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How To Send and Receive Bitcoin

KEY POINTS

  • You should never share your private key
  • Never share your password
  • Send a test amount to new addresses: Before you send a lot of crypto, try sending a little bit as a test to make sure everything is working.

How to Transfer Bitcoin

To send or receive Bitcoin, first you need a Bitcoin wallet, then you need to put in the public address of the recipient to send (or give your public address and have someone else put it in to receive).

Often this can be as easy as scanning the QR code related to the receiving address and typing in the amount you want to send, but in cases where you don’t have a QR code then copy and pasting the public address is the next best bet.

From there you just choose the amount you want to send, follow any other wallet-specific instructions (for example adding funds for fees if necessary), and then hit send (or your wallet’s equivalent).

Once that is done the transaction just needs to settle on the blockchain (how long that takes can differ between blockchains and depend on how much you paid in fees).

If you are anxious, you can always check the status of the transaction on the blockchain by using the block explorer of the coin you sent.

Below We’ll walk through the process in a bit more detail to make sure you fully understand each step.

Sending and Receiving Bitcoin

This process of sending and receiving Bitcoin can differ slightly between wallets (as each wallet has its own wallet options in which that cryptocurrency can be stored), but in general:

  1. Log into a wallet you have funds in.
  2. Go to the send/receive screen (by clicking the tab or button that says this or shows the proper icon).
  3. Choose whether you want to send or receive cryptocurrency. TIP: In general you must only send and receive like-coins. Meaning, you can only send/receive Bitcoin-to-Bitcoin, Ethereum-to-Ethereum, etc. (you can’t, for example, send Bitcoin to an Ethereum wallet or even Bitcoin to a Bitcoin Cash wallet).
  4. For sending: Enter the public wallet address of the recipient and choose the amount to send (make sure to account for transaction fees; you’ll need enough coins in your wallet to pay the fee). After you confirm the numbers, triple checking them to avoid silly mistakes then hit “send transaction” (or the equivalent) and verify the transaction one last time (confirming your public address and their public address is correct). TIP: you can write a note with your transaction to let the recipient know what transaction is for. TIP: Using a QR code to copy an address helps avoid potential mistakes.
  5. For receiving: You don’t have to do anything except share your public wallet address with the sender. If you are in person, you can do this by letting them scan a QR code (if your wallet offers that).

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