Who runs bitcoin software


It does so, by checking for balances for the users addresses and securing the corresponding private keys. Usual functionality for a wallet include receiving and sending bitcoins from the device running the wallet, a view of the transaction history, an address book and the import of additional wallets or private keys. The most important distinction can be made between thin and full wallets.

A thin wallet fetches information about the users transactions either from a trusted server, or from the bitcoin network directly. The device running the thin wallet doesn't have to keep a copy of the whole transaction history of the whole bitcoin network, which is called The Blockchain.

A full wallet looks up the users transaction history on a locally stored copy of the the blockchain and thus has to save it and synchronize it constantly. Because the blockchain is of significant size, tens of Gigabytes so far, this can be challenging for users. It is therefore for most users recommended to use thin wallets. There is also a third kind of wallet to be mentioned, which can be called a third-party wallet. These wallets only connect the user to a third-party, usually a bitcoin company, which manages the addresses and keys of the user for him or her.

The device of the user therefore doesn't actually run a wallet, but more of a connection program to the wallet which is actually running on the companies servers. Some third-party wallet providers allow transactions between users who both use the same wallet company, to have instantly confirmed transactions, sending bitcoins not to cumbersome addresses but e-mail-address-, and social network handles.

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