Description
With an exchange wallet the private keys are not really yours, and with a light wallet you trust someone else's server to tell you your balance. Bitcoin Core is the reference implementation, which downloads and verifies every block so you check the books yourself.
It is both a full node and a desktop wallet: it joins the Bitcoin network, validates each transaction and block on its own, and relays data to other nodes.
Full validation:Checks the whole chain from the genesis block without relying on third parties.
Built-in wallet:Create addresses, send and receive, with private keys kept on your own machine and encrypted backups.
Privacy and networking:Limit peers or connect through Tor to reduce tracking.
Command line and RPC:bitcoind and bitcoin-cli suit developers and scripts.
Pruning:Turn on prune to keep only recent blocks and save lots of disk space.
Open source:The code is public and releases come with signatures you can verify.
Disk requirement:A full sync needs hundreds of GB and takes a while.
It is both a full node and a desktop wallet: it joins the Bitcoin network, validates each transaction and block on its own, and relays data to other nodes.
Features
Full validation:Checks the whole chain from the genesis block without relying on third parties.
Built-in wallet:Create addresses, send and receive, with private keys kept on your own machine and encrypted backups.
Privacy and networking:Limit peers or connect through Tor to reduce tracking.
Command line and RPC:bitcoind and bitcoin-cli suit developers and scripts.
Pruning:Turn on prune to keep only recent blocks and save lots of disk space.
Open source:The code is public and releases come with signatures you can verify.
Disk requirement:A full sync needs hundreds of GB and takes a while.
