GLOSSARY OF TERMS

TRANSACTION ~ Sending/receiving bitcoin

A transfer of value in the form of satoshis, from one bitcoin holder to another.

NODE ~ A 'branch' of the decentralized bitcoin 'bank'. Anyone can run a node.

Nodes are computers that run the bitcoin software.

Nodes, along with miners, users and developers, form the peer-to-peer Bitcoin network.

Imagine each full node as a ledger containing the balances of every private key.

They interact, and reach consensus (agree) with one another by accepting and validating transactions from other nodes, along with blocks from miners, and then relaying these onward to other nodes.

Nodes are run by an ad-hoc group of thousands of volunteers around the world.

A full node is one that has independently validated the entire Bitcoin blockchain, since the Genesis Block mined by Satoshi in 2009.

Full nodes have been running since 2009, when Bitcoin was created.

The more active nodes there are, the more distributed, and therefore resilient, the whole network becomes.

There are currently over 19,000 reachable full nodes worldwide, & far more unreachable ones.

All participating nodes are equal.