This seems like a really basic question, but I'm having trouble searching for answers on it. My understanding is that my bitcoin client (Bitcoin v0.7.1-beta) has basically theoretically downloaded the entire transaction history of every bitcoin transaction that has ever occurred. I can see my own transactions in the Transactions screen. Is there a way to see transaction with wallets that I haven't imported or created on this client? I'm just trying to get a full understanding of bitcoin technology here. Is the reason the client doesn't show transactions from other wallets due to:
- User friendliness - it would be overwhelming to have to search through all wallet addresses when most people only care about their own (is there a way to override that?);
- Technical limitations - it's impractical to consider every transaction in the huge database when you want to list or look up some particular piece of information;
- Design limitations - Not every transaction is actually there with all the information necessary;
- Privacy concerns - By making it too easy to view others' transactions people would yell out about privacy more vocally;
- Something I missed?