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Bitcoin Technical Deep Dive

A deep understanding of Bitcoin protocol internals — from hash functions to Ordinals in 10 steps.

10steps · ~ 75min

Progress 0/10

“Don’t trust, verify.” You’ll hear this phrase a lot in Bitcoin circles. But what does verification actually look like inside the protocol? How does a network with no CEO, no headquarters, and no customer support line manage to process billions of dollars in transactions without anyone cheating?

The answer is engineering — elegant, battle-tested engineering. Every piece of the Bitcoin protocol exists for a reason, and understanding those pieces transforms Bitcoin from “magic internet money” into something you can reason about with confidence.

This course opens the hood, one component at a time — from full nodes and difficulty adjustment to SegWit and the Lightning Network.

1

Hash Functions

The mathematical one-way function that underpins all of Bitcoin's security.
2

Difficulty Adjustment

The mechanism that automatically rebalances every 2,016 blocks.
3

Merkle Tree

A structure that proves data integrity of the entire dataset with a single hash.
4

SegWit

The 2017 upgrade that expanded block capacity by separating signatures.
5

Lightning Network

The Layer 2 solution enabling everyday payments.
6

Understanding the UTXO Model

Bitcoin's coin model vs. account model — and why UTXO selection matters for fees.
7

What Is the Mempool?

The waiting room for unconfirmed transactions and how the fee market works.
8

Taproot

The 2021 upgrade that improved privacy and efficiency through Schnorr signatures, MAST, and Tapscript.
9

Bitcoin Governance

How a network with no CEO evolves through the BIP process and social consensus.
10

Ordinals and Inscriptions

Assigning unique numbers to satoshis and permanently inscribing data on the blockchain.
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