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You're reading from  Mastering Blockchain.. - Third Edition

Product typeBook
Published inAug 2020
Reading LevelBeginner
PublisherPackt
ISBN-139781839213199
Edition3rd Edition
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Author (1)
Imran Bashir
Imran Bashir
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Imran Bashir

Imran Bashir has an M.Sc. in Information Security from Royal Holloway, University of London, and has a background in software development, solution architecture, infrastructure management, and IT service management. He is also a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the British Computer Society (BCS). Imran has extensive experience in both the public and financial sectors, having worked on large-scale IT projects in the public sector before moving to the financial services industry. Since then, he has worked in various technical roles for different financial companies in Europe's financial capital, London.
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Wallets

The wallet software is used to generate and store cryptographic keys. It performs various useful functions, such as receiving and sending Bitcoin, backing up keys, and keeping track of the balance available. Bitcoin client software usually offers both functionalities: Bitcoin client and wallet. On disk, the Bitcoin Core client wallets are stored as a Berkeley DB file:

$ file wallet.dat
     wallet.dat: Berkeley DB (Btree, version 9, native byte-order)

Private keys are generated by randomly choosing a 256-bit number provided by the wallet software. The rules of generation are predefined and were discussed in Chapter 4, Public Key Cryptography. Private keys are used by wallets to sign the outgoing transactions. Wallets do not store any coins, and there is no concept of wallets storing balance or coins for a user. In fact, in the Bitcoin network, coins do not exist; instead, only transaction information is stored on the blockchain (more precisely, UTXO, unspent outputs...

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Mastering Blockchain.. - Third Edition
Published in: Aug 2020Publisher: PacktISBN-13: 9781839213199

Author (1)

author image
Imran Bashir

Imran Bashir has an M.Sc. in Information Security from Royal Holloway, University of London, and has a background in software development, solution architecture, infrastructure management, and IT service management. He is also a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the British Computer Society (BCS). Imran has extensive experience in both the public and financial sectors, having worked on large-scale IT projects in the public sector before moving to the financial services industry. Since then, he has worked in various technical roles for different financial companies in Europe's financial capital, London.
Read more about Imran Bashir