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