there are so much members in the forum and they know very much about the bitcoin including me but i think there is a very small amount of people all arround the world who know fully about it...... iam just a student and iam in the process of learning.... all tought iam using it from almost 1.5 year but iam still in the process of learning.....
Yeah right bitcoin users automatically know about bitcoin, because they use bitcoin so that they would near and find out. But only a few people know the full bitcoin protocol. I also do not know the bitcoin protocol in full because I still learn it, there is a lot of knowledge that I should learn about bitcoin. I feel when there is knowledge that I have gained there is always new knowledge that coming and that makes it more interesting for me. 
Topic: How many people exist today that fully understand the Bitcoin protocol? (Read 3325 times)
January 29, 2017, 08:08:55 AM
January 29, 2017, 04:14:31 AM
there are so much members in the forum and they know very much about the bitcoin including me but i think there is a very small amount of people all arround the world who know fully about it...... iam just a student and iam in the process of learning.... all tought iam using it from almost 1.5 year but iam still in the process of learning.....
January 28, 2017, 12:29:17 PM
I think you have to rephrase your question and rather say, "How many people needs to understand the Bitcoin protocol" ....Most people
do not even know how the banking sector works, and how Fiat money is generated and manipulated. So why should we expect
anything more from people associated with Bitcoin? I think there should be just enough people to make sure that dodgy code is not
added, when new submissions are made. { In the same way, where people picked up that Bitcoin XT had some "dodgy" code }
do not even know how the banking sector works, and how Fiat money is generated and manipulated. So why should we expect
anything more from people associated with Bitcoin? I think there should be just enough people to make sure that dodgy code is not
added, when new submissions are made. { In the same way, where people picked up that Bitcoin XT had some "dodgy" code }
January 26, 2017, 09:43:18 AM
True, it is very few, there are less than 100 bitcoin contributors and most of them are bitcoin experts, also some CEO, CTO in bitcoin, blackchain companies can be experts too.
January 25, 2017, 06:02:42 PM
So you guys really think from hundreds of millions potential programmers, coders or maybe hackers only a few could fathom the genius of bitcoin?
There are thousands of computer science and basic coding language MIT graduated with PhD, and even more people with even greater knowledge but without any academical degree, are they to be considered retards?
There are thousands of computer science and basic coding language MIT graduated with PhD, and even more people with even greater knowledge but without any academical degree, are they to be considered retards?
I agree with you. There are many graduates of computer science. At the same time, there are many academicians working in the field of computer science. For this reason, I think that the number of people who understand the Bitcoin protocol should be much higher.
But the bitcoin system requires expertise in different areas. Only the software knowledge is not enough to understand the Bitcoin system. The Bitcoin system is a subject for people with different specializations to work together.
January 25, 2017, 01:24:22 AM
I really do not think they are so few, and I do not think it's because more people do not understand it, rather they are not in contact with this type of software development and they are occupied in anothers areas, and consequently if someone paid them to do it the number would multiply considerably.
The question is not who is capable of understanding how everything works but rather who currently understands. Bitcoin, like hundreds of other niche fields, has a large number of people who are capable of understanding how everything works given enough time to study it. But most of those people, like with those other fields, do not take the time to learn everything about it. Regardless, saying that people are capable of understanding how it works is pointless. They are capable, but currently do not, and what is being asked right now is who currently understands everything.I would think IT would be zero, the very first software maybe 1 & in a world with 1's or 0's. The development of building the original concept could be that of one or few, with each new addition to the entire software protocol & like many things in the developing world are not able to be built by one or even few now a days? It would take a lifetime or ten to blueprint the future of our worlds technology from nothing to full understanding, but possible only with the original prototypes (prehistoric lets say) & unlikely that one person or few could create something with so many points of knowledge. So having full understanding of how things work in the world are less & less over the c entries of the world, building a log cabin could be done & building lets say protocols of todays skyscrapers could not be possible by one or few. Same theory with a wagon, but not possible with say a telsa car or space shuttle & just my idea of the possible # of people in the universe that could have full understanding of the bITcoin protocol.
January 25, 2017, 01:01:56 AM
This is a tiny sample, but the under 250's edged it out on Twitter!
https://twitter.com/realmicroguy/status/822286827881164801
I think you should increase your questionnaire intervals a little more. I think it's between 7000 and 8000. Even the people working in IT sector do not know exactly. There are those who do not even hear the name bitcoin from those who have professional software development. A high level of technical knowledge is required to understand the protocol in real terms.
Thank you for your suggestion. I can't edit this poll now but will keep your feedback in mind.
https://twitter.com/realmicroguy/status/822286827881164801
Sometimes when I read comments from various industry "experts" it makes me wonder how many people in the world truly understand the bitcoin protocol on an intimate level.
I mean fully know it inside and out. What do you think?
I mean fully know it inside and out. What do you think?
I think you should increase your questionnaire intervals a little more. I think it's between 7000 and 8000. Even the people working in IT sector do not know exactly. There are those who do not even hear the name bitcoin from those who have professional software development. A high level of technical knowledge is required to understand the protocol in real terms.
Thank you for your suggestion. I can't edit this poll now but will keep your feedback in mind.
I am actually quite shocked, that it could be as low as two hundred people. Especially considering that bitcoin always had better than average share of informative technology savvy participants. Many of its users are working in technology sector as programmers.
Could it be likely? Did Satoshi really build that insanely complex and incomprehensible network, that even majority of other people from the field couldnt grasp it?
Maybe. Bitcoin technology won't matter anymore for someone who just want to earn through trading. People as a matter of fact still supports a coin that violates the immutability of its blockchain. I don't fully understood the rest of those terms being used here I admit that but I'm really trying to get into its details that I wanted to mine coins myself.
January 24, 2017, 09:29:26 PM
I really do not think they are so few, and I do not think it's because more people do not understand it, rather they are not in contact with this type of software development and they are occupied in anothers areas, and consequently if someone paid them to do it the number would multiply considerably.
The question is not who is capable of understanding how everything works but rather who currently understands. Bitcoin, like hundreds of other niche fields, has a large number of people who are capable of understanding how everything works given enough time to study it. But most of those people, like with those other fields, do not take the time to learn everything about it. Regardless, saying that people are capable of understanding how it works is pointless. They are capable, but currently do not, and what is being asked right now is who currently understands everything. 
January 24, 2017, 09:20:31 PM
So you guys really think from hundreds of millions potential programmers, coders or maybe hackers only a few could fathom the genius of bitcoin?
There are thousands of computer science and basic coding language MIT graduated with PhD, and even more people with even greater knowledge but without any academical degree, are they to be considered retards?
There are thousands of computer science and basic coding language MIT graduated with PhD, and even more people with even greater knowledge but without any academical degree, are they to be considered retards?
It's a super really small niche the coders that are qualified for proper bitcoin development. You can count them with both hands probably. Sure Bitcoin Core got tons of contributors but there are clearly like 10 coders that are the ones that do most of the stuff, and very few come up with really ground breaking stuff like segwit, mimblewimble, confidential transactions... actual game changing BIPs. Its great to have people finding out bugs and fixing them but the actual innovators are even a more reduced number.
I really do not think they are so few, and I do not think it's because more people do not understand it, rather they are not in contact with this type of software development and they are occupied in anothers areas, and consequently if someone paid them to do it the number would multiply considerably.
January 24, 2017, 11:47:57 AM
So you guys really think from hundreds of millions potential programmers, coders or maybe hackers only a few could fathom the genius of bitcoin?
There are thousands of computer science and basic coding language MIT graduated with PhD, and even more people with even greater knowledge but without any academical degree, are they to be considered retards?
There are thousands of computer science and basic coding language MIT graduated with PhD, and even more people with even greater knowledge but without any academical degree, are they to be considered retards?
It's a super really small niche the coders that are qualified for proper bitcoin development. You can count them with both hands probably. Sure Bitcoin Core got tons of contributors but there are clearly like 10 coders that are the ones that do most of the stuff, and very few come up with really ground breaking stuff like segwit, mimblewimble, confidential transactions... actual game changing BIPs. Its great to have people finding out bugs and fixing them but the actual innovators are even a more reduced number.
January 24, 2017, 08:51:04 AM
This is a tiny sample, but the under 250's edged it out on Twitter!
https://twitter.com/realmicroguy/status/822286827881164801
I think you should increase your questionnaire intervals a little more. I think it's between 7000 and 8000. Even the people working in IT sector do not know exactly. There are those who do not even hear the name bitcoin from those who have professional software development. A high level of technical knowledge is required to understand the protocol in real terms.
Thank you for your suggestion. I can't edit this poll now but will keep your feedback in mind.
https://twitter.com/realmicroguy/status/822286827881164801
Sometimes when I read comments from various industry "experts" it makes me wonder how many people in the world truly understand the bitcoin protocol on an intimate level.
I mean fully know it inside and out. What do you think?
I mean fully know it inside and out. What do you think?
I think you should increase your questionnaire intervals a little more. I think it's between 7000 and 8000. Even the people working in IT sector do not know exactly. There are those who do not even hear the name bitcoin from those who have professional software development. A high level of technical knowledge is required to understand the protocol in real terms.
Thank you for your suggestion. I can't edit this poll now but will keep your feedback in mind.
I am actually quite shocked, that it could be as low as two hundred people. Especially considering that bitcoin always had better than average share of informative technology savvy participants. Many of its users are working in technology sector as programmers.
Could it be likely? Did Satoshi really build that insanely complex and incomprehensible network, that even majority of other people from the field couldnt grasp it?
January 24, 2017, 12:15:50 AM
Sometimes when I read comments from various industry "experts" it makes me wonder how many people in the world truly understand the bitcoin protocol on an intimate level.
I mean fully know it inside and out. What do you think?
My thought is within 1001-5000 maybe. They are who in devs team, exchanges, miners and pro users that have been spent a lot of time to learning about bitcoin from the white paper to all of the programs and nodes. If your standard was "fully understand inside and outside", I'm not. Maybe I do understand about 50-60% of bitcoin protocol. I mean fully know it inside and out. What do you think?
January 23, 2017, 09:35:14 PM
So you guys really think from hundreds of millions potential programmers, coders or maybe hackers only a few could fathom the genius of bitcoin?
There are thousands of computer science and basic coding language MIT graduated with PhD, and even more people with even greater knowledge but without any academical degree, are they to be considered retards?
There are thousands of computer science and basic coding language MIT graduated with PhD, and even more people with even greater knowledge but without any academical degree, are they to be considered retards?
Yes. Look at what those "smart" people who are supposed to be good coders are coming up with in terms of something relating to blockchains and Bitcoin. They are mostly stupid ideas that do not solve real world problems. They keep creating useless platforms without any real use cases.
Do you also want to read something funny? Read Don Tapscott's book. That is real comedy gold. I advice you to cover your nose while you read it. He likes to fart.
January 23, 2017, 05:03:00 PM
Vero good and interesting poll but vote is higher despite the fact that list of answers are nearly of right choise to my mind. I vote for people between 1001-5000 because also there are some people, there are many local exchangers which aren't known in this forum, plus mining farms, both famouse companies and simply small farm miners. Also don't forget online and offline wallet developers. To my mind those people needs knowledge of bitcoin nodes and their list maybe will be higher than 1000.
January 23, 2017, 01:54:05 PM
im one of 250,what is bitcoind ?? joke :p
January 23, 2017, 10:27:39 AM
are they to be considered retards?
yes. most of them are stupid January 23, 2017, 10:00:26 AM
So you guys really think from hundreds of millions potential programmers, coders or maybe hackers only a few could fathom the genius of bitcoin?
There are thousands of computer science and basic coding language MIT graduated with PhD, and even more people with even greater knowledge but without any academical degree, are they to be considered retards?
There are thousands of computer science and basic coding language MIT graduated with PhD, and even more people with even greater knowledge but without any academical degree, are they to be considered retards?
January 23, 2017, 06:14:09 AM
if you goes in numbers the people who fully understand bitcoin protocol i would say are very less in numbers may be in thousands or less then it..... it is because with the passage of time you can know about it and according to my views there are many people who start it just a few months ago or a years and more and more peoples are interested in it .......
January 23, 2017, 04:20:14 AM
There is no valid data about this, so all the things that we say only the allegations only. It may be necessary to make a project development to be able to know all transaction bitcoin, this is very important because bitcoin should immediately in legalkan by the State.
January 22, 2017, 10:44:30 PM
As in fully understand the protocol fully? I believe only a handful. That is way less than the lowest number of people of 250 in the poll. Many people who claim to be Bitcoin and blockchain experts do not understand anything at all. Dave Tapscott, the professional book writer, is a good example of this. Do not listen to that guy. The person to listen to in Bitcoin are the people like Peter Todd or Adam Back.
January 22, 2017, 02:47:03 PM
90% of the bitcoin users are the only users who came to bitcoin world for earning extra income...
I think the given number 90 is too low 
99.99% should be better estimation
January 22, 2017, 02:09:50 PM
90% of the bitcoin users are the only users who came to bitcoin world for earning extra income by doing various tasks but still not knowing the Bitcoin technology and how it is created. for them Bitcoin is the way of earning through doing online work. And you can take me also one of them.
January 22, 2017, 01:00:27 PM
Sometimes when I read comments from various industry "experts" it makes me wonder how many people in the world truly understand the bitcoin protocol on an intimate level.
I mean fully know it inside and out. What do you think?
I mean fully know it inside and out. What do you think?
Where are a lot of people who knew bitcoin very well because the information about it is just on their website. Intimate level like they know the protocol however is the question because for all I know those info are just for the developers of altcoins but for us traders we probably just knew those chains as ledger of all transactions and fees for miners and so on. Things are different nowadays because of the assets on the platforms though.
January 22, 2017, 12:19:48 PM
https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/graphs/contributors + https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/graphs/contributors = 416 + 136 - common to both
Not necessarily. A lot of the Bitcoin Core contributors contributed one commit that changed only a few lines. A lot of those are just trivial documentation (comments, non-code instructions) changes, not anything particularly technical. January 22, 2017, 12:16:17 PM
Sometimes when I read comments from various industry "experts" it makes me wonder how many people in the world truly understand the bitcoin protocol on an intimate level.
I mean fully know it inside and out. What do you think?
I mean fully know it inside and out. What do you think?
https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/graphs/contributors + https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/graphs/contributors = 416 + 136 - common to both
January 22, 2017, 10:39:52 AM
Voted less than 250... I imagine it's way less than 250 people. We can start by looking at people listed for contributions on Core changelogs, and obviously not all of them made changes that require a deep knowledge about Bitcoin...
January 21, 2017, 01:13:29 AM
It all depends on how you define "fully". If by fully you mean understanding how everything works together and all of the small details and minutiae like everything byte-by-byte, then I would say very few people know, probably in the tens, if not single digits. However if you are talking about one step above that where people understand how everything works, how everything fits together, but not the exact minutiae of all of the bytes and such, then probably in the hundreds, at most 500. Those people is really limited to those involved in Bitcoin development as it is extremely technical and generally requires reading code and working with the code in order to understand it all.
i ask a lot of questions and answer even more questions, but the best way that i learn is to simply pick at the code. i am going to do that now and find that block of code that concerns address formatting. i am near the end of a project where the bitcoin core code flow analysis will be put online. rather than simply reading plain text code, the pages will allow a viewer to click on flow lines and follow them, follow and locate variable and method/function declarations and more.
So basically doxygen: https://dev.visucore.com/bitcoin/doxygen/ ?yes, but with a slightly less technical approach. we have gotten to the point where that site is and i love it. i want to add a sidebar that gives information pertinent to the command, line or whatever the user has picked.
like the old view that was on the bottom of microsofts c## suite in the 2004 time span. there was always something down there explaining the specifics of the code you were currently typing.
on visucore there are things like this
Code:
Get connection type to call object slot in GUI thread with invokeMethod.
The call will be blocking.
Returns
If called from the GUI thread, return a Qt::DirectConnection. If called from another thread, return a Qt::BlockingQueuedConnection.
Definition at line 387 of file guiutil.cpp.
that is pretty easy for coders to get, but i am in a phase where i really want to bridge people that know zero programming, have found bitcoin and are interested and want to learn everything
January 21, 2017, 01:10:56 AM
Most of the millions of bitcoin users just know how to do a bitcoin transaction with their wallet.
Most of them won't be able to make a transaction on a different wallet than the one they have been using.
There might be a few hundred thousand people who have extremely good knowledge of how bitcoin transactions work. What we call Pro level users
But I assume there are only a few hundred people who understand the complete in's and out's (100% knowledge) of the bitcoin protocol.
Most of them won't be able to make a transaction on a different wallet than the one they have been using.
There might be a few hundred thousand people who have extremely good knowledge of how bitcoin transactions work. What we call Pro level users
But I assume there are only a few hundred people who understand the complete in's and out's (100% knowledge) of the bitcoin protocol.
January 21, 2017, 12:57:16 AM
It all depends on how you define "fully". If by fully you mean understanding how everything works together and all of the small details and minutiae like everything byte-by-byte, then I would say very few people know, probably in the tens, if not single digits. However if you are talking about one step above that where people understand how everything works, how everything fits together, but not the exact minutiae of all of the bytes and such, then probably in the hundreds, at most 500. Those people is really limited to those involved in Bitcoin development as it is extremely technical and generally requires reading code and working with the code in order to understand it all.
i ask a lot of questions and answer even more questions, but the best way that i learn is to simply pick at the code. i am going to do that now and find that block of code that concerns address formatting. i am near the end of a project where the bitcoin core code flow analysis will be put online. rather than simply reading plain text code, the pages will allow a viewer to click on flow lines and follow them, follow and locate variable and method/function declarations and more.
So basically doxygen: https://dev.visucore.com/bitcoin/doxygen/ ? January 21, 2017, 12:49:02 AM
i know more than the average user, but no where near the full monty. in fact i was just asking in another thread about a soft fork altering the new address generating hash and whether that would invalidate the old addresses in the old format.
i ask a lot of questions and answer even more questions, but the best way that i learn is to simply pick at the code. i am going to do that now and find that block of code that concerns address formatting. i am near the end of a project where the bitcoin core code flow analysis will be put online. rather than simply reading plain text code, the pages will allow a viewer to click on flow lines and follow them, follow and locate variable and method/function declarations and more.
the first version will be limited to following code within that same page and once those are online, we will work on routes between pages
i ask a lot of questions and answer even more questions, but the best way that i learn is to simply pick at the code. i am going to do that now and find that block of code that concerns address formatting. i am near the end of a project where the bitcoin core code flow analysis will be put online. rather than simply reading plain text code, the pages will allow a viewer to click on flow lines and follow them, follow and locate variable and method/function declarations and more.
the first version will be limited to following code within that same page and once those are online, we will work on routes between pages
January 20, 2017, 04:50:24 PM
Sometimes when I read comments from various industry "experts" it makes me wonder how many people in the world truly understand the bitcoin protocol on an intimate level.
I mean fully know it inside and out. What do you think?
I mean fully know it inside and out. What do you think?
I think you should increase your questionnaire intervals a little more. I think it's between 7000 and 8000. Even the people working in IT sector do not know exactly. There are those who do not even hear the name bitcoin from those who have professional software development. A high level of technical knowledge is required to understand the protocol in real terms.
January 20, 2017, 04:23:14 PM
The word "fully" in your question is subject to interpretation. Maybe a couple of thousand, and likely less. I understand a bunch but I don't fully know the protocol. An interesting question to know an accurate answer to would be: How many folks "think" they know it well vs how many actually do? I confess I am neither of these. I learn quite a bit every year and I am having fun and making profits. I am happy with that for now.
January 20, 2017, 07:19:38 AM
There are many people that know how it works on the surface but given the amount of devs, I doubt there are more than 1-2k people that really know ins and outs of the protocol.
January 20, 2017, 06:55:14 AM
fist of all you will need to be good at math and know how cryptography works and than you have to learn programming so that you can put your work into action in order to achieve intimate level
Hope this helps
Hope this helps
January 20, 2017, 06:24:12 AM
I will take my chances and say that are more then 5000 knows how bitcoin actually works If we take in consideration that bitcoin have millions of users at this moment.
I don't think you need to a high level programmer to understand how It actually works though , anyone can start reading the whitepaper and continue from there .
I don't think you need to a high level programmer to understand how It actually works though , anyone can start reading the whitepaper and continue from there .
January 20, 2017, 06:13:54 AM
Sometimes when I read comments from various industry "experts" it makes me wonder how many people in the world truly understand the bitcoin protocol on an intimate level.
I mean fully know it inside and out. What do you think?
I mean fully know it inside and out. What do you think?
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