Tutorials:Receive Bitcoin

Quest: Receive Bitcoin.

To receive Bitcoin you just have to handle one of your Bitcoin addresses to the person sending you the coins.Clicking on the Addresses tab:

You find many Bitcoin addresses that you can use to receive transactions. You can use one address to receive many transactions, but it is a safety practice to use a different address for new transactions. Because the blockchain is public and the transactions to any address are visible. As long as nobody knows that the address is yours, it can't be related to you in any way. But if one of your addresses becomes public, then the transactions of that address to any other address can be seen in the blockchain.

This practice also eliminates the risk of some "Quantum Computer" getting hold of your coins. Because the idea is that quantum computing could be used to obtain a private key from a public key, but that requires knowledge of the public key on the first place.

The Electrum wallet also has a Receive tab, it is useful if you want to request a specific amount from somebody. You can add a description, the requested amount, and expiration date. By clicking create request Electrum generates a Bitcoin URI (Uniform Resource Identifier), that can be copied as text or QR code. You send this to a person, and when they load it on their wallet the details of the transaction will automatically fill in, reducing the risk of mistakes.

Bitcoin addresses never expire, but the expiration date in the URI means that the address will be used only for the intended purpose on the description until the expiration date. But after that it may be used for other purposes.