<p>Transactions are not encrypted. They're just signed.</p>
<p>Please check the <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/69930/87158">answer</a> to the following question: <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/69927/how-are-transactions-verified-by-nodes-other-than-the-initial-receiver">How are transactions verified by nodes other than the initial receiver?</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-07T12:29:55.397Z
2022-12-07T13:36:48.837Z
2022-12-07T13:36:48.837Z
deyw
<p>The whole process of encryption sounds useless to me. Miners/validators and full nodes need to verify each transaction. They need two pieces of information:</p>
<ol>
<li>The original transaction data</li>
<li>The encrypted version of its hash.</li>
</ol>
<p>But why is encryption necessary?</p>
<p>The signer uses his/hers private key to encrypt the transaction data and broadcast the public key into the network, so it's fair to assume a large population of people in the network have access to their public key so everyone can decrypt the transaction data.</p>
<p>If everyone can verify and decrypt, why bother encrypting the transaction data in the first place?</p>
<p>My source is Chainlink:</p>
<p><a href="https://blog.chain.link/what-is-cryptographic-truth/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://blog.chain.link/what-is-cryptographic-truth/</a></p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/535wG.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/535wG.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-07T23:33:16.420Z
[Ironically, encryption is not an important part of bitcoin (?)](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/90041/13866)
RedGrittyBrick
<transactions><cryptography><transaction-verification><encryption>
Why does the Bitcoin network encrypt the transaction data?
Curious George 
# Why does the Bitcoin network encrypt the transaction data?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-12-07)

The whole process of encryption sounds useless to me. Miners/validators and full nodes need to verify each transaction. They need two pieces of information:

1. The original transaction data
2. The encrypted version of its hash.

But why is encryption necessary?

The signer uses his/hers private key to encrypt the transaction data and broadcast the public key into the network, so it's fair to assume a large population of people in the network have access to their public key so everyone can decrypt the transaction data.

If everyone can verify and decrypt, why bother encrypting the transaction data in the first place?

My source is Chainlink:

<https://blog.chain.link/what-is-cryptographic-truth/>

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/535wG.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/535wG.png)

**Tags:** transactions, cryptography, transaction-verification, encryption

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: [Ironically, encryption is not an important part of bitcoin (?)](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/90041/13866)  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2022-12-07. Score: 1

Transactions are not encrypted. They're just signed.

Please check the [answer](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/69930/87158) to the following question: [How are transactions verified by nodes other than the initial receiver?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/69927/how-are-transactions-verified-by-nodes-other-than-the-initial-receiver)


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