How To Start Your Own Cryptocurrency in International Market - Media Gust

To join the bitcoin network and start using the currency, all a user has to do is download an application or use a web application. Since bitcoin is a standard, there are many implementations of the bitcoin client software. There is also a “reference implementa‐ tion”, also known as the Satoshi Client, which is managed as an open source project by a team of developers and is derived from the original implementation written by Satoshi Nakamoto. 

The three primary forms of bitcoin clients are: 

Full Client

A full client, or “full node” is a client that stores the entire history of bitcoin trans‐ actions (every transaction by every user, ever), manages the user’s wallets and can initiate transactions directly on the bitcoin network. This is similar to a standalone email server, in that it handles all aspects of the protocol without relying on any other servers or third party services.

Light Client

A lightweight client stores the user’s wallet but relies on third-party owned servers for access to the bitcoin transactions and network. The light client does not store a full copy of all transactions and therefore must trust the third party servers for transaction validation. This is similar to a standalone email client that connects to a mail server for access to a mailbox, in that it relies on a third party for interactions with the network. 

Web Client

Web-clients are accessed through a web browser and store the user’s wallet on a server owned by a third party. This is similar to webmail in that it relies entirely on a third party server.