3.1 Intro to bitcoin / Bitcoin Architecture

Question 1

The three key properties of the bitcoin blockchain: (TTT).

Further, explain those terms.

Answer 1

Trust-free, Tamper-free, Transparent

Trust-free: The element of trust in a third party should be eliminated. There aren’t any third parties in the system maintaining or controlling the system.

Tamper-free: System is free from manipulation. The history of events cannot be changed.

Transparent: Every participant in the system can read and validate all information and the current state.

Question 2

Draw an example of the bitcoin blockchain to illustrate its structure.

Answer 2

See slides 7

Question 3

What creates the chaining?

Answer 3

The hash of the previous block.

It is the hash of the Merkle root node of a Merkle tree structure consisting of all transactions.

Question 4

The … is required for the … in the network, used while solving the puzzle.

Answer 4

nonce
consensus mechanism

Question 5

The block’s hash used for chaining is calculated from the …

Answer 5

version until the nonce field.

Question 6

Where is the height of the block stored?

Answer 6

In a coinbase transaction.

Question 7

Given blockchain have to reference a predecessor: How does a blockchain start?

First bitcoins mined can never be spent.

Answer 7

The genesis block is mined, referencing a previous block with hash 0 and containing only the mining reward transaction.