The Secret Watchers Of Bitcoin Revealed!

Who watches the watchers on the Bitcoin network? Who makes sure everyone on the Bitcoin network stays honest all the time? The answer is everyone. Everyone on the Bitcoin network is a watcher that is watching the other watchers. Let's unpack that. Okay, first of all, there's a story that is sometimes told of a person who postulates that the Earth rests on the back of a turtle. And then when someone asks them, "But what is that turtle standing on?" They say, "Another turtle." And then the question of course is, "Well, what is that second turtle standing on?" Well, yet another turtle. And after you go back and forth with this person long enough, the ultimate answer to the joke or the riddle or the story is the person says, "Don't you understand? It's turtles all the way down, which of course makes no sense because all the way down has to end somewhere. And what's that last turtle standing on?" But anyway, that's the saying. It's turtles all the way down. In um uh futuristic and dystopian novels, sometimes there's a concept of the watchers. The watchers are watching people to make sure they stay in line or they don't break the rules somehow. And then the question is always, well, who's watching the watchers? Well, of course, there's an independent oversight body watching the watchers. Well, who's watching the watchers of the watchers? Well, of course, it's yet another panel of individuals who are directly responsible for watching the watchers who are watching the watchers. And of course, you have the same problem there with turtles every all the way down, which is at some point you get to the end of the line and there's not yet another set of watchers to watch the watchers. So on the Bitcoin network, who is watching the watchers? And the answer is everyone. The Bitcoin network is a mesh topology. What is a mesh topology? And mesh topology means all of the different components of the network are talking to all of the different components of the network all the time. That's as opposed to peer-to-peer which is just one person talks to another and that's it. There's just two nodes or it's opposed to a server a uh client server implementation where everybody talks to someone in the middle. So most of the traditional financial system in the United States is a client server model. Everybody talks all of the point of sales systems uh at all the stores and shops, they ask Visa or the Mastercard network, does this person have money in their account? It's literally an inquiry to a central party, which of course means that central party can turn off your payment card or in the case of the Federal Reserve or your bank, you know, the bank can decide to freeze your assets or to seize your assets on behalf of the government and things like that. So on the Bitcoin network, who watches the watchers? The answer is everyone watches the watchers because anyone on the Bitcoin network can run what's called a Bitcoin node. It costs about $400. You do not need a Bitcoin node because there's a gazillion of them already and you really only need one to keep everyone honest. But if you wanted your own Bitcoin node, you can buy one from umbrell.com. Umbrell is similar to the word umbrella. U Mr. R L U MB R E L. I guess it's got an E in there. Umbrell. Uh, so you know, it's like the word umbrella except there's not an extra L A on the end of it. Um, but um MB reel, those six letters, um, MB reel.com. They will sell you a $400 Bitcoin node. You can do a lot of other things with the the Umbreal device, but its primary use for a lot of people is as a Bitcoin node. And that will be one of the watchers that watches the watchers who watch the watchers in a mesh network. So in my case, I run two Bitcoin nodes because I run two different software implementations on the Bitcoin nodes and it's super easy to do. And I figure, hey, the only thing better than having one Bitcoin node is having two Bitcoin nodes to keep everybody honest. So my Bitcoin nodes, for example, one of them connects to about 50 other Bitcoin nodes. So if you have my node connected to 50 other nodes, which are each connected to 50 other nodes and each connected to 50 other nodes, then you very quickly have a connection to more than 100,000 Bitcoin computers all over the world. And every single Bitcoin node is constantly checking to make sure every other Bitcoin node is being honest. And if any of those more than 100,000 Bitcoin nodes tries to break the rules, let's ex for for example by giving themselves one extra bitcoin. So instead of 21 million bitcoin, there would be 21 million and one bitcoin. If any of those nodes did that, they would immediately be kicked off the network and the remaining Bitcoin nodes would no longer be able to talk to them because Bitcoin nodes are configured to ban, exclude, and eject from the Bitcoin network anybody that breaks the rules. And the number one rule you're not allowed to break is that there's only 21 million Bitcoin. Okay? So even if the majority of the nodes on the network all conspired together to break the rules, it doesn't matter because the minority of the nodes would kick them off the network. Even if more than 100,000 Bitcoin's nodes conspired to break the rules and the only Bitcoin node that did not break the rules was my Bitcoin node sitting at a data center in an undisclosed location in Mississippi. Even if that was the only Bitcoin mo node that did not break the rules, my node would kick all of the others off of the Bitcoin network. And the Bitcoin network itself would continue to run with just my node. Now, it'd be lonely with just my node, but that is how the Bitcoin network works. You cannot cheat the rules. Uh you will get kicked off the network. So when you have a mesh network as opposed to a client server architecture or as opposed to just a one point to to another point peer-to-peer with just two peers. When you have a mesh network, you can essentially set up the watching of the watchers where everyone is a watcher of the watchers in basically one big mesh which sort of works like a perpetual endless circle where I'm I'm checking on 50 nodes. You know, constantly I'm computing with I'm connected to 50 nodes that are checking to see that my node is checking to see if they uh do the rules. Sorry, let me say that again. My node is constantly checking on 50 other nodes to make sure they're not breaking the rules. Some of the nodes are checking on me to make sure I'm not breaking the rules. Other nodes that I'm not even connected to are checking on the nodes that I'm connected to. Other nodes that they're not connected to are then coming back and checking on me. So every instantly on so every bitcoin node on the bitcoin network and there are more than 100,000 of them every one of them is waiting for any other bitcoin node to break the rules which then enables them to eject that node from the network thereby guaranteeing that bitcoin stays pure that it stays limited at 21 million bitcoin and that nobody steps out of line and when you build a network like that there's no way to break the rules And everyone who's ever tried to break the rules has gotten ejected from the network. And at this point, there are a gazillion, again, more than 100,000 Bitcoin nodes running in every country on every continent, running on satellites in space. The watchers that watch the watchers are everywhere making sure that the Bitcoin nodes and that it stays secure, that it stays limited, that nobody tries to spend Bitcoin that they don't own, that nobody tries to access someone else's Bitcoin that they don't have a right to. All of that is in one big beautiful mesh network that keeps everyone honest and everything honest. And it's the only thing like it that exists that way in the world. It is truly a thing of beauty, the Bitcoin network. And I love it. And it's what makes it such sound, solid, reliable, uncorruptible money.