Summary: EPISODE 4 - APRIL 11, 2013 Concept of the day: Wallets Address, & Security Wallet A wallet is a container that stores both your receiving addresses (public) and spending (private) key Address An address is like the money clip in your pocket in that it gives you an easy, single place to store value that you might like to spend. When you’re not actively spending it, you keep it in a small transparent safe - You can see everything inside of it, but you can’t access the money kept in each money clip inside without the right key or combination. Once you use the right combination, the safe opens and you can access the value inside to use however you like. The lock on the safe is “Wallet Encryption” Wallet Encryption: Wallet encryption uses a scheme called “AES-256” to encrypt only the private keys that are held in a wallet. The keys are encrypted with a master key which is entirely random. Adam: What’s encryption? Paul: Encryption is a process of encoding messages or information in such a way that third parties cannot read it, but authorized parties can. This master key is then encrypted. Adam: What does a key look like? Paul: It’s not a physical key, more a random string of numbers and letters that you can access and use when you put in your correct password. At runtime, the client loads the wallet as it normally would, however the keys are stored in encrypted form. When the passphrase is required it will be asked for from the client, otherwise it must first be entered on the ‘command line’. When wallet passphrase encryption becomes enabled, any unused keys from the keypool are flushed and new keys protected with encryption are added. For this reason, make a new backup of your wallet so that you will be able to recover the keys from the new key pool should access to your backups be necessary. And lastly, ALWAYS use good ‘passwords’ as your passphrase! You are only as strong as your weakest link. NEWS 1. The Crash MTGOX is DOWN! (on purpose) What caused the crash? Is it like the crash of June 11? Stolen Bitcoins because of a malware on mtgox look-alike-site? 2. Libertarian Party (United States) now accepting bitcoin. 3. Bitcoin mining botnet has become one of the most prevalent cyber threats THE DAILY SCUTTLEBUTT ------------------------------------- 1. CONFIRMED - Someone has toured the BFL offices! 2. http://www.kncminer.com/ - new ASIC company? 3. Picnic Wine Co. - first alchohol company to accept Bitcoin? This show is quite a bit of work! If you like what we're doing, please tip us! 1C3BxUuPdzxrvY91h8LpVANi7isdLtkbv
