the tests, or in your shell configuration.

We also try to follow a TDD (Test-Driven-Development) approach, which means we
use tests as a way to get visibility into the code. Tests have to run fast for that
reason so that the feedback loop between making a change, running the test and
seeing the result is small. To facilitate that we created a mocked Bitcoin Core
instance in [test-bitcoincore-rpc](./test-bitcoincore-rpc).

Syncing
-------

`ord` requires a synced `bitcoind` node with `-txindex` to build the index of
satoshi locations. `ord` communicates with `bitcoind` via RPC.

If `bitcoind` is run locally by the same user, without additional
configuration, `ord` should find it automatically by reading the `.cookie` file
from `bitcoind`'s datadir, and connecting using the default RPC port.

If `bitcoind` is not on mainnet, is not run by the same user, has a non-default
datadir, or a non-default port, you'll need to pass additional flags to `ord`.
See `ord --help` for details.

`bitcoind` RPC Authentication
-----------------------------