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Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • What role does a Bitcoin Full Node play

    What you’ll learn Bitcoin functions & participants Running a Full Node Storing the Blockchain Routing Transactions In the previous article in this section we looked at an overview of the architecture of Bitcoin as a decentralised monetary system running across a peer-to-peer network. Keeping things high-level, we split the architecture into two broad components. The…

  • Nodes – Different participants in Bitcoin network

    The Bitcoin network has no hierarchy, but does have different types of Nodes fulfilling the required functions (as detailed above) to a greater or lesser extent. Full Nodes: All functions except creating new bitcoin Lightweight Nodes: Routing & Wallet (1 & 5) Miners: Issuance/Ordering; Routing & Full ledger (3,4 & 7) API Clients – Providing…

  • Main Functions Of Bitcoin’s Monetary System

    In order to function as a monetary system, without a central mediator, Bitcoin needs different participants in its network to achieve the following: Maintaining an accurate historic ledger of transactions & unspent balances Validate new transactions that confirm with the rules (consensus mechanism) Add those transactions to the historic ledger, in the correct data format…

  • Bitcoin’s monetary framework

    Satoshi Nakamoto – Bitcoin’s creator – solved the Double Spend issue by creating a monetary system with fixed rules defined in computer code, not a government policy document. Those rules run as a piece of software across a distributed network of computers without hierarchy, permission or trust. No central authority enforces the rules; participants in…

  • What is Bitcoin’s architecture?

    What you’ll learn The architecture of existing money The architecture of Bitcoin Bitcoin’s main functions Participants in the Bitcoin network Bitcoin is the first successful example of a trustless monetary system – one that has no need for a central authority, like the Federal Reserve or the European Central Bank. By learning how Bitcoin’s technical…

  • What does it cost?

    Most of the crypto tax services on the market offer a free portfolio tracker service, with tax accounting as a natural value-added. That is useful, but not unique, as there are plenty of Portfolio Tracking Apps out there offering that for free. Some services will throw in tax reporting for free when transactions are below…

  • Getting ahead of your crypto taxes 

    At this point, you may feel like sticking your head back in the sand is the better option, but you then run the risk of the taxman catching up with you, which could be much worse. The important thing is to get ahead of the issue. The longer you leave it, the harder the process…

  • Wallet Transactions

    The API route makes crunching your exchange transaction data relatively smooth, but isn’t an option for wallets, and because cryptocurrencies work in different ways, there is no way to simply absorb all wallet transactions in one go.  You’ll need to approach wallets on a case by case basis and the options may vary depending on…

  • Tax services as SaaS

    You may have come across the term SaaS before, and ignored it as commercial jargon. It stands for Software As A Service and essentially means the delivery of service – such as crypto tax reporting – entirely via software over the internet. A lot of services central to our lives are now delivered in this…

  • How to use crypto tax services

    Tax Services as SaaS Different ways to import data Getting ahead of your crypto taxes What crypto tax services cost With so much talk of prices going to the moon it can sometimes feel that crypto is a little removed from the real world, especially if you’re lucky enough to have seen your stack increase…

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