Glossary

Light Client

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A light client is a Bitcoin application, such as a wallet, that interacts with the Bitcoin network but does not store the blockchain. Instead, this application simply queries other nodes for the specific transactions and blocks in which it is interested.

Light clients are used by wallets to inform users of their balances and transactions, and they are less private and trustworthy than nodes but are more convenient and less demanding of disk space. Most mobile wallets and some desktop wallets are light clients, because running an entire node is not yet efficient on all types of devices. While light clients usually connect to a central server, most light clients have the ability to connect to any Bitcoin node in order to preserve privacy and trustlessness.

Related Terms
Wallet
A wallet is a piece of software which generates and stores public and private keys, allowing users to send, receive, and store bitcoin.
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Bitcoin Node
A node is a discrete member of a network which interacts with other nodes to form the network. Bitcoin nodes store and validate the blockchain and exchange blocks and transactions with one another in order to maintain consensus.
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Blockchain
A blockchain is a chronological list of records, called blocks. Each of these blocks contains transactions. Once a block is added to the blockchain, it is infeasible to alter, giving Bitcoin its immutability.
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