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One of the bases of the Bitcoin protocol, which Mimblewimble seeks to shake up, is its so-called UTXO-based system , for Unspent Transaction Output . In this founding system, each Bitcoin transaction has an input and an output . Each input is thus an output of a previous transaction, making it possible to navigate step by step through the connected blocks of the Bitcoin blockchain from a given transaction.
It is this particularity which explains why it is possible in the long term to link transactions and to draw up a history.
The total balance owned by a Bitcoin user is therefore calculated by summing the values ??of all the outputs in their possession which have not yet been spent (that is to say, if you have followed, which have not not yet used as input in a transaction). In a way, for each transaction where you wish to pay in bitcoins, you are thus all in with the balance of your address, while the recipient instantly gives you change. Note, however, that a transaction can also have several inputs and outputs, making the situation less caricature.
This way of calculating a balance is an important point: unlike other accounting systems, we only reconstitute a user's balance afterwards from the sums signed by their private and public keys: we do not thus never actually sends bitcoins, we only sign transfer agreements for these bitcoins, with keys and in favor of other keys.
Input: Previous tx: f5d8ee39a430901c91a5917b9f2dc19d6d1a0e9cea205b009ca73dd04470b9a6
Index: 0 scriptSig: 304502206e21798a42fae0e854281abd38bacd1aeed3ee3738d9e1446618c4571d10 90db022100e2ac980643b0b82c0e88ffdfec6b64e3e6ba35e7ba5fdd7d5d6cc8d25c6b241501
Output:
Value: 5000000000
scriptPubKey: OP_DUP OP_HASH160 404371705fa9bd789a2fcd52d2c580b65d35549d
OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG
For example, in the above transaction, the output of 5,000,000,000 satoshis is not spent and therefore it is still available to the user who controls them.
This way of ensuring the accounting is not necessarily an end in itself: for example, Ethereum is not UTXO-based , but rather account-based , with an operation and a calculation of balances closer to the classic representation of possession of own assets.
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