P2P getHeaders message - how to get block locator hashes

Question

I'm trying to build my own block explorer So that I need to use p2p bitcoin protocol. For that I'm using btcd (golang) lib.

According to bitcoin book I have to send version message (and receive verack message back) to init the connection, then I will send getheaders message in cycle.

Now, imagine I am a new peer and want to download all the blockchain (actually I want to receive block hashes with getheaders (2000 per tick) and for each block hash I want to receive a block itself to process it and put blocks data in my mongo database)

If I am new peer in the network, how should I send first (and next) getheaders message, I don't quite understand where should I get block locator hashes and how to form the message?

Answer 1

Block locator hashes are just the hashes of various blocks that you already have. As a new peer, the only block that you will have is the genesis block (the genesis block must be hard coded into your software). So you just send a getheaders message that only contains the hash of the genesis block.