Too Long; Didn't Read
Bitcoin itself is a marvel of modern engineering. As technology typically evolves, we are much farther ahead in our development of Bitcoin and other blockchain technologies than we are with our fundamental understanding of them. This post is an attempt to understand the underlying machinations that allow Bitcoin to be the tour de force that it is. I see the proof-of-work mechanism as the most significant contributor to this reality, but the question of why is a little more complicated. Let’s start with the basics.