Files
bitcoin/doc
Hodlinator cc5dda1de3 headerssync: Make HeadersSyncState more flexible and move constants
Move calculated constants from the top of src/headerssync.cpp into src/kernel/chainparams.cpp.

Instead of being hardcoded to mainnet parameters, HeadersSyncState can now vary depending on chain or test. (This means we can reset TARGET_BLOCKS back to the nice round number of 15'000).

Signet and testnets got new HeadersSyncParams constants through temporarily altering headerssync-params.py with corresponding GENESIS_TIME and MINCHAINWORK_HEADERS (based off defaultAssumeValid block height comments, corresponding to nMinimumChainWork). Regtest doesn't have a default assume valid block height, so the values are copied from Testnet 4. Since the constants only affect memory usage, and have very low impact unless dealing with a largely malicious chain, it's not that critical to keep updating them for non-mainnet chains.

GENESIS_TIMEs (UTC):
Testnet3: 1296688602 = datetime(2011, 2, 2)
Testnet4: 1714777860 = datetime(2024, 5, 3)
Signet: 1598918400 = datetime(2020, 9, 1)
2025-09-12 22:28:41 +02:00
..
2025-06-24 13:43:32 -07:00
2025-06-30 06:24:00 -04:00
2025-05-06 12:21:32 -07:00
2025-07-13 23:25:37 +01:00
2025-08-07 09:01:55 +01:00
2025-06-19 11:22:14 +01:00
2025-07-26 13:58:01 +03:00

Bitcoin Core

Setup

Bitcoin Core is the original Bitcoin client and it builds the backbone of the network. It downloads and, by default, stores the entire history of Bitcoin transactions, which requires several hundred gigabytes or more of disk space. Depending on the speed of your computer and network connection, the synchronization process can take anywhere from a few hours to several days or more.

To download Bitcoin Core, visit bitcoincore.org.

Running

The following are some helpful notes on how to run Bitcoin Core on your native platform.

Unix

Unpack the files into a directory and run:

  • bin/bitcoin-qt (GUI) or
  • bin/bitcoind (headless)
  • bin/bitcoin (wrapper command)

The bitcoin command supports subcommands like bitcoin gui, bitcoin node, and bitcoin rpc exposing different functionality. Subcommands can be listed with bitcoin help.

Windows

Unpack the files into a directory, and then run bitcoin-qt.exe.

macOS

Drag Bitcoin Core to your applications folder, and then run Bitcoin Core.

Need Help?

Building

The following are developer notes on how to build Bitcoin Core on your native platform. They are not complete guides, but include notes on the necessary libraries, compile flags, etc.

Development

The Bitcoin repo's root README contains relevant information on the development process and automated testing.

Resources

Miscellaneous

License

Distributed under the MIT software license.