Any tutorials for complete idiots?

Technology zcashd client
1

I’ve installed zcash and mined some. Then I read Home · zcash/zcash Wiki · GitHub

I kinda did put “983h4rgbv98h298h2g” into “249re8vh92ubev9ubeg”, sent “2948hg109e8hvb02184g” to “20e98hg2084hg”, signed “20498gh0284hbv0ie2” with “2048hgbv028bv02nr” aaaand my coins gone.

Any tutorials for complete idiots about what’s happening at all?

I’ve created a zcaddress with the “./src/zcash-cli zcrawkeygen” command, and kind of sent a transaction to the address. Does this address has it’s own balance, or what? Because I already see some balance (in my wallet, probably?) with “zcash-cli getinfo” command. What is changing once I send an UTXO to a zcaddress?

I never found any information in the tutorials and FAQ. Bitcoin glossary doesn’t really clarify it to me:

How is that address connected with my wallet?
Does it have it’s own balance?
Do I need to “protect” those “unspent” transactions with generated coins at all?
What happens if I don’t?
What do I need to backup in order to make my huge fortune safe?

2

I don’t know if zcrawkeygen causes the new key-pair (and viewing key) to be appended to the wallet file and I’m even less sure if any record of the ‘bucket’ outputs and other transaction details (such as the amount) are automatically saved. So… I copy and paste everything from the terminal window and save it to a text file.

As of z5, coins listed as ‘generate’ in your wallet have to be protected before any other transaction can occur. The process to spend protected coins back to regular addresses is detailed by ebfull in this thread - Protect coins and then ...? - #9 by Voluntary

3

Thank you.

So, can anyone confirm if copy and save “unspent” output from terminal is enough to be sure that mined coins are mine?

Or maybe they are somehow associated with the wallet Zcash daemon generated?

4

Coin creation is transparent - it’s visible to everyone on the blockchain. So, as long as you don’t lose your wallet, you’ll be able to control your mined coins.

I suggested saving terminal window output as a failsafe measure to take with protected addresses because I don’t know how else to manage that functionality of Zcash. Bear in mind that this aspect of Zcash is far from finalised.

5

Well this actually sounds scary. Does “visible to everyone” means that everyone can discover and claim my precious coins until I “protect” them?

We seriously need some clarification from the developers.

6

Visible to everyone the same way bitcoin transactions are visible on the bitcoin blockchain. With bitcoin, all transactions are visible but a private key is still needed for spending.

btw No one’s testnet coins are precious - that’s the great thing about testnets.

7

A ‘noob friendly’ step by step guide to installing and mining would be great.

8

As far as I understand after all, the problem is the tool itself isn’t noob friendly at this time.

9

I have made a tutorial on installing and beginning mining here: https://minezcash.com/
But I have not made a tutorial yet on Spending/Protecting/Verifying because the tools are still very much in development and are very confusing, once they have settled I will add that to the site as well.

1 Like
10

With the help of this post by ebfull, Protect coins and then ...? - #6 by ebfull I have gone through the process a few times - it gets easier with practice.

The post that followed, also by ebfull, is worth noting as well:

Keep in mind that this API is only temporary. We hope to have an API that abstracts away nearly all of this.

1 Like