<p>Multibit uses SPV, which is a peer-to-peer protocol consisting of two parts.</p>

<ul>
<li>It downloads the block headers from peers (not the whole block). This allows it to verify that the blocks have a lot of hashing power behind them, and get the merkle root for each of them.</li>
<li>It asks peers for transactions matching the addresses it cares about. It can verify that the transactions belong to one of the blocks it knows about by using the merkle root.</li>
</ul>

<p><a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Scalability#Simplified_payment_verification" rel="nofollow">See here for a discussion of the security tradeoffs.</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-07-25T00:51:46.857Z
2013-07-25T00:51:46.857Z
Christophe Biocca
<p>Multibit is clearly a faster desktop wallet since it's a thin client that doesn't download and process the entire *8GB blockchain.</p>

<p>My question is, what service does Multibit connect to in order to process transactions? Are there security concerns to be aware of compared to using a thick client with its own blockchain? What benefits are there using a thick client (like Bitcoin-QT) compared to a thin client?</p>

<client><thin-clients>
What service does Multibit connect to?
Chad Whitaker
# What service does Multibit connect to?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-07-24)

Multibit is clearly a faster desktop wallet since it's a thin client that doesn't download and process the entire \*8GB blockchain.

My question is, what service does Multibit connect to in order to process transactions? Are there security concerns to be aware of compared to using a thick client with its own blockchain? What benefits are there using a thick client (like Bitcoin-QT) compared to a thin client?

**Tags:** client, thin-clients


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2013-07-25. Score: 1

Multibit uses SPV, which is a peer-to-peer protocol consisting of two parts.

* It downloads the block headers from peers (not the whole block). This allows it to verify that the blocks have a lot of hashing power behind them, and get the merkle root for each of them.
* It asks peers for transactions matching the addresses it cares about. It can verify that the transactions belong to one of the blocks it knows about by using the merkle root.

[See here for a discussion of the security tradeoffs.](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Scalability#Simplified_payment_verification)


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