Quote from: lovethepirk on May 07, 2014, 06:10:17 AM

To keep this really simple I want to know how to have complete and total control of my bitcoins, no exhanges or mining software.

Use a bitcoin wallet.

Some options depending on what you plan to do with the bitcoins are:

Paper wallet
Armory
Bitcoin Core
Electrum
MultiBit
blockchain.info/wallet
Mycellium
Android Bitcoin Wallet

Quote from: lovethepirk on May 07, 2014, 06:10:17 AM

Id prefer just to write down my public and private address and thats it if possible.

Oh, sorry. I thought you said you wanted to "keep this really simple".

What you are describing is called a "paper wallet". It is good for long term storage of bitcoins that you won't be spending at all, but tends to be a very inconvenient way to store bitcoins that you plan to actually use any time soon. If you do this, you should create a new paper wallet with a new set of private keys and addresses (and send the entire balance to the new addresses) every time you import any of the private kesy to spend any of the bitcoins.

Quote from: lovethepirk on May 07, 2014, 06:10:17 AM

I guess my first question is what really is a wallet? Is it the private and public address combination?

At the bare minimum, a wallet is a set of private keys and the public bitcoin address associated with each private key. More generally, wallet software provides tools to:

Keep track of the value that the wallet has access to
Create backups to protect access to the value
Create bitcoin transactions to transfer that value to other addresses (such as to make a payment)
Encrypt the private keys with a password to protect access to the value
Generate new private keys and the associated bitcoin addresses

Quote from: lovethepirk on May 07, 2014, 06:10:17 AM

So far I went to blockchain.info and got:
Identifier
Address

I thought this was getting a wallet setup, I am not sure why I did this now.

Blockchain stores an encrypted copy of private keys for you. They provide the tools to create backups, create transactions, keep track of the value, encrypt the private keys with a password, and generate new private keys (and the associated bitcoin addresses). So, yes, in doing this you have set up a wallet.

Unless you have created a backup of your blockchain.info wallet, you have to get your encrypted private keys from them. This means you will lose access to your bitcoins if they ever disappear. As such, it would be a good idea to get a backup as soon as possible.

The identifier tells blockchain.info which set of encrypted private keys are yours, so they know which ones to send to you. If you lose this identifier it can be difficult (impossible?) to determine which set of keys are yours, and therefore difficult (impossible?) for you to recover your wallet from them if you don't have a backup.

The address (or addresses) are used to receive bitcoins at that wallet. You give these out to anyone that will be sending bitcoins to you. As long as you have the private keys (from your backup, or from the blockchain.info identifier) you can always recalculate the bitcoin address.

The passphrase is used to encrypt the private keys before sending them for blockchain.info to store. Blockchain.info does not have this passphrase. If you forget the passphrase it will be impossible to access the wallet. There is no way for blockchain.info to recover or reset the passphrase for you. If you don't know the passphrase, then the bitcoins are permanently unspendable. The backup is also encrypted with the passphrase, so it won't help you recover access to the bitcoins without the passphrase. Note, anyone with the passphrase can access your wallet and steal your bitcoins.

Quote from: lovethepirk on May 07, 2014, 06:10:17 AM

Then I went to coinbase and got a bitcoin. I need to get this bitcoin in my wallet somehow on Friday.

When you log into the coinbase website, they should provide you with the tools necessary to send bitcoins to addresses. You would use the address from your wallet and tell coinbase how much bitcoins you want to send. They would then take care of sending the bitcoins from your coinbase account to your bitcoin wallet.

Quote from: lovethepirk on May 07, 2014, 06:10:17 AM

Someone said in another thread that blockchain doesnt have access to my wallet.

Your private keys are encrypted with your passphrase before they are sent to blockchain.info. Your passphrase is not sent to blockchain.info. This means that they cannot spend (steal) your bitcoins and that they cannot recover access to your bitcoins if you forget (lose) your passphrase.

Quote from: lovethepirk on May 07, 2014, 06:10:17 AM

What did I get the identifier and address for, I thought the address is the wallet?

To be a functional wallet, the software needs access to private keys. The identifier is used to get the encrypted private keys from blockchain.info. The passphrase is used to decrypt those private keys so that you can use them to sign the transactions that you send. The wallet software handles these details for you as long as you know your identifier and passphrase. To receive bitcoins you need to give your bitcoin address to the person that is sending them to you.

Quote from: lovethepirk on May 07, 2014, 06:10:17 AM

How do I simply get a wallet so I can move money by myself and then only have to worry about the public and private address?

With blockchain.info, you have already done this. If you prefer, you can look into some of the other wallets I listed earlier.

Quote from: lovethepirk on May 07, 2014, 06:10:17 AM

Also, someone said you need to backup your wallet. If I have my keys written down and I never lose them why do I need to back anything up.

This depends a lot on which wallet program you use. For the sake of increased security and privacy, some wallets generate a new bitcoin address for EVERY transaction. Since every bitcoin address has a different private key, it would get to be burdensome to access, write down, and keep track of the ever growing list of potential private keys. Most well written wallet programs store these private keys in a file that you can backup so that you can recover it without having to type in dozens (or hundreds!) of private keys.

In the case of the current behavior of blockchain.info wallets, they generally re-use the same bitcoin address over and over. This results in slightly (VERY SLIGHTLY) less security, and a reduction of privacy. As long as you write down and never lose the private key of each address that you generate in the blockchain.info wallet, that list of private keys would be a valid backup.

Quote from: lovethepirk on May 07, 2014, 06:10:17 AM

It seems as though when I spent bitcoins they are gone from my wallet and when I receive them I get more.why do I need to back anything up?

If you generate a new address (some wallets do this automatically without telling you whenever you spend less than your total balance) and receive bitcoins at that address (some wallets will do this with the change from a transaction when you spend bitcoins), and then the wallet disappears before you can write down the private key (for example if blockchain.info disappears, or a local wallet such as Bitcoin Core crashes), then you won't have access to spend those bitcoins that you just received at that new address.

A backup is just a way to make sure that you maintain access to the necessary private keys without needing to write them down every time.

Quote from: lovethepirk on May 07, 2014, 06:10:17 AM

If I keep my bitcoins in my wallet and do not use exchanges what program/website do I go to when I need to send money to someone?

Whatever program/website you are using for your wallet. In your case, it sounds like you've chosen to use blockchain.info/wallet.

Quote from: lovethepirk on May 07, 2014, 06:10:17 AM

Or how do you check your balance?

Your wallet program will add up all the bitcoin transaction outputs that you have access to spend and will display the sum to you as a total balance. In your case, it sounds like you've chosen to use blockchain.info/wallet for this.