from Hacker News

Tinychain: a pocket-sized implementation of Bitcoin

by jobeirne on 8/7/17, 6:06 PM with 42 comments

  • by _xhok on 8/8/17, 3:02 AM

    There should be one of those awesome-* Github repos with a list of lightweight, readable implementations of various protocols/technologies.

  • by billconan on 8/7/17, 10:01 PM

    I have a similar project in 1000 lines or so c++, called bingot

    https://github.com/shi-yan/bingot

    It was inspired by another simple crypto currency called basiccoin

    https://github.com/zack-bitcoin/basiccoin

    at the time, basic coin was only 600 lines of python.

  • by PaulBGD_ on 8/7/17, 7:30 PM

    I'm working on my own blockchain (not specifically bitcoin) implementation just to wrap my head around everything. One thing I'm not getting that also wasn't answered by the source code is how you check timestamps.

    I understand the whole network time = median offset + local time thing, however I'm a bit fuzzy on how you check timestamps on previous blocks when you're initially downloading the chain. How do you know that you need to check the timestamp if you can't know if you're on the latest block?

  • by h4l0 on 8/7/17, 8:59 PM

    I'm also working on my own cryptocurrency implementation forked from known basiccoin of Zack Hess. Simply I'm trying to make the code more readable, fix bugs and provide better API. Currently I do not have a fine README that explains my intentions but going through the whole code and rewriting most parts made me realize how simple actually blockchain is. Thinking about fine details like how synchronization of blockchain should work is really inspiring. If you want to take a look at the code it is on https://github.com/halilozercan/halocoin

  • by bhalp1 on 8/7/17, 8:14 PM

  • by throwaway413 on 8/7/17, 7:56 PM

    Props for the killer README!

  • by Hortinstein on 8/7/17, 7:17 PM

    nice work, this is really cool. Source is very readable, great resource for those looking to understand bitcoin. Can't wait to play around with it and deploy it on my little raspberry pi swarm!

  • by erikpukinskis on 8/7/17, 9:42 PM

    I would love to see this for Ethereum. I was able to understand the Bitcoin protocol fairly quickly with a little reading, but I haven't come across much good writing on the mechanics of the Ethereum protocol. All of the intro texts I've seen are about like "Step 1: install the client" kind of stuff.

    I'm not interested so much in how to write smart contracts, so much as how the miners work, how conflicts are resolved, and how the incentive schemes play out.

    Would love to get some reading suggestions!

  • by gaetanrickter on 8/7/17, 8:23 PM

    I can see this useful for all cryptocurrencies as well as alleviating some of the need for hedge funds investing in cryptocurrencies for their clients as brought out here ...Hedge Funds Investing in Cryptocurrencies ‘Exploding’ – 62 in Pipeline https://news.bitcoin.com/hedge-funds-investing-in-cryptocurr...

  • by wiremine on 8/7/17, 7:59 PM

    Currently reading through a book on bitcoin, so this is extremely timely!

    Got me thinking, what are some solid bitcoin/cryptocurrency resources that the HN community would recommend?

  • by leipavoi on 8/8/17, 5:29 AM

    Cool project! Reminds me of Naivechain, a blockchain in 200 lines of code

    https://github.com/lhartikk/naivechain