<p>Encryption isn't part of Bitcoin at all. Nothing on the blockchain is encrypted. There is no encryption in consensus or the P2P network.</p>
<p>Only wallets have encryption for protecting private keys. Bitcoin Core specifically uses AES-256-CBC because it is not known to be insecure and is widely used. Other wallets may choose to use other encryption schemes.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-12-09T01:45:26.870Z
2020-12-09T01:45:26.870Z
Ava Chow
<p>Why does bitcoin use AES-256-CBC? Why not some other block cipher operation mode? Is there a specific reason?</p>

<bitcoin-core>
Why does bitcoin use AES-256-CBC?
noah abe
# Why does bitcoin use AES-256-CBC?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-12-09)

Why does bitcoin use AES-256-CBC? Why not some other block cipher operation mode? Is there a specific reason?

**Tags:** bitcoin-core


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2020-12-09. Score: 12 | Accepted answer

Encryption isn't part of Bitcoin at all. Nothing on the blockchain is encrypted. There is no encryption in consensus or the P2P network.

Only wallets have encryption for protecting private keys. Bitcoin Core specifically uses AES-256-CBC because it is not known to be insecure and is widely used. Other wallets may choose to use other encryption schemes.


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