Day 9
LectureLecturLectureLectuLecturLectureLecturLectureLectuLectu
Chapter 2
What does a transaction look like?
If Alice sends some bitcoins to Bob, that
transaction will have three pieces of
information:
An input. This is a record of which
bitcoin address was used to send the
bitcoins to Alice in the first place (she
received them from her friend, Eve).
An amount. This is the amount of
bitcoins that Alice is sending to Bob.
An output. This is Bob's bitcoin
address.
How is it sent
To send bitcoins, you need two things: a
bitcoin address and a private key. A
bitcoin address is generated randomly,
and is simply a sequence of letters and
numbers. The private key is another
sequence of letters and numbers, but
unlike your bitcoin address, this is kept
secret.
Think of your bitcoin address as a safe
deposit box with a glass front. Everyone
knows what is in it, but only the private
key can unlock it to take things out or put
things in.
When Alice wants to send bitcoins to
Bob, she uses her private key to sign a
message with the input (the source
transaction(s) of the coins), amount, and
output (Bob’s address).
She then sends them from her bitcoin
wallet out to the wider bitcoin network.
From there, bitcoin miners verify the
transaction, putting it into a transaction
block and eventually solving it.
Next Topic
Why must I sometimes wait for my
transaction to clear?