Glossary

Hexadecimal

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Hexadecimal is an encoding scheme which uses a 16 character alphabet, including digits 0-9 and letters A-F. Upper and lowercase letters are interchangeable, and most data represented in hexadecimal should begin with a ‘0x’ prefix. Most byte data is represented in hexadecimal, including Bitcoin public keys, transactions, hashes, and scripts.

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Encoding
The Bitcoin Protocol uses several different encoding schemes to represent data to users. The encoding schemes are chosen based on the data type, in order to optimise for human readability and conserve disk space.
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Byte
A byte is a string of eight zeros and ones, or bits. Bytes are usually represented in hexadecimal notation, not as binary. One thousands bytes form a kilobyte (kB), and one million bytes forms a megabyte (MB).
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Public Key
A public key is used to receive bitcoin. When bitcoin is sent to a public key, only the owner of the corresponding private key will be able to spend it.
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Hash Function
A cryptographic hash function is a one-way, random mathematical function. Hash functions underlie Bitcoin's security model in several ways.
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Bitcoin Script
Script is the language Bitcoin uses to determine who can spend a given piece of bitcoin (a UTXO). Script is intentionally limited in order to maintain Bitcoin's simplicity and ensure that any individual can run a node and validate the blockchain.
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