Ask HN: What language would you use to build Bitcoin today?

speedgoose · on March 28, 2021

Obviously Whitespace : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_(programming_lang...

But if my task is more specifically about fucking up the environment by wasting energy in datacenters, I would go with any JVM based programming language, like Java.

karmakaze · on March 28, 2021

The jvm is too evolved--has jit native code generation. Consulting the benchmarks game[0] shows Perl is the winner.

It shows Matz's Ruby being slower, but there's 'Ruby' that edges out Perl.

[0] https://benchmarksgame-team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/...

simonebrunozzi · on March 28, 2021

As we might know, Bitcoin is written primarily in C++. This was probably a good choice back in 2009 or so.

If you were to invent/build Bitcoin today, would you still use C++? Or else? And if else, why?

quickthrower2 · on March 28, 2021

I don’t know enough to answer but I can say Bitcoin is tempting me to learn c++ to understand it. And it’s purely geek motivations not profit. A goal would be to contribute to the codebase and I’m happy if I could get there in 2 years.

I’m quite fatigued with regular web dev feature implementation programming but something more “pure CS” like Bitcoin would be a lot of fun and I’ve always wondered how P2P systems work at the nitty gritty network level

ErikBjare · on March 28, 2021

Looking at other blockchain/P2P tech, Go or Rust seems like the most common choices.

Personally I'd go for Rust since I prefer a proper type system, but Go has strengths in its simplicity.