Bitcoin_101: Articles about bitcoin as originally desig…

Bitcoin_101: What is bitcoin?

Read on my blog:
https://steffenkd.de/articles/bitcoin/what_is_bitcoin/

Read onchain:
https://ordinals.gorillapool.io/content/ea00a6beb0baa211bf8bd858359980d83ee5b4a54f8185302493cd74493da33a

Read here on treechat wihtout pictures though:

author: steffenkd
date: 04.06.2026
wordcount: ~ 4700
reading time: ~ 36 minutes
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What is Bitcoin?
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TLDR/Summary:
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Bitcoin is a peer to peer electronic cash system.
It is a decentralized system design, where users and server operators (miners) can create accounts and identities themselves by creating a pair of asynchronous keys with [public-key-cryptography](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-key_cryptography).
Users then can transact and trade freely peer-to-peer without intermediaries, middlemen or gatekeepers over the internet or in real life.
They can also delegate read, write and execution access to their data and content without centralized positions of potential corruption like google, meta, governments, insurances or banks.
Every transaction, interaction or timestamp on the network costs a small fee which is being payed to the server operators (miners).
There are several server operators (miners) which are all operating and managing their own version of the same database.
The server operators (miners) are constantly auditing each other so cheating becomes close to impossible.
The history of the database has the same state for all server operators and can't be changed retroactively.
If you play by the rules you are being rewarded, if you try to cheat you are being punished.
What is bitcoin?
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"What is Bitcoin?" is similar to asking "what is water?", where several definitions can be equally true.
In my opinion the understanding of a topic improves and gets better, the more definitions you have.
Water i.e. can be described as wet when you have human sensormotorics, as H2O when you are familiar with chemistry, as formless because it t…

Bitcoin_101: The blockchain trilemma fairytale

Read on my blog:
https://steffenkd.de/articles/bitcoin/the_blockchain_trilemma_fairytale/

Read onchain:
https://ordinals.gorillapool.io/content/343db0853846585132fe9059a94a8aa4b6321bcb8b247cf3da5f2cbb7b1770c1

Read here on treechat, without pictures though:
author: steffenkd
date: 04.06.2026
wordcount: ~ 3750
reading time: ~ 30 minutes
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The blockchain trilemma fairytale
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TLDR/Summary:
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Trilemma somehow has a negative connotation.
It somehow implies, that there is a problem which has to be fixed.
This assumption is based on a false premise.
You simply have three variables, namely decentralization, security and scalability which can be balanced out against each other, like in mathematics.
This is how you solve mathematical equations.
And the same concept of variables being balanced out against each other due to infinite feedback-loops and co-dependencies can be found all over nature.
It is called balance and is not negative at all.
Additionally on small-block-BTC we are not talking about an equation with three variables but with only two variables.
Namely decentralization and security, since the variable blocksize is a frozen constant at 1 MB (one Megabyte).
Which would make it a blockchain dilemma (duos, duo, di, dos, two).
There are only two variables left, because on small-block-BTC the originally variable blocksize, which was set to 1MB as a temporary [SPAM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spamming) and [DDOS](https://www.slictionary.com/definitions/ddos/402cad5d0665ab63deb935c28565e5db876ed780e401e1741b17b5f1633b077d) protection got converted into a frozen constant of 1MB (4MB blockweight).
They sacrificed scalability for decentralization and security, which leaves small-block-BTC with just two variables, namely decentralization and security.
So we are not talking about a problem (dilemma or trilemma), but just about an equation with several variables.
And…

Bitcoin_101: The decentralization in bitcoin

Read on my blog:
https://steffenkd.de/articles/bitcoin/the_decentralization_in_bitcoin/

Read onchain:
https://ordinals.gorillapool.io/content/bc36aef15520dc000446ab2ba22d92978a64ab9b3332f7893c33148e6d12b1a6

Read here on treechat, without pictures though:
author: steffenkd
date: 04.06.2026
wordcount: ~ 3300
reading time: ~ 25 minutes
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The decentralization in Bitcoin
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The word "decentralization" is inflationary used in the so called bitcoin and crypto space and in my opinion is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the whole space.
You may not be aware, but Satoshi himself hasn't used the word "decentralization" even once in his whitepaper.
Since another mantra in the space is "don't trust, verify", I recommend you read [The Bitcoin Whitepaper](https://nakamotoinstitute.org/library/bitcoin/) and verify my statement yourself.
Even though I admit, that the concept of "decentralization" can be read between the lines.
So maybe, just maybe, this concept of decentralization has a somehow different meaning as it is propagated by the majority of the so called bitcoin and crypto influencers for the last decade.
In this article I try to explain what I think the concept of "decentralization" in bitcoin means.
And where its boundaries and limits are.
Decentralization in the mathematical sense
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Centralization means that something is centered in one point.
Therefore decentralization means that something is not centered in one point but exists in at least two points.
Mathematically "central" can be expressed through the number one (1).
This automatically means, that every number greater than one (n>1) is decentralized.
For the game theoretical nature of bitcoin to play out longterm, you would need at least three (3) nodes though.
Which would set the minimal amount of nodes for bitcoin to work properly longterm at three nodes (3).
To be clear: the original bitcoin is still …