In plain English, the Bitcoin blockchain records transactions and user addresses. In technical terms, it records unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs, the transactions with associated addresses), the block's size, blockchain version, block header hashes, the Merkle root, the coinbase transaction, timestamps, nonces, and the difficulty target ♑in files called blocks.

To help you 🐓understand what the Bitcoin blockchain records, discussed here are some of the elements of the blockchain that are the most confusing in addition to🐻 what is recorded.

Information Recorded on Bitcoin's Blockchain

There is a lot of information recorded in each of Bitcoin's blocks. For example, the following image displays what is stored in block 854,339. You can see the block hash, the total bitcoins that were transferred in the contained transactions, the number of transactions, and the fees paid to miners.

The Merkle root, nonce, and timestamp are also all shown. The timestamp is listed as "Mined on" with the date. The block also records the address of the miner who received the reward and the reward amount—this block was mined by the AntPool mining pool. If the miner had been an individual, there would only be their address (this block had a coinbase message declaring it as mined by Antpool).

Bitcoin Block Construction

The information in the previous image is stored in the block, which is a file the entire network of full nodes download and sto✃re. Blockchains consist of a series of individual blocks (which are files) sequentially numbered based on when they were added to the blockchain and their height (their numerical distance to the first block—in the previous image, the block height is 854,339).

A file is structured with four fields:

• Block Size
• Block Header
• Transaction Counter
• Transactions

The transaction field is usually🤪 the bulk of the data contained in a block, b𝔉ut the block header is also important.

The Block Header

The block header includes six fields:

• Blockchain Version: The blockchain software version running at the time the block was created
• Previous Block Hash: The previous block's header hash
• Merkle Root: A final hash that is the result of hashing all transactions, pairing them, and then hashing them again
• Timestamp: The time and date the block was created
• Difficulty Target: The network difficulty level at the time the block was proposed
• Nonce: The final value of the variable used when solving the cryptographic puzzle

Transactions

One of the more confusing concepts used i✃n the Bitcoin blockchain is how transactions are recorded. They are not recorded as balance transfers between accounts like accounting ledgers or some other blockchains.

Bitcoin records 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs)—how much is left over after a 🍃transaction. Here's how this works: Imagine you buy something for 0.5 BTC but only have a UTXO assigned to you that is 0.75 BTC in value. The network cannot break that 0.75 BTC into smaller amounts. Instead, the network destrꦆoys the 0.75 BTC and then creates an output of 0.5 BTC and 0.25 BTC, assigning them to you and the recipient. These two outputs are now UTXOs.

Merkle Root

The 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Merkle root is a⭕ hash of all of the tran♎sactions recorded in the block. It is also used as one of the inputs that generate the block hash.

To create a Merkle root, a transaction is hashed, then paired with another transaction's hash, and hashed again. The results continue to be paired and hashed until there are no more hashes to pair, with the result being the Merkle root. This hash serves as the way transactions are verified on the blockchain—when a block is broadcast, every node performs the operations that lead to the block's state. This only takes each node a millisecond to do, and if the resulting hashes are the same, all transactions are verified.

Difficulty Target

The 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:difficulty target is the value all miners were trying to generate when they were performing what is commonly called mining—the race to be the first to solve the cryptographic puzzle. Miners hash the block header, which includes the nonce, and see if it's value is equal to or less than🤡 the target. Hashing results in a hexidecimal value which can be converted to decimal form, which is why the target is shown in decimal form in the above image.

If the resulting hash's value is higher than the target, 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:the nonce is increased by a value of one, and the block header is hashed again. Bitcoin also uses a value called the extra nonce because the nonce ▨can only be adjusted to about 4.5 billion due to limitations in the field's size (a modern processor does this in less than one second).

The extra nonce is stored in the coinbase transaction, which is the first transaction recorded in the block. This transaction is the 📖reward to the miner, and theꦏ extra nonce is appended to the transaction.

When the right combination of nonce, extra nonce, and hash is found, 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:the miner "wins" and the block is broadcast to the network for validation.

The Bottom Line

The Bitcoin blockchain records all transactions, addresses, and relevant data like the block's size, blockchain version, block header hashes, the Merkle root, the coinbase transaction, timestamps, and nonces.