And BTW.... The reason the ledger is public is because without it being public and transparent, you'd have to have a central authority maintaining it's trustworthiness.
Like imagine we're in a payment dispute.
"I already wired you the $500!"
"No you didn't, I never got it!"
"Ohh yeah?! Here's a receipt from the bank proving it went through and landed in your account!"
In this case the trustworthiness of a central authority provides authentication and settles the dispute.
Now imagine it like this...
"I already sent you 0.005 bitcoin!"
"No, you didn't, I never got it!"
"Ohh yeah, Here's the public ledger and it's saying my 0.005 btc is sitting in your account."
In this case the trustworthiness of the network's source code provides authentication and settles the dispute. But it doesn't work if both of us can't see the ledger, and that's why it's public.
And BTW.... The reason the ledger is public is because without it being public and transparent, you'd have to have a central authority maintaining it's trustworthiness.
Like imagine we're in a payment dispute.
"I already wired you the $500!"
"No you didn't, I never got it!"
"Ohh yeah?! Here's a receipt from the bank proving it went through and landed in your account!"
In this case the trustworthiness of a central authority provides authentication and settles the dispute.
Now imagine it like this...
"I already sent you 0.005 bitcoin!"
"No, you didn't, I never got it!"
"Ohh yeah, Here's the public ledger and it's saying my 0.005 btc is sitting in your account."
In this case the trustworthiness of the network's source code provides authentication and settles the dispute. But it doesn't work if both of us can't see the ledger, and that's why it's public.