How big is a bitcoin?

[Sir_lagsalot]

Hey guys, just as the title says, what is the file size for a bitcoin? Does it vary, depending on what coin, or does the file size stay the same? I'm not talking about the size of a wallet.dat file, as those have other information kept inside. I want to know the size of the pure coin.

Does the coin change size the more it is transacted?
Does the coin's size vary if I compare a bitcoin to a litecoin?

[unamis76]

Bitcoins have no size. What is sizeable is the blockchain, and transactions are the ones who take up space.

[virtualx]

Hey guys, just as the title says, what is the file size for a bitcoin? Does it vary, depending on what coin, or does the file size stay the same? I'm not talking about the size of a wallet.dat file, as those have other information kept inside. I want to know the size of the pure coin.

There is no file size of a bitcoin.  Bitcoin is just an abstraction that we use to make it easier to discuss the transfer of control of value. When it comes to actual transactions and blocks in the blockchain, there aren't really any "bitcoins".

[QuestionAuthority]

Bitcoins are not individual files. Bitcoins are amounts at a Bitcoin address. I suppose you could say Bitcoins are as big as your wallet file.

[eddie13]

There are no coins.. Only wallets..

[franky1]

Hey guys, just as the title says, what is the file size for a bitcoin? Does it vary, depending on what coin, or does the file size stay the same? I'm not talking about the size of a wallet.dat file, as those have other information kept inside. I want to know the size of the pure coin.

Does the coin change size the more it is transacted?
Does the coin's size vary if I compare a bitcoin to a litecoin?

a bitcoin is not physical.. however a value(part of a transaction) is measured in satoshi's

so one bitcoin is 100000000 satoshi's (nine bytes) however those 9 bytes are useless by themselves, they need a transaction to inform where it can from where it is going to and proof that where it came from belonged to you. and so this tx data can be on average 500bytes.

moving 100000000 satoshi's is 9 bytes no matter how many hands it has passed, but if you split it up into multiple transaction not only will the tx data increase
but also the byte value of bitcoin
EG
10x0.1btc=
10000000 (8bytes)
10000000 (8bytes)
10000000 (8bytes)
10000000 (8bytes)
10000000 (8bytes)
10000000 (8bytes)
10000000 (8bytes)
10000000 (8bytes)
10000000 (8bytes)
10000000 (8bytes)

so although the total is 1btc. your now moving 80bytes and with the transaction data to validate it moving to 10 addresses. you are talking a few kbytes now

as for the btc ltc question
a satoshi (0.00000001)btc is the same 1byte as a coblee (0.00000001)ltc
a bitcoin (100000000)sat is the same 1byte as a litecoin (100000000)cob
and the tx data to prove it is much the same

so in short.
1 bitcoin or 1 litecoin is 9bytes. but useless as those nine bytes
1satoshi or 1 coblee is 1byte. but useless as one byte.

analogy:
a bank note is just a piece of special paper.. on its own its useless.. without special words connected to it to validate that it is a bank note... its just paper

[mobnepal]

Bitcoin is a value recorded in public ledger (in every computer or wallet) for a bitcoin address so it will not have size. Block size is the one which have space.

[BirtRenaldsFan]

Right now its in 400 range.

[cryptothreads]

It is grow bigger . Def. get in while you can for sure!

[lahm-44]

there is acctually no size but we have made a scale to mesure the transaction values. bitcoin has a lot of develpopers and peoples here are expert in their special skills and thats makes bitcoin a size generator insted of just size holding.we have thought a lot and still there is a lot lefteveryone is the member of bitcoin community who are present in this forum and here peoples are from around the world.i still trust on the satoshi nakamotos untold vision .i know what can happen if everyone spend their life to improve their favorute skills it can surely resolve all the problrms just need a little time

[maokoto]

Well, perhaps the way to put a size on it is to determine how much does the blockchain grows once a new Bitcoin is generated. The size of that initial transaction that creates the Bitcoin might be considered the "base" size of a Bitcoin.

If all Bitcoins were mined and they were not transferred (just locally to the miner's wallet) blockchain will still have a certain size. If we divided that size by the number of bitcoins... would not that be the (minimum) size of a Bitcoin?

[franky1]

Well, perhaps the way to put a size on it is to determine how much does the blockchain grows once a new Bitcoin is generated. The size of that initial transaction that creates the Bitcoin might be considered the "base" size of a Bitcoin.

If all Bitcoins were mined and they were not transferred (just locally to the miner's wallet) blockchain will still have a certain size. If we divided that size by the number of bitcoins... would not that be the (minimum) size of a Bitcoin?

what like 1mb per 25btc block solved..
but thats hard to measure as couple years ago a block gave 50btc and had less than 0.4btc average..
next  year the block limit will increase and the reward will halve..

and if your not going to just calculate the block reward vs the block.. and just wait till 2014 and then divide 21m by the total chain size.. that wont work either as transactions spend the exact same satoshi's many times a year.

the best logical answer is that a satoshi  1 is one byte and bitcoin is 100000000 9 bytes as recognised behind the scenes in the code.. or 10 bytes 1.00000000 as recognised front end in the gui

[target]

is the point of this question will result to have a program calculating file size?

Well, perhaps the way to put a size on it is to determine how much does the blockchain grows once a new Bitcoin is generated. The size of that initial transaction that creates the Bitcoin might be considered the "base" size of a Bitcoin.

If all Bitcoins were mined and they were not transferred (just locally to the miner's wallet) blockchain will still have a certain size. If we divided that size by the number of bitcoins... would not that be the (minimum) size of a Bitcoin?

what like 1mb per 25btc block solved..
but thats hard to measure as couple years ago a block gave 50btc and had less than 0.4btc average..
next  year the block limit will increase and the reward will halve..

and if your not going to just calculate the block reward vs the block.. and just wait till 2014 and then divide 21m by the total chain size.. that wont work either as transactions spend the exact same satoshi's many times a year.

the best logical answer is that a satoshi  1 is one byte and bitcoin is 100000000 9 bytes as recognised behind the scenes in the code.. or 10 bytes 1.00000000 as recognised front end in the gui

and you'd have to re-edit the codes every halving.

[PakistanHockeyfan]

Doesn't really have a size. In terms of cash it does. About 300-400 USD right now

[Ueshiba]

I found this Khan Academy series an excellent overview of blockchain for beginners:

Link to Videos

[heldertb]

Hey guys, just as the title says, what is the file size for a bitcoin? Does it vary, depending on what coin, or does the file size stay the same? I'm not talking about the size of a wallet.dat file, as those have other information kept inside. I want to know the size of the pure coin.

Does the coin change size the more it is transacted?
Does the coin's size vary if I compare a bitcoin to a litecoin?

bitcoin is no size . bitcoin is only depended on coin not size and we can see bitcoin size  and after coin. how much price increase every day. only we can see

[Soros Shorts]

bitcoin is no size .

I can guarantee that if you've been hitting up faucets and collecting enough Satoshis to add up to one Bitcoin then you would have one very large Bitcoin on the blockchain.

[Funny]

I think the more sources a coin have the larger it is... So for example a newly mined coin would be much smaller than a coin that has been circulated for years.

[DannyHamilton]

bitcoin is no size .

I can guarantee that if you've been hitting up faucets and collecting enough Satoshis to add up to one Bitcoin then you would have one very large Bitcoin on the blockchain.

Here is an actual transaction from the blockchain represented in hexadecimal sending 0.099 BTC to 1NScWjpKqfLkAf2q9tMXhansZQRpM5HUS3 and paying a 0.001 BTC fee, for a total of 0.1 BTC spent from the sender's wallet. It is 192 bytes long.  I've color coded each piece of data to match up with my color coded descriptions that follow. Each byte is represented with 2 hexadecimal digits, so the string of numbers and letters below is 384 digits:

You can look at the pieces of the transaction and decide for yourself how big you think "a bitcoin" is.  The 8 bytes that franky1 was talking about are seen in the description below where I state:

• 8 bytes indicating quantity of satoshis this output supplies to a transaction if it is used as an input in the future (0000000000970fe0)

But you'll also notice that the representation of the 0.01 BTC that is being spent is handled by 36 bytes that refer back to where the output was created, and the new 0.099 BTC output that is created by this transaction doesn't exist unless this entire 192 byte transaction exists.

000000010174c1ca3b4bdb3e58daaf87774a09495ae5316995e37b05d7aab21c
063c72a0b4000000076b483045022100e25ca2d2d56e50df86837a865184a1ef3
af0a0a301f3cfaee4a3db5ac237d62c02202d7f914835ac982b31d176e4ca8eb98b
caffa17a7e40a474084bd1b5e0b2e366012102fb624f78133dae97cf2269a1510f
bfbc0c7e45ce43fc629a7389ec1a7aab4676fffffffe010000000000970fe01976a914
eb32af5e891a586834b1411511a93747d06ad55f88ac00060ef2

(Note: Transactions in hex are typically represented in little-endian byte order.  This transaction has been converted to big-endian byte order so that the conversions from hex to decimal won't be as confusing to those that are unfamiliar with the differences between the two representations.)

• 4 bytes version number (00000001)
• 1 byte indicating quantity of inputs (01)
• 32 byte transaction ID indicating where the 0.1 BTC input that is being spent was originally created as an output (74c1ca3b4bdb3e58daaf87774a09495ae5316995e37b05d7aab21c063c72a0b4)
• 4 byte index indicating which output from that previous transaction is being spent as an input in this transaction (00000007)
• 1 byte indicating the size of the Txin-script (6b)
• First byte of Txin-script indicating size of the data to be pushed onto the stack (48)
• 71 byte DER encoded ECDSA signature (3045022100e25ca2d2d56e50df86837a865184a1ef3af0a0a301f3cfaee4a3db5ac237d62c02202 d7f914835ac982b31d176e4ca8eb98bcaffa17a7e40a474084bd1b5e0b2e366)
• • In this case the DER encoded signature consists of:
  • 1 byte header indicating a compound structure (30)
  • 1 byte indicating the size of the rest of the signature (45)
  • 1 byte indicating that the following data represents an integer (02)
  • 1 byte indicating the size of the following integer (21)
  • 33 byte R coordinate (00e25ca2d2d56e50df86837a865184a1ef3af0a0a301f3cfaee4a3db5ac237d62c)
  • 1 byte indicating that the following data represents an integer (02)
  • 1 byte indicating the size of the following integer (20)
  • 32 byte S coordinate (2d7f914835ac982b31d176e4ca8eb98bcaffa17a7e40a474084bd1b5e0b2e366)
• 1 byte hashtype code, SIGHASH_ALL (01)
• 1 byte indicating the size of the data to be pushed onto the stack (21)
• 33 byte compressed ECDSA public key (02fb624f78133dae97cf2269a1510fbfbc0c7e45ce43fc629a7389ec1a7aab4676)
• 4 byte sequence number (fffffffe)
• 1 byte indicating the quantity of outputs (01)
• 8 bytes indicating quantity of satoshis this output supplies to a transaction if it is used as an input in the future (0000000000970fe0)
• 1 byte indicating the size of the Txout-script (19)
• 25 byte Txout-script (76a914eb32af5e891a586834b1411511a93747d06ad55f88ac)
• • In this case the Txout-script data consists of:
  • 1 byte Txout-script OP code, OP_DUP (76)
  • 1 byte Txout-script OP code, OP_HASH160 (a9)
  • 1 byte indicating the size of the public key hash (14)
  • 20 byte public key hash (eb32af5e891a586834b1411511a93747d06ad55f)
  • 1 byte Txout-script OP code, OP_EQUALVERIFY (88)
  • 1 byte Txout-script OP code, OP_CHECKSIG (ac)
• 4 byte locktime (00060ef2)

[QuestionAuthority]

Ok, Danny proved they're pretty small but how much do they weigh? lol