Review: Basic Structure of the Bitcoin Blockchain
First a reminder of the basic structure of a blockchain.
- A Transaction is the basic element of the Bitcoin Blockchain.
- Transactions are validated and broadcast.
- Many transactions form a block.
- Many blocks form a chain through a digital data link.
- Blocks go through a consensus process, to select the next block that will be added to the chain.
- Chosen block is verified, and added to the current chain.
- Validation and consensus processes are carried out by special peer nodes called miners or validators. These are powerful computers executing software defined by the blockchain protocol
Let’s look at the chain of three blocks: 488867, 488868. 488869. 488868 in the middle, has the hash of 488867 as its previous hash. Block 488869 has the hash of 488868 as its previous hash, forming the links in the chain. To summarize, transactions bring about transfer of value in the Bitcoin Blockchain
Let’s Review some
Vocabulary
- Plaintext — Data before alteration, usually altered by encryption or hashing. Plaintext is often text but not always as it could be a photo or a different file type.
- Encoding — This is NOT a form of encryption, this is a form of data representation like base64 or hexadecimal. This type of data representation is immediately reversible.
- Hash — A hash is the output of a hash function. Hashing can also be used as a verb, “to hash”, meaning to produce the hash value of some data.
- Brute force — Attacking cryptography by trying every different password or every different key
- Cryptanalysis — Attacking cryptography by finding a weakness in the underlying math
- Rainbow Table – A rainbow table is a lookup table of hashes to plaintexts, so you can quickly find out what password a user had just from the hash.
Pop Quiz!
Question 1. Is base64 encryption or encoding?
Answer