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What's cryptography?

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Zain Ali
What's cryptography?

The “crypto” within the word “cryptocurrency” means “secret” in Greek - which provides a clue in regards to what the concept of cryptography is about. Cryptography may be the study and exercise of delivering secure, encrypted messages or data between several parties. The sender “encrypts” the content, which obscures its happy to a 3rd party, and also the receiver “decrypts” the content, which makes it legible how to sell bitcoin.

Cryptocurrencies use cryptography to permit transactions to become anonymous, secure, and “trustless,” and that means you don’t have to know anything about someone to securely make transactions together - and its not necessary bank, credit-card issuer, government, or other 3rd party in the centre. And cryptography isn’t just essential for digital money - our computer and also the systems it’s mounted on are encrypting and decrypting data constantly, of all the Search you are making to each email you signal.

Cryptocurrencies are entirely according to cryptographic ideas. Bitcoin was introduced by a pseudonymous person (or group) going named Satoshi Nakamoto, who suggested the concept by means of a whitepaper published to some cryptography forum in '09.

The thorniest issue that Nakamoto solved was something known as the double-spend problem. Because Bitcoin is simply code, what’s to prevent an individual from making and spending multiple copies of the money? Nakamoto’s solution took it's origin from a properly-known file encryption arrangement referred to as public-private key file encryption.

Bitcoin (in addition to Ethereum and lots of other cryptocurrencies) utilizes a technology known as public-private key file encryption. This enables these to be “trustless” - and makes secure transactions between other people possible with no “trusted intermediary” just like a bank or Paypal in the centre.

So how exactly does public-private key file encryption work?

The Bitcoin network issues all users a personal key (basically a very strong password) that it cryptographically generates a linked public key. You are able to freely give people your public key - actually, that’s the only real bit of information anybody must give back Bitcoin. But to gain access to individuals funds, the non-public secret is needed.

A part of why is Bitcoin revolutionary is its solution for that double-spend problem:A peer-to-peer network that utilizes cryptographic techniques to verify the authenticity of transactions.

Your public secret is produced by your private key using a method known as “hashing” - that is going for a string of information and processing it with an formula. It’s virtually impossible to reverse this method, so nobody decision your private key out of your public key.

Since your private and public keys are linked, the network recognizes that your bitcoin fit in with you - and can remain yours as lengthy as you've your private key.

Another impact of not getting a middleman is the fact that Bitcoin transactions are irreversible (in the end, there's no credit-card issuer to if one makes an error). But this can be a feature, not really a bug: permanent transactions really are a key area of the means to fix the double spend problem.

Another 1 / 2 of the answer may be the Bitcoin blockchain, that is a giant, decentralized ledger - make a bank’s balance books - that documents every transaction and it is constantly verified and updated by all of the computers within the network.

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Zain Ali
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