Blockchain tutorial 27: Bitcoin raw transaction and transaction id

Blockchain tutorial 27: Bitcoin raw transaction and transaction id

This is part 27 of the Blockchain tutorial.

This tutorial explains:

• What Bitcoin raw transaction is.
• Shows an example of a raw transaction using the very first transaction on the Genesis block.
• What the difference is between big endian and little endian.
• What a satoshi is.
• What a Bitcoin transaction id or hash is and what its purpose is.
• How to calculate the transaction id.

In this video series different topics will be explained which will help you to understand blockchain.

Bitcoin released as open source software in 2009 is a cryptocurrency invented by Satoshi Nakamoto (unidentified person or group of persons).
After the introduction of Bitcoin many Bitcoin alternatives were created. These alternate cryptocurrencies are called Altcoins (Litecoin, Dodgecoin etc).
Bitcoin's underlying technology is called Blockchain.
The Blockchain is a distributed decentralized incorruptible database (ledger) that records blocks of digital information. Each block contains a timestamp and a link to a previous block.

Soon people realises that there many other use cases where the Blockchain technology can be applied and not just as a cryptocurrency application.
New Blockchain platforms were created based on the Blockchain technology, one of which is called Ethereum.
Ethereum focuses on running programming code, called smart contracts, on any decentralized application.

Using the new Blockchain platforms, Blockchain technology can be used in supply chain management, healthcare, real estate, identity management, voting, internet of things, etcetera, just to name a few.
Today there is a growing interest in Blockchain not only in the financial sector but also in other sectors.

Explaining how Blockchain works is not easy and for many the Blockchain technology remains an elusive concept.
This video series tries to explain Blockchain to a large audience but from the bottom up.
Keywords often used in Blockchain conversation will be explained.
Each Blockchain video is short and to the point.

It is recommended to watch each video sequentially as I may refer to certain Blockchain topics explained earlier.

The presentation used in this video tutorial can be found at:
http://www.mobilefish.com/developer/blockchain/blockchain_quickguide_tutorial.html

The 3 links mentioned in the video are:

• The bitcoin_genesis_raw_tx.txt file
  http://www.mobilefish.com/download/cryptocurrency/bitcoin_genesis_raw_tx.txt
• The Bitcoin protocol:
  https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Protocol_documentation#tx
• The block explorer used in the video:
  https://blockchain.info/

The python script to calculate the transaction id:
http://www.mobilefish.com/download/cryptocurrency/calculate_txid.py.txt

The brainwallet tool to convert the raw transaction into a more readable text:
http://www.mobilefish.com/services/cryptocurrency/brainwallet.html