About

Why rbitcoin exists

For years Rearden wanted to kill dbcache. bitcoin core’s full node is a UTXO database plus block files; the multi‑GiB cache exists to keep that coins set hot and to absorb the cost of flushing it. A compact archive with no UTXO set leaves nothing for that cache to hold. Prevouts come from indexed history instead.

rbitcoin's design sits between libbitcoin’s relational archive and core’s block files — full archival, structural txindex, consensus in Rust on rust-bitcoin and libsecp256k1, and wallet serving in the same process. There is value in several clients sharing one consensus library (e.g. libbitcoinconsensus). rbitcoin exists because Rearden believes that there is also value in independent implementations reading the same chain under different code.

Rearden (@reardencode) never had the time or energy to build this node design until AI made the implementation possible. Using grok build and cursor, he specified and directed the work. Grok wrote the code (with a little help from Claude). In a couple of months the node went from not existing to IBD performance in the same neighborhood as core, with a growing suite of core fixtures, functional tests, and differential fuzz. A first on-camera conversation about this work: Pleb Underground with Phil.

What the node is

A validating bitcoin full node for Linux: compact archive, no UTXO set, rust-bitcoin types, libsecp256k1 crypto, custom store with structural txindex. Full archival. Binaries ship as a GitHub Release; Nix produces reproducible (byte-identical) musl.

0.x is the current published line (v0.x.x). Since the prior release: JSON-RPC decode on the node; tip connect runs off the reactor thread; 71 core functional scripts, Hornet Node rule coverage, and continuous differential fuzz against official bitcoind. Line coverage is a ≥90% LCOV PR gate (91.93% on 2026-09-13, last green master job). On-disk schema 21 may refuse older wallet indexes — see OPERATOR.md before upgrading. Test detail: what the tests cover.

Contact

• General freedom@reardencode.com
• X @reardencode — development updates
• Security security@reardencode.com
• Code github.com/reardencode/rbitcoin

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License

The node and this site are dual-licensed under the MIT License or the Apache License 2.0, at your option.

Contributing

Node development follows CONTRIBUTING.md in the node repository. Site copy belongs in this repository.