Simplifying UTxO - Bitcoin Unspent Transaction Output

in bitcoin •  8 years ago 

A simple example of UTxO / Bitcoin Unspent Transaction Output

utxo.png

Consider the following scenarios.

Scenario 1

Alice sends me 1 BTC, I send Bob 1 BTC.
In this case, I have no Unspent Transactions.

Scenario 2

Alice sends me 1 BTC, I keep it with myself
In this case, 1 BTC is unspent transaction output for me

Scenario 3

Alice sends me 1 BTC, I want to send 0.25 BTC to Bob, and keep 0.75 with myself
In this case, I have to create two transactions
I send 0.25 BTC to Bob
and
I send 0.75 BTC to myself (using a change address).

Modern Bitcoin wallets do this automatically

The keypoint to note there that INPUT is always equal to OUTPUT (Spent or Unspent).
You cannot arbitrarily split a bitcoin and keep a part of it with you.

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!
Sort Order:  

a bit late here but thanks for this info.