How Bitcoin Nodes Independently Verify All Activity
bitcoin nodes download blocks, validate signatures, enforce consensus rules, and reject invalid data. This independent verification removes the need for trusted intermediaries.
Capitalizations Index – B ∞/21M
bitcoin nodes download blocks, validate signatures, enforce consensus rules, and reject invalid data. This independent verification removes the need for trusted intermediaries.
bitcoin’s open-source protocol is maintained by a global community of developers and node operators. Through transparent code, peer review, and consensus, no single entity controls the network.
bitcoin’s 21 million supply cap is hard‑coded in its protocol, enforced by halving events and network consensus, ensuring predictable scarcity and preventing inflation.
bitcoin’s protocol cuts block rewards in half every 210,000 blocks, roughly every four years, slowing new supply, reinforcing scarcity, and influencing miner incentives and market dynamics.
Despite popular belief, no single entity controls bitcoin. Power is distributed across miners, node operators, developers, and users, whose consensus secures and governs the network.
Despite numerous exchange breaches and wallet thefts, bitcoin’s core protocol has never been hacked. Its security stems from decentralization, open review, and robust cryptography.
bitcoin’s network automatically adjusts mining difficulty about every two weeks, based on recent block times, to stabilize the average interval between blocks at roughly ten minutes.
bitcoin’s four-year halving cycle reduces the block reward by 50%, slowing new supply. This programmed scarcity often influences market sentiment, miner behavior, and long-term price dynamics.
SegWit (Segregated Witness) reorganized bitcoin transactions by separating signatures, boosting block capacity, cutting average fees, and fixing malleability to support second-layer scaling.