Beginner’s Resources

Bitcoin appears superficially simple upon first glance, however, truly understanding both the system and its value proposal is a daunting task. “Intellectual traps” exist along the way, tricking observers into making hasty assumptions. The pursuit of understanding Bitcoin can be compared to a mountain climber continually reaching “false peaks” that momentarily fool him into thinking he’s reached the actual summit. But as soon as you, the mountain climber, think you have Bitcoin figured out, you discover how little you actually know (false peak)…
Many also describe their journey of discovering Bitcoin as ‘having fallen into a rabbit-hole’: you do a few steps, might say to yourself “well that was not so hard!”, but if you move on, out of a sudden you might feel that you actually understood little to nothing and fall into an even deeper hole, and again, after spending more time for intellectually challenging (re)search, you start to see some light at the end of the section … just to find another dark corridor awaiting you.

Competing narratives make a genuine discovery process even more challenging… too many cliché-ridden premature ‘exits’ are awaiting the explorer: ‘Magic Internet money’, ‘speculative mania’, ‘fintech revolution’, ‘Bitcoin boils the oceans‘, ‘rat poison squared’, ‘libertarian idealism’, ‘Ponzi’, ‘digital gold’, ‘apex predator of monetary media’, ‘Gordian knot of interlocking incentives’, etc.

True understanding is a moving target unlikely to ever be hit… and everyone claiming to ‘have understood Bitcoin’ is actually revealing that he hasn’t (usually without even realizing it).

Most Bitcoiners looking back at their journey say that it took them at least 2-3 weeks (or 40-60 hours) of intense reading or watching explanatory videos until they had sorts of an ‘enlightenment’ and realized Bitcoin’s full potential. We have collected some of the best resources that should help you to get up to speed in ‘no time’ (well, the time estimated above… sorry!) as well. Just don’t give up. There’s lots of things to learn.

Articles

• The Bullish Case for Bitcoin, by Vijay Bojapati (article; reading time 60 min; Audible version avail.)
• 21 Lessons, by DerGigi (article in 21 chapters, describes the journey of a ‘Bitcoiner’ along with lessons to understand why this particular software protocol is that revolutionary; Audible version on website)

Books

• The Bitcoin Standard, by Saifedean Ammous
• The Price of Tomorrow, by Jeff Booth
• The Sovereign Individual, by Davidson / Rees-Mogg
• Human Action, by Ludwig von Mises

Videos

• Introduction to Bitcoin: by Andreas Antonopoulos (playlist with several intro videos)
• Banking on Bitcoin: Bitcoin history and basic concepts (duration: 1:20 hrs)
• Bitcoin Macro Strategy: Michael Saylor and Ross Stevens on the potential of Bitcoin in times of rising inflation, melting corporate (and private) treasuries/savings and global instability (duration: 45 min)

Websites

• Lopp.net – a great starting resource for in-depth research on all topics related to Bitcoin
• Grokking Bitcoin – one of the best technical books on Bitcoin, fully available online
• Crash Course – Bitcoin beyond just the tech: societal and political visions

Podcasts / Audio

• BitcoinAudible – the best articles on Bitcoin & related topics, conveniently read for you to be listened to in your car, during sport, or on the beach 🙂
• Stephan Livera podcast – among the 100+ (!!) Bitcoin-only (!) podcasts out there, this one covers a broad range from technical to economical topics directly related to Bitcoin, very educational content here.
• Swan Signal – a podcast hosted by Swan Bitcoin exchange, covering a broad range of technical, economic and philosophical topics related to Bitcoin.
• What Bitcoin Did – hosted by Peter McCormack, who amazingly turned Bitcoin ‘maximalist’ after educating himself through his broad selection of guests, covers beginner’s to controversial topics
• Tales from the Crypt – hosted by Marty Bent who is also authoring a popular newsletter, is focused on latest tech and economic developments, often from an angle you rarely hear about in traditional media.

Please let us know if something’s missing here (spam, unrelated or irrelevant link posts will be removed and might induce bad karma for you).