As a new user, you can get started with Okcash without understanding the technical details. Once you have installed an Okcash wallet on your computer, mobile phone or IoT device, it will generate your first OK address and you can create more addresses whenever you need. You can disclose your addresses to your friends or costumers so that they can pay you or vice versa. This is pretty similar to how email works, except that Okcash addresses should only be used once.
The OK block chain is a shared public ledger on which the entire Okcash network relies. All confirmed transactions are included in the OK block chain. This way, Okcash wallets can calculate their spendable balance and the new transactions can be verified to be spending OK coins that are actually owned by the spender. The integrity and the chronological order of the block chain are enforced with cryptography.
A transaction is a transfer of value between Okcash wallets that gets included in the OK block chain. Okcash wallets keep a secret piece of data called a private key or seed, which is used to sign transactions, providing a mathematical proof that they have come from the owner of the wallet. The signature also prevents the transaction from being altered by anybody once it has been issued. All transactions are broadcasted between users and usually begin to be confirmed by the network in the following 10 seconds, through a process called staking.
Staking is a distributed consensus system that is used to confirm waiting transactions by including them in the OK block chain. It enforces a chronological order in the OK block chain, protects the neutrality of the network, and allows different computers to agree on the state of the system. To be confirmed, transactions must be packed in a block that fits very strict cryptography rules that will be verified by the network. These rules prevent previous blocks from being modified because doing so would invalidate all following blocks. Staking also creates the equivalent of a competitive lottery that prevents any individual from easily adding new blocks consecutively in the OK block chain. This way, no individuals can control what is included in the OK block chain or replace parts of the OK block chain to roll back their own spends.