bitcoin

A complete history of Bitcoin’s consensus forks

December 28, 2017
bitcoin, history, softfork, hardfork, consensus, blockchain, chainsplit

Abstract # In this piece, we list 19 Bitcoin consensus rule changes (or 18 as an accidental one “failed”), which represents what we believe to be almost every significant such event in Bitcoin’s history. At least three of these incidents resulted in an identifiable chainsplit, lasting approximately 51, 24, and six blocks, in 2010, 2013 and 2015, respectively. This report was originaly published in BitMEX Research blog. Later it has been updated. ...

Analyzing the 2013 Bitcoin fork

July 28, 2015
bitcoin, history, softfork, hardfork, consensus, blockchain, chainsplit

This article by Arvind Narayanan was first published on Freedom to Tinker computer science blog. Contribute. On March 11, 2013, Bitcoin experienced a technical crisis. Versions 0.7 and 0.8 of the software diverged from each other in behavior due to a bug, causing the block chain to “fork” into two. Considering how catastrophic a hard fork can be, the crisis was resolved quickly with remarkably little damage owing to the exemplary competence of the developers in charge. ...

Was Satoshi a Greedy Miner?

September 16, 2022
bitcoin, satoshi, proof-of-work

Technical analysis of mining behavior exhibited by an entity that is plausibly Satoshi Nakamoto. This article by Jameson Lopp was published in his blog. Contribute. If you spend enough time in the crypto ecosystem then you’ll no doubt come across arguments that some projects have unfair token distributions because they were “premined” / “instamined” / “fast mined” by the project founders, effectively enriching themselves from the initial launch of the project. ...

Bitcoin is The Mycelium of Money

May 1, 2020
bitcoin, mycelium, decentralization, proof-of-work

This series by Brandon Quittem was published in his blog. Contribute. Foreward # I need to give credit to Dan Held for publishing his 4-part series comparing bitcoin’s origin to planting a tree. While I loved his series, I believe a more robust analogy is comparing bitcoin to fungi. If you’re new to this topic, strap in — it is my honor to initiate you into the fascinating world of fungi. ...

Proof of Life. Why Bitcoin is a Living Organism

August 7, 2019
bitcoin, life, proof-of-work

This article by Gigi was published on dergigi.com website. Contribute. The definition of life has been a challenge for scientists and philosophers alike. While many definitions have been put forward, what precisely differentiates the living from the non-living remains elusive. Are viruses alive? DNA molecules? Computer viruses? Biologically produced minerals? Ralph Merkle, inventor of cryptographic hashing and namesake of the Merkle tree, made the argument that Bitcoin is the first example of a new form of life. ...