Getting started with bitcoin is not the easiest task in the world. For many, the learning curve can be pretty steep and that is often enough to scare away new users. Learning the basics of how to receive and send bitcoin is where most people should begin to familiarize themselves how bitcoin works so here’s all the information you need to get started.
How To Receive Bitcoin
Before you can send any outgoing bitcoin transactions, you first need to receive some bitcoin. There are a few ways that you can do this. You can simply accept a payment via a QR code or you can create a payment request. Let’s take a closer look at both.
Choosing A Bitcoin Wallet
There are a number of different types of bitcoin wallets, each with their own pros and cons. Most users will start off with a free wallet in form of an app on a smartphone. These types of wallets are called mobile wallets and are likely the most common of all the bitcoin wallets.
You can also use desktop wallets, hardware wallets and even something called a paper wallet to receive bitcoin. We’ve written more extensive information about all of these wallet types in more detailed articles to further help our readers to understand the different pros and cons of each.
Receiving Bitcoin With A QR Code?
QR Code stands for Quick Response Code and it is the de facto means of displaying a bitcoin address. QR codes can be used to display any kind of information but they are most commonly used in digital marketing for a quick display of a website URL or social media links. You probably see these on a daily basis and don’t even realize it.
In the bitcoin space, QR codes are used to receive bitcoin by displaying bitcoin addresses.
Here’s what a standard address looks like and what it looks like as a QR code.
How To Send Bitcoin
Sending bitcoin is typically a bit easier than receiving it because all you really have to do is scan a QR code, input the amount of bitcoin that you would like to send and then press send. Some wallets will require some sort of 2FA in order to actually send. This usually takes the form of a pin code or password but if you are sending from a bitcoin exchange, you may be required to use Google authenticator AND verify your email address.
To send bitcoin you need to be able to scan a QR code with a camera on your mobile wallet or your desktop computer. Every mobile wallet that I know of uses the camera on the phone to scan QR codes and even some desktop wallets are able to scan QR codes via the front-facing camera on the computer.
Note: It is incredibly important to double check the address that you are sending to when using a hardware wallet because your computer may have been infected with malware that will change the address that you send to. This is why most hardware wallets will display the address that you are sending to on the actual device. Yet another reason why we are such advocates of using hardware wallets.
When you send any outgoing transactions, it is important to double or even triple check the address to make sure that the destination is correct.
Sending Bitcoin To A Payment Request
If you are sending bitcoin to someone who is requesting a payment, as soon as you scan their QR code it will usually prompt you with a screen that says something like “Would you like to send X bitcoin to address (address goes here). After you confirm the amount that you would like to send, you will then be prompted to enter your pin code and then your transaction will be sent. It’s that easy.
Sending With Custodial Wallets
If you and the person you are sending to use a custodial wallet like Cash App, you may be able to send to them with only their email address instead of their bitcoin address. Personally, we do not recommend using custodial wallets to hodl any bitcoin. It’s best practice to hodl all of your bitcoins under your own control and only use custodial services to buy and sell bitcoin.
Conclusion
You will first need to receive bitcoin before you can send any out but a good way to get familiar with this is to try receiving a tiny amount of bitcoin via a bitcoin faucet. After you have received a little bit you may want to get familiar with sending to another address that you control.
If you have some friends that you can send and receive back and forth with, try to create a payment request and get one of your friends to scan it to see how it all works.
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