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Bitcoin 0.3.24 BETA
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Copyright (c) 2009-2011 Bitcoin Developers
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Distributed under the MIT/X11 software license, see the accompanying
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file license.txt or http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php.
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This product includes software developed by the OpenSSL Project for use in
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the OpenSSL Toolkit (http://www.openssl.org/). This product includes
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cryptographic software written by Eric Young (eay@cryptsoft.com).
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Intro
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-----
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Bitcoin is a free open source peer-to-peer electronic cash system that is
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completely decentralized, without the need for a central server or trusted
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parties. Users hold the crypto keys to their own money and transact directly
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with each other, with the help of a P2P network to check for double-spending.
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Setup
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-----
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Unpack the files into a directory and run:
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bin/32/bitcoin (GUI, 32-bit)
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bin/32/bitcoind (headless, 32-bit)
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bin/64/bitcoin (GUI, 64-bit)
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bin/64/bitcoind (headless, 64-bit)
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Wallet Encryption
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-----------------
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Bitcoin supports native wallet encryption so that people who steal your wallet
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file don't automatically get access to all of your Bitcoins. In order to enable
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this feature, chose "Encrypt Wallet" from the Options menu. You will be prompted
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to enter a passphrase, which will be used as the key to encrypt your wallet and
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will be needed every time you wish to send Bitcoins. If you lose this passphrase,
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you will lose access to spend all of the bitcoins in your wallet, no one, not even
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the Bitcoin developers can recover your Bitcoins. This means you are responsible
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for your own security, store your password in a secure location and do not forget
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it.
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Remember that the encryption built into bitcoin only encrypts the actual keys
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which are required to send your bitcoins, not the full wallet. This means that
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someone who steals your wallet file will be able to see all the addresses which
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belong to you, as well as the relevant transactions, you are only protected from
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someone spending your coins.
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It is recommended that you backup your wallet file before you encrypt your wallet.
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To do this, close the Bitcoin client and copy the wallet.dat file from ~/.bitcoin/
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on Linux, /Users/(user name)/Application Support/Bitcoin/ on Mac OSX, and
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%APPDATA%/Bitcoin/ on Windows (that is /Users/(user name)/AppData/Roaming/Bitcoin on
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Windows Vista and 7 and /Documents and Settings/(user name)/Application Data/Bitcoin
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on Windows XP). Once you have copied that file to a safe location, reopen the
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Bitcoin client and Encrypt your wallet. If everything goes fine, delete the backup
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and enjoy your encrypted wallet. Note that once you encrypt your wallet, you will
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never be able to go back to a version of the Bitcoin client older than 0.4.
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Keep in mind that you are always responsible for you own security. All it takes is a
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slightly more advanced wallet-stealing trojan which installs a keylogger to steal
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your wallet passphrase as you enter it in addition to your wallet file and you have
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lost all your Bitcoins. Wallet encryption cannot keep you safe if you do not practice
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good security, such as running up-to-date antivirus software, only entering your
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wallet passphrase in the Bitcoin client and using the same passphrase only as your
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wallet passphrase.
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See the documentation at the bitcoin wiki:
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https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Main_Page
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... for help and more information.
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