Introduction to BitDevs and the Bitcoin Development Ecosystem

Welcome to the first BitDevs Arusha Socratic Seminar, held at Bitcoin block 968,072.

Summary

Our first chapter brought together 44 attendees, a mix of students and Bitcoin enthusiasts, along with 2 speakers. Participants embraced the Socratic Seminar format, joining in open discussion rather than listening to a lecture, and many committed to attending future sessions and inviting their colleagues. Our community has since grown to 60+ members.

Agenda

1. The genesis of Bitcoin: from the Industrial Revolution to Bitcoin

We traced how technological revolutions, from the steam engine onwards, have reshaped money, trade and society, and where Bitcoin fits in that story.

2. The Bitcoin whitepaper and Satoshi’s announcement

• Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, the whitepaper
• Satoshi’s announcement to the cryptography mailing list, 31 October 2008

3. How the blockchain works: hashing and SHA-256

• How blocks are chained together and secured with proof of work
• SHA-256, the cryptographic hash function Bitcoin uses for mining, block hashes and transaction IDs
• Further reading: SHA-256 on the Bitcoin Wiki

4. Bitcoin Core contributors and BIPs

• Who builds Bitcoin: contributors, reviewers, maintainers and node operators
• How changes are proposed through Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs)
• Bitcoin Core on GitHub
• The BIPs repository

Key Takeaways

• From the steam engine to Bitcoin: Bitcoin can be understood as part of a long line of technological revolutions.
• The whitepaper: the original design is short, readable and still the best starting point.
• Core contributors: Bitcoin is developed in the open, and anyone can review, test and contribute.
• Participant presentations: individual presentations from attendees made the session more inclusive and interactive.

Next Steps

• Contributing to Bitcoin Core: we will follow up with participants interested in the Bitcoin Core repository and guide them on how to start contributing. A good first read is the Bitcoin Core contributing guide.
• Open question for next time: why did Satoshi choose SHA-256 as Bitcoin’s hash function?

Stay Connected

Follow our upcoming events on Luma, and find us on X and Instagram. Have a topic you’d like discussed? Open an issue.

This session followed the Chatham House Rule. Thank you to Btrust for supporting BitDevs Arusha.