A good friend of mine is maybe 90% philosophically aligned with Bitcoiners, but he's reached a point where he's finally keen to learn about Bitcoin. I've suggested a bunch of the usual books, but he asked me what order he should be reading these in to build up his knowledge. Where does everyone recommend starting out?
Discussion
the Bitcoin Standard
Nothing replaces buying the coin and learning by using it.
A local meetup
Depends entirely on the friend.
If he's a goldbug he'll have different blind spots than a cryptography nerd. If he's a traditionally trained economist books won't help, you'll have to go to church and pray for him.
Lol. He's neither, a good well rounded dude that loves psychology, philosophy and is a local community builder. He's also a black belt in Japanese Jujutsu and just generally hates government. He's a reader so seems like the natural form factor for him to get into Bitcoin
Resistance.Money
written by philosophy nerds
Maybe something from nostr:nprofile1qqsf9jl9scw0c5snmkylpfhkppzgd7z7dupul6ms5yl52kfcz9jr8wqpzamhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhgtcpzdmhxue69uhhqatjwpkx2urpvuhx2ue0qy28wumn8ghj7un9d3shjctzd3jjummjvuhsmqezp2? I'm currently reading one and it focus a lot in the societal and philosophical ideas, without requiring a lot of prior knowledge.
I think the important in the beginning is more to make him curious than to give him an overview. If the economics part really clicks (just got Broken Money and looks great for this), then he'll probably have questions about how bitcoin works and fixes the issue. Then he might question why governments cant't stop this and need something about the game theory (maybe Gradually then suddenly by Parker Lewis). Then he might find proof of work inneficient (for that I would give him nostr:nprofile1qqsxu35yyt0mwjjh8pcz4zprhxegz69t4wr9t74vk6zne58wzh0waycpg3mhxw309aukcursw35nwercdd3hzatxv56xkvnhx3cxxvnkxvmhwanr0pehvefhdfhkc7nwd9chzcmy095hvutsw9kx2vmvd9jzummwd9hkutcpzamhxue69uhkzarvv9ejumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgtcpr9mhxue69uhkgetjva5kw6fwdehhxarjxyhxxmmd9ux59hxq's Bitcoin is time). And so on.
Bitcoin is multidisciplinary so I don't think there's a sequential approach. Find what interests him the most, and feed the curiosity when the questions innevitably come up.
YO 🤘🏼 GIGI THIS IS CORRECT, IT DEPENDS ON HIS CONVICTION AMD CURRENT STANDING ON BITCOIN AND STACKING SATOSHI'S...
SOME PODCASTS AND CHANNELS MIGHT BE A LITTLE MUCH DEPENDING ON WHERE HE CURRENTLY IS ON HIS CONVICTION...
Depends on where he’s coming from
If he’s from a tech background, the “Inventing Bitcoin” will answer most of his technical questions, but the big gap will likely be economic, so Bitcoin Standard or Broken Money are great fundamentals
The Little Bitcoin Book incorporates many perspectives and is a good lead in to a choose your own adventure exploration like “21 Lessons”
If he’s a finance nerd, then “Why buy bitcoin” will provide familiar framing
“B is for Bitcoin”
“Sovereignty through Mathematics”
“The Internet of money (v1-3)”
“The bullish case for Bitcoin”
So many wonderful resources and starting points now; there is no one perfect place .. just start and let your friends know you’re around for questions 🤝
HONESTLY I FOUND PODCASTS TO BE VERY BENEFICIAL... YOU CAN WORK IN THE BACKGROUND AND YOU CAN ABSORB INFORMATION ℹ️
nostr:nprofile1qqs0x4sg8v2xzwg8dfcjpcpj08pggchz62wxlu2gga2a9zwq42wl3wsprpmhxue69uhkvmpwwp6hyurvv4ex2mrp0yhxxmmdqys8wumn8ghj7mn0wd68yttjv4kxz7fwv3jkumnewdkhvm3wd9hxvmc2dg2yz and nostr:nprofile1qqs8cajagp7n48275ytuhzuxn93g2crc0lqgfgx8dta2gjdlh5fpmpqpp4mhxue69uhkyunz9e5k7tcpzemhxue69uhk2er9dchxummnw3ezumrpdejz7jqfpp5 IS A GREAT START ...
I know this is unpopular, but I got re-orange pilled by Saylor by binging his podcast appearance. It really clicked after that. This was some years ago…
I think Layered Money nostr:nprofile1qqsq8dvnau7e2ypt2j7l7amjsyc60saal6gq0v9e9ntuft22qqsaufgpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduq3samnwvaz7tmvd9nksarwd9hxwun9d3shjtnrdaksa3yx58 is a great place to start for historical context. Not specifically about BTC per se but sets the stage for the mechanics of what it aims to fix. Bitcoin is Venice (Farrington) is great and could arguably come next. Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean. Gradually then Suddenly Parker Lewis.
The price of tomorrow is a great starting place and it’s not that long
Any order works
He needs to somehow realize that money is a technology rooted in ethics. This can only be done through brain work, hoping that life experience will help him do it faster.
It’s more difficult than it sounds.
WHY is it important
1) Check Your Financial Privilege
HOW does it work
2) Inventing Bitcoin
WHERE did it come from
3) Genesis Book
....how does it fit into the long arc of monetary history
4) Layered Money
5) Ethics of Money Production
Can probably mix the order up, but I think this will work!
Dont forget Andreas Antonopoulos. Any of his old podcasts or speeches are great. "Mastering Bitcoin" is also a great resource: Even if all the nuance does not click, it provides a comfort and familiarity.
Then, for a fun read with more modern (ie, post cypherpunk, bitcoin coming of age) history, try "Bitcoin Billionaires."
While already mentioned, the Bitcoin Standard is great for economic history and allows for an understanding bitcoin's value proposition for human action.
HOW To Orange Pill A Friend in 14 Easy Steps
1. Wallet of Satoshi download
2. Send him 25 cents in Sats
3. Have him send it back to you
4. Send it back again.
5 delete his WoS
6. Explain hot vs cold vs rekt
7. Reload WoS
8. Repeat steps 1+2
9. Goto btcmap.org
10. Go to a merchant and buy stuff
11. Use Sats in real life repeat 10.
12. Get bitrefill
13. DO NOT rant about Jekyl Island
14. Release him into the wild
15. Optional: do a shot after each step. Nap after step 5.
1. The Blueprint:
The Bitcoin Whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto
2. Technical Mechanics:
Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas M. Antonopoulos
3. Economic Philosophy:
The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous
4. Historical Context & Future:
The Blocksize War by Jonathan Bier
The Bitcoin Optech Newsletter (for ongoing development)
Lyn Alden's book, Broken Money, is excellent. There's a lot about bitcoin there, including the technical details, but also it's a great summary of economics including the history of both commodity money and fiat money
we tested zaps on this note… we made six attempts to⚡zap this note, at horhe19@speed.app, over a period of 28 minutes. Six of the zaps were successfully paid... please check for 6 satoshis received. problem: we found that your lightning address server **did not* properly produce zap receipts, and/or didn't send the zap receipts to the relays specified in the zap. (the zap spec requires that the zap receipts be sent to the relays specified in the zap.) this means a nostr user who zaps you might not see a number appearing next to the ⚡ icon after zapping.... if you wanted to fix this... you could try getting a free rizful lightning address -- https://rizful.com ... if u get it set up, pls reply here so we can do this ⚡zap test again.
I myself didn't go all-in until I read the Blocksize War by Johnathan Bier, and also really understood the details of Lightning via this: https://youtu.be/yKdK-7AtAMQ
The former convinced me that Bitcoin wouldn't go to zero, as the decentralised community will make the right decision
And the latter convinced me that Bitcoin wouldn't just be a gold substitute, to be transferred slowly on chain by rich institutions, but could be used by anyone for fast transactions with amounts of any size.
Have him watch this playlist:
Bit.ly/StudyBitcoin