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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

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-bitcoin.html 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)

animex 5y ago
No, the hardest way is using pencil and paper to mine a block :) https://gizmodo.com/mining-bitcoin-with-pencil-and-paper-1640353309 https://gizmodo.com/mining-bitcoin-with-pencil-and-paper-164...
- rantwasp 5y ago
  technically it said “the hard way” not “the hardest way”. also, computing a hash != mining. mining needs forming the block and computing the hash
- alpb 5y ago
  That's basically just a SHA256 hashing on pen and paper, doesn't have much to do with how bitcoin works.
  - jazzyjackson 5y ago
    To be fair, performing sha256 hashing is kind of the only work that Bitcoin is doing, from a kilowatt hour’s perspective.
- Saig6 5y ago
  Same guy, Ken Shirriff
samlewis 5y ago
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/ 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!
kens 5y ago
Thanks for the nice mention of my blog. I was wondering if anyone remembered my old bitcoin article :-)
- arthurcolle 5y ago
  It's a classic. You will be forever remembered for your timeless contributions to the collective consciousness!
- audiometry 5y ago
  The retro-computing stuff I see you guys doing on CuriousMarc's youtube channel blows my mind.
- ngcc_hk 5y ago
  We do
- martindale 5y ago
  I go back to it twice yearly
NextHendrix 5y ago
Ken's blog is great, as well as his work with CuriousMarc. Here's when he tried mining bitcoins by hand. http://www.righto.com/2014/09/mining-bitcoin-with-pencil-and-paper.html?m=1 http://www.righto.com/2014/09/mining-bitcoin-with-pencil-and...
westurner 5y ago
> The 'dumbcoin' jupyter notebook is also a good reference: "Dumbcoin - An educational python implementation of a bitcoin-like blockchain" https://nbviewer.jupyter.org/github/julienr/ipynb_playground/blob/master/bitcoin/dumbcoin/dumbcoin.ipynb https://nbviewer.jupyter.org/github/julienr/ipynb_playground... https://github.com/yjjnls/awesome-blockchain#implementation-of-blockchain https://github.com/yjjnls/awesome-blockchain#implementation-... and https://github.com/openblockchains/awesome-blockchains#python https://github.com/openblockchains/awesome-blockchains#pytho... list a few more ~"blockchain from scratch" [in Python] examples. ... FWIU, Ethereum has the better Python story. There was a reference implementation of Ethereum in Python? https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/programming-languages/python/ https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/programming-language...

animex 5y ago

No, the hardest way is using pencil and paper to mine a block :) https://gizmodo.com/mining-bitcoin-with-pencil-and-paper-1640353309 https://gizmodo.com/mining-bitcoin-with-pencil-and-paper-164...

rantwasp 5y ago
technically it said “the hard way” not “the hardest way”. also, computing a hash != mining. mining needs forming the block and computing the hash
alpb 5y ago
That's basically just a SHA256 hashing on pen and paper, doesn't have much to do with how bitcoin works.
- jazzyjackson 5y ago
  To be fair, performing sha256 hashing is kind of the only work that Bitcoin is doing, from a kilowatt hour’s perspective.
Saig6 5y ago
Same guy, Ken Shirriff

samlewis 5y ago

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/ 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!

kens 5y ago

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

arthurcolle 5y ago
It's a classic. You will be forever remembered for your timeless contributions to the collective consciousness!
audiometry 5y ago
The retro-computing stuff I see you guys doing on CuriousMarc's youtube channel blows my mind.
ngcc_hk 5y ago
We do
martindale 5y ago
I go back to it twice yearly

NextHendrix 5y ago

Ken's blog is great, as well as his work with CuriousMarc. Here's when he tried mining bitcoins by hand. http://www.righto.com/2014/09/mining-bitcoin-with-pencil-and-paper.html?m=1 http://www.righto.com/2014/09/mining-bitcoin-with-pencil-and...

westurner 5y ago

> The 'dumbcoin' jupyter notebook is also a good reference: "Dumbcoin - An educational python implementation of a bitcoin-like blockchain" https://nbviewer.jupyter.org/github/julienr/ipynb_playground/blob/master/bitcoin/dumbcoin/dumbcoin.ipynb https://nbviewer.jupyter.org/github/julienr/ipynb_playground... https://github.com/yjjnls/awesome-blockchain#implementation-of-blockchain https://github.com/yjjnls/awesome-blockchain#implementation-... and https://github.com/openblockchains/awesome-blockchains#python https://github.com/openblockchains/awesome-blockchains#pytho... list a few more ~"blockchain from scratch" [in Python] examples. ... FWIU, Ethereum has the better Python story. There was a reference implementation of Ethereum in Python? https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/programming-languages/python/ https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/programming-language...