop running Windows 10).

Format.

PNG.

What is the price.

For free.

Install

The extension changes the screen size after launch, which is why the image on the right and the text of the captions did not fit

Language.

Russian.

What he can do.

Takes a screenshot of the selected area.
Unlike Screenshot, Lightshot has an editor with basic tools. Allows you to add text, highlights, arrows, lines and shapes. Can't blur parts of a screenshot. On the plus side, the extension allows you to quickly share a photo on social networks (VKontakte, , , Pinterest) or print the screen.
Another cool feature is searching for similar images in Google directly through the service editor.

Format.

PNG.

What is the price

. For free.

Install

Conveniently, all editing tools appear immediately after selecting an area. You can change the size and position of the frame, even if you have already added text and drawn arrows

Language.

English.

What he can do.

Takes a screenshot of the selected area, the visible part of the screen, the browser window and the entire page. There are hotkeys to capture the entire page.

FireShot offers to save, send by mail, or print the finished image. The paid version also includes exporting pictures to OneNote and Flickr.

The big minus is that the free version does not have an editor.

Format.

PDF, JPG, PNG, GIF or BMP.

What is the price.

Free without editor. There is a lifetime license - about 3,000 rubles.

Install

At first glance, the paid version of the service has a lot of tools. However, there is no blur or sequence of steps. In addition, I found it awkward to use and the design seemed outdated

Language.

Russian.

What he can do.

Photographs a fragment or the entire page. Supports hotkeys. Allows you to save the picture to your computer or publish it to the cloud and immediately receive a link. It’s convenient that you can quickly share a screenshot on social networks.

The editor has many tools. Draw with a pencil; add straight lines, arrows, shapes and comments; hide the excess using blur. The Joxi editor even has a sequence of steps.

To have access to your screenshot history, you need to register.

Format.

PNG.

What is the price.

For free.

Install

Joxi can share an image on 40 social networks

Language.

English.

What he can do.

Captures a selected area, a visible part of the screen, or the entire page. Allows you to select a delay of 3 or 5 seconds before the photo is taken. Supports hotkeys.

The service's editor has all the standard editing tools, including blur and the ability to change the size of the picture.

The finished image can be saved as a file on your computer or in the cloud (Google Drive is available for free), printed, or shared with your team via Asana, Slack, and Trello (registration required).

A big plus of Awesome Screenshot is that the extension allows you to record not only screenshots, but also screencasts.

Format.

PNG or JPEG (selectable in settings), PDF.

What is the price.

For free. There are paid tariffs starting from 300 rubles/month. Mainly they are pumping up the capabilities for screencasts.

Install

Of the paid tools, the sequence of steps is the most useful, but it’s easy to do without it

Joxi and Lightshot have desktop versions with roughly the same functionality as the extensions. There is no point in describing them again. But the Screenshoter program has much more functions. Therefore, I will start the review with her.

Language.

Russian.

What he can do.

Captures the entire screen, a selected area, or the active window. Supports hotkeys.

Unlike the extension, the program has an editor with basic tools and blur.

In the settings you can select the image format and quality. The program allows you to save the finished screenshot to disk or upload it to the server.

The most important feature of the desktop version of Screenshot is that the program can shoot video in mp4 format for up to 60 minutes.

Format.

PNG and JPG.

What is the price.

For free.

Download

The editor in the program is painfully reminiscent of the Lightshot editor

Language.

Russian.

What he can do.

Captures the screen, area and active window. You can configure hotkeys.

The tools include blur and sequence of steps.

The finished screen is saved to the cloud, to disk or to the clipboard. It is possible to share the image with other users and send it by mail.

The program has a nice interface. One thing is bad: when I try to take a screenshot, the size of the visible screen changes, so taking screenshots is inconvenient.

Format.

PNG.

What is the price.

For free.

Download

Language.

Russian.

What he can do.

Takes a screenshot of the selected area. Supports control using hot keys.

There is an editor with all the basic tools.

The finished image is saved to the clipboard, hard drive or uploaded to the cloud. It is possible to set the quality of saved images.

Not a bad program, but here I still have a problem with the size of the visible part of the screen - it changes after selecting a tool. The desktop versions of Screenshot, Joxi and Lightshot do not have this problem.

Format.

JPG.

What is the price.

For free.

Download

1. Don't be shallow

. Important elements for which the screenshot is taken should be visible and understandable without a magnifying glass or close examination.

2. Cut off the excess.

Shortcuts, extraneous windows and browser tabs distract from the essence. Try to remove such things from the frame, or at least crop and blur the most distracting elements.

3. Focus on what's important.

Use arrows and highlights.

4. Do it carefully.

Screenshots should not contain cropped pieces of content, and it is better to make all arrows and highlights in the same style.

5. Remove confidential information.

Be sure to hide all personal information if you plan to post the image online. The Blur tool is good for this.

6. Think about the goal.

First, think about why you are taking a screenshot, what you want to show with it. When the goal is clear, it's easier to get the screenshot right.

Source: https://www.unisender.com/ru/blog/sovety/screenshot/

Where can I buy?

The coin is traded on the following exchanges:

Further developments and safety

The Bitcoin-qt software, created on the basis of Satoshi’s first developments, had no analogues for a long time; it was the first and only implementation of the Bitcoin protocol. However, so far in the Bitcoin network, all other clients operate at the “light” level, that is, they do not store the blockchain, requesting transaction data from nodes with Bitcoin Core.

Vladimir van der Laan:

In the early years, Bitcoin Core was incredibly important, and developers had to maintain the node infrastructure and fix bugs at all hours of the day and night. But to become a global distributed network, Bitcoin must think bigger. In his speech at Bitcoin Conference 2014, Gavin [Adresen] noted that diversification is important to him. He talked about alternative implementations of full nodes and even said that the more there are, the better. And although my job is to support the development of Bitcoin Core, I rather agree with him.”

In a recent interview, Van der Laan spoke about development plans, where among the priorities he pointed out the need to strengthen security. The internal conflict lies in the fact that on one side, as a node, the wallet must be online constantly, ensuring stable P2P operation, but, for security purposes, it must be online for as little time as possible.

The official repository for the Bitcoin Core code is the Github page. Despite being open source, decisions about making changes to the client repository are available to a limited number of people, while other developers can create a pull request and ask for their changes to be included in the main branch of the project.

Combining the efforts of the entire community is necessary not only for innovation, but even more so when it comes to testing important, complex and mission-critical components.

Disadvantages and risks of GBTC

Citron Research's Andrew Left publicly criticized Grayscale Investment Trust, and Citron tweeted that GBTC is "the most dangerous way to own Bitcoin."

Possible disadvantages of investing in a trust include paying high premiums along with annual fees, as well as risk factors associated with general volatility in the cryptocurrency market, as well as investment vehicles that are not required to register with the SEC.

Because Trust is currently the only fund of its kind dedicated specifically to Bitcoin, investors are paying a high premium.

In September 2022, GBTC shares traded at a high of $7.95, about 20% higher than the value of Bitcoin.