The Nixon Shock happened in secret, announced on TV. Bitcoin's rules happen in public — every block, every transaction, every node. Here's how to verify them yourself.
To follow along, you need a running Bitcoin node with bitcoin-cli access. You can run one on:
• A Raspberry Pi (4GB+ RAM, external SSD recommended)
• A VPS (any provider, 2GB+ RAM, 500GB+ storage for full archival)
• Your desktop or laptop (Bitcoin Core runs on Windows, Mac, Linux)
Don't have a node yet? You can still observe some of these using public block explorers like mempool.space or blockstream.info. But nothing beats verifying with your own node.
"Don't trust. Verify. — The most important principle in Bitcoin. Every claim in this series can be checked against a running node."
Consensus rule in action: The total supply is capped at 21 million. Let's verify.
Bitcoin's subsidy halves every 210,000 blocks. Current era (2024+): 3.125 BTC per block.
Your node knows the halving schedule because it's a consensus rule — the reward formula is built into every node client.
You can't create more coins than the subsidy schedule allows. No RPC can return 22 million — the rule is enforced at the protocol level.
The Nixon Shock test: Can any command, any configuration, any software update make this number exceed 21 million? No. The rule is consensus-enforced. Every node would reject a block that violates it.
Relay policy in action: Your fee filter decides what transactions enter your mempool.
The transactions in your mempool passed your node's relay policies. The ones that didn't? They're still valid — they just didn't meet your threshold.
Add to bitcoin.conf and restart:
Your node now ignores lower-fee transactions. Your consensus rules haven't changed. Your view of the network has. That's relay policy.
Consensus change in real time: BIP110 uses version bit 4 for miner signaling. Check which miners are supporting it.
Bit 4 = value 16 (0x10) in the version field. If (version >> 4) & 1 == 1, the miner is signaling BIP110 support.
The percentage of signaling blocks tells you how close BIP110 is to the 55% threshold. This is public, transparent, verifiable — no trust needed.
The Nixon Shock was announced with zero public signaling. No one voted. No one could verify. BIP110's progress is visible block by block, node by node, anywhere in the world.
Relay policy choice: Does your node accept transaction replacements?
false = only opt-in RBF (default). true = accept all replacements.
Your node now accepts RBF replacements. Your consensus rules haven't changed. The blockchain is identical to a node with RBF disabled. The only difference is in your mempool.
The Nixon Shock happened because one man could change the rules of money. 20,000+ people spread across every continent run Bitcoin nodes. They all enforce the same consensus rules independently. No one can change those rules without convincing them all.
That's not a policy difference. That's a fundamentally different architecture for money.
Understanding the distinction between consensus rules and relay policies is the difference between trusting an authority and verifying for yourself. Bitcoin gives you the tools to do the latter — you just have to run them.
"The Nixon Shock was the end of trust in money. Bitcoin is the beginning of verification."
Run a node. Verify the rules. Be your own bank.
You've completed all 5 parts. Here's where to go next:
Or check out the BIP110 page for the full technical breakdown with node chart, countdown, and deployment parameters.