Bitcoin wallet very slow

Bitcoins are around now for five years, just recently having gained mass media attention – not for the right reasons –- but for criminal activities and theft. If the launch of the world’s first Bitcoin ATM has been astonishing a few months back, attacks from unknown hackers started to spread fear and trepidation now.

Allegedly, two Bitcoin exchanges already face problems that caused them to temporarily halt withdrawals by customers who stored Bitcoins in digital wallets provided by the exchange. But as the Bitcoin Foundation emphasized, cause for alarm are currently mainly denial-of-service (DoS) attacks that do not steal people's Bitcoin wallets or funds per se, but enabling perpetrators to succeed in preventing transactions from confirming. Nevertheless, Bitcoins could gain a wider acceptance in the next months, although prices noticeably vary from one exchange to another and have gone down due to the recent incidents.

Considered as online cash, the virtual currency uses peer-to-peer (P2P) networks to track and verify transactions. Take a look at the infographic that explains the development.

Bitcoins are generated or “mined” after processing a so-called “block” of data, a cryptographic problem or puzzle a user’s computer solves that generally requires a lot of computing power. However, users who may not have the necessary resource can simply purchase or sell Bitcoins from Bitcoin exchange sites, over-the-counter exchange establishments, or engage in in-person trading.

The entire Bitcoin network relies on a shared public ledger called the “block chain” that contains every Bitcoin or similar digital currency transaction ever processed. The validity of transactions made is verified here via the digital signatures of users’ Bitcoin address, which is required for each Bitcoin transaction besides having a Bitcoin wallet. Users can have as many addresses as they like and use them to send and receive Bitcoins. To help manage their transactions, Bitcoin users rely on the Bitcoin wallet that holds a piece of data called a “private key, ” used as proof that the transactions come from the wallet’s owner. This key or signature prevents any transaction from being altered.