Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash (P2PKH)

Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash, or P2PKH, is the classic Bitcoin output type that locks coins to the 20-byte hash of a public key rather than the key itself. Its addresses begin with the number 1 and use base58 encoding; the genesis block's address, 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa, is the most famous example.

Why it matters

Hashing the public key brought two benefits: shorter, checksummed addresses that humans could transcribe with error detection, and a security margin, since the public key itself stays hidden until the coins are spent, layering hash security over elliptic curve security. To spend, the owner reveals the public key and a signature, and the script checks that the key hashes correctly and the signature verifies. P2PKH dominated Bitcoin for years and remains fully supported, though SegWit and Taproot formats offer the same function at lower fee cost, and its share of new transactions has declined steadily.

In the gold vs bitcoin debate

P2PKH is a study in how bitcoin evolves: a format from the network's first years still spends today exactly as designed, because the network preserves backward compatibility with every era of accumulated ownership. Monetary assets earn trust through this kind of continuity, gold through millennia of physical persistence, bitcoin through an unbroken commitment that old coins never stop working.