<p>One of the people who holds the private key corresponding to that public key (Satoshi, theymos, Gavin, and <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2dz9ri/why_in_the_world_does_theymos_have_the_private/cjuu360" rel="nofollow">unspecified others</a>) has the ability to send a message out to everyone on the network. This has been used in the past to tell people about security vulnerabilities in the client.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Can someone explain what it exactly means and how will it affect me if I want to simulate a network of 1000 or more nodes on a private network in <code>regtest</code> mode ?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Assuming you're not testing the alert system, it won't affect you.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-10-22T02:14:40.863Z
2015-11-21T11:05:34.167Z
2015-11-21T11:05:34.167Z
Nick ODell
<pre><code>vAlertPubKey = ParseHex("04fc9702847840aaf195de8442ebecedf5b095cdbb9bc716bda9110971b28a49e0ead8564ff0db22209e0374782c093bb899692d524e9d6a6956e7c5ecbcd68284");
</code></pre>

<p>The <code>vAlertPubKey</code> variable can be seen in the initialisations for <code>main</code> and <code>test</code> network, but not for <code>regtest</code>. Can someone explain what it exactly means and how will it affect me if I want to simulate a network of 1000 or more nodes on a private network in <code>regtest</code> mode ?</p>

<bitcoind><public-key><regtest>
What is the variable valertpubkey in net.cpp for?
bawejakunal
# What is the variable valertpubkey in net.cpp for?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-10-22)

```
vAlertPubKey = ParseHex("04fc9702847840aaf195de8442ebecedf5b095cdbb9bc716bda9110971b28a49e0ead8564ff0db22209e0374782c093bb899692d524e9d6a6956e7c5ecbcd68284");

```

The `vAlertPubKey` variable can be seen in the initialisations for `main` and `test` network, but not for `regtest`. Can someone explain what it exactly means and how will it affect me if I want to simulate a network of 1000 or more nodes on a private network in `regtest` mode ?

**Tags:** bitcoind, public-key, regtest


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2015-10-22. Score: 1

One of the people who holds the private key corresponding to that public key (Satoshi, theymos, Gavin, and [unspecified others](https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2dz9ri/why_in_the_world_does_theymos_have_the_private/cjuu360)) has the ability to send a message out to everyone on the network. This has been used in the past to tell people about security vulnerabilities in the client.

> Can someone explain what it exactly means and how will it affect me if I want to simulate a network of 1000 or more nodes on a private network in `regtest` mode ?

Assuming you're not testing the alert system, it won't affect you.


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