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.