01How nodes meet

Nothing dials by IP. A node is addressed by its own public key and reached through an encrypted tunnel, so it works behind CGNAT and no peer learns where it is.

# a node's address is its key, like a .onion
52 base32 chars .btf

# what it publishes, signed with that key
descriptor = address + encryption key + current relay
# nobody can forge one for an address they do not own

btfpeers.json      peers that answered last time
nostr relays       where descriptors are published
rendezvous relay   where two nodes are paired
peer exchange      descriptors handed over by peers

magic    bf 20 5c fd
-> version  101 | services | time | addr | height
<- version  101 | services | time | addr | height

# the height above is what the status page reads

02How a wallet is rebuilt

Twelve words rebuild the keys. The derivation is written down in full, with test vectors and a script that reproduces it using nothing but Python's standard library, so the words keep working even if this software does not.

$ bitflash -newphrase
# printed once, to the terminal, never to debug.log

$ bitflash -restorephrase="twelve words"
# walks 100 addresses at a time, rescanning,
# and stops when a whole batch turns up nothing

$ bitflash -backupwallet=backup.sqlite
# a single file that opens on its own

# new wallets are one self-contained wallet.sqlite;
# an old wallet.dat still works and the app
# converts it in one click. copying wallet.dat by
# hand is NOT a backup: berkeley db needs database/

$ bitflash -dumpwallet=keys.txt
$ bitflash -importwallet=keys.txt
# one key per line, no database, any machine
# it is your keys in the clear: move it, delete it

Keys made before the seed was installed are random: they do not come back from the words. That is why both backups exist, and it is where people lose money. Since 1.2.20 the wallet is a single SQLite file by default: wallet storage, and the derivation specification.

03How you mine

RandomX is memory-hard and built for general-purpose CPUs, so a laptop competes with a server and an ASIC has no advantage worth the electricity.

$ ./bitflash -nogui -gen
# or from the window: Options > Mining Mode

$ ./bitflash -nogui -gen -operator
# the pool server is in the node,
# reachable over .btf rendezvous only

$ xmrig -a rx/0 -o POOL.btf -u YOU.btf -p x
$ SRBMiner-MULTI --algorithm randomx \
    --pool POOL.btf --wallet YOU.btf --password x

04Parameters

Ticker

BTF

Proof of work

RandomX, memory-hard, CPU

Block time

~2 minutes

Retarget

every 30 blocks

Reward

50 BTF, halving every 210,000

Halving

~292 days

Supply

21,000,000 BTF

Maturity

100 blocks

Sig ops

20,000 per block

P2P port

8433

Relay port

8434

Protocol

101

Premine

none

Licence

MIT

05Get it

Download v1.2.20ManualSourceDiscord

# check what you downloaded before you run it
$ sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS

# linux
$ chmod +x Bitflash-*.AppImage && ./Bitflash-*.AppImage

# windows: extract the zip, run Bitflash.exe

Consensus rules have changed since the first releases, so an old build quietly follows a different chain. Keep the node current, write the twelve words on paper, and do not put in more than you are willing to lose.