How to verify PGP digital signatures?

September 7, 2022

8628

Bitcoins

seandotau

A neat video on the basics of verifying a PGP digital signature using GnuPG on macOS. Relevant for instance if you have a bitcoin donation address on your website and your website gets hacked and the bitcoin donation address is swapped out for the hacker’s bitcoin address.

Update of IRDs guidance on crypto assets

September 8, 2020

8537

Bitcoins, Blockchain

seandotau

Inland Revenue has provided an update on its guidance of how it treats what it calls “cryptoassets” at: https://www.ird.govt.nz/cryptoassets A link to the IRD media release can be found at: https://media.ird.govt.nz/articles/new-inland-revenue-guidance-on-cryptoassets/ The high level summary is: There are no special tax rules for cryptoassets in New Zealand. The guidance clarifies how ordinary income tax rules apply to cryptoassets to help people understand their tax obligations. Essentially, cryptoassets are treated as a form of property for tax purposes. What people make from selling, trading or exchanging crypto-assets is taxable

Your Site Has Been Hacked

April 16, 2020

8516

Bitcoins

seandotau

I received the following email recently and initially was very worried. I scrolled down and saw the demand for USD $2000 in Bitcoin! They wanted it sent to this address “1Q1DF9rJS6fNDSpiV2iEA46BS1mNEaELtC”. (FYI: The address is empty). Firstly, the site in question has no sensitive information there. In fact, it is just a new blogging site with only 4 or 5 blog posts so this made me raise my eyebrow and not be too concerned. However, if it was a more important website, I would have been a lot more nervous only to calm down having seen this Google search. I then sent an email to my hosting provider and they confirmed that this was a scam. Thanks for getting in touch regarding this. Unfortunately we’ve beenseeing an increase in these type of scam attempts but rest assured it isjust scam. A security scan shows there is no indication that your site isvulnerable or that it has been compromised. As such you can safely ignorethe threat message. What the scammers do is use a template and automate the email replacing the website URL for each site. They typically use the contact us form websites usually have and shame on me for […]

Schnorr Signatures by Pieter Wuille

February 12, 2018

11688

Bitcoins

seandotau

Another neat video by Pieter explaining Schnorr Signatures Another useful reference link: http://diyhpl.us/~bryan/papers2/bitcoin/bitcoin-tech-dev-talks-schnorr-signatures.2018-02-01.pdf

Talking Bitcoin on NewstalkZB

February 6, 2018

11300

Bitcoins

seandotau

It was a great experience going into the NewstalkZB studio and doing a brief radio interview with Heather Du Plessis-Allan on Bitcoin. http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/wellington/wellington-mornings-with-heather-du-plessis-allan/audio/sean-au-bitcoin/ In case that link breaks, click below. Managed to garner a pic as well!

Vitalik and Gavin on Craig

January 10, 2018

11019

Bitcoins

seandotau

I had the opportunity to ask Craig Wright a question last week about BitcoinCash. (He is obviously a BitcoinCash fan). He was also challenged to transfer some funds from block #1 but politely declined. There is a continuous debate on whether he is Satoshi or not and we may never know. He speaks very knowledgeably on subject and is obviously very smart. I can’t help to re-share the short video down below where Gavin shares why he thinks Craig is Satoshi and Vitalik gives a great reason why he isn’t based on signal theory. What gets me though is that if Craig is Satoshi, he would know both methods of proving he is Satoshi as described by Vitalik. The first method would leave no doubt in everyone’s mind. The second option is actually the more clever. It leaves doubt, but keeps him in the lime light. It also gives Satoshi this split personality. A messiah type figure in one realm and a very normal person in the other realm. I still not 100% sure and if I had to guess I would say that Craig is not Satoshi, but there is always more than meets the eye.

CryptoWars: Bitcoin v BitcoinCash

November 11, 2017

10224

Bitcoins

seandotau

It was Friday the 10th of November at 10pm. By accident I checked my Coingecko dashboard and saw BitcoinCash hit $700USD, then $750, then $800. It was crazy. Something was up. I proceeded to jump on the various reddit channels, check the #bitcoincash hashtag on twitter and read the various online forums. There was excitement in the air. Something was up. BitcoinCash hovered just below $900 before I went to bed but then on Saturday morning it broke the $1000 barrier. It really was like a roller coaster. Shooting up and then coming slightly down, then shooting up again. It just kept going up as Bitcoin went down. It was a zero sum game. For one to win, the other had to lose. The crypto war is on. Very sad to see #Bitcoin v #BitcoinCash. It should be #Crypto v #Fiat. The human drive for money and power transcends all realms. #SadToSee pic.twitter.com/IhSEFkDkFL — Sean (@seandotau) November 12, 2017 For me, I thought all along that it was Crypto versus Fiat. Us versus them. Guess this is what happens a group of people who have control over large amounts of wealth (in the crypto space) and access to large amounts […]

How to get your bitcoin cash from your Jaxx bitcoin wallet?

October 4, 2017

10348

Bitcoins

seandotau

The Jaxx team currently are still trying to get native support for bitcoin cash. See the update here. What this means is that you can either continue to wait until this happens or follow Jaxx recommendation here. To grab the keys, follow: We can’t provide a step by step guide on how to import your keys into another wallet. You have the Backup Phrase: MENU > Tools > Backup Wallet > View Backup Phrase and you also have the keys to the BTC addresses: MENU > Tools > Display Private Keys > (I UNDERSTAND) > Display Bitcoin Keys Any wallet you install and that allows you to pair a previously created wallet, you can use those to “port” your Jaxx Wallets to that one. Keep in mind that the Jaxx Backup Phrase (mnemonic) follows the BIP39 standard. There really isn’t anything more we can provide on this process. ref: https://www.reddit.com/r/jaxx/comments/6vbet0/jaxx_where_is_bitcoin_cash/ Then import this into a bitcoin cash wallet. Follow the instructions here but use electron cash instead so you don’t have to download the entire blockchain.

Oops, I sent bitcoins to my bitcoincash address. Now what?

September 25, 2017

9874

Bitcoins

seandotau

I’m normally very careful and have no idea how I let this happen but it did. I accidentally send fractions of bitcoins to a bitcoin cash address. The background was that I have been helping a few friends claim their bitcoin cash and exchanging it back to bitcoins for them. There’s a bit of a process but it’s not too bad. Then one day, I beamed the coins to an address that I had thought was the right one but it wasn’t. I thought I had lost the 30 odd dollars until I did some searching and discovered that as long as you have the private keys you can still recover the coins. This is because the address formats are still the same but it’s just that the wallet won’t know how to display it. (But it’s still there). What you need to do is to get the private keys of the bitcoin cash wallet and import them into a bitcoin wallet. The coins will appear and you can then continue on your merry way. Whew. Another crisis averted!

Why do you think Satoshi used a Japanese name?

September 13, 2017

9862

Bitcoins

seandotau

This was a great question at the end of Craig Wrights rant presentation at The Future of Bitcoin conference on 30th June 2017 in Arnhem, Netherlands. Ken Shishido, one of the organizers of the Tokyo bitcoin meetup asked a very simple question. “Why do you think Satoshi used a Japanese name?”. Does his answer convince you? The background is that Craig met with Gavin Andresen in April 2016 where Craig apparently proved to him that he was Satoshi Nakamoto.

Greg Maxwell: A Deep Dive Into Bitcoin Core 0.15

September 4, 2017

10006

Bitcoins

seandotau

A good deep dive from a core developer.

Christchurch bitcoin meetup

August 30, 2017

10331

Bitcoins

seandotau

I had the opportunity to visit the Christchurch bitcoin meetup and met some wonderful people from all sorts of backgrounds each with their own perspective of this crypto world. On this crisp, cloudless evening, around 15 devoted crypto enthusiast gathered to share everything from ICO ideas and potential bitcoin mempool manipulation to fine tuning Nvidia mining cards and Austrian economic theory. Kirk has been running these meetups for about a year now taking over from a previous organizer and is doing a great job. The amazing thing I love about these meetups is everyone you talk to has a story. There was a lady who had heard of bitcoins and gathered enough courage to take her first step and come along which was great to see. (I remember my very first meetup in Auckland, walking into a local pub not knowing anyone. Daunting for an introverted geek like me!) Another person had been reading Austrian economics since he was a teenager, someone else brought charts of the hash rate of bitcoin v bitcoin cash and talked about the gamification of the two coins against each other, another floated ideas of a treecoin ICO, the topics go on. There are pockets […]

Claiming your bitcoin cash with Electron Cash Desktop Wallet

August 25, 2017

10735

Bitcoins

seandotau

In my previous experiment I used Bitcoin ABC to claim my fractions of my bitcoin cash. This involved downloading the entire blockchain which took over 4 days. The Electron wallet is obviously much faster because it does not need to download the entire blockchain. If you have an Airbitz wallet, the instructions at https://medium.com/airbitz/how-do-i-get-my-bitcoin-cash-from-airbitz-e97982e3fc4c are very good. It takes a bit of time but it works. If you see this error, it just means you are using the wrong address. The software is fine, your BCH are fine and all is well. Just figure out the right address to claim your bitcoin cash from. The most difficult part is the manual typing out of your private key from the Airbitz wallet mobile app. Everything else is straight forward.

“No inputs found. (Note that inputs need to be confirmed)” error when claiming your bitcoin cash

August 23, 2017

12712

Bitcoins

seandotau

If you are trying to redeem your bitcoin cash and you come across this error message in Electron Cash, it means that you are redeeming from an address after 1 August 2017. Check the address of the private key you are importing and back track to a transaction that dates prior to 1 August 2017.

Sweeping your Bitcoin paper wallet for Bitcoin Cash

August 20, 2017

11584

Bitcoins

seandotau

If you have a paper wallet, and you haven’t yet claimed your free Bitcoin Cash then read on. There maybe easier ways but I wanted to experiment with the Bitcoin ABC Wallet. You can download the latest release from https://www.bitcoinabc.org It is recommended to install this onto a new machine that hasn’t previously had any bitcoin wallet client installed. This is because of the potential conflict of the data directory. Once installed, the next step is to let the software do it’s thing. ie download the blockchain. For me it took about 4 days! Once done, I then had to run a very simple command. Navigate to Help > Debug window and type in > importprivkey TypeYourPrivateKeyHere What happens next is that you have to wait some more. Bitcoin-Qt will re-scan the entire blockchain. This time it only takes a few hours. After it has finished, you should see your expected balance, ie the equivalent number of how ever many bitcoins you had appear as bitcoin cash. If you have a mobile wallet and have a seed (12/18/24 words) as a backup, download this code: https://github.com/iancoleman/bip39. What it does is convert BIP39 mnemonic phrases (the 12/18/24 words) to addresses […]

Multibit bitcoin wallet is no longer supported

August 15, 2017

11703

Bitcoins

seandotau

If you haven’t already heard, the bitcoin wallet MultiBit is no longer supported. Check out the announcement here. I was having issues back in late May and tried to move some funds out. It took just over 2 weeks for the transaction to be confirmed using the default fee setting! This blog link provides instructions on how to move to an Electrum wallet. Electrum was a good wallet for a while. It then started getting buggy and I had to keep going to Manage wallet > Repair wallet just to get the correct amount showing. You need the seed in order to move the funds to Electrum. If you DO NOT have the seed but you still have access to the wallet, create a new wallet in MultiBit, write down the seed and then empty the funds from the first wallet to the second wallet. Here is how: Create a new wallet using the Create button on the Unlock screen when you first open the wallet. Make sure you write down your wallet words and date stamp as usual Unlock the new wallet and wait for sync to finish Rename the wallet to Wallet2 for example. Create a new receiving […]

Signing up at Cryptopia from a newbie’s perspective

August 10, 2017

11117

Bitcoins

seandotau

I decided to sign up with Cryptopia today in an effort to understand more about how trading platforms work. The experience was ok but the messaging could be improved to make it more accurate and consistent. Mixed messages Registering on the site is easy. In order to buy cryptocurrencies with New Zealand dollars though, I had to make a bank transfer. One also has to know that you are actually “buying” NZDT, otherwise known as a New Zealand Dollar Token. It’s a 1 for 1 swap which you then use to purchase other cryptocurrencies. There is a warning at the top of the deposit screen saying: But then at the bottom it says: So it’s contradicting information. Not a good thing for a newbie. So I click on the “here” link to apply for level 2 verification and get this screen here (I’ve only screenshot the top part): Now, I’m thinking I’m confirmed for a withdrawal limit of $5000 NZD. I don’t need Level 2 verification because the message there says “Users that have provided evidence of their identification have daily limit of $50,000.00 NZD”. I won’t be anywhere near $50,000 so I’m thinking Level 1 is fine. My bank […]

Meeting Bruce Thomson

August 5, 2017

13567

Bitcoins, Meetups

seandotau

In preparation for next weeks meeting where we’ll be beaming in Bruce Thomson as a guest speaker to the Wellington Blockchain meetup we pre-tested the technology and connectivity. What was suppose to be a short 10 minute test ended up as an amazing 60 minute conversation where Bruce talked about his background working as a contractor in his earlier years and being prudent enough to buy gold as part of his portfolio, his ah ha moment when he saw the shift from using slide rules to a 4 function calculator and his interest in Singularity. Bruce talked about the 6 D’s of technology distruption. Digitization, deception, disruption, demonetization, dematerialization, and democratization and how cryptocurrencies follow the same pattern. Bruce also shared some amazing stories trying to convert his gold to cash in order to buy crypto and how he actually bought the crypto. Here is his article for some background reading: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/92329364/palmerston-north-retiree-makes-a-mint-ditching-gold-for-cryptocurrency Look forward to his talk next Tuesday. If you are in the area, feel free to drop by. Details at: https://www.meetup.com/Blockchain-Wellington/events/242044728/

Bitcoin Vanity Addresses

June 29, 2017

12950

Bitcoins

seandotau

Introduction These have been around for a long time now but they are still nonetheless pretty neat. They are called vanity addresses because you can create a bitcoin address with certain starting letters that spell out words such as your name or your brand. What does a bitcoin address look like? A bitcoin address is like a bank number. You give it or show it to people who then use it to send you bitcoins, litecoins, ether or whatever crypto currency you prefer. Wallets create these addresses randomly and a sample bitcoin address looks like this: mr4WeSWGzg8ND2qbpvKJqq2LgMq3HfB6EW This is an address from testnet, which is a test blockchain for development. You can see the transaction history at: https://tbtc.blockr.io/address/info/mr4WeSWGzg8ND2qbpvKJqq2LgMq3HfB6EW which shows that 0.2btc has been sent to this address. Again, the 0.2 btc are not real so not worth anything. What does a bitcoin vanity address look like? For those who want to get fancy, they can create addresses such as: 1appleWGzg8ND2qbpvKJqq2LgMq3HfB6EW or 1microsoft8ND2qbpvKJqq2LgMq3HfB6EW It makes the address stand out and a little unique hence the name vanity addresses. Things to consider Generating vanity addresses with more than 7 letters can take years. This is because the computer goes through all the […]

Bitcoin hanging at the “done loading” screen?

June 28, 2017

15395

Bitcoins

seandotau

If you are trying to run bitcoin core (download from here) and you see it hanging on this screen … hold tight. It takes time to load. If you are impatient like me, open up the debug.log file and you’ll see the activity behind the scenes which might make you feel better. By the way, the blockchain is 140Gb and counting.