Term 1 S3 Lesson 2: Bitcoin Core Testnet

Lesson Introduction

Goals:

• Set up your own bitcoin core development environment
• Introduce bitcoin core - its purpose and the tools
• Create transactions between wallets using a bitcoin core test environment
• Investigate the transactions made using the online block explorer to get a better idea of how transactions flow

Bitcoin Core - Overview

Bitcoin: Network of bitcoin users creating and validating transactions

Bitcoin Core: Implementation of bitcoin that encompasses all of the software behind bitcoin. (software, alias: Bitcoin-QT)

• connect to the network
• validate the blockchain
• send and receive bitcoin

Bitcoin Core - Networks

Mainnet, Testnet, Regent

• Mainnet: primary network where live transactions take place
• Testnet: alternative bitcoin blockchain that provides a test environment for applications (still a network and takes time)
• Regent: alternative test network for testing bitcoin applications (no real network,instantaneously create new blocks and have complete control over the environment; saves time)

Mainnet vs Testnet

Testnet vs Regression Testing

In this course we will use testnet because we want to be able to interact with other users.