We return to the process of transfer transactions of two people, to understand bitcoin block chain of data structures .
I initiated a deal that I broadcast to the entire block chain network, and I want you two deal: I bit into a sum of money to your address without your permission.
But only when the deal is packed into the latest bitcoin block the deal really is completed. Generally speaking, when the sum of the exchange after the block has added five blocks, that is, including itself after a total of six times to confirm the deal can be considered to be fully confirmed. Press OK bit time credits for each block estimated 10 minutes, i.e., for a final confirmation of a transaction over about 1 hour.
This includes two steps: First, a candidate transaction is packed into blocks, each node may generate different candidate rule-blocks; second node mining successful, the candidate block is successfully added to the end of the chain block, became the latest official blocks.
So, the deal is packaged into blocks What does it mean? This relates to the most basic block chain data structure, which is the basis of its tamper-proof.
The following discussion may be a bit boring, but it is the knowledge of the most basic and Bitcoin block chain, and I try to explain in simple language.
Block chain are called blockchain, because it stores data blocks in a chain form. Starting from the first block of so-called block creation, the new block is constantly connected to the back of a block, forming a chain.
Each block is composed of two parts - the block header and block data. Wherein the head block has a pointer to a block of hash, the hash pointer contains a hash value prior data block. Hash value can be seen as fingerprint data block, i.e., the fingerprints are stored in a data section after the head of a block. If the data on a block has been tampered with, then the fingerprint data and it do not add up, tampering it was found. To change the data in one block, each block after its must be modified accordingly.
Bitcoin block chain design a mechanism to make this change is unlikely to occur, we are talking about the discussion "effort to prove" and to "Bitcoin mining" and then in more detail later.
A block of data is packed into this block a series of transactions. These transactions are packaged in accordance with established rules of a particular binary tree data structure formed - Merkel Tree (Merkle trees). At the current block size bits coins, a number of transactions in the block can accommodate about 2000, such as receiving a transaction 1804 blocks of 526,957.
View data block chain of the credits information bits by website: https://blockchain.info/ .
Bit block data structure credits hash chain comprises two pointers, not all of which are basic features of tampering with the data structure. Formed a "+ block chain" (block + chain) chain data structure, a pointer to another hash tree Merkel formed (see FIG. 1). Chain data structure such that a modification of data within the block can easily be found; Merkel tree structure function similarly, such that any modification of transaction data therein can easily be found.
Figure 1: Block Chain bit credit "block chains" Tree and Merkel