diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index f2b1093a..2aca867e 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 Mythril is a bug hunting tool and framework for the Ethereum blockchain.
 
-## Installation
+## Installation and setup
 
 Install from Pypi:
 
@@ -18,7 +18,23 @@ $ cd mythril
 $ python setup.py install
 ```
 
-## Usage
+You also need a [go-ethereum](https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum) node that is synced with the network (not that Mythril uses non-standard RPC APIs offered by go-ethereum, so other clients likely won't work). Start the node as follows:
+
+```bash
+$ geth --rpc --rpcapi eth,admin,debug --syncmode fast
+```
+
+### Database initialization
+
+Mythril builds its own contract database to enable quick search for opcode sequences, function calls, et cetera. The initial sync is done over RPC. Unfortunately, this process is slow - however, you don't need to sync the whole blockchain to start working. If you abort the syncing process with `ctrl+c`, it will auto-resume the next time you run the `--init-db` command.
+
+```bash
+$ ./mythril --init-db
+Starting synchronization from latest block: 4323706
+Processing block 4323000, 3 individual contracts in database
+(...)
+```
+## Command line usage
 
 -- TODO --