Getting started with Bitcoin, blockchains, and cryptoassets

Friends and family often ask me where to begin learning about Bitcoin and blockchains. With the recent rise in prices, these requests are amplifying in lockstep. I imagine many of you have had a similar experience. I’m always happy to respond because it’s important for people to become educated before investing, but these responses take time and time is scarce. I started compiling a list so that I could respond efficiently. This list is not meant to be comprehensive, it’s curated. That means I’m leaving out a ton of important content. I’m doing so because newcomers often report feeling initially overwhelmed by the volume of information in this space. I’ve tried to lay it out in a step-by-step format to make it more approachable. It’s a recipe for a base-level foundation of knowledge, from which you can continue to build. Here’s what I would have done to get started if I were to do it over again… >>If you have less than one hour… (26 minutes) Video description of blockchains (16 minutes) Written description of blockchains (14 minutes) Why ledgers matter >>Next three hours Start with the “Beginner’s Guides” on CoinDesk. There are 43 different topics, but they’re short, >Next ten hours: Podcasts , by Patrick O’Shaughnessy, is a three segment podcast that contains a wealth of information. It is the highest density podcast on this topic that I have have found and features some of the most knowledgeable people in the space. It is a masterpiece. Listen to all of them. If you have time, listen to them twice. (3 hours) Hashpower Listen to this Tim Ferriss podcast. Nick Szabo and Naval Ravikant are two of my favorite thinkers: (1.5 hours) http://tim.blog/2017/06/04/nick-szabo/ Subscribe to , a podcast by Laura Shin, and listen to some past episodes. I listened to all of them, and learned something from every single episode. It’s almost impossible to choose a “best of” list, but here are a few that were particularly memorable: (5.5 hours) Unchained (Coin Center) Jerry Brito and Peter Van Valkenburgh (Cornell) Emin Gun Sirer (Blockchain Capital) Brock Pierce (Polychain capital, formerly 1st employee at Coinbase) Olaf Carlson-Wee (BitPesa) Elizabeth Rossiello (Placeholder Ventures) Chris Burniske >>Next ten hours It’s time to read Satoshi Nakamoto’s seminal . (1 hour) whitepaper Introduction to forks. The or are examples. (1 hour) Ethereum Classic fork Bitcoin Cash fork If you wish to purchase bitcoin or ether, open an account at an exchange like or . A couple notes: i) , invest only what you can afford to lose entirely. ii) Setup two-factor authentication immediately. , apps like Google Authenticator or Authy are safer. By the way, you should really set up 2FA on your Google account too. iii) If you have a meaningful proportion of your wealth invested, you will want to look into a , but that is beyond the scope of this guide. (1 hour) Coinbase Gemini This is not investment advice Do not use text message as the authentication method hardware wallet There are thousands of other blockchain tokens beyond bitcoin. Dive into tokens with Brave New Coin’s . Then, go to (a token research firm), pick out a couple recent token sales and read the S+C analysis. (2 hours) gentle introduction Smith + Crown Read through Linda Xie’s beginner guides to several prominent projects (3 hours): _I put together a list of beginner’s guides that I’ve written on cryptoassets._medium.com Beginner’s guide series on cryptoassets As of this writing, Coinbase trades three cryptoassets: bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), and litecoin (LTC). If you wish to expand beyond these three you can open an account on an exchange like or to trade many others, but they don’t accept fiat currency like USD, so you have to buy BTC or ETH at an exchange like Coinbase first, and then transfer it to your other account. You’re probably also going to want to download at this point to keep track of everything. (Disclaimer: (i) , (ii) I am these exchanges, just using them as examples, here is and here are . (iii) ) (1 hour) Poloniex Bittrex Blockfolio This is not investment advice not endorsing a longer list by volume descriptions of a few of them Never invest more than you are willing to lose in totality When evaluating a token for the first time, here is a framework to organize your thoughts: Spend some time investigating various data sources: , , , , , , . (1 hour) OnChainFx CoinMarketCap CryptoCompare Brave New Coin TokenData.io CoinGecko Bitcoin Block Explorer >Hours 24–50 For a deeper dive, enroll in this MOOC taught by Andreas Antonopoulos and Antonis Polemitis (12 hours): https://digitalcurrency.unic.ac.cy/free-introductory-mooc/ There are several other free courses such as (broken down into 60 sessions on ), one from Stanford at , and . one from Princeton at coursera YouTube coursera several at udemy The regulatory environment is complex and evolving. is the master on this topic, read as much of their work as possible. If you have tax questions, is a place to start that inquiry. Coin Center here Work through , especially Nick Szabo’s articles. Dan Romero also has a nice list that is not too technical. Nick Tomaino’s reading list here Read these two books: by Burniske and Tatar. The book works through cryptoassets from an investor’s perspective and provides some historical perspective. Cryptoassets by Antonopoulos The Internet of Money I’m also looking forward to by Casey and Vigna The Truth Machine >Bonus section: Academic research I’d be remiss to conclude without a few cites to academic work in economics on this topic: Catalini, Christian, and Joshua S. Gans. “Some simple economics of the blockchain.” No. w22952. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2016. Wang, Sha, and Jean-Philippe Vergne. “Buzz Factor or Innovation Potential: What Explains Cryptocurrencies’ Returns?” PloS one 12, 2017. Yermack, David. “Corporate governance and blockchains.” Review of Finance 21.1 (2017): 7–31. For a more comprehensive list of resources, check out . You’ve only just begun. Jameson Lopp’s page Staying up to date After completing everything above, you will know more than the vast majority of the general public, but your information will quickly become stale if you don’t stay current. Here’s a subset of what I follow: Crypto twitter is very active. Here are a few accounts to start following. Keeping this list short was the most difficult part of the entire post because it omits many important people, I’m doing so for brevity. I tried to choose people with different viewpoints. To see a more comprehensive list, go through . Once you start tracking these accounts you’ll see who else is active and can branch out from there: Twitter. my follows _The latest Tweets from Naval (@naval). Present. San Francisco, CA_twitter.com Naval (@naval) | Twitter _The latest Tweets from Nick Szabo (@NickSzabo4). Blockchain, cryptocurrency, and smart contracts pioneer. (RT/Fav…_twitter.com Nick Szabo (@NickSzabo4) | Twitter _The latest Tweets from Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin). See https://t.co/iBNSW4KCSO. Earth_twitter.com Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin) | Twitter _The latest Tweets from Laura Shin (@laurashin). @Forbes senior editor: Bitcoin, Ethereum, crypto, ICOs, blockchain…_twitter.com Laura Shin (@laurashin) | Twitter _The latest Tweets from Spencer Bogart (@CremeDeLaCrypto). Crypto and things. Off of Wall Street, into Venture Capital…_twitter.com Spencer Bogart (@CremeDeLaCrypto) | Twitter _The latest Tweets from Emin Gün Sirer (@el33th4xor). Prof @Cornell, co-director @ https://t.co/hzEhWhTa3j, system…_twitter.com Emin Gün Sirer (@el33th4xor) | Twitter _The latest Tweets from Meltem Demirors (@Melt_Dem). i don't sleep, i wait. building @dcgco. teaching @MIT @UniofOxford…_twitter.com Meltem Demirors (@Melt_Dem) | Twitter _The latest Tweets from Chris Burniske (@cburniske). partner @placeholdervc, medium @cburniske, formerly led @ARKInvest…_twitter.com Chris Burniske (@cburniske) | Twitter _The latest Tweets from Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees). Toward peace, markets, and Bitcoin. CEO of ShapeShift. Blog at…_twitter.com Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) | Twitter _The latest Tweets from elizabeth stark (@starkness). big fan of the internet. like building things. cofounder…_twitter.com elizabeth stark (@starkness) | Twitter _The latest Tweets from Jimmy Song (@jimmysong). Bitcoin Developer and Entrepreneur/PGP Fingerprint: C1D7 97BE 7D10 5291…_twitter.com Jimmy Song (@jimmysong) | Twitter _The latest Tweets from Nick Tomaino (@NTmoney). low extraversion, high conviction. founder @1confirmation. San…_twitter.com Nick Tomaino (@NTmoney) | Twitter _The latest Tweets from Sizhao Yang (@zaoyang). Co-creator of @farmville Angel investor in @WishShopping ICOs…_twitter.com Sizhao Yang (@zaoyang) | Twitter _The latest Tweets from Ari Paul (@AriDavidPaul). CIO of BlockTower Capital. https://t.co/K7E7qzx4sD_twitter.com Ari Paul (@AriDavidPaul) | Twitter _The latest Tweets from Kyle Samani (@KyleSamani). Perpetually fooled by randomness. Managing Partner @multicoincap…_twitter.com Kyle Samani (@KyleSamani) | Twitter _The latest Tweets from Preston J. Byrne (@prestonjbyrne). Marmot superfan. English solicitor. Fellow @ASI. Blockchain…_twitter.com Preston J. Byrne (@prestonjbyrne) | Twitter _The latest Tweets from CoinDesk (@coindesk). The latest news, prices, charts, guides and analysis from the world leader…_twitter.com CoinDesk (@coindesk) | Twitter _The latest Tweets from Coin Center (@coincenter). Protecting open blockchain networks and innovators' rights to use…_twitter.com Coin Center (@coincenter) | Twitter Home of longer format articles. These are a few people that influence my thinking. Again, this list is absurdly short, but it’s a start: Medium. _Read writing from Balaji S. Srinivasan on Medium. CEO of Earn.com and Board Partner at a16z.com. Every day, Balaji S…_medium.com Balaji S. Srinivasan — Medium _Read writing from Linda Xie on Medium. Co-founder @ScalarCapital. Previously Product Manager @Coinbase. Advisor…_medium.com Linda Xie — Medium _As the cryptoasset markets develop we'll see many booms and busts as enthusiasm waxes and wanes. Waxing and waning is…_medium.com Chris Burniske - Medium _Read writing from Jimmy Song on Medium. Bitcoin Developer and Entrepreneur/PGP Fingerprint: C1D7 97BE 7D10 5291 228C…_medium.com Jimmy Song - Medium _Read writing from Preethi Kasireddy on Medium. Blockchain Engineer. I have a passion for understanding things at a…_medium.com Preethi Kasireddy - Medium _Read writing from martin green on Medium. tech investor. blockchain curious, meebo (google), cnet (cbs). husband. dad…_medium.com martin green - Medium _Read writing from Lou Kerner on Medium. Partner at CryptoOracle.io. Believer that Crypto (blockchain, cryptocurrency…_medium.com Lou Kerner - Medium _In a prior post I proposed funding protocol development through inflation as a powerful tool to evolve blockchains…_medium.com Fred Ehrsam - Medium _Can Bitcoin Markets Add and Subtract? I find it fitting that the winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics for 2017…_medium.com Jill Carlson — Medium _Read writing from TwoBitIdiot on Medium. Entrepreneur & Angel. Founder, Messari & EiR, ConsenSys. Founding team of…_medium.com TwoBitIdiot - Medium _Read writing from Jake Brukhman on Medium. Co-Founder @ CoinFund. Blockchain research, advisory & cryptoasset…_medium.com Jake Brukhman - Medium Listen to them regularly. Here are a few: Podcasts. _Unchained: Big Ideas From The Worlds Of Blockchain And Fintech_www.forbes.com Unchained _Welcome to Invest Like the Best. In each episode, I speak with the most interesting people I can find, whose stories…_investorfieldguide.com Podcast _Guest: Kevin Owocki from Gitcoin and Mark Beylin from Bounties Network. Both are ConsenSys formations How can projects…_thebitcoinpodcast.com The Bitcoin Podcast Network Join the CoinFund slack channel and subscribe to a few of the subchannels that look interesting to you. It’s a repository of dialogue on numerous cryptoassets. Slack. https://coinfund.slack.com/ Many token projects maintain their own slack channels. The best way to find them is to simply google “[project name] slack” like . this Delivered straight to your inbox. Here are my favorites: Newsletters. , , , , Token Economy Week in Ethereum Multicoin Capital CoinDesk DAR So many subreddits that I won’t even try to list them all. Just start here: or . Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/ here I’ll update this post with new content occasionally. Enjoy your trip down the rabbit hole! _A blockchain is a digitized, decentralized, public ledger of all cryptocurrency transactions. Blockchain has been…_hackernoon.com Blockchain - Hacker Noon