Tiny Blockchain

A simple, educational implementation of a blockchain in Python. This project demonstrates the core concepts of blockchain technology including blocks, transactions, proof of work, and mining.

Features

Block creation and chaining
Transaction management
Proof of Work consensus mechanism
Mining rewards
Balance tracking
Basic test suite

Prerequisites

Python 3.8 or higher
pip (Python package installer)

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/tiny-blockchain.git
cd tiny-blockchain

Create and activate a virtual environment (recommended):

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows, use: .venv\Scripts\activate

Install dependencies:
```
pip install -r requirements.txt
```

Usage

Run the example blockchain:

python src/main.py

Run tests:

pytest tests/

Project Structure

tiny-blockchain/
├── src/
│   ├── blockchain.py    # Core blockchain implementation
│   ├── proof_of_work.py # Proof of work mechanism
│   └── main.py         # Example usage
├── tests/
│   └── test_blockchain.py
└── docs/
    └── architecture.md

How It Works

Blocks: Each block contains:
- Index
- Timestamp
- List of transactions
- Previous block's hash
- Current block's hash
Transactions: Simple transfers between addresses with amounts
Mining:
- Miners solve proof of work puzzles
- Successful mining adds new blocks
- Miners receive rewards
Proof of Work:
- Adjustable difficulty
- SHA-256 hashing
- Verification mechanism