How to Send & Receive Bitcoin

Receiving Bitcoin starts with an address — a long string of letters and numbers your wallet generates for you. Open your wallet's 'Receive' screen, copy the address or show its QR code to the sender, and the payment will appear once it's broadcast and confirmed. Wallets generate a new address each time on purpose: reusing one doesn't lose funds, but fresh addresses protect your privacy by making your balance harder to track.

Sending is the mirror image. On the 'Send' screen, scan or paste the recipient's address, enter the amount, and review the network fee before confirming. The single most important habit is verifying the address: malware can swap a copied address for an attacker's, so check the first and last few characters, and prefer scanning a QR code over manual entry whenever possible.

Choosing the right network prevents the most expensive mistakes. Bitcoin sent on the Bitcoin network must go to a Bitcoin address; sending to an address on another network, or selecting the wrong network on an exchange withdrawal, can lose the funds permanently. If you're moving small everyday amounts and both sides support it, the Lightning Network is faster and cheaper than on-chain.

Fees and confirmations are where beginners get anxious unnecessarily. The fee you attach is a bid for block space and depends on network congestion, not the amount you're sending — so a quiet period is dramatically cheaper. After broadcasting, the transaction sits in the mempool until a miner includes it; one confirmation (about ten minutes) is enough for everyday sums, while larger transfers warrant a few more for finality.

Build two safety habits and most problems disappear. First, for any large or first-time transfer, send a small test amount, confirm it arrives, then send the rest. Second, if a transaction gets stuck because you underpaid the fee, it isn't lost — most wallets let you bump the fee (Replace-By-Fee), or the receiver can pull it through (Child-Pays-For-Parent). Patience and a test transaction beat any amount of worrying. This is educational information, not financial advice.