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Private Key
Public Key
Public Key
Private Key
transaction. It checks to see that Jim has enough bitcoin in his account. And it checks if the address Sally provided is a valid bitcoin address. After the transaction passes those two tests, the transaction gets bundled together by miners with other pending transactions into a “block.” (See the figure below.) The goal of the miners is to verify the block, and add it to the blockchain (i.e., update the spreadsheet). How does a miner get to add a block to the blockchain? This is where brute-force mining comes into play. To understand this, we need to touch upon “hashes”... New block of transactions Public Key Private Key +
e-mailed instructions sent to you to reset it.) More important, if someone else gets your private key, they can take your bitcoin. Sally tells Jim her public key. Jim opens his bitcoin wallet, puts in the instruction to send one bitcoin to Sally’s public address, enters in his private key (password) to authorize the transaction, and hits send. After a few minutes, Sally checks her wallet again and sees she now has a bitcoin in her wallet. But what’s happening behind the scenes? First, the network (in this case, a lightweight node) makes a quick check of the proposed + + Other transactions Private Key Public Key
Full Nodes (Miners)
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Full Nodes (Miners)
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New block of transactions
Other transactions
American Consequences
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