Bitcoin

If you are new to Bitcoin, I highly recommend checking this site: https://learnmeabitcoin.com/ Join the technological revolution that’s taking the financial world by storm. Mastering Bitcoin is your guide through the seemingly complex world of bitcoin, providing the knowledge you need to participate in the internet of money. Whether you’re building the next killer app, investing in a startup, or simply curious about the technology, this revised and expanded second edition provides essential detail to get you started. ...

The future will be increasingly distributed. As the publicity surrounding Bitcoin and blockchain has shown, distributed technology and business models are gaining popularity. Yet the disruptive potential of this technology is often obscured by hype and misconception. This detailed guide distills the complex, fast moving ideas behind blockchain into an easily digestible reference manual, showing what’s really going on under the hood. Finance and technology pros will learn how a blockchain works as they explore the evolution and current state of the technology, including the functions of cryptocurrencies and smart contracts. This book is for anyone evaluating whether to invest time in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry. Go beyond buzzwords and see what the technology really has to offer. ...

Dive into Bitcoin technology with this hands-on guide from one of the leading teachers on Bitcoin and Bitcoin programming. Author Jimmy Song shows Python programmers and developers how to program a Bitcoin library from scratch. You’ll learn how to work with the basics, including the math, blocks, network, and transactions behind this popular cryptocurrency and its blockchain payment system. By the end of the book, you’ll understand how this cryptocurrency works under the hood by coding all the components necessary for a Bitcoin library. Learn how to create transactions, get the data you need from peers, and send transactions over the network. Whether you’re exploring Bitcoin applications for your company or considering a new career path, this practical book will get you started. ...

RSK (Rootstock) is a Bitcoin sidechain launched in 2018 that enables smart contract functionality while using Bitcoin as its native asset, addressing Bitcoin’s limited programmability without requiring a new speculative token. Built as an evolution of QixCoin and Ethereum concepts, RSK provides a Turing-complete virtual machine (RVM) that’s highly compatible with Ethereum’s tools and dApps, offering faster transaction confirmations (around 30 seconds) while maintaining Bitcoin’s security through SHA-256D merged mining with over 40% of Bitcoin’s hash rate as of 2019. The platform uses a two-way peg system where Bitcoins become “Smart Bitcoins” (RBTC) on the RSK blockchain and can be converted back without additional costs beyond standard fees, with no new currency issuance since all RBTC originates from actual Bitcoin. RSK currently operates with a federated peg and includes protection against selfish mining through the DECOR+ protocol, while the community has planned future upgrades including storage rent, parallel transaction processing, block propagation optimizations, transaction compression protocols, support for additional VMs, and a hybrid federation/drivechain-based peg system, all documented as RSK Improvement Proposals (RSKIPs) in their GitHub repository, with RSK Labs serving as the primary development company since 2015. ...

We present Union, a trust-minimized bridge protocol that enables secure transfer of BTC between Bitcoin and Rootstock. The growing ecosystem of blockchain systems built around Bitcoin has created a pressing need for secure and efficient bridges to transfer BTC between networks while preserving Bitcoin’s security guarantees. Union employs a multi-party variant of BitVMX, an optimistic proving system on Bitcoin, to create a bridge that operates securely under the assumption that at least one participant remains honest. This 1-of-n honest approach is strikingly different from the conventional honest-majority assumption adopted by practically all federated systems. The protocol introduces several innovations: a packet-based architecture that allows security bonds to be reused for multiple bridge operations, improving capital efficiency; a system of enablers to manage functionaries participation and to enforce penalties; a flexible light client framework adaptable to various blockchain architectures; and an efficient stop watch mechanism to optimize time-lock management. Union is a practical and scalable solution for Bitcoin interoperability that maintains strong security guarantees and minimizes trust assumptions. ...