Some of my favorite Bitcoin related resources.
New to Bitcoin? Start here:
The Bullish Case for Bitcoin – Vijay Boyapati
Inventing Bitcoin – Yan Pritzker
You should be able to get this book free at one of the following two links (turn off ad blockers or use incognito mode) link 1 link 2
Digging Deeper:
Read all the writings by Robert Breedlove (fair warning: this shit will blow your mind):
https://medium.com/@breedlove22
Read all of the Gradually, then Suddenly series by Parker Lewis (articles are listed newest to oldest; be sure to start with the first article and work your way to the most recent to build your understanding):
https://unchained-capital.com/blog/category/gradually-then-suddenly/
Read all of Nic Carter’s pieces:
https://medium.com/@nic__carter
The Bitcoin Standard – Saifedean Ammous
Tweet threads by Anil. This link is to just one excellent thread, but Anil has many more: https://twitter.com/anilsaidso/status/1292862862436626432?s=20
Everything I’ve posted about Bitcoin on this site:
https://www.mattpaz.com/category/bitcoin/
Historical Background:
Understand why Bitcoin is going to succeed. Simply put: it is an idea whose time has come. The historical, social, cultural, demographic, and economic backdrop is set up in a perfect constellation for the emergence and supremacy of Bitcoin.
These are all long reads, but WELL worth your precious time. All of these pieces have a common theme: human history proceeds in a cyclic fashion. The cycle we’ve known most of our lives has ended which leads to a period of crisis (which we are now living through) before high times continue. Bitcoin will take center stage during this transition.
The first two books are older, but both incredibly prescient. I view these two books as compliments to each other, read The Fourth Turning first then read The Sovereign Individual to understand how the next saeculum is likely to unfold:
The Fourth Turning – William Strauss & Neil Howe
The Sovereign Individual – James Dale Davidson & William Reese-Mogg
The next two pieces are more recent which provides the benefit of hindsight following the Global Financial Crisis:
The Allegory of the Hawk and Serpent – Artemis Capital Management’s excellent essay that explains why the past 40 years have been a once in a lifetime secular boom and why recency bias is now a systemic risk.
The Changing World Order – Ray Dalio’s new book studying the rises and declines of past leading empires that puts today’s economic, political, and policy situation into perspective of the big picture.
Buy Bitcoin:
I honestly think the best way to learn about Bitcoin is to buy a little bit, and get the feel for sending it back and forth to yourself using different wallets/exchanges.
Swan Bitcoin – a service to automatically buy bitcoin on a set schedule (aka dollar cost average)
River Financial – a Bitcoin-only exchange
Kraken – a cryptocurrency exchange
CashApp – a popular mobile payments app wherein you can buy bitcoin
Bisq – a decentralized bitcoin exchange, can be used to buy bitcoin anonymously (for more advanced users)
LibertyX – buy bitcoin at some gas stations and convenience stores
Coin ATM Radar – find a bitcoin ATM
Wallets:
Electrum – the most feature rich wallet I’m aware of, for desktop or mobile with hardware wallet and multi-sig functionality. Technical users: it’s best to use with your own Electrum Server / EPS and your own full node.
Samourai Wallet – the best wallet for Android in my opinion
Blockstream Green – the best wallet for iOS in my opinion
Coinkite ColdCard – the best hardware wallet in my opinion (bitcoin only)
Wasabi Wallet – desktop wallet with CoinJoin mixing for privacy with hardware wallet and/or bitcoin full node compatibility
Bitcoin Core – the most prevalent Bitcoin full node client, the software that runs the Bitcoin network; comes with a built-in wallet; note: a standard install will download the entire Bitcoin blockchain (currently over 300GB of data, but can be pruned down to <10GB by changing settings)
Specter – a GUI to construct multi-sig wallets using a full node, compatible with many different wallets
More info:
https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information/recommended-wallets.html
Run your own Full Node:
Be a first-class Bitcoin citizen. Run a full node to interact directly with the Bitcoin network. No 3rd parties between you and the Bitcoin network. There are many options available. YouTube is your friend.
Bitcoin Core
MyNode
Umbrel
Nix-Bitcoin
Fully Noded
Additional Resources:
Bitcoin Wiki:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Main_Page
Jameson Lopp’s extensive repository of Bitcoin info:
https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information.html
Keep it Simple Bitcoin, a site with many how-to guides:
https://www.keepitsimplebitcoin.com
Bitcoin-Only, a site with a ton of Bitcoin only information and content:
https://bitcoin-only.com/
Clark Moody’s Bitcoin Dashboard:
https://bitcoin.clarkmoody.com/dashboard/
The Nakamoto Institute:
https://nakamotoinstitute.org/
Case Bitcoin, ‘Making the Case for Bitcoin Everyday’:
https://casebitcoin.com/
Use Bitcoin privately:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Privacy
https://bitcoin-only.com/#privacy
My preferred block explorers:
https://blockstream.info/
https://oxt.me/
Mempool stats/charts:
https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#0,30d
https://mempool.space/
Research:
BitMex Research
CoinShares Research
Fidelity Digital Assets (includes Fidelity’s ‘Bitcoin Investment Thesis’ paper)
Coindesk’s compilation of Bitcoin Reports
Pantera Capital
Technical Research:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Research
https://dci.mit.edu/
https://www.blockstream.com/research/
Mining:
Nothing is Cheaper than Proof Of Work – Paul Sztorc
The Alchemy of Hashpower – Leo Zhang
A Model of Bitcoin’s Security… – Hasu et al
Blockware Solutions
Gravity – LaurentMT
Bitcoin Mining Whitepaper 2019 – CoinShares Research