Bitcoin Master

ISMOS

Bitcoin Core Principles

About the course

This course explores the guiding philosophy behind Bitcoin protocol development, moving beyond how the technology works to understand why it was designed with core principles like decentralization, absolute scarcity, and immutability. It examines the unwritten rules and conservative ethos that shape every decision, ensuring the protocol remains a stable and neutral foundation for a global economy.

What is included

lessons
5
quiz
1
certificate
Yes

Syllabus

5 lessons

  1. 01Class 1: Introduction & The Philosophy of Decentralization

    Decentralization as a spectrum and a constant struggle. The pillars (full nodes, miners, developers and users), centralization pressures, and the idea that running a node is a political act. Includes a code spotlight on CheckBlock and a Socratic debate in breakout rooms.

  2. 02Class 2: The Economic Properties: Scarcity & Immutability

    The 21 million cap, the GetBlockSubsidy code and halving. Immutability, the timechain and probabilistic finality. Threats such as reorgs and the tail emissions debate.

  3. 03Class 3: Fungibility, Privacy & Scalability

    Fungibility and tainted coins, CoinJoin and breaking heuristics. The scalability trilemma, Taproot (Schnorr, MAST, P2TR) and Lightning as a layer-2 compromise, including the discussion on routing-hub centralization.

  4. 04Class 4: Process of Change: BIPs, Consensus & Bitcoin Core

    Bitcoin Core as the reference implementation, the BIP lifecycle, and BIP 9 miner signaling vs. UASF (SegWit, BIP148, BIP91). Case study: BIP 119 OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY.

  5. 05Class 5: Guiding Principles and Long-Term Vision

    A recap of the four pillars, the developer as conservator (“First, do no harm”), the philosophy of ossification (the TCP/IP analogy) and the layered future of Bitcoin.

  6. 06Conclusion
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Starts Jan 1, 2026

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