‍Introduction

Bitcoin (BTC) is an extremely complex system. To truly understand it, one cannot rely on a single perspective. Code, block explorers, the whitepaper, and the underlying logic—each dimension is important, yet each has its limitations. Only by combining all four dimensions can we piece together the complete picture.

This article proposes a “Four-Dimensional Knowledge Model” of Bitcoin, helping us to recognize Bitcoin more clearly within a scientific and logical framework.

I. Code: The Completeness of the Individual

• Function: Code defines the behavioral rules of nodes; it is the direct basis on which Bitcoin operates.
• Advantage: Code is closest to Bitcoin’s “operational completeness.” As long as the code runs, the network can exist.
• Limitation: Code only reveals individual behavior, not relationships or the dynamic whole. This is why many programmers, even if they can read the code, find it difficult to grasp Bitcoin’s overall design logic.

Scientific analogy: Like studying the motion of a single particle in physics—complete in itself, but not representative of the whole.

II. Block Explorer: The Macro-Level Appearance

• Function: Displays the network state formed by the aggregation of all individual behaviors.
• Advantage: Intuitively presents the global phenomena of Bitcoin.
• Limitation: It tells you “what it is,” but not “why it is.”

Scientific analogy: Like observing thermodynamic macro phenomena without understanding the microscopic principles of molecular dynamics.

III. Whitepaper: Introduction and Blueprint

• Function: The whitepaper written by Satoshi Nakamoto is the best starting point to enter the world of Bitcoin.
• Advantage: It provides a programmatic introduction for the entire system.
• Limitation: The whitepaper is highly incomplete. The underlying knowledge systems (cryptography, game theory, distributed systems, etc.) are vast and complex, requiring the reader to actively supplement them.‍

Scientific analogy: Like a groundbreaking theoretical paper—it provides direction, but the details require subsequent development.

IV. Underlying Logic: The Abstract Mechanism of Consensus

• Function: The true “consensus mechanism.”
• Definition: “Turing’s ordinal logic reconstructed through Nash games,” also called “layered introspective logic.”
• Significance: It explains how individuals in a non-cooperative game dynamically generate relationships, thereby giving rise to global order.
• Limitation: Highly abstract and lacking direct operability.

Scientific analogy: Like the spacetime structure in relativity, revealing the unifying laws behind appearances.

V. Conclusion: A Holistic Perspective of Four-Dimensional Complementarity

• The most complete knowledge: Code (able to directly run Bitcoin).
• The most intuitive knowledge: Block explorer (macro-level appearance).
• The most guiding knowledge: Whitepaper (introduction and blueprint).
• The most essential knowledge: Underlying logic (the essence of the consensus mechanism).
  

However, no single dimension is sufficient to understand Bitcoin.

True understanding requires switching between the four layers—individual, global, introductory, and abstract—in order to break through the local self-referential dilemma and see how Bitcoin dynamically generates global order through relationships.

Closing

Bitcoin’s “completeness” is embodied in its code, but its “understandability” depends on the introduction of the whitepaper, the phenomena displayed by global data, and the abstract explanation of its underlying logic.

Only by uniting all four dimensions can one correctly understand Bitcoin.