Network, Relay & Client Sync • Estimated 60m

Headers-First Synchronization

protocol.headers-first-sync

How nodes download and validate block headers before fetching full blocks during initial sync.

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Curated resources (3)

• Bitcoin Core Academy: Bootstrapping (article) Walks through peer synchronization stages in node startup.
• Bitcoin Developer Guide: P2P Network (article) Explains message-level sync behavior and peer coordination.
• Bitcoin Reference: P2P Networking (article) Reference for messages used during header and block exchange.

Direct prerequisites (2)

• Bitcoin P2P Message Flow
• Initial Block Download

Direct dependents (0)

• None

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