Glossary

Turing Completeness

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Turing completeness is a feature of a programming language or instruction set that can compute any computable algorithm. Simply put, if a programming language has the capacity for logical loops and conditionals, it is considered Turing complete. Turing completeness is named after Alan Turing, a pioneer of digital computing.

Almost all modern programming languages are Turing complete. Bitcoin’s scripting language, called Script, is one exception. Script is intentionally Turing incomplete to prevent computational loops from consuming too many resources for Bitcoin nodes. If Script were Turing complete, Denial of Service (DoS) attacks would be possible against the entire Bitcoin network.

Related Terms
Denial of Service (DoS) Attack
A Denial of Service (DoS) attack is a type of digital attack on a system or individual which attempts to remove the victim from a network and make them unavailable to their peers. DoS attacks typically spam the victim and exhaust their resources.
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Bitcoin Script
Script is the language Bitcoin uses to determine who can spend a given piece of bitcoin (a UTXO). Script is intentionally limited in order to maintain Bitcoin's simplicity and ensure that any individual can run a node and validate the blockchain.
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Bitcoin Node
A node is a discrete member of a network which interacts with other nodes to form the network. Bitcoin nodes store and validate the blockchain and exchange blocks and transactions with one another in order to maintain consensus.
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