<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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