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Jonathan_Graehl comments on General Bitcoin discussion thread (June 2011) - Less Wrong Discussion

4 Post author: SilasBarta 10 June 2011 11:21PM

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Comment author: Jonathan_Graehl 11 June 2011 03:30:36AM 0 points [-]

re-requisites -> pre- ?

I skimmed it and nothing jumped out at me. I understand public key crypto.

Your blog post made me think an explanation of bitcoin mining and transfer would occur. It never did. There was this:

What role do public key signatures play in Bitcoin? They are used to prove to the network that the owner of address A1 (A1 also functioning as a public key!) really did authorize the transfer of certain coins to the next address. Other nodes in the network, in turn, are able to easily verify that the owner of A1 signed off on the transfer by checking that the mathematical relationship I mentioned above holds among the A1 public key, the message indicating the transfer, and the signature on the transfer. And if this relationship doesn't hold, the other nodes (per the Bitcoin protocol) ignore the purported transfer, acting like it didn't exist, and refuse to tell other nodes about it.

... which isn't a very complete. The only thing I learned (I know nothing about Bitcoin mining or transaction protocols) is that apparently lots of nodes end up knowing about every transaction (paying attention only to transactions moving a particular coin that are signed by its last known owner).

So, I gather your explanation of Bitcoin is yet to be written.

Comment author: SilasBarta 11 June 2011 05:03:19PM 2 points [-]

What Tim Tyler said. Remember, the layperson has a HUGE inferential gap between their knowledge and Bitcoin, and closing that gap requires solving the problem -- itself very difficult for most -- of explaining cryptography and what it can accomplish. Otherwise, people can't grasp how the scarcity and security come about.

Comment author: timtyler 11 June 2011 08:30:57AM 2 points [-]

I gather your explanation of Bitcoin is yet to be written.

Silas did say this was:

a blog post explaining the relevant cryptographic re-requisites.

It doesn't have much about Bitcoin - and instead covers the basics of digital signatures and hash functions.

Comment author: SilasBarta 18 July 2011 04:42:10PM 1 point [-]

Update: I've attempted a more "big picture" summary of how Bitcoin works as a whole, rather than just the prerequisites.

I'm interested in hearing comments about clarity or accuracy.

Comment author: Jonathan_Graehl 18 July 2011 07:09:50PM 1 point [-]

It's new info for me, so I can only hope it's accurate.

It's a good explanation. I'd know where to mount further details if I wanted to find them.

Comment author: SilasBarta 18 July 2011 07:56:41PM 1 point [-]

Thanks, glad it provides some of the clarity you were looking for.

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