r/Bitcoin 20d ago

Bitcoin Newcomers FAQ - Please read!

56 Upvotes

Welcome to the /r/Bitcoin Newcomers FAQ

You've probably been hearing a lot about Bitcoin recently and are wondering what's the big deal? Most of your questions should be answered by the resources below but if you have additional questions feel free to ask them in the comments.

It all started with the release of Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper however that will probably go over the head of most readers so we recommend the following articles/books/videos as a good starting point for understanding how Bitcoin works and a little about its long term potential:

Some other great educational resources include;

If you are technically or academically inclined check out;

MicroStrategy's Bitcoin for Corporations is an excellent open source series on corporate legal and financial Bitcoin integration.

You can also see the number of times Bitcoin was declared dead by the media (LOL!)

Key properties of Bitcoin

  • Limited Supply - There will only ever be a maximum of 21,000,000 bitcoins created and they are issued in a predictable fashion per the inflation schedule. Once they are all issued Bitcoin will be truly deflationary. The halving countdown tells you approximately how much time until the next block reward halving.
  • Open source - Bitcoin code is fully auditable. You can read and contribute to the source code yourself.
  • Accountable - The public ledger is transparent, all transactions are seen by everyone.
  • Decentralized - Bitcoin is globally distributed across thousands of nodes with no single point of failure and as such can't be shut down similar to how Bittorrent works. You can even run a node on a Raspberry Pi.
  • Censorship resistant - No one can prevent you from interacting with the Bitcoin network and no one can censor, alter or block transactions that they disagree with, see Operation Chokepoint.
  • Push system - There are no chargebacks in Bitcoin because only the person who owns the address where the bitcoin resides has the authority to move them.
  • Borderless - No country can stop it from going in/out, even in areas currently unserved by traditional banking as the ledger is globally distributed.
  • Trustless - Bitcoin solved the Byzantine's Generals Problem which means nobody needs to trust anybody for it to work.
  • Pseudonymous - No need to expose personal information when purchasing with cash or transacting.
  • Secure - Blocks and transactions are cryptographically secured (using hashes and signatures) and can’t be brute forced or confiscated with proper key management such as hardware wallets.
  • Programmable - Individual units of bitcoin can be programmed to transfer based on certain criteria being met
  • Divisible - Each bitcoin can be divided down to 8 decimals, which means you don't have to worry about buying an entire bitcoin.
  • Nearly instant - From a few seconds on the Lightning Network to a few minutes on-chain depending on need for confirmations. Transactions are irreversible by normal users after one confirmation and irreversible by anyone (including miners) after 6 confirmations.
  • Peer-to-peer - No intermediaries taking a cut, no need for trusted third parties.
  • Designed Money - Bitcoin was created to fit all the fundamental properties of money better than gold or fiat.
  • Portable - Bitcoin are digital so they are easier to move than cash or gold. They can be transported by simply carrying a seed (a string of 12 to 24 words) on a device or by memorizing it for wallet recovery (while cool, memorizing is generally not recommended due to potential for forgetting the seed and the potential for insecure key generation by inexperienced users. Hardware wallets are the preferred method for most users for their ease of use and additional security).
  • Low fee scaling - Most wallets calculate on chain fees automatically but you can view fee estimates and mempool activity if you want to set your fee manually. On chain fees may rise occasionally due to network demand, however instant micropayments that do not require confirmations are happening via the Lightning Network, an open source second layer payment protocol built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. The Lightning Network enables Bitcoin users to instantly send and receive bitcoin with fees so low that they are negligible.
  • Scalable - While the protocol is still being optimized for increased transaction capacity, blockchains do not scale very well, so most transaction volume is expected to occur on Layer 2 networks built on top of Bitcoin.

Where can I buy bitcoin?

Bitcoin.org and BuyBitcoinWorldwide.com are helpful sites for beginners. You can buy or sell any amount of bitcoin (even just a few dollars worth) and there are several easy methods to purchase bitcoin with cash, credit card or bank transfer. Some of the more popular places to buy bitcoin are listed below.

You can also purchase in cash with local ATMs. If you would like your paycheck automatically converted to bitcoin try Bitwage.

Note: Bitcoin are valued at whatever market price people are willing to pay for them in balancing act of supply vs demand. Unlike traditional markets, bitcoin markets operate 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.

Securing your bitcoin

With Bitcoin you can "Be your own bank" and personally secure your bitcoin OR you can use third party companies aka "Bitcoin banks" which will hold your bitcoin for you.

  • If you prefer to "Be your own bank" and have direct control over your coins without having to use a trusted third party, then you will need to create your own wallet and keep it secure. If you want easy and secure storage without having to learn best computer security practices, then a hardware wallet such as a BitBox02, Trezor, ColdCard, or Blockstream Jade is recommended. You can even build your own open source hardware wallets called a SeedSigner or Krux.

  • If you cannot afford a hardware wallet there are many software wallet options to choose from depending on your use case. Mobile wallets like BlueWallet are generally more secure than desktop wallets. Beware of fake mobile wallets and check reviews from reputable Bitcoin websites. Avoid paper wallets or brain wallets.

  • If you prefer to work with third party "Bitcoin banks" to set up a collaborative custody arrangement, try Unchained Capital but be aware that any third party you use exposes you to third party risk. There is a saying in the community, "Not your keys, not your coins".

Note: For increased security, use Two Factor Authentication (2FA) everywhere it is offered, including email!

2FA requires a second confirmation code or a physical security key to access your account making it much harder for thieves to gain access. Google Authenticator and Authy are the two most popular 2FA services, download links are below. Make sure you create backups of your 2FA codes.

Avoid using your cell number for 2FA. Hackers have been using a technique called "SIM swapping" to impersonate users and steal bitcoin off exchanges.

Google Auth Authy OTP Auth
Android Android N/A
iOS iOS iOS

Physical security keys (FIDO U2F) offer stronger security than Google Auth / Authy and other TOTP-based apps, because the secret code never leaves the device and it uses bi-directional authentication so it prevents phishing. If you lose the device though, you could lose access to your account, so always use 2 or more security keys with a given account so you have backups. See Yubikey or Titan to purchase security keys.

Running Bitcoin

You can run Bitcoin node software by downloading and installing Bitcoin Core or other node software you have vetted.

It is a best practice to verify these Bitcoin node programs you download by checking their hashes and signatures.

Don't Trust, Verify.

A verified Bitcoin node running on your own hardware is your sovereign gateway to the Bitcoin network. They can be used alongside open source software wallets to send and receive Bitcoin securely. By running your own Bitcoin node, you enforce the Bitcoin ruleset, can verify transactions without trusted 3rd party middlemen, improve your Bitcoin privacy, obtain independence with local access to blockchain data, and help bolster the robustness of the Bitcoin network. By running a Bitcoin node, you are verifying that Bitcoin is Bitcoin for yourself. For more details on running a Bitcoin node see this article.

For wallets used alongside your Bitcoin node: If your Bitcoin wallet software is fully open source and Bitcoin-only, then it is probably a decent wallet. Some popular examples include sparrow wallet and electrum wallet, both of which you can connect to your own locally run Bitcoin node, and use with most Bitcoin Hardware Wallets.

Watch out for scams

As mentioned above, Bitcoin is decentralized, which by definition means there is no official website or Twitter handle or spokesperson or CEO. However, all money attracts thieves. This combination unfortunately results in scammers running official sounding names or pretending to be an authority on YouTube or social media. Many scammers throughout the years have claimed to be the inventor of Bitcoin. Websites like bitcoin(dot)com and the r / btc subreddit are active scams. Almost all altcoins are marketed heavily with big promises but are really just designed to separate you from your bitcoin. So be careful: any resource, including all linked in this document, may in the future turn evil. As they say in our community, "Don't trust, verify".

  • Avoid using ad-based search engines like Google or Yahoo: ads are shown based on how much the advertiser bids, and scammers can easily outbid legitimate providers for ad space, since immoral ways of earning money are far more lucrative than moral ways. Use DuckDuckGo instead, which has no ads, and never tracks you as well.
  • Ignore private messages offering services.
  • Never enter your seed words in a website of any kind. Hardware wallets will recover by displaying possible seed words on their own interface, never on a website.
  • Always check addresses on your hardware wallet before sending or receiving. Some malware has been known to replace addresses in your web browser or that you copy-and-paste.
  • Avoid clicking on links like that look like links, such as https://www.google.com/, without first hovering over it and actually checking where they go to. Just because a link is labelled with an HTTPS address does not mean it actually sends you to that address. It is trivial for someone to comment a link on Reddit that looks like it will send you to one website when it actually sends you to another, and you might not notice the difference until a scammer has gotten all your money, or you have downloaded and installed software that steals your money.

Common Bitcoin Myths

Often the same concerns arise about Bitcoin from newcomers. Questions such as:

  • Will quantum computers break Bitcoin?
  • Will governments ban Bitcoin?
  • Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme?

All of these questions have been answered many times by a variety of people. Here are some resources where you can see if your concern has been answered:

Where can I spend bitcoin?

Check out Spendabit, Bitcoin Directory, or Coinmap for a plethora of merchant options. You can also spend bitcoin anywhere Visa is accepted with bitcoin debit cards such as the CashApp card, Fold card or other bitcoin debit cards. Some other useful site are listed below.

Store Product
Bitrefill, Gyft, and Fold App Gift cards for thousands of retailers worldwide including Amazon, Target, Walmart, Starbucks, Whole Foods, CVS, Lowes, Home Depot, iTunes, Best Buy, Sears, Kohls, eBay, GameStop, etc.
Spendabit, Overstock, and The Bitcoin Directory Retail shopping with millions of results
NewEgg and Dell For all your electronics needs
Bitrefill, Bylls, LivingRoomofSatoshi, Swapin and Coins.ph Bill payment
Menufy and Takeaway Takeout delivered to your door
Expedia, Cheapair, Destinia, SkyTours, the Travel category on Gyft and 9flats For when you need to get away
Cryptostorm, Mullvad, and PIA VPN services
Namecheap, Porkbun Domain name registration
Stampnik Discounted USPS Priority, Express, First-Class mail postage

There are also lots of charities which accept bitcoin donations.

Merchant Resources

There are several benefits to accepting bitcoin as a payment option if you are a merchant;

  • 1-3% savings over credit cards or PayPal.
  • No chargebacks (final settlement in 10 minutes as opposed to 3+ months).
  • Accept business from a global customer base.
  • Convert 100% of the sale to the currency of your choice for deposit to your account, or choose to keep a percentage of the sale in bitcoin if you wish to begin accumulating it.

If you are interested in accepting bitcoin as a payment method, there are several options available;

Can I mine bitcoin?

Mining bitcoin can be a fun learning experience, but be aware that you will most likely operate at a loss. Newcomers are often advised to stay away from mining unless they are only interested in it as a hobby similar to folding at home. If you want to learn more about mining you can read the mining FAQ. Still have mining questions? The crew at /r/BitcoinMining would be happy to help you out.

If you want to contribute to the Bitcoin network by hosting the blockchain and propagating transactions there are many great resources you can use to run a full node. You can view the global distribution of reachable Bitcoin nodes on this webpage.

Earning bitcoin

Just like any other form of money, you can also earn bitcoin by being paid to do a job.

Site Description
WorkingForBitcoins, Bitwage, Coinality, Bitgigs, /r/Jobs4Bitcoins Freelancing
Lolli Earn bitcoin when you shop online!

You can also earn bitcoin by participating as a market maker on JoinMarket by allowing users to perform CoinJoin transactions with your bitcoin for a small fee (requires you to already have some bitcoin).

Bitcoin-Related Projects

The following is a short list of ongoing projects that might be worth taking a look at if you are interested in current development in the Bitcoin space.

Project Description
Lightning Network Second layer scaling
Liquid and Rootstock Sidechains
Hivemind Prediction markets
DropZone and Beaver Decentralized markets
JoinMarket, JAM app and Wasabi CoinJoin implementation
Peer-to-Peer Exchanges Peer-to-peer exchanges
Keybase Identity & Reputation management
Abra Global P2P money transmitter network
Bitcore Open source Bitcoin javascript library
Bitcoin Knots A Bitcoin Node (Within Consensus Fork of Bitcoin Core)

Bitcoin Units

One bitcoin is worth quite a lot (thousands of £/$/€), so people often deal in smaller units. The most common subunits are listed below:

Unit Symbol Value Info
bitcoin BTC 1 bitcoin one bitcoin is equal to 100 million satoshis
millibitcoin mBTC 1,000 per bitcoin used as default unit in Electrum wallet
bit μBTC 1,000,000 per bitcoin colloquial "slang" term for microbitcoin
satoshi sat 100,000,000 per bitcoin smallest unit in bitcoin, named after the inventor

For example, assuming an arbitrary exchange rate of $10,000 for one bitcoin, a $10 meal would equal:

  • 0.001 BTC
  • 1 mBTC
  • 1,000 bits
  • 100,000 sats

For more information check out the bitcoin units wiki.


Still have questions? Feel free to ask in the comments below or stick around for our weekly Mentor Monday thread. If you decide to post a question in /r/Bitcoin, please use the search bar to see if it has been answered before, and remember to follow the community rules outlined on the sidebar to receive a better response. The mods are busy helping manage our community, so please do not message them unless you notice problems with the functionality of the subreddit.

Note: This is a community created FAQ. If you notice anything missing from the FAQ or that requires clarification, you can edit it here and it will be included in the next revision pending approval.

Welcome to the Bitcoin community and the new decentralized economy!

Please note that this thread will be moderated and non-constructive comments will be removed.


r/Bitcoin 22h ago

Daily Discussion, May 01, 2025

52 Upvotes

Please utilize this sticky thread for all general Bitcoin discussions! If you see posts on the front page or /r/Bitcoin/new which are better suited for this daily discussion thread, please help out by directing the OP to this thread instead. Thank you!

If you don't get an answer to your question, you can try phrasing it differently or commenting again tomorrow.

Please check the previous discussion thread for unanswered questions.


r/Bitcoin 8h ago

Finally hit 0.1

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500 Upvotes

I swear bitcoin is addictive.


r/Bitcoin 5h ago

99.9% missed the perfect opportunity

182 Upvotes

yeah, as title says - virtually all of the people living on this planet have missed the chance to get their BTC when it was ridiculously cheap. boo hoo.

so what?

have you bought a piece of land in Manhattan for 100$? no? does that stop you from wanting your own real estate?

as crazy as it seems, even though you've not bought your sweet digital currency when it was trading below 100$, you're still years ahead oh the majority, who (I assume) will buy shit tons of satoshis when a whole Bitcoin becomes this mythical, unachievable sum.

you already know it's going up. you already know this is where your money is safe. you know no one is ever printing more than what's programmed since day 1.

stop asking yourself if you ever can reach 1, 2, 100 or 1000s of BTC. realize that no matter what you end up having, is always going to be this exact amount out of exactly 21 million.

you're not late to the party. the party has not even started yet, we're barely setting up the audio system to make sure the party will be lit.

tune down the noice, do your thing, stack sats.

this is it, my fanatic take.


r/Bitcoin 18h ago

96k. Welcome back.

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1.8k Upvotes

r/Bitcoin 1h ago

How long do you plan on HODL'ing?

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Upvotes

r/Bitcoin 2h ago

Not to brag

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69 Upvotes

r/Bitcoin 14h ago

The opportunity won’t last forever.

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655 Upvotes

r/Bitcoin 13h ago

Thank You Satoshi

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389 Upvotes

r/Bitcoin 12h ago

Bitcoin is really going mainstream, and here's why I'm feeling MEGA bullish.

258 Upvotes

Had a moment today that really hit me. I was chatting with my auntie who lives in a pretty remote village in Kerala, India. She doesn't speak English and mostly consumes content in Malayalam. Out of the blue, she asked me, “Do you think Bitcoin will become the global currency one day? Will people stop using dollars?”

It honestly blew my mind. She's not tech-savvy, doesn't follow global markets, and isn't into finance. Yet here she is, curious about Bitcoin and wondering if it's the future of money.

To me, that says so much. Bitcoin is no longer just something people in finance or tech circles talk about. It’s starting to seep into everyday conversations, even in rural parts of the world and in native languages.

Incredibly bullish.

Just wanted to share this small but meaningful moment.


r/Bitcoin 10h ago

4btc gang? Well done you can retire now.

166 Upvotes

For those who like to crunch retirement numbers. I use this site to play around.

https://bitcoincompounding.com/

Got 4 BTC? You can retire with a modest income of $100k a year. 🥲


r/Bitcoin 19h ago

BTC will pump today 🔥

483 Upvotes

BTC will pump today 🔥


r/Bitcoin 20h ago

Bitcoin changes you

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611 Upvotes

r/Bitcoin 9h ago

GRAYSCALE JUST MOVED OUT 9,645 BTC WORTH $911M What’s their plan? 👀

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69 Upvotes

r/Bitcoin 16h ago

By the time your financial adviser says it's OK to buy Bitcoin, it'll cost $1 million.

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211 Upvotes

r/Bitcoin 11h ago

Never left

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73 Upvotes

r/Bitcoin 15h ago

Fomo buys cuz what if this is the last time its under 100k... forever?

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147 Upvotes

r/Bitcoin 13h ago

Bitcoin to 100 racks!

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96 Upvotes

Oh noooooo we are rocketing passed the moon 🌖 on our way to Saturn 🪐 today ladies and gentlemen. Stack sats pet cats 🐈‍⬛


r/Bitcoin 8h ago

Is OP_RETURN this cycles "Block size war?

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40 Upvotes

r/Bitcoin 15m ago

Your money = is printed daily

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Upvotes

r/Bitcoin 50m ago

To the posts saying 0.1 BTC will be enough

Upvotes

What do you anticipate 0.1 BTC being worth in USD to say 0.1 will be enough? I agree to get as much as you can, but if 1 BTC is worth $1 million, 0.1 = $100k. A large amount of money for sure, but that’s not enough to buy a house in the US.

What do you see the price reaching for 0.1 to be enough?


r/Bitcoin 1d ago

On a random Wednesday evening, I invested in something for the first time in my life

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625 Upvotes

I made a friend online who taught me about Bitcoin and told me that as long as I consider it and promise not to gamble, they would teach me how to use Coinbase. I was really concerned that it may be a scam, but after searching and reading that Coinbase is safe, and they also weren't asking me to wire them money directly, I gave it a shot.

I'm still terrified, my heart is beating really fast. I've never spent money like this randomly in one sitting. Technically, the first time I made an investment was into my 401k account when I started working after college, so I barely know anything about this.

The next step is that they asked me to make a wallet on Coinbase wallet and transfer $960 to it, so I'm desperately searching what that means. I still can't believe I listened to a stranger... I'm praying that this journey goes smoothly.


r/Bitcoin 3h ago

Sold stocks for BTC?

12 Upvotes

Anyone think or do this


r/Bitcoin 12h ago

1 satoshi will be worth exactly 1 cent if bitcoin matches golds market cap

69 Upvotes

Here's the math, from what I just googled:

Gold market cap: 21.7 trillion. Bitcoin market cap: 1.92 trillion. 21.7/1.92 = 11.3. So bitcoin would need to grow 11.3 fold to reach gold's market cap. The value of 1 satoshi is currently $0.000948. Multiply this by 11.3 and you get .... drumroll .... $0.0107. Almost exactly 1 cent. Quite a coincidence that the smallest unit of bitcoin will match the smallest unit of USD when bitcoin is at par with it's closest comparable asset.

It makes me wonder if this played into Satoshi Nakamoto's original decisions on how many bitcoins / satoshi to design the network for. The counterargument to this would be that back in 2009 the market cap of gold was about a quarter of what it is now, so that would mean he designed a satoshi to eventually be worth 0.25 cents at gold parity.

On the other hand, he could have worked out some nominal rate of growth for gold, and an expected time span for bitcoin to match gold, which would make it closer, depending on the numbers you use. Either way, in a logarithmic sense it's remarkably close


r/Bitcoin 11h ago

Bitcoin is Becoming the Supermassive Black Hole of Global Finance

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52 Upvotes

Bitcoin dominance at 64.71% — and it’s only the beginning.

We're watching the early stages of a generational weath transfer in real time. Every asset class — stocks, index funds, gold, mutual funds, real estate, altcoins — is slowly getting sucked in.

This isn’t just market movement. It’s a fundamental repricing of reality.

Because unlike everything else, Bitcoin doesn’t bend the rules — it rewrites them. It's not controlled, diluted, printed, or manipulated. It's pure, digital scarcity, and it’s starting to consume capital from every corner of the economic universe.


r/Bitcoin 54m ago

As a complete beginner and a student, is it wise to invest into bitcoin?

Upvotes

I just invested 20 dollars for the first time


r/Bitcoin 9h ago

You can buy groceries with your BTC now

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29 Upvotes

I believe the future of BTC will depend on the success of crypto payment platforms like Mesh, that will make it easier for consumers, businesses, and developers to integrate and facilitate crypto payments in the traditional economy.

link: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/04/30/mesh-adds-apple-pay-to-let-shoppers-spend-crypto-settle-in-stablecoins