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A from-scratch tour of Bitcoin in Python

karpathy.github.io

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Re: A from-scratch tour of Bitcoin in Python

#201

Post by delaaxe »

woah wrote: post #198
boringg wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably helps his boss is the "tecnoking" and cfo is the "master of coin". Agreed though - impressive he has that kind of sidebar time or is so capable he doesn't need that much time to figure it out.

This stuff isn't that hard to figure out, given the number of specifications and tutorials already out there. What's impressive is the fact that he thought of a reasonably sized task, and (presumably) executed it efficiently and completely without getting stuck or distracted.

He started tweeting about this like months ago

Re: A from-scratch tour of Bitcoin in Python

#202

Post by delaaxe »

noxer wrote: post #162
SnowProblem wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To expand on this, to receive money over Lightning, you need someone else to lock up their bitcoins for you. This is called inbound liquidity, and the problem of users getting inbound liquidity is no joke. Lightning Labs recently launched Lightning Pool to help with this, but fees range from 5% to 25%. Uncompetitive. If you think about it too, it makes sense, because anyone locking up their bitcoins for others should…

The looking up of liquidity is the whole reason LN can not scale or be cheap ever. Today people in crypto may be willing to look up bitcoins they hold long term anyway. But in the real world this would be dead and trapped capital it doesn't work for you and you cant even use it to quickly buy something an take advantage of a market situation. The only reason why someone would look up capital like that if is it makes…

lock up*

Re: A from-scratch tour of Bitcoin in Python

#203

Post by alpb »

animex wrote: post #60
msgilligan wrote: post #57

This is reminds me of Ken Shirriff's 2014 "Bitcoins the Hard Way" blog post that also used Python to build a Bitcoin transaction from scratch: http://www.righto.com/2014/02/bitcoins-hard-way-using-raw-bi... (The subtitle of the blog is "Computer history, restoring vintage computers, IC reverse engineering, and whatever" and it is full of fascinating articles, several of which have been featured here on HN)

No, the hardest way is using pencil and paper to mine a block :) https://gizmodo.com/mining-bitcoin-with-pencil-and-paper-164...

That's basically just a SHA256 hashing on pen and paper, doesn't have much to do with how bitcoin works.

Re: A from-scratch tour of Bitcoin in Python

#204

Post by delaaxe »

toxik wrote: post #62

If you, like me, were curious about what the secret key 1 is on the mainnet, then here you are: 1 1BgGZ9tcN4rm9KBzDn7KprQz87SZ26SAMH https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1BgGZ9tcN4rm9KBzDn7KprQz87SZ26SAMH Some others: 2 1cMh228HTCiwS8ZsaakH8A8wze1JR5ZsP https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1cMh228HTCiwS8ZsaakH8A8wze1JR5ZsP 3 1CUNEBjYrCn2y1SdiUMohaKUi4wpP326Lb https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1CUNEBjYrCn2y1S…

Thanks, I was wondering the same but too lazy to figure out the addresses!

Re: A from-scratch tour of Bitcoin in Python

#205

Post by kebman »

woah wrote: post #198
boringg wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably helps his boss is the "tecnoking" and cfo is the "master of coin". Agreed though - impressive he has that kind of sidebar time or is so capable he doesn't need that much time to figure it out.

This stuff isn't that hard to figure out, given the number of specifications and tutorials already out there. What's impressive is the fact that he thought of a reasonably sized task, and (presumably) executed it efficiently and completely without getting stuck or distracted.

I spent quite some time researching this a few years ago. Then I finally programmed and generated my own fully working address. It's quite a satisfying journey. But I have to say, Python makes this somewhat less painful than it is in JavaScript (yes, I tried that too...) xD

Re: A from-scratch tour of Bitcoin in Python

#206

Post by read_if_gay_ »

noxer wrote: post #168
_qnwo wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why bother writing that useless comment?

Why ask that useless question?

Pointing out that something is useless isn't useless in itself.

You can take it down a nihilistic path by claiming that it is in fact useless, but that argument just spins in circles forever because it applies to itself.

Re: A from-scratch tour of Bitcoin in Python

#207

Post by samlewis »

msgilligan wrote: post #57

This is reminds me of Ken Shirriff's 2014 "Bitcoins the Hard Way" blog post that also used Python to build a Bitcoin transaction from scratch: http://www.righto.com/2014/02/bitcoins-hard-way-using-raw-bi... (The subtitle of the blog is "Computer history, restoring vintage computers, IC reverse engineering, and whatever" and it is full of fascinating articles, several of which have been featured here on HN)

Shameless self-promotion but there's also this post I wrote in 2017 if anyone interested in a slightly different take (but a very similar write up to the OP): https://www.samlewis.me/2017/06/a-peek-under-bitcoins-hood/

Cool that this article implements the cryptography primitives, though!

e: Funnily, like the article, I also stored some BTC in a wallet and challenged people to (manually) take/steal it. At the time it was worth $10 USD.. now it's worth $123 USD!

Re: A from-scratch tour of Bitcoin in Python

#208

Post by kens »

msgilligan wrote: post #57

This is reminds me of Ken Shirriff's 2014 "Bitcoins the Hard Way" blog post that also used Python to build a Bitcoin transaction from scratch: http://www.righto.com/2014/02/bitcoins-hard-way-using-raw-bi... (The subtitle of the blog is "Computer history, restoring vintage computers, IC reverse engineering, and whatever" and it is full of fascinating articles, several of which have been featured here on HN)

Thanks for the nice mention of my blog. I was wondering if anyone remembered my old bitcoin article :-)

Re: A from-scratch tour of Bitcoin in Python

#210

Post by Karsteski »

Permit wrote: post #189
noxer wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Daily reminder that cryptocurrencies are not == bitcoin All the problems with bitcoin are long long solved just not with bitcoin because its not possible to fix something when the majority (of hashpower) thinks its not broken or rather profit form its brokenness. FBA coins exists since 2013 or so.

> Daily reminder that cryptocurrencies are not == bitcoin This is an interesting feature of cryptocurrencies. Someone levels a fair criticism of a particular implementation but it can be handwaved away because an entirely separate cryptocurrency solved this particular problem (nevermind that whatever replacement you’ve chosen has its own host of separate problems because those can be handwaved away the same way).

Handwaved away? You mean improved?
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