The definitive guide to understand what the bitcoin is and why we should care about them.

Summary

The Definitive Guide to Understanding What Bitcoin Is and Why We Should Care About Them” is a comprehensive introductory course on Bitcoin designed for beginners with no prior knowledge or experience in computer science. The course is structured to provide a thorough understanding of Bitcoin, its value, usage, and implications.

Course Overview

The course is segmented into several sections, each covering different aspects of Bitcoin:

  1. Course Introduction: This brief segment (2:38 minutes) sets the stage for the course, outlining the objectives and what learners can expect.
  2. What is Bitcoin?: A 41:28-minute lecture that dives into the fundamental aspects of Bitcoin, explaining its value and the rationale behind its use for anonymous transactions.
  3. How to Acquire and Spend Bitcoins: This 29:30-minute lecture provides practical guidance on using a Bitcoin wallet to acquire and spend bitcoins.
  4. The Bitcoin Economy: A 50:08-minute lecture discussing the basics of currency and the specifics of the Bitcoin market.
  5. Bitcoin Mining: Spanning 43:23 minutes, this lecture covers the necessity of mining, the processes involved, and the concept of mining pools.
  6. Bitcoin Speculation: A 33:45-minute lecture that explores Bitcoin from an investor’s perspective, highlighting the associated risks.
  7. The Future of Bitcoin: This 15:56-minute segment discusses potential future scenarios for Bitcoin, including events that could impact its existence and predictions about its future.

Additional Content

The course also offers bonus lectures and specialized tracks for those interested in deeper analysis or specific topics related to Bitcoin. These include:

  • Cryptography and You: A lecture on cryptography, pending updates for more thorough content.
  • Cold Storage and You: This 11:24-minute lecture explains how to securely store Bitcoin using AES Crypt and Dropbox.
  • Bitcoin IRC and You: A 2:40-minute tutorial on using Bitcoin IRC channels through Firefox.
  • Paper Wallets and You: An 11:00-minute guide on creating Bitcoin paper wallets using bitcoinpaperwallet.com and blockchain.info.
  • Transaction Fees and You: An 8:30-minute discussion on transaction fees.

Expert Contributions

The course features interviews and lectures from experts in the field, including:

  • Jon Matonis: An e-money researcher and crypto economist who provides insights into Bitcoin’s potential as a non-political digital currency.
  • Derek Shaw: Presenting a two-part series on Bitmessage.
  • Brian Goss: Offering a historical perspective on the digitization of money from 1985 to 1999.
  • Jim Puplava: Discussing Bitcoin as “digital gold” and its future as a potential competitor to government monopoly currencies.

Conclusion

This community-built course, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, is designed to be a central point of introduction to Bitcoin for anyone interested. It covers all essential topics necessary for a deep understanding of Bitcoin, including mining, speculation, secure storage, and future implications. The course aims to integrate learners into the Bitcoin community and equip them with the knowledge to participate in the Bitcoin economy.

 

What You’ll Learn

  • By the end of this course, you will be able to explain what a bitcoin is and why we should care about them
  • You will be able to start mining bitcoins if you desire
  • You will be able to speculate on the bitcoin exchanges
  • You will be able to securely store and use bitcoins in e-commerce
  • You will able to integrate into the Bitcoin community

Requirements

  • None

Description

Welcome to the first community built BItcoin course! This course serves as a central point of introduction to Bitcoin for anyone interested. It assumes no special skills or knowledge nor experience in computer science. All are welcome and the course shall forever be free under a creative commons license.

The course is divided into several sections. The Core Lecture Path serves as a comprehensive introduction for beginners on all relevant topics necessary to have a deep understanding of Bitcoin including why Bitcoins have value, why they can be used for anonymous transactions, the current economy of Bitcoins, how they are made and distributed as well as speculation.

The bonus lecture path addresses specific questions students have asked and are not necessary for to satisfy the goals of the course. Feel free to request a bonus lecture at any time! Finally, there are dedicated tracks for more in-depth analysis of the theoretical concepts of Bitcoin alongside the software that makes makes Bitcoin work well.

Bitcoin or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Crypto by Charles Hoskinson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Who this course is for

  • Anyone interested in the bitcoin
  • No special background is required or expected
  • Future Lectures will Cover Special Topics as Requested by the Course Community

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