Bitcoin knows rules, not rulers.

A bitcoin education site


Step 1: Why bitcoin? 

"The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that's required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust." - Satoshi Nakamoto 

"Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely a fraction in reserve. We have to trust them with our privacy, trust them not to let identity thieves drain our accounts." - Satoshi Nakamoto 

"A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without the burdens of going through a financial institution." - Satoshi Nakamoto

"Gold is just bitcoin that can’t be sent over the internet "– Edward Snowden

I recommend watching the following videos before continuing on: 

I recommend reading the following articles: 

I highly recommend reading Der Gigi's book 21 Lessons. It is a poetic masterpiece and worth rereading several times along your journey. He offers it for free on his website although you could purchase it as well to support him in his efforts to educate. 

"The fact that new coins are produced means the money supply increases by a planned amount, but this does not necessarily result in inflation. If the supply of money increases at the same rate that the number of people using it increases, prices remain stable." - Satoshi Nakamoto 

"Whenever someone finds proof-of-work to generate a block, they get some new coins - The proof-of-work difficulty is adjusted every two weeks to target an average of 6 blocks per hour (for the whole network) - The coins given per block is cut in half every 4 years." - Satoshi Nakamoto

Step 2: What is wrong with our money? 

"What do all men with power want? More power" – The Oracle, The Matrix Reloaded

"Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair." - Sam Ewing

"By a continuing process of inflation, government can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens." - John Maynard Keynes 

"Inflation is taxation without legislation." - Milton Friedman 

"Inflation makes the wealthiest people richer and the masses poorer." - James Cook

"Inflation is a form of tax, a tax that we all collectively must pay." -Henry Hazlitt 

"The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists." - Ernest Hemingway

"Continued inflation inevitably leads to catastrophe." - Ludwig Von Mises 

"The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation." - Vladimir Lenin 

Step 3: Is bitcoin a scam? 

"It's hard to imagine the Internet getting segmented airtight. It would have to be a country deliberately and totally cutting itself off from the rest of the world." - Satoshi Nakamoto

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace; and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty.” - Thomas Paine

“Value is not intrinsic, it is not in things. It is within us; it is the way in which man reacts to the conditions of his environment. Neither is value in words and doctrines, it is reflected in human conduct. It is not what a man or groups of men say about value that counts, but how they act.”—Ludwig Von Mises

"Governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally controlled networks like Napster, but pure P2P networks like Gnutella and Tor seem to be holding their own." - Satoshi Nakamoto 

Step 4: Why not other cryptocurrencies? 

"Bitcoin's solution is to use a peer-to-peer network to check for double-spending. The network works like a distributed timestamp server, stamping the first transaction to spend a coin. It takes advantage of the nature of information being easy to spread but hard to stifle." - Satoshi Nakamoto

"When a node finds a proof-of-work, the new block is propagated throughout the network and everyone adds it to the chain and starts working on the next block after it." - Satoshi Nakamoto 

"I don't believe a second, compatible implementation of Bitcoin will ever be a good idea. So much of the design depends on all nodes getting exactly identical results in lockstep that a second implementation would be a menace to the network." - Satoshi Nakamoto 

TLDR: Many of bitcoin's competitors claim to be a better version of bitcoin on some metric. Whether its settlement speed, number of transactions per block, size of a block, privacy features, ease to run a node or ease to mine, etc, many will claim some breakthrough that alluded Satoshi Nakamoto. However, as many have come to learn, at the expense of time and treasure, bitcoin's design establishes it as a revolution in trust and value transfer by prioritizing security and decentralization. Thus far, none of the other projects have been able to create a truly decentralized network, with no single point of failure, timely final settlement and with no one person or group in control. This is one reason why bitcoin is seen as public infrastructure or a commodity. 

The alt coins (alternative cryptocurrencies) number in the tens of thousands, with nearly all trending to 0 against bitcoin. Sadly, these projects appear to be vehicles for project founders to steal money from users who are bedazzled by the promise of "getting in early" on some breakthrough. You will come to learn why these projects are affinity scams and securities (in the eyes of financial regulators) and why bitcoin is a one-time breakthrough, like the internet itself. Bitcoin is a protocol for transferring value across the internet without the need for an intermediary; it is a trust-less system open to all. The same can not be said about the countless number of cryptocurrencies. Although bitcoin may have perceived tradeoffs, it's engineered to be a unique final settlement layer for value. It's confirmation times may appear to be longer than it's competitors, but this unique design allows it to be truly decentralized and secure. 

As novices begin to learn about bitcoin they are naturally curious about alt coins as many could lead to riches in a speculative fervor where the market lumps all cryptocurrencies together (even bitcoin). But this amounts to gambling and the majority of people who buy alt coins end up losing their hard-earned money. Data shows it is far wiser to save your wealth in bitcoin and not engage in trading crypto. Many also focus on the price of bitcoin and are intimidated or discouraged by it's dollar price. However, bitcoin can be purchased in increments and it is more honest to consider how many satoshis you can buy with $1. What is most important in this undertaking is understanding how bitcoin fixes the money and how early it is for the majority of people to use it as a savings vehicle. Many of called bitcoin a discovery in money... as Michael Saylor has famously said "there is no second best."

*Interesting website which compares how many altcoin confirmations would be equivalent to 6 bitcoin confirmations (bitcoin is the most secure final settlement layer): howmanyconfs.com 

"I would be surprised if 10 years from now we're not using electronic currency in some way, now that we know a way to do it that won't inevitably get dumbed down when the trusted third party gets cold feet." - Satoshi Nakamoto

Step 5: What is bitcoin's origin story? 

"Writing a description for this thing for general audiences is bloody hard. There's nothing to relate it to." - Satoshi Nakamoto 

"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." - Isaac Newton 

“To be left alone is the most precious thing one can ask of the modern world.” - Anthony Burgess

"None are so hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe 

“I don't know why people are so keen to put the details of their private life in public; they forget that invisibility is a superpower.” - Banksy 

I recommend the following articles which helped set the stage for what would become bitcoin. Many of these articles are written by pillars in the cryptography and privacy space and offer insight into the cypherpunk worldview. 

First, I recommend this 4-part video series created by ReasonTV: Cypherpunks Write Code 

Articles

For a more technical overview of bitcoin's origins and the problems it has solved in computer science, please visit: The Satoshi Nakamoto Institute. 

For more technical overview of bitcoin's inner-workings: Understanding the Technical Side of Bitcoin by Pierre Rochard 

Another beautifully written article by Der Gigi on the origins of bitcoin can be found here: Magic Internet Money 

Step 6: How do I bitcoin? 

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" - Lao Tzu

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together" - African Proverb

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” - Confucius 

"It might make sense just to get some in case it catches on. If enough people think the same way, that becomes a self fulfilling prophecy." - Satoshi Nakamoto

There will naturally be debate on what is the *best* way to do this. However, I believe for the novice the simplest, most user-friendly approach is safest and least intimidating. Getting "off zero" is important; "the enemy of good is perfect." I have recommended wallet apps and exchanges below. I would recommend downloading a bitcoin wallet on your mobile phone. The new wallet will generate a series of random words which are the "private key" of the wallet. It is critical to understand these words *are* your keys to the bitcoin. Do not store these words on a computer, take a photo of it, store it digitally or expose it online or in the physical world. Anyone with those words (the private key) will have equal ownership of the bitcoin and can take your funds. The best practice is to physically write the words down on paper and store it in a safe or a hidden place in your home. Laminating your sheet of paper or etching it on steel to protect it from the elements is also recommended. Be sure to let your spouse know where the private key is as this will be the only way your heirs can recover the bitcoin. Anyone who has access to those words will have the ability to steal your bitcoin (and there will be no way to ever get it back). I suggest familiarizing yourself with wallet best-practices, how to transact with bitcoin, how to store your bitcoin private key with tutorials below. The next step is to buy bitcoin (more on that below). I would caution against leaving your bitcoins on exchanges. Although this may seem safer than taking responsibility over your bitcoin's custody, it exposes you to counter-party risks if the exchange is fraudulent or bankrupt (for example, Mt. Gox, FTX, Binance, etc). Bitcoin was invented so you could "be your own bank." Trusting your bitcoin with an intermediary is a sure way to lose your bitcoin. "Not your keys, not your coins" has become a proverb in this space. 

Once you've accumulated a significant amount on your mobile wallet, I would recommend purchasing a hardware wallet for cold storage. These types of wallets are seen as *safest* because they are not connected to the internet and can be used via *air gapped* means; you never have to plug them into a computer or connect them online. It is nearly impossible to *crack a private key* but I would also recommend adding a passphrase to your hardware wallet's private key to make it exponentially harder to brute force attack. I recommend using "bitcoin only" products. 

I recommend using Strike and Cash.app for buying your first bitcoins but River and Swan have good reputations as well. You would need to follow their anti-money laundering law (AML) and know your customer (KYC) rules by providing your ID before making purchases and you would need to link a bank account. Important to note "the system," and therefore the government, will be able to follow the ownership paper trail via blockchain analytics. Therefore, bitcoin purchased through these formal channels are not "secret" (non-KYC) bitcoin. For that you would need to purchase peer to peer (p2p) either in the physical world (such as a meetup) or an p2p online exchange (for example, robosats, peach, hodlhodl, etc). Although non-KYC bitcoin would be ideal, for the majority of people it is difficult to do this. 

Videos

Wallets

Exchanges

"Blocks contain a history of the bitcoin addresses that a coin has been transferred to." - Satoshi Nakamoto 

"New transactions are broadcast to all nodes." - Satoshi Nakamoto

"The advantage of letting bitcoin download and verify the blocks is that you do not have to trust the person you're downloading them from." - Satoshi Nakamoto

"Once a transaction is hashed into a link that's a few links back in the chain, it is firmly etched into the global history." - Satoshi Nakamoto 

Step 7: Where can I find other resources? 

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.

“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”

“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.

“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.” - Alice in Wonderland

I recommend the following video series with Michael Saylor from the "What is Money?" Show by Robert Breedlove:

Websites: 

Podcasts:

Youtube Channels: 

Courses:

Books:

Interesting site with books recommended by well-known bitcoiners: Bitcoiner Books 

Stores

Dashboards

Nodes

Home Mining 

Blockchain Explores

News 

Projects

Tutorials

Tools

Other Interesting Articles

"It's more typical of a precious metal. Instead of the supply changing to keep the value the same, the supply is predetermined and the value changes. As the number of users grows, the value per coin increases. It has the potential for a positive feedback loop." - Satoshi Nakamoto