Quote:
Originally Posted by SnoopZ
Why cant you buy a single bitcoin?
If i was to buy part of a coin, where is it stored and how safe is it from theft?
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You have a wallet online or on your pc via software which has an unique address (a long string of letters and numbers) and anyone can send bitcoin to that address and the owner can send from that wallet.
That is it simplified anyway. I think the actual reality is all the bitcoin are on the blockchain, which is like a database distributed across loads of servers and computers on the net, which know how much is in each wallet. Only the person with the correct cryptographic keys for a wallet may send bitcoin to another wallet, which is the owner of the wallet who knows the passphrase which unlocks the keys locally.
You could actually not have a wallet online and just print out the keys on a piece of paper (will be just a printout of gibberish) and put that in a safe. Everything you need to get at your bitcoins is on that piece of paper.
If you use an online wallet, you have to worry about someone getting your username and password and being able to transfer you coins. You can turn on 2 factor authentication and other features for more protection.