I am a senior Python developer.

Recently I came across to the need of fully understanding how bitcoin works on it's core. The Internet is full of explanations and tutorials for regular folks and even dummies. You can get familiarized with it pretty well if all you care is basic understanding, so that you could start using it.

But I am in a different business here... I want to know exactly what data is being sent to the net on every event of bitcoin currency? How it's being sent? How it's being received? What exact calculations and code is being executed on miners? What code is executed on wallet owners... etc?

Can somebody come up with a decent programmer oriented step by step explanation/tutorial on this?

  • There is still not a formal/complete spec of the protocol :( – MattDavey May 24 '16 at 16:10

The book Mastering Bitcoin would be a good solid start (although it might not answer all your questions). It is also available for free.

  • 1
    What a relief! Yes this is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you! – Simanas May 24 '16 at 8:50

The Developer Documentation may also be of use.


You should also check out the free Princeton Bitcoin textbook: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies.

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