Let’s Talk About Bitcoin Addresses

So, like, each node in Bitcoin doesn’t really have a physical address, right? It’s just scripts. What I get is that a Bitcoin address is more like a number we use to show who controls the value. It’s just easier to send and receive stuff, you know? If I give you my address, it’s like telling your wallet to create an output based on that. My wallet gets to see the addresses, but it’s just scripts in the background.

Yeah, that’s true. Blockchain doesn’t store public addresses like we think. But I wouldn’t say they’re just numbers. A public address is kinda like a recipe for creating a lock script for transactions. If you send coins to a public key, that lock script is set up so you just need a valid signature to open up it. More complex than just a number.

I see where you’re coming from, but nodes have an IP address and port. That’s how they find each other. I get that by ‘node’ you mean the person sending a transaction, tho the output doesn’t show an actual address only a script. And yeah, it’s definitely not just a number. It’s like a smart contract that holds the coins until they’re unlocked. Pretty neat.

Calling it ‘no built-in addresses’ can be confusing. In tech, it’s all about abstraction. Like how virtual memory works; it’s not really separate from physical memory. So we could say there aren’t really ‘built-in’ locking scripts either, since they’re just a fancy way of saying a set of instructions.