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What happens if I receive bitcoins when my computer or smartphone is not online or powered off?
What if I receive bitcoins when my device is powered off?
Answers
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Solution
This works fine.
The bitcoins will appear next time I start my wallet application. (Read tuxcanfly answer)
Bitcoins are not actually received by the software (wallet) on my computer, they are appended to a public ledger that is shared between all the devices on the Bitcoin network. (Read SPRBRN comment)
If someone sent bitcoins when my wallet client program is not running and I launch it later, it will download all blocks and catch up with any transactions it did not already know about, and the bitcoins will eventually appear as if they were just received in real time.
My wallet is only needed when I wish to spend bitcoins!
Helpful resources
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The network contains those transactions (either in nodes' mempool or block) and you will receive your Bitcoins when you are back online.
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Yes. You can even send bitcoins to 'cold storage' or a 'brainwallet', which is pretty amazing IMHO!
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Money (BTC transaction) is being send from one wallet to another,
that is being recorded in a book (public ledger),
which is written by many people (miners) and
kept securely by other people (BTC nodes)
Once written in the Book, it is never changed
When you open your wallet next time, what it does is, it simply checks this book, and reports to you how much balance you have, with an update if you received a new transaction between the last time you opened the book and now.
I hope this answers your query.
1My guess is that the transaction is processed in the ledger. When you go online and login, this transaction is read by your bitcoin client. – SPRBRN – 2017-08-17T10:12:21.543
So if I launch my wallet, it will download all blocks and catch up with any transactions it didn't already know about, right? – Suriyaa – 2017-08-17T10:15:09.133