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judymcconville@roadrunner.com 2017-05-03 08:40:35 -07:00
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@ -233,7 +233,7 @@ If Bob's bitcoin wallet application is directly connected to Alice's wallet appl
=== Bitcoin Mining
((("mining and consensus", "overview of", "blocks")))((("blockchain technology", "overview of mining", id="BToverview02")))Alice's transaction is now propagated on the bitcoin network. It does not become part of the _blockchain_ until it is verified and included in a block by a process called _mining_. See <<bitcoin_network_ch08>> for a detailed explanation.
((("mining and consensus", "overview of", id="MACover02")))((("blockchain technology", "overview of mining", id="BToverview02")))Alice's transaction is now propagated on the bitcoin network. It does not become part of the _blockchain_ until it is verified and included in a block by a process called _mining_. See <<bitcoin_network_ch08>> for a detailed explanation.
The bitcoin system of trust is based on computation. Transactions are bundled into _blocks_, which require an enormous amount of computation to prove, but only a small amount of computation to verify as proven. The mining process serves two purposes in bitcoin:
@ -266,7 +266,7 @@ You can see the block that includes https://blockchain.info/block-height/277316[
Approximately 19 minutes later, a new block, #277317, is mined by another miner. Because this new block is built on top of block #277316 that contained Alice's transaction, it added even more computation to the blockchain, thereby strengthening the trust in those transactions. Each block mined on top of the one containing the transaction counts as an additional confirmation for Alice's transaction. As the blocks pile on top of each other, it becomes exponentially harder to reverse the transaction, thereby making it more and more trusted by the network.
((("genesis block")))((("blocks", "genesis block")))In the diagram in <<block-alice1>> we can see block #277316, which contains Alice's transaction. Below it are 277,316 blocks (including block #0), linked to each other in a chain of blocks (blockchain) all the way back to block #0, known as the _genesis block_. Over time, as the "height" in blocks increases, so does the computation difficulty for each block and the chain as a whole. The blocks mined after the one that contains Alice's transaction act as further assurance, as they pile on more computation in a longer and longer chain. By convention, any block with more than six confirmations is considered irrevocable, because it would require an immense amount of computation to invalidate and recalculate six blocks. We will examine the process of mining and the way it builds trust in more detail in <<bitcoin_network_ch08>>.((("", startref="BToverview02")))
((("genesis block")))((("blocks", "genesis block")))In the diagram in <<block-alice1>> we can see block #277316, which contains Alice's transaction. Below it are 277,316 blocks (including block #0), linked to each other in a chain of blocks (blockchain) all the way back to block #0, known as the _genesis block_. Over time, as the "height" in blocks increases, so does the computation difficulty for each block and the chain as a whole. The blocks mined after the one that contains Alice's transaction act as further assurance, as they pile on more computation in a longer and longer chain. By convention, any block with more than six confirmations is considered irrevocable, because it would require an immense amount of computation to invalidate and recalculate six blocks. We will examine the process of mining and the way it builds trust in more detail in <<bitcoin_network_ch08>>.((("", startref="BToverview02")))((("", startref="MACover02")))
[[block-alice1]]
.Alice's transaction included in block #277316