Little Orange Notes

A watch-only wallet has no private keys, can not spend bitcoin and can be used on a device that isn't very secure for easy monitoring and receiving of bitcoin.

Keep your seed phrase and private key private as they can restore your wallet or spend your bitcoin. Your public key and Bitcoin addresses can be shared safely.

PSBT format enables easier air-gapped cold storage. An air-gapped device stores the private keys and signs transactions, and an online device has a watch-only wallet that prepares and broadcasts transactions.

Sats/satoshi are a subunit (fractions) of bitcoin, same as cents are subunits of dollar or euro..

When your transaction inputs are larger than the amount you intend to pay someone the difference is another transaction output, a new UTXO stored in your own wallet.

UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) is a transaction output (really just a bunch of sats, resulting from a single transaction) that hasn't yet been spent in a later transaction. Understanding UTXOs helps you 1. reduce what you spend on transaction fees, and 2. maintain your privacy and security.

Where you can store your bitcoin: exchanges, software wallets, hardware wallets. Important aspects of wallets: custodial vs. self-custodial, hot vs. cold, closed vs. open source.

Bitcoin halvings are not sure to result in all-time price maximums, but historical data do show a surge in price of bitcoin after the halvings likely due to a decrease in supply, an increase of demand, and changes in global liquidity.

UTXO consolidation is the process of turning a larger number of small UTXOs into fewer large UTXOs, in order to lower the fees of future transactions. At its simplest it is just sending the entire balance of your wallet to an address in that same wallet.

Worried about self-custody of your bitcoin? 1. Learn first, make informed investment decisions later. 2. Start small, experiment to gain experience and self-cofidence. 3. Balance your risk of something going wrong with the exchange with the risk of self-custody.

Your Bitcoin hardware wallet does not need to be connected to your computer or the Internet for you to receive bitcoin. It works a little like email: it arrives to a specified address whether you are at that time logged into your email account or not.

21 million bitcoins will be enough for everyone as they can be divided into smaller units if needed. This is different from inflation of Fiat money. Adding currency to supply diminishes its value, whereas dividing existing units doesn't inherently change the value of the units.

Two kinds of Bitcoin wallets: software wallets(apps) and hardware wallets(physical devices). Although you can use a software wallet on its own, it's much safer to use it with a hardware wallet.

A block's height is the number of blocks that came before it in the blockchain.