Bitcoin is a subject that is often misunderstood. This misunderstanding is rooted in the fact that bitcoin is a multifaceted new technology at the intersection of computer science and monetary economic theory. Therefore, in order to fully grasp bitcoin’s fundamental value proposition, one must acquire a solid understanding of how bitcoin functions at a technical level, as well as become knowledgeable about monetary history and Austrian monetary economic theory. Failure to understand both of these dimensions will inevitably lead to a fundamental misunderstanding of bitcoin’s true purpose and antifragility, as evidenced by the inability of many mainstream Keynesian economists to explain bitcoin’s enormous growth in just 10 years time and the many market participants who have attempted haphazardly to emulate bitcoin’s success by launching alternative cryptocurrencies.
The book Mastering Bitcoin from author Andreas M. Antonopoulos lays out in-depth how bitcoin works from a technical computer science perspective. This book is an essential read to understand the inner workings of the bitcoin blockchain and why bitcoin can be considered as a scarce digital good with a fixed supply. To this end, the book dives into the actual source code of the bitcoin protocol and goes to great lengths to explain many important concepts relating to public-key cryptography which are essential for bitcoin. Even though Mastering Bitcoin is mostly intended for coders, the book is written in a way that it can be read and understood by anyone (i.e. even if you don’t have any knowledge about writing code). As such, I highly recommend reading this book to both coders and non-coders alike, in order to gain a deep understanding bout bitcoin.
Mastering Bitcoin is meant to provide the reader with a technical explanation of the inner workings of bitcoin. After reading the book, the reader will understand how all the critical parts of bitcoin work together, such as, how bitcoin transactions are constructed, how key pairs and bitcoin adresses are generated, how the various members of the bitcoin network interact with each other, how bitcoin mining works, how the bitcoin blockchain is built, why bitcoin is a scarce digital good, etc.
What is not discussed in Mastering Bitcoin is bitcoin’s value proposition from a monetary economic perspective. The book does not explain to the reader why bitcoin can be considered an incredible robust store of value, similar to physical gold. Indeed, this would require an analysis of monetary history and Austrian school of economics, which falls outside the scope of this book.
Therefore, in addition to the book Mastering Bitcoin, I would recommend to anyone who’s looking to gain a fundamental understanding of bitcoin to read the book The Bitcoin Standard from author Saifedean Ammous. The Bitcoin Standard analyses bitcoin from a monetary economic perspective. I have reviewed said book here.
According to the author, Mastering Bitcoin is primarily intended for coders who want to get started with bitcoin.
However, I myself have been able to read and understand the book without any technical knowledge (I haven’t got the slightest idea of how to write code :-)). In this regard, the author has gone to great lengths to explain all critical technical concepts in easy to understand language. In addition, many examples are provided throughout the book, allowing the reader to empirically verify the concepts that are discussed.
In conclusion, Mastering Bitcoin is an essential read for both coders and non-coders alike. Without learning the inner workings of bitcoin from a technical point of view, you will never be able to truly understand why bitcoin is a scarce digital good, and by consequence, why bitcoin is valuable. Mastering Bitcoin provides the reader with just the right amount of technical knowledge to truly understand how bitcoin functions at its core.
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