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Ask HN: What language would you use to build Bitcoin today?

6 points by simonebrunozzi 6y ago

simonebrunozzi 6y ago
As we might know, Bitcoin is written primarily in C++. This was probably a good choice back in 2009 or so. If you were to invent/build Bitcoin today, would you still use C++? Or else? And if else, why?
- quickthrower2 6y ago
  I don’t know enough to answer but I can say Bitcoin is tempting me to learn c++ to understand it. And it’s purely geek motivations not profit. A goal would be to contribute to the codebase and I’m happy if I could get there in 2 years. I’m quite fatigued with regular web dev feature implementation programming but something more “pure CS” like Bitcoin would be a lot of fun and I’ve always wondered how P2P systems work at the nitty gritty network level
- ErikBjare 6y ago
  Looking at other blockchain/P2P tech, Go or Rust seems like the most common choices. Personally I'd go for Rust since I prefer a proper type system, but Go has strengths in its simplicity.
speedgoose 6y ago
Obviously Whitespace : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_(programming_language) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_(programming_lang... But if my task is more specifically about fucking up the environment by wasting energy in datacenters, I would go with any JVM based programming language, like Java.
- karmakaze 6y ago
  The jvm is too evolved--has jit native code generation. Consulting the benchmarks game[0] shows Perl is the winner. It shows Matz's Ruby being slower, but there's 'Ruby' that edges out Perl. [0] https://benchmarksgame-team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/which-programs-are-fastest.html https://benchmarksgame-team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/...
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