Nodes and Protocol
11 posts
- 1
Why You Should Run Your Own Full Node
What does it truly mean to own Bitcoin? Without a full node, you are using someone else's Bitcoin.
- 2
Running a Bitcoin Full Node From Home
A practical guide to running your own Bitcoin full node - from hardware requirements and Bitcoin Core installation to Tor configuration and connecting your wallet.
- 3Intermediate
How Bitcoin Verifies Transactions Without Checking Every One
Merkle trees let Bitcoin verify any transaction in milliseconds without downloading the entire blockchain. How this elegant data structure works and why it matters.
- 4Intermediate
Why Bitcoin Blocks Are Limited to 4 Million Weight Units
Bitcoin's block weight limit explained: from the 1MB block size war to SegWit's 4M weight units. How block weight works, why it matters, and its impact on fees, scaling, and network security.
- 5
The Biggest Upgrade Bitcoin Ever Shipped, Quietly
Activated in 2021, Taproot introduced Schnorr signatures, MAST, and Tapscript - fundamentally improving Bitcoin's privacy, efficiency, and smart contract capabilities through a soft fork.
- 6Intermediate
How Bitcoin Keeps a One-Year Promise Without a Clock
From the nLockTime already sitting in your ordinary payments, to the two-layer design of CLTV and CSV that never reads a clock, to the median time that blocks miner timestamp games. The Lightning Network and inheritance planning all stand on top of this.
- 7Intermediate
How Bitcoin Locks Down Where Coins Can Go Next
Covenants let Bitcoin transactions enforce conditions on how funds can be spent next. A clear explanation of OP_CTV, OP_CAT, and why they matter for vaults, scaling, and programmability.
- 8
No CEO, No Voting: How Bitcoin Has Run Nonstop for 17 Years
Bitcoin has no CEO or board of directors, yet it upgrades systematically. The BIP process, node consensus, fork mechanics, and social consensus that make decentralized governance work.
- 9Intermediate
What Your Node Can Refuse
Bitcoin Core 30 effectively removed the 80-byte OP_RETURN default that had stood for eleven years, and the other side moved to Knots and went as far as a soft fork. The two layers of policy and consensus, what each side gets right, the BIP-110 chain split and the hard fork that followed, how much data actually lands in blocks today, and what a node operator can and cannot choose.
- 10
Ordinals and Inscriptions
Ordinal theory assigns unique numbers to each satoshi, while Inscriptions permanently record data on the Bitcoin blockchain. The new use case that has shaken the Bitcoin ecosystem since 2023.
- 11Intermediate
Bitcoin Has NFTs Now - No Ethereum Required
Understand what Ordinals, BRC-20, and Runes are and how they differ from each other in five minutes. Technical mechanics, the block space controversy, and their impact on the fee market - all in one place.