Bitcoin Transactions with Daniel Van Flymen

Bitcoin is an immutable, append-only blockchain ledger that reaches consensus through proof-of-work. The contents of the ledger are financial transactions–people sending and receiving Bitcoin currency to each other.

Since Bitcoin, there have been other cryptocurrencies that have similar properties–like Ethereum and the IPFS/Filecoin system. Similar to Bitcoin, they use a decentralized, proof of work-based system with a currency reward system–but the ledger being maintained is not purely financial. A currency is a necessary component to maintaining the blockchain’s validity.

Over the next month, we will be exploring a variety of blockchain-based technologies. Some interviews will be high-level conversations that assume only a familiarity with cryptocurrencies. Some of them will be deeply technical and assume a strong understanding of Bitcoin and Ethereum. And some episodes, like today’s episode, will be aimed at the developer who is in the process of “going down the rabbit hole.”

If you are finding yourself reading about Bitcoin and Ethereum a few hours every day, but you are still struggling to grasp the basics, this episode is for you. It is meant to be a complement to other introductory resources, such as “Mastering Bitcoin,” by Andreas Antonopoulos.

Cryptocurrency systems are revolutionary–they will unlock completely new applications in the very near future. It’s If you are trying to understand these decentralized currencies and applications, the best place to start is with Bitcoin. That’s why I was happy to have Daniel Van Flymen back on the show.

Daniel was previously on for one of our most popular episodes–” Blockchain Building,” in which he talked about how useful it can be to build a blockchain based system for practice. Today, Daniel discusses the basics of Bitcoin transactions. What happens when you send money? How are transactions represented on the blockchain? How do full nodes and light clients interact with each other?

These are difficult topics to discuss purely over audio, so this episode is best listened to as a companion resource for someone who is studying cryptocurrencies.

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Transcript

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